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On the evening following the great fog of 1897, four strangers are dining at the exclusive gentleman's club The Grill, while a fifth--Sir Andrew--is just finishing the last few pages of a pulp mystery novel before he hurries back to the House of Commons to advocate on behalf of an unpopular naval spending bill. As Sir Andrew rises to leave, the visiting American diplomat announces to the others at the table that on the previous evening, he stumbled upon the scene of a double murder which has left Scotland Yard detectives baffled. Sir Andrew checks his watch, and excitedly asks the American to quickly relate the details.When the American has finished, Sir Andrew again makes to leave for his appointment until a second man chimes in with what he knows of the murder victims. Sitting back down, Sir Andrew listens raptly as each diner in turn each adds his own bits of background and theories about who could have killed the Russian princess and the young British adventurer (who, as it turns out, is from a well-known and prominent family, and had just returned from a year in Africa the very day he was murdered). Of course, Sir Andrew misses his appointment, but two clever twists will have readers themselves feeling as though they, too, have been wandering in the fog.

"Nightclub singer Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears at first to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside. Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? The victim was seeing a number of men, ranging from a high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died. When the D.A. is stumped, he turns to his friend Philo Vance, an erudite and snobbish aristocrat, who applies his brilliant observations of human nature during a poker game with the suspects to determine who in fact knocked the Canary from her perch--permanently"--

This entertaining short story collection features Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, nicknamed "The Thinking Machine"-a brilliant but abrasive scientist who proves time and again that any puzzle can be solved by the application of logic.Could you beat the world chess master in one try if you'd never played or studied the game? Or plot and execute a successful escape from an inescapable prison cell? And could you do it at the turn of the twentieth century, without benefit of modern technology? Sound impossible?Never use that word in the presence of The Thinking Machine-it angers him greatly and does not give him a favorable impression of the user. Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen knows that both feats are indeed possible, having accomplished them himself. But he also applies his superior intellect and deductive reasoning to more official ends-namely helping the police solve "impossible" crimes.With assistance from reporter Hutchinson Hatch, who is only too happy to suggest potential cases and then write about the outcome, The Thinking Machine proves that no puzzle is unsolvable-not corporate espionage, nor a kidnapped baby, nor a pilfered necklace, And certainly not a "perfect murder."

"This edition of Last Seen Wearing is based on the first edition in the Library of Congress's collection, originally published in 1952 by Doubleday & Company, Inc."--Copyright page.

"Astro, the Seer of Secrets, and his lovely assistant Valeska sound more like a magic act than a private detection team. Astro, in fact, hides his powers of observation and reasoning beneath a turban and a cape, pretending to read palms and consult crystals while in fact keenly observing details that most people--police included--miss. Valeska, his beautiful blond protege, assists Astro with his investigations, all the while honing her own skills. Called upon by believers and skeptics both, they adeptly recover what is missing--a rare Shakespeare folio, a missing husband, a kidnapped child--while also solving actual murders. But it is their burgeoning romance, and their mutual zeal to work pro bono where matters of the heart are at stake, that set this crime-solving duo apart"--