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Rating: 
Summary: The Thinking Machine
Review: If you've met Solar Pons, if you've encountered Poirot in short tales, if you've followed Seabury Quinn's occult sleuth--de Grandin--around a few times, if you've dealt with Nero Wolfe in a short story or two, if you've sat back while Prince Zaleski sat back and solved a quick crime, if you are quite familiar with the shorter exploits of that fellow, whatsisname, Sherlock Holmes, then Jacques Futrelle cannot possibly introduce you to anything new. Not in the grander scheme of things anyway. But has Futrelle merely given us the same old logical detective with a different name? I deduce the answer as no. And now if I may gather you all into my drawing-room and explain everything...In creating and displaying his detective, the aptly-named "Thinking Machine", Futrelle obviously believes less is more. This is a detective constantly in motion, and constantly talking. He speaks and acts seemingly without pause enough to even allow us to know him--or rather, the author chooses to introduce us to Futrelle quickly and succinctly, and barely slows down to brush in character facets, quirks, hidden traits, or past history. The Thinking Machine--actually, Van Dusen-- never wanders up to an orchid room, or stops to play a violin. He is a fellow always engaging in forward motion, and thus these stories have terrific pace. And funnily enough, irony sets in, as Van Dusen, pared-down, rather narrowly depicted, emerges as a unique and memorable crime-solver. At least it's something different: the writer puts aside the basic manual on how to fill out a character in a short story, and at the very least creates something unique. Come learn about The Thinking Machine's essence through what he does, because what he says relates to the case he's wrestling with, and anything else--the stuff about himself--is delivered rarely, and even then, it's as if this detective is in too much of a hurry to talk about himself. Sorry, no time. I like it, it's an extreme in inscrutability, even in this stone-man subgenre. And for a guy called The Thinking Man, he's really quite a satisfying Action Man. We also have the plots themselves. Some great, some a bit familiar, most of them quite entertaining. Consistently polished style aiding healthy variety of plot. Futrelle wrote crime puzzles with an assured hand, and even if, unlike me, you find The Thinking Machine a bit wooden, or identityless, can we agree that his creator writes with colour and rhythm? And doesn't spin out a disappointing little web of mystery amongst the lot?
Rating: 
Summary: Edwardian crime stories as recommended by Harlan Ellison
Review: This book of short stories with a foreword by the great science fiction writer, Harlan Ellison, is centered on one story, The Problem of Cell 13, which was first published in The Boston American in 1906. Harlan Ellison's twelve-page introduction is entirely honest about the merits of the book. He first met the The Thinking Machine, Futrelle's brainy protagonist, when he read The Problem of Cell 13 as a boy and fell in love with this beautifully-crafted little puzzle story. Futrelle's other stories are distinctly ho-hum and Futrelle himself lost his life when the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in 1912. The ONLY reason for reading this book is to explore crime fiction as it existed in the Edwardian era. But that's a very good reason and you have Harlan Ellison's word for it.
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