R Austin Freeman

The Singing Bone (Freeman) (1912) by R Austin Freeman

(US Title: The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke). Short stories of crime and mystery involving Dr. Thorndyke, the "Scientific Investigator." This also happens to be the book where Austin Freeman claimed to have created the inverted detective story or "howcatchem." "Some years ago I devised, as an experiment, an inverted detective story in two parts. The first part was a minute and detailed description of a crime, setting forth the antecedents, motives, and all attendant circumstances. The reader had seen the crime committed, knew all about the criminal, and was in possession of all the facts. It would have seemed that there was nothing left to tell. But ... the reader would be so occupied with the crime that he would overlook the evidence."