Jacques Futrelle's 'The Thinking Machine' - The Enigmatic Problems of Prof. Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D.,

Zusatztext “When I was a young man I read! thoroughly enjoyed! and long remembered ‘The Problem of Cell 13.’ Now! like a brisk morning breeze! it returns. I say that’s swell.” —Tony Hillerman Informationen zum Autor Harlan Ellison is the author of a plethora of short stories! scripts! essays! and reviews. He has written or edited more than seventy-?ve books! including Slippage! Angry Candy! and Dangerous Visions. His numerous awards include Edgars! Hugos! and Nebulas. He lives in California with his wife! Susan. Klappentext This irascible genius! this diminutive egghead scientist! known to the world as "The Thinking Machine!” is no less than the newly rediscovered literary link between Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe: Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen! who—with only the power of ratiocination—unravels problems of outrageous criminous activity in dazzlingly impossible settings. He can escape from the inescapable death-row "Cell 13.” He can fathom why the young woman chopped off her own ?nger. He can solve the anomaly of the phone that could not speak. These twenty-three Edwardian-era adventures prove (as The Thinking Machine reiterates) that "two and two make four! not sometimes! but all the time.” Chapter 1 Dressing Room "A" That strange, seemingly inexplicable chain of circumstances which had to do with the mysterious disappearance of the famous actress, Irene Wallack, from her dressing room in a Springfield theater during a performance, while the echo of tumultuous appreciation still rang in her ears, was one of the most fascinating problems which was not purely scientific that The Thinking Machine was ever asked to solve. The scientist's aid was enlisted in this singular mystery by Hutchinson Hatch, reporter. "There is something far beyond the ordinary in this affair," Hatch explained to the scientist. "A woman has disappeared, evaporated into thin air in the hearing, almost in sight, of her friends. The police can make nothing of it. It is a problem for a greater mind than theirs." Professor Van Dusen waved the newspaperman to a seat and himself sank back into a great cushioned chair in which his diminutive figure seemed even more child-like than it really was. "Tell me the story," he commanded petulantly. "All of it." The enormous yellow head rested against the chair back, the blue eyes squinted steadily upward, the slender fingers were pressed tip to tip. The Thinking Machine was in a receptive mood. "Miss Wallack is thirty years old and beautiful," the reporter began. "As an actress she has won recognition not only in this country but in England. You may have read something of her in the daily papers, and if--" "I never read the papers unless I am compelled to," the other interrupted curtly. "Go on." "She is unmarried, and so far as anyone knows, had no immediate intention of changing her condition," Hatch resumed, staring curiously at the thin face of the scientist. "I presume she had admirers-all beautiful women of the stage have-but she is one whose life has been perfectly clean, whose record is an open book. I tell you this because it might have a bearing on your conclusion as to a possible reason for her disappearance. "Now the actual circumstances of that disappearance. Miss Wallack has been playing a Shakespearean repertoire. Last week she was in Springfield. On Saturday night, which concluded her engagement there, she appeared as Rosalind in 'As You Like It.' The house was crowded. She played the first two acts amid great enthusiasm, and this despite the fact that she was suffering intensely from a headache to which she was subject at times. After the second act she returned to her dressing room and just before the curtain went up for the third the stage manager called her. She replied that she would be out immediately. There seems no possible shadow of a doubt but t...

Product details

• Authors: Jacques Futrelle
• Publisher: Modern Library PRH US
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.12.2003
• EAN: 9780812970142
• ISBN: 978-0-8129-7014-2
• No. of pages: 416
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 201 mm x 23 mm