Jacques Futrelle: The Maelstrom Collection

Selected and Edited by Philip Dossick

“…a plain, yellow-wrapped package about the size of a cigarette-box…neatly tied with scarlet twine, and innocent of markings except for the superscription in a precise, copperplate hand, and the smudge of the postmark across the ten-cent stamp in the upper right-hand corner…”

Few writers have captured the living texture of life and criminality as well as Jacques Futrelle.

Masterworks of intricate creation, each of his creations has stood the test of time, and are remarkable for their explorations of greed, human depravity, logic, and justice for all.

For example, in The Diamond Master, New York jeweler Harry Latham is suddenly thrust into international intrigue when a breathtakingly flawless diamond mysteriously appears in the mail with no return address, no instructions, and no explanation.

Where did this fabulous diamond come from?

The dealer soon discovers that more diamonds have been sent to other diamond dealers as well.

All the diamonds match perfectly.

All are worth a fortune.

Who might have sent them?

And to what end?

This Maelstrom Collection includes the Futrelle classics:

The Diamond Master

The Thinking Machine/

The Problem of Cell 13

The Scarlet Thread

JACQUES FUTRELLE (1875–1912) was an American journalist and mystery writer. He is best known for writing short detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, known as "The Thinking Machine" for his application of logic to any and all situations. He began a series of stories around ‘The Thinking Machine’ - a detective character who would eventually appear in over forty stories and was clearly an inspiration for Agatha Christie. Returning from Europe aboard the RMS Titanic, Futrelle refused to board a lifeboat, insisting his wife board instead, to the point of forcing her in. Tragically, his wife remembered the last time she saw him: he was smoking a cigarette on deck with John Jacob Astor IV.  He was 37 years old.