Customer Reviews

Best "Thinking Machine" Detective Stories

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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.

I decided to look this title up from memories of reading three short stories as a young adult. One of the interesting notes in the book was that the author was among those who did not survive the *Titantic* disaster. The stories are in line with Sherlock Holmes, only slightly updated...one involved a wonderful prison break that would make ANYone think. It's definately worth reading if you can find it. It's a shame the author had his career cut short or he would have been more well known.

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."

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 Motor

I 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.