Soleil continues to adapt Gaston Leroux's detective novels. After the nice surprise of the Mystery of the yellow room, JustFocus gives you its opinion on The perfume of the lady in black.
A new team…
We find Jean-Charles Gaudin in the script and Joël Odone in the colorization but the cartoonist is different this time. Christophe Picaud is a former ceramic moulder-modeler and collaborates with Gaudin for the third time. The text and dialogues are as good as ever. The reader always finds such beautiful colors but it is strange to see different faces. Picaud's realistic style is faithful to the times. We feel the investigation of the cartoonist to be faithful to the places – by postcards perhaps – but the faces seem less precise than in the previous volume.
… for a sequel
The perfume is the direct continuation of the Mystery starting with the marriage of the victim of the previous volume, Mathilde Stangerson. We feel the tension rise from the beginning – during this intimate wedding, a supposed moment of happiness, Rouletabille prays in tears and quickly runs away. His friend Sainclair cannot find him. The bride confides in panic a letter. We find the atmosphere of the beginning of the century – by the journey of the Treport to Menton by carriage then train, by the presence of a Russian prince. It is also amusing to find this ancient vision of the Côte d'Azur – mansions and bodies very little naked in a bright Mediterranean sun.
An investigation of oneself
Larsan , a demon of crime who can go unnoticed by his disguises, is a dull threat that lurks incessantly. The many twists that show the serial origin of the story are very well rendered. There are also amusing gossip expressions – the "executioner of the sea".
The story mixes the present and a bizarre walk into the past. While we expect a police investigation, the story is much more an investigation into Rouletabille. The journalist is a much more sensitive and bloodthirsty hero than Sherlock Holmes. Rouletabille and Sainclair came to the Treport to get the perfume of the woman in black – Rouletabille's mother. At first we do not see the link. Freud would love this account of the struggle against the father for the love of the mother. The past is omnipresent – a paleontologist uses terms completely off the mark or today outdated by contemporary research?
After the success of The Mystery of the Yellow Room, The Perfume of the Lady in Black is a new beautiful adaptation. The good end of reason triumphs again but here in a more personal story. JustFocus cannot advise you to buy this volume and watch for the sequel with the famous phantom of the opera.
