Xavier Montepin

Frank J. Morlock has assembled here three new lurid plays of gruesome murder and deadly mayhem: In THE POLICE AGENT (1889) by Xavier de Montepin & Jules Dornay, a double murder at the notorious P re Lachaise cemetery brings Aim e Joubert, a famous police agent once known as The Cat's Eye, out of retirement. But catching the murderer may involve looking closer to home than she might have wished... THE MADWOMAN OF MELUN (1891), by the same authors, begins with an innocent man framed for murder being guillotined, driving a woman amongst the spectators to madness. What secret does she know, and who amongst her coterie of wealthy friends, may be the real murderer? Finally, ZIZI (1914), by Jules Mary, is about two brothers, one good, the other evil, who are both in love with the eponymous Zizi, a circus tiger tamer. The evil brother will stop at nothing to possess the object of his desire. Can he be thwarted in time?

Frank J. Morlock has assembled here three lurid plays of sordid murders and implacable vengeance: In The Lemonade Girl (1894) a wealthy elderly woman is strangled for her valuables. An innocent man is arrested and later guillotined. His daughter, the eponymous "Lemonade Girl," swears to unmask the real assassin. She is assisted in her mission by the most notorious detective of the times, the once-convict turned S ret enforcer: Vidocq Polichinelle (1887) stars a man framed for a double murder by his unfaithful wife and her lover, then sent to rot as a galley slave at the hard labor camp in Brest. But thanks to another convict nicknamed "Polichinelle," because of his hunched back, he simulates death, escapes, acquires a fortune and returns to Paris, intent on wreaking his revenge on the evil couple. The Bread Peddler (1889), based on a best-selling novel, and adapted several times for film and television, is the tale of an unfortunate woman convicted for the murder of her employer, then locked in an asylum, while her young children are raised by others, unaware of her plight. She escapes and, disguised as one of Paris' many "bread peddlers," plans to expose the real assassin, a spurned would be-lover now turned wealthy industrialist.