Monsieur Lecoq

Monsieur Lecoq is a fictional detective created by Émile Gaboriau, a 19th-century French writer and journalist. Monsieur Lecoq is employed by the French Sûreté. The character is one of the pioneers of the genre and a major influence on Sherlock Holmes (who, in A Study in Scarlet, calls him "a miserable bungler"), laying the groundwork for the methodical, scientifically minded detective. In French, "Monsieur" is "Mister" and his surname literally means "The Rooster".

In the person of armchair...