A tribute to the first great age of fictional sleuthing, this delightful collection of 13 mystery classics is devoted to the genuine tale of ratiocination. Included among these gems, written between 1841 and 1920, are Edgar Alan Poe's The murder in the Rue Morgue, widely acknowledged as that detective story; Charles Dickens' The Detective Anecdotes. in which a policeman is the detective-hero Jack London's The Leopard Man's Story, featuring an unusually grisly gut thoroughly plausible murder method; The Phantom Motor, by Jacques Furtrelle; as well as tales by Wilkie Collins, Gelett Burgeess, Susan Galspell, E. C. Bentley, Rodrigues Ottelengui, Barones Orczy, Samuel Hopkines Adams, Melville Davisson Post, and H. C. Bailey. Douglas G. Greene, a widely recognized authority in the field of mystery fiction, provides an introduction and informative notes for stories.