Term. The daughter of Madame L’Espanaye, named Camille, is one of the two characters in Murders in the Rue Morgue who gets murdered by the orangutan. Although not much is said about Camille, her murder is a key aspect for Dupin to solving the mystery.

The prefect mentions that he is willing to search long and hard because the reward offered in the case is so generous. Upon Dupin’s request, the prefect reads him a physical description of the letter. Dupin suggests that the police search again. Dupin tells him to write a check for that amount on the spot.

Our story today is called “The Purloined Letter.” It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is generally known for his horror stories. The story is about a stolen letter. It first appeared in 1844 in a yearly magazine.

Why was Dupin so interested in the murders? Dupin has an analytical mind and these murders intrigued him.

The murderer in this chilling story, that actually turns out to be rather ridiculous by the end, is the ourang-outang that belongs to the sailor that appears in the apartment of Monsieur Dupin in response to the advert that he placed in the newspaper.

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” also established many tropes that would become common elements in mystery fiction: the eccentric but brilliant detective, the bumbling constabulary, the first-person narration by a close personal friend.

In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), the police assume that the murders have been committed by some person associated with the victim. Dupin concludes, after questioning all the witnesses, that the murder could not have been committed by the prime suspect, or by any human.

Dupin hypothesizes that a person or thing of great agility could leap from the lightning rod outside the window to the shutters of the window. After drawing a picture of the size and shape of the hand that killed the two women, Dupin reveals his solution. The hand matches the paw of an Ourang-Outang.

The exposition of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is when the narrator and Dupin read of the deaths of Madame L’Espanaye and Camille L’Espanaye in the newspaper. The climax occurs when Dupin places an “Ourang-Outang Found” ad in a local paper popular with sailors.