Master tales of mystery, Volume 2 (of 3) by Francis J. Reynolds
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"Master tales of mystery, Volume 2 (of 3)" by Francis J. Reynolds is a collection of mystery short stories written in the early 20th century. The anthology gathers ingenious crime puzzles by noted contemporary authors, with an emphasis on brain-over-brawn detection and seemingly impossible situations. Early highlights feature Jacques Futrelle’s brilliant logician “The Thinking Machine,” Professor A. S. F. X. Van Dusen, tackling locked-room impossibilities and audacious crimes. The opening of the
volume presents Futrelle’s The Problem of Cell 13, in which Professor Van Dusen wagers he can escape a condemned prisoner’s cell within a week and, by cold logic and improvised tools, outwits the guards, engineers a yard blackout, and slips out disguised as an electrician before calmly returning to explain his method. It then begins The Scarlet Thread: reporter Hutchinson Hatch brings Van Dusen a Back Bay mystery—broker Weldon Henley repeatedly wakes to gas-filled rooms despite locked doors, and a maid, Louise Regnier, is found dead by gas in the same building. Van Dusen’s quiet inspection (including a telltale red fiber on a flagpole rope) leads him to declare the maid was murdered and Henley is the real target, after which he sends Hatch to warn Henley and investigate enemies in business or love, leaving the deeper plot unresolved. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Editor | Reynolds, Francis J. (Francis Joseph), 1867-1937 |
|---|---|
| Title | Master tales of mystery, Volume 2 (of 3) |
| Original Publication | New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1902, copyright 1915. |
| Contents | Jacques Futrelle: The problem of cell 13. The scarlet thread. The man who was lost. The great auto mystery. The flaming phantom. The mystery of a studio -- Oswald Crawford: Gentleman Coggins, alias Towers. The murder at Jex Farm -- Henry C. Rowland: The border -- Baroness Orczy: The Fenchurch Street mystery -- Louis Joseph Vance: The mystery of seven minutes. |
| Credits | Al Haines |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections |
| Subject | Fiction |
| Subject | Detective and mystery stories |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77812 |
| Release Date | Jan 29, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 634 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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