Customer Reviews

The Thinking Machine: Jacques Futrelle

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Jacques Futrelle's tales of the Thinking Machine are some of the best detective stories ever written. This book contains a biography, family pictures, five Van Dusen stories and a list of all story and novel titles. There is also a comparison between Holmes, Van Dusen and Poirot. Although made by amateurs, it is a good work. And where else do you find much material about this early died author? --Wolfgang Steinert--March 7,1999--

American Jacques Futrelle (who died on the TITANIC) created a brilliant scientist named Professor Van Dusen--a man so perspicacious that he was dubbed "the Thinking Machine" by his reporter friend, Hatch. Set in the early 20th century (an era without TV, computers, cell phones or an FBI data bank) these three tales reveal the fantastic mental processes of the super-logical protagonist. Although Van Dusen is not a professional detective, one wonders if Futrelle was inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In "The Problem of Cell 13" the Professor voluntarily spends 7 days and nights in a high security prison--just to prove that he can escape by exercising his mind. He actually invites his friends (and the warden) to a dinner a week hence. In "The Flaming Phantom" he unmasks the THING in a recently haunted house--easily recovering long-missing family jewels. The short "Silver Box" mystery may be the first literary case of industrial espionage. Motivated solely by academic curiosity and the joy of mental gymnastics, Van Dusen seeks no reward nor even public recognition. He is content to remind his astonished admirers that "two plus two always equals four." Still, we suspect that he takes private delight in revealing his thought processes and subsequent actions in the style of English detectives who spell out their deductions in the verbal denouement. Fascinating reading for kids of all ages!