A tribute to the first great age of fictional sleuthing, this delightful collection of 13 mystery classics is devoted to the genuine tale of ratiocination, "in which the detective solves the crime by investigation and observation, by using his or her wits."

Included among these gems, written between 1841 and 1920, are Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," widely acknowledged as the first detective story; Charles Dickens’ "Three Detective Anecdotes," in which a policeman is the detective-hero; Jack London’s "The Leopard Man’s Story," featuring an unusually grisly but thoroughly plausible murder method; "The Phantom Motor," by Jacques Futrelle; as well as tales by Wilkie Collins, Gelett Burgess,Susan Glaspell, E.C. Bentley, Rodrigues Ottolengui, Baroness Orczy,Samuel Hopkins Adams, Melville Davisson Post, and H.C. Bailey.

This anthology is a collection of detective stories, tales in which the mystery is mysterious, the crime is criminous, and aboveall the detective actually detects. We may well enjoy suspense thrillers and psychological probings of diseased brains and even (in our guiltier moments) shoot’em-ups with plenty of AK-47s and car chases. But when it comes to the mystery story, there is nothing to rival the genuine tale of--to use Edgar Allan Poe’s word ratiocination, wherein the detective solves the crime by investigation and observation, by using his or her wits. In this genre fisticuffs may occasionally be acceptable--but only after the detective has already worked things out through brainpower.

The tales in Classic Mystery Stories are taken from almost eighty years (from 1841 to 1920) of fictional sleuthing. The book begins with the very first detective story, Poe’s "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"(1841), continues through the gaslit eras of Victorian and Edwardian England and America, and concludes with stories that feature E. C.Bentley’s Philip Trent and H. C. Bailey’s Reggie Fortune, two of the fictional detectives who point the way to the flapper era of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey. We meet police detectives, amateur detectives, a seer-sleuth, an investigator from pre-Civil War Virginia, Scotland Yard’s premier female detective,and even a leopard-trainer who unravels a crime. They are as colorful a cast of characters as the genre they represent.

DOUGLAS G. GREENE

Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Charles Dickens

Three "Detective" Anecdotes

Wilkie Collins

The Biter Bit

Rodrigues Ottolengui

A Singular Abduction

Jack London

The Leopard Man’s Story

Jacques Futrelle

The Phantom Motor

Samuel Hopkins Adams

The Million-Dollar Dog

Baroness Orczy

The Bag of Sand

Gelett Burgess

The Denton Boudoir Mystery

Melville Davisson Post

Naboth’s Vineyard

Susan Glaspell

A Jury of Her Peers

E. C. Bentley

The Ordinary Hairpins

H. C. Bailey

The Archduke’s Tea