The Thinking Machine at Work

By: Jacques Futrelle

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, with the help of his friend newspaper reporter Hutchison Hatch, solves a variety of mysteries using cold, hard logic. No matter how twisted the trail of clues or how clever the perpetrator, Professor Van Dusen, aptly dubbed “The Thinking Machine”, reminds us that “two and two make four, not some times, but all the time”. 

So when a woman begs a surgeon to amputate part of her perfectly healthy finger, or when a pearl necklace disappears from a woman’s neck at a party, or when a man presents the court with his “perfect” alibi, The Thinking Machine focuses on the facts and methodically investigates all of the (logical) possibilities.

In fact, the author’s own wife, May Futrelle, set out to stump her husband’s talented detective with an unsolvable mystery of her own, in which a lonely traveler takes a wrong turn and ends up in a mysterious house. Was she successful? Discover for yourself in this original audio compilation produced by Skyboat Media for Blackstone Publishing.

Full Contents:

“Problem of Dressing Room A”

“The Problem of Cell 13”

“Problem of the Perfect Alibi”

“Problem of the Superfluous Finger”

“Problem of the Cross Mark”

“Problem of the Stolen Bank Notes”

“Problem of the Green Eyed Monster”

“My First Experience With the Great Logician”

“The First Problem”

“Problem of the Missing Necklace”

“Problem of the Souvenir Cards”

“The Tragedy of the Life Raft”

“Problem of the Deserted House”

“The Grinning God, Part I - Wraiths of the Storm”

“The Grinning God, Part II - The House That Was”

©2015 Jacques Futrelle (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

An old friend

I read these stories in high school and to find them here was like sitting down with an old friend and hearing them all over again. The readers are very smooth and resonant . Th stories make you think about the possible outcomes of your actions. He is like Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, and Hercule Poirot all in one. since theses were written in the late 19th century or early 20th century (the author died on the Titanic) many latter day detectives seem to have taken a page out of his books. 2+2=4 not just sometimes, but all the time. logic rules.

incredibly monotonous

the ‘plots’ are there only to serve for the ‘murder she wrote’ long exposition, given to the persons involved and to the listener, of the ‘logic’ of the ‘thinking machine’. The main character is always described in exactly the same way, with exactly the same catchphrases; basically there are no characters, just excuses for uninteresting solutions to supposed puzzles. it reads like the worst kind mimicry of an agatha christie or sherlock holmes story.