Best 'Thinking Machine' Detective Stories - Classic Mystery Novels for Crime & Puzzle Lovers | Perfect for Book Clubs & Late-Night Reading

Just by chance, I'm writing this review on the 100-year anniversary of Jacques Futrelle's death. He went down on the Titanic on April 15, 1912. In a heroic last act, he pushed his wife into a life boat, refusing to save his own life.Futelle's literary survival is due to his memorable character Professor Van Dusen - The Thinking Machine. The Professor's great cerebral gifts follow the tradition of Sherlock Holmes. But his diminutive body, enormous head, perpetually crabbed voice, petulant expression, and squinty blue eyes behind thick glasses lend him a character all his own. A world famous scientist, Van Dusen occasionally applies his wonderful analytic brain to solving insolvable crimes. He likes nothing better than to crack a perfect alibi or expose a carefully camouflaged plot.Often he makes use of an eager newshound, Hutchinson Hatch, to gather facts. This character feels very real, probably because of Futelle's own work as a newspaper man. Cops and criminals also ring true. Even Van Dusen's superpowers are reality-based, arising from logic, imagination, and keen insight into human nature. Futelle was a pioneer of realism in the literature of detection.In the lead story, "The Problem of Cell 13," Van Dusen claims he can think his way out of any jail cell - and agrees to be locked up in a maximum security prison. The story was published serially in 1905. With the first installment readers were challenged to guess how the Professor would do it, and cash prizes were offered. (An early advertising promotion!)Although Futelle's fame rests upon this one piece, he devised many other ingenious Thinking Machine stories, as this collection demonstrates. I heartily recommend it to fans of vintage detective fiction. The Dover edition is good quality and includes a short but illuminating introduction.I misremembered reading a novel entitled THE THINKING MACHINE while in high school. I recalled enjoying it and wanted to reread it. It was an ordeal to find it. From Amazon, I purchased the wrong book (THE THINKING MACHINE by Pfeiffer).* As a result of expressing my frustration to a friend, I received a gift of these short stories. My memory from 1966 was incorrect! The book was a series of short stories and not a single novel.The book represents a WONDERFUL series of 12 short stories. I read them while on the exercise machine. The stories are intense and I can forget that I am exercising. Of the 12, I was able to predict the ending of the following: The Problem of the Stolen Rubens The Phantom MotorI would have predicted "The Fatal Cipher" correctly, but because of cultural differences between now and then, I missed the key element of motivation. I found that I enjoyed the stories that I could NOT predict better than the ones I could. What about you?*I wrote a warning at the Amazon listing of Pfeiffer's work not to confuse it with Futrelle's Thinking Machine.I had read several Thinking Machine stories in high school in the 1970s and decided to re-visit them. I wanted to understand why I had not stuck with my old interest. I found the answer by reading this book -- which I found in a box of old books I had in my closet all these years. While the writing is decent and original, the stories do not hold up as much more than interesting short stories from a century ago.I see that all the other reviewers gave this book 5 stars. Unfortunately, I can't agree. The author sets up scenarios with minor holes in the telling which prevent the reader from guessing the logical outcome. (The Phantom Motor). There are stories that are so convoluted that they are intriguing but almost non-sensical. (The Fatal Cipher). And then there is a story with a solution that is absolutely absurd (Kidnapped Baby Blake, Millionarie.)The stories are good enough to read casually just as a good representation of the genre. (Short stories serialized in newspapers 100 years ago.) But I didn't see this as a 5-star read.Of all the anthologies of my great-grandfather's work, this is the best. It contains the classic "Problem of Cell 13" as well as some more experimental stories. The introduction is also nicely written to provide context for this little-known author.It is always difficult to get out-of-print books. Because of that I should like to point on the only available book about Futrelle: „The Thinking Machine : Jacques Futrelle by Freddie Seymour, Bettina Kyper (Introduction)". You will find it in Amazon.com under „Title Word = Futrelle."