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The dead witness : a connoisseur's collection of Victorian detective stories / edited by Michael Sims.

Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Walker & Co., c2012.Edition: 1st U.S. edDescription: xxix, 576 p. ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 0802779182
  • 9780802779182
Other title:
  • Connoisseur's collection of Victorian detective stories
  • Victorian detective stories
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction: Prophets looking backward / by Michael Sims -- The secret cell / by William E. Burton -- The murders in the Rue Morgue / by Edgar Allan Poe -- On duty with Inspector Field / by Charles Dickens -- The diary of Anne Rodway / by Wilkie Collins -- You are not human, Monsieur d'Artagnan / by Alexandre Dumas -- Arrested on suspicion / by Andrew Forrester Jr. -- The dead witness; or, The bush waterhole / by W. W. (Mary Fortune) -- The mysterious human leg / by James McGovan (William Crawford Honeyman) -- The little old man of Batignolles / by Émile Gaboriau -- The science of deduction / by Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Whitechapel mystery / by Anonymous -- The assassin's natal autograph / by Mark Twain -- The murder at Troyte's Hill / by C. L. Pirkis -- The Haverstock Hill murder / by George R. Sims -- The stolen cigar-case / by Bret Harte -- The absent-minded coterie / by Robert Barr -- The hammer of God / by G. K. Chesterton -- The angel of the lord / by Melville Davisson Post -- The crime at Big Tree Portage / by Hesketh Prichard -- The tragedy at Brookbend Cottage / by Ernest Bramah -- The case of Padages Palmer / by Harvey O'Higgins -- An intangible clue / by Anna Katharine Green.
Summary: "A scintillating new collection of the best Victorian detective stories--as suspenseful and entertaining as anything written today!"--P. [4] of cover.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Mystery Sims Mic Available 33111006656173
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Gathering the finest adventures among private and police detectives from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-including a wide range of overlooked gems-Michael Sims showcases the writers who ever since have inspired the field of detective fiction.

From luminaries Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Bret Harte, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle to the forgotten author who helped inspire Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" to a surprising range of talented female authors and detectives, The Dead Witness offers mystery surprises from every direction. The 1866 title story, by Australian writer Mary Fortune, is the first known detective story by a woman, a suspenseful clue-strewn manhunt in the Outback. Pioneer writers Anna Katharine Green and C. L. Pirkis take you from high society New York to bustling London, introducing colorful detectives such as Violet Strange and Loveday Brooke.

In another forgotten classic, November Joe, the Canadian half-Native backwoods detective who stars in Hesketh Prichard's "The Crime at Big Tree Portage," demonstrates that Sherlockian attention to detail works as well in the woods as in the city. Holmes himself is here, too, of course-not in another reprint of an already well-known story, but in the first two chapters of A Study in Scarlet , the first Holmes case, in which the great man meets and dazzles Watson.

Introduced by Michael Sims's insightful overview of detective fiction, The Dead Witness unfolds the irresistible antecedents of what would mature into the most popular genre of the twentieth century.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction: Prophets looking backward / by Michael Sims -- The secret cell / by William E. Burton -- The murders in the Rue Morgue / by Edgar Allan Poe -- On duty with Inspector Field / by Charles Dickens -- The diary of Anne Rodway / by Wilkie Collins -- You are not human, Monsieur d'Artagnan / by Alexandre Dumas -- Arrested on suspicion / by Andrew Forrester Jr. -- The dead witness; or, The bush waterhole / by W. W. (Mary Fortune) -- The mysterious human leg / by James McGovan (William Crawford Honeyman) -- The little old man of Batignolles / by Émile Gaboriau -- The science of deduction / by Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Whitechapel mystery / by Anonymous -- The assassin's natal autograph / by Mark Twain -- The murder at Troyte's Hill / by C. L. Pirkis -- The Haverstock Hill murder / by George R. Sims -- The stolen cigar-case / by Bret Harte -- The absent-minded coterie / by Robert Barr -- The hammer of God / by G. K. Chesterton -- The angel of the lord / by Melville Davisson Post -- The crime at Big Tree Portage / by Hesketh Prichard -- The tragedy at Brookbend Cottage / by Ernest Bramah -- The case of Padages Palmer / by Harvey O'Higgins -- An intangible clue / by Anna Katharine Green.

"A scintillating new collection of the best Victorian detective stories--as suspenseful and entertaining as anything written today!"--P. [4] of cover.

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