The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

by Jacques Futrelle

Jacques Futrelle (1875-1912) is widely considered "the American Sherlock Holmes" for his series of stories about Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, who is better known as The Thinking Machine. Van Dusen, a master of logic, believed he could think himself out of any situation -- and solve any crime -- using his immense intellect. Through dozens of stories, The Thinking Machine solved locked-room puzzles, kidnappings, and more murders than can be easily counted, proving again and again that brain-power is the answer to any problem.

This volume collects 47 short stories and novels, including many stories featuring The Thinking Machine. Assembled here are:

THE THINKING MACHINE

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH THE GREAT LOGICIAN

THE GREAT AUTO MYSTERY

THE HAUNTED BELL

THE LEAK

THE PROBLEM OF CELL 13

THE MYSTERY OF THE RALSTON BANK BURGLARY

MYSTERY OF THE SCARLET THREAD

A PIECE OF STRING

PROBLEM OF THE CRYSTAL GAZER

THE FATAL CIPHER

PROBLEM OF THE PERFECT ALIBI

KIDNAPPED BABY BLAKE, MILLIONAIRE

PROBLEM OF THE LOST RADIUM

PROBLEM OF THE MISSING NECKLACE

THE PHANTOM MOTOR

PROBLEM OF CONVICT NO. 97

THE FIRST PROBLEM

PROBLEM OF THE GREEN EYED MONSTER

PROBLEM OF THE HIDDEN MILLION

PROBLEM OF THE OPERA BOX

PROBLEM OF THE CROSS MARK

PROBLEM OF THE BROKEN BRACELET

PROBLEM OF THE SOUVENIR CARDS

PROBLEM OF THE SUPERFLUOUS FINGER

THE CASE OF THE SCIENTIFIC MURDERER

PROBLEM OF THE DESERTED HOUSE

MYSTERY OF THE FLAMING PHANTOM

PROBLEM OF THE GHOST WOMAN

MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN DAGGER

THE GRINNING GOD

MYSTERY OF THE GRIP OF DEATH

THE JACKDAW

MYSTERY OF THE MAN WHO WAS LOST

THE MYSTERY OF A STUDIO

PROBLEM OF THE ORGAN GRINDER
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PROBLEM OF THE PRIVATE COMPARTMENT

THE PROBLEM OF THE AUTO CAB

PROBLEM OF THE RED ROSE

THE ROSWELL TIARA

THE THREE OVERCOATS

THE TRAGEDY OF THE LIFE RAFT

PROBLEM OF THE VANISHING MAN

PROBLEM OF THE INTERRUPTED WIRELESS

THE CHASE OF THE GOLDEN PLATE

THE DIAMOND MASTER

ELUSIVE ISABEL<>

And don't forget to search this ebook store for "Wildside Megapack" (or just "Megapack" if "Wildside Megapack" doesn't work) to see all the entries in Wildside's Megapack series -- including volumes of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, westerns, and much, much more!

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published March 19, 2013

About the author

Jacques Heath Futrelle (1875-1912) was an American journalist and mystery writer. He is best known for writing short detective stories featuring the "Thinking Machine", Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen. He worked for the Atlanta Journal, where he began their sports section; the New York Herald; the Boston Post; and the Boston American. In 1905, his Thinking Machine character first appeared in a serialized version of The Problem of Cell 13. In 1895, he married fellow writer Lily May Peel, with whom he had two children. While returning from Europe aboard the RMS Titanic, Futrelle, a first-cabin passenger, refused to board a lifeboat insisting his wife board instead. He perished in the Atlantic. His works include: The Chase of the Golden Plate (1906), The Simple Case of Susan (1908), The Thinking Machine on the Case (1908), The Diamond Master (1909), Elusive Isabel (1909), The High Hand (1911), My Lady's Garter (1912), Blind Man's Bluff (1914).

Reviews

[Ira Therebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only recently found out about Jacques Futrelle when I was reading a contemporary crime story which took place on Titanic and where he was used as a guy who solved the crime. When I found out that he really died on Titanic and wrote crime stories I decided to read something written by him. So I got this collection of his short stories and 3 short novels.

I am definitely not disappointed. The stories are crimes solved by "The Thinking Machine", a genius scientist who likes to use his logic. It is very much like Sherlock Holmes. He even has a Watson-like helper, a journalist Hatch who does research for him. While there were a few stories that I found ridiculous for the most part I really liked it and some stories were wonderful.

When it comes to my favorites I would say these are his famous "The Prisoner Cell 13", "Problem of the Perfect Alibi", "Mystery of the Man who got Lost" and "The Grinning God". All of them kept me extremely interested through the whole story and had great solutions. When it comes to the last one he wrote it with his wife. She created the problem and he had Thinking Machine solve it. The result was great as she made it very intriguing and hard to explain. Loved her writing too.

One should also remember when it was written, in some cases it makes it even better. For example in "The Problem of Lost Radium" Thinking Machine contacts Madame Curie. And back then she was not historical figure but pretty much a present scientist during her career time.

One thing that kind of gave me shivers was "The Tragedy of the Life Raft". It had people surviving in the sea after a sinking of a ship and had this line: “…a lashing, mist-covered sea; a titanic chaos of water,” . Considering how he died and him using the word "titanic" gave me a very weird feeling.

When it comes to the short novels, "The Chase of the Golden Plate" was alright but kind of stretched out. Would have been better as a short story. "The Diamond Master" was pretty interesting. When it comes to solution I wonder how far ahead was the development of fake diamonds. When I googled I found out the first synthetic one was made in the 50's. Were they already working on it then?. "Elusive Isabel" was wonderful. The story itself about prevention of international conflict was good. It had really a lot happening. I liked the character Isabel. Just like her relationship with Mr. Grimm who was on the different side. And again, remember when it was written. When reading it I was thinking how for example Russia was still before revolution under Tsar. They were trying to prevent world war and it was years before WW1. And it included trying to take away power from USA and England and it is interesting when we see at their positions today.

It was definitely a great read. Very entertaining and well written.

[Naticia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of quick short stories. I liked most of them, though it was odd the way that motive seemed to not matter at all (a stylistic choice or was figuring out motives too hard?). Favorites included "The Great Auto Mystery", "Problem of the Green Eyed Monster" (though I do think the title gives it away pretty quickly), "Problem of the Souvenir Cards", and "Mystery of the Man Who was Lost".
Compared to other stories of the time period, I found fewer reasons to cringe in this collection.

[Dom Hargreaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

*i have only read “the problem of dressing room a”*

Hmmm this one was an interesting one, cos there were so many goods and bads. I liked the chess intro, and i liked the plot (mostly), and the stringing together of the story from the very little clues, but i didn’t love the thinking machine, and i didn’t love the writing style, honestly i felt it was a bit predictable after about halfway through. A mixed bag of a short story for me!

[Jan Moens · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10