Although J. Futrelle is still no match of Doyle or Christie, or even Freeman, he is certainly the best American detective story writer. Queen is undoubtedly a very dedicated scholar in detective stories, but his skill in writing is limited. If Futrelle had not died too young, I believe he would be as good as his British colleagues.

Most Futrelle's books are out of print today, probably nowadays only the bookworms like us still know his name. I was lucky to find this book, printed in 1973, from a university library. "Problem of Cell 13", which I also read more than 10 years ago in Chinese translation, is probably the best of Futrelle's story. Among the stories in this book (unfortunately I don't remember their exact titles), the one about someone sending Moores code from a typewriter, and the one about faking ghost with a sliding mirrow are also very good. As a young writer, Futrelle's ingeniousness is really amazing.

But not all his stories are good. In my vague memory, there is one about a phantom racing car turning out to be some motorcycles (probably not collected in this book), which is hardly convincing.

For Futrelle fans, there is another Thinking Machine story titled "Tragedy on A Life Raft" collected in an anthology titled "detection by gas light", which is a bargin book and still available. This story was written shortly before the Titanic accident, and was never published in his lifetime, but not a very good one.

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."

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.

Jacques Futrelle was way ahead of his time. I remember when I first read some of his stories, how they seemed so "Modern" with talk of Computers, and Scientific, AND Futuristic things. Jacques Futrelle was very, very famous in his day, and perhaps would have wrote many more great books, unfortunately he was one of the many, many souls that lost his life on the ship you all have heard so much about...The Titanic. So sad that after being so well known in his time, he is all but forgotten now.

This collection of Thinking Machine stories is the classic American analog to Sherlock Holmes. The author develops the logical detective model and these stories are a must-read for all true lovers of the mystery genre. The author died on the Titanic.

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--