This entertaining short story collection features Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, nicknamed "The Thinking Machine," a brilliant but abrasive scientist who proves time and again that any puzzle can be solved by the application of logic.
 
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 Machine—it 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 ends—namely 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 unsolvable—not corporate espionage, nor a kidnapped baby, nor a pilfered necklace, and certainly not a “perfect murder.”
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
American journalist and mystery author JACQUES HEATH FUTRELLE (1875 - 1912) worked for several publications including the Atlanta Journal, New York Herald, and Boston Post before publishing his first short story, "The Problem of Cell 13" in 1905. He went on to write numerous short stories and novels featuring that story's protagonist, Professor Augustus Van Dusen, known as "The Thinking Machine" due to his superior intellect. Futrelle died at the age of 37, one of over 1,500 passengers who drowned aboard the RMS Titanic. His body was never recovered.