Mystery of Marie Rogêt, The

Mystery of Marie Rogêt, The, detective story by Poe, published in 1842–43 as a sequel to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and reprinted in Tales (1845). The principal details are based on the actual New York murder case of Mary Cecilia Rogers.

Marie Rogêt, a Parisian beauty of uncertain reputation, leaves her mother's home, saying she intends to spend the day with an aunt, but is not seen again. Four days later, her corpse is recovered from the Seine. The Prefect of Police offers a reward to C. Auguste Dupin, scholarly amateur detective, for a solution to the puzzle. One of the girl's admirers, St. Eustache, is proved innocent after his suicide, and by a process of ratiocination Dupin shows that another, Beauvais, cannot be guilty. The newspapers have hinted that the corpse may not be that of Marie, but Dupin refutes this possibility. He sets aside other suggestions, also by logical proof, and decides that the murder must have been committed by a secret lover, who would have thrown the body into the river from a boat, and then cast the boat adrift after reaching shore. Dupin's proposal that the boat be found and examined for clues is followed by the successful solution of the mystery.