The Thinking Machine
āŠ āŠ-āŠŠāŦāŠļāŦāŠĪāŠ āŠĩāŠŋāŠķāŦ
Could you beat the world chess master in one try if you'd never played or studied the game? Or plot and execute a successful escape from an inescapable prison cell? And could you do it at the turn of the twentieth century, without benefit of modern technology? Sound impossible?
Never use that word in the presence of The Thinking Machineâit angers him greatly and does not give him a favorable impression of the user. Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen knows that both feats are indeed possible, having accomplished them himself. But he also applies his superior intellect and deductive reasoning to more official endsânamely helping the police solve "impossible" crimes.
With assistance from reporter Hutchinson Hatch, who is only too happy to suggest potential cases and then write about the outcome, The Thinking Machine proves that no puzzle is unsolvableânot corporate espionage, nor a kidnapped baby, nor a pilfered necklace, And certainly not a "perfect murder."
āŠĩāŠ§āŦ āŠķāŦāŠ§āŦ
āŠēāŦāŠāŠ āŠĩāŠŋāŠķāŦ
LESLIE S. KLINGER is the two-time EdgarÂŪ winning editor of New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s. He has also edited two anthologies of classic mysteries and, with Laurie R. King, five anthologies of stories inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Klinger is the series editor of Library of Congress Crime Classics, a partnership of the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks. He is a former Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and lives in Malibu, California.
