author
Jacques Futrelle
1875–1912
Best known for creating the brilliant detective "The Thinking Machine," this early mystery writer packed logic, suspense, and clever twists into stories that still feel lively today. His promising career was cut short when he died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
5 Audiobooks
Elusive Isabel
by Jacques Futrelle
The problem of Cell 13
by Jacques Futrelle
The Chase of the Golden Plate
by Jacques Futrelle
The Leak
by Jacques Futrelle
The Diamond Master
by Jacques Futrelle
About the author
Born in Pike County, Georgia, in 1875, Jacques Futrelle built his career first as a journalist before becoming a popular writer of mystery fiction. He worked for newspapers in Atlanta, New York, and Boston, and that newsroom background helped give his stories their brisk pace and sharp sense of detail.
He is remembered above all for Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, nicknamed "The Thinking Machine," a detective who solves seemingly impossible problems through pure logic. Futrelle's best-known stories, including The Problem of Cell 13, helped shape the classic puzzle-mystery tradition and won him a wide readership in the early 1900s.
Futrelle died on April 15, 1912, in the sinking of the Titanic, while his wife survived. Because he died at just 37, his body of work is relatively small, but his influence lives on through readers who enjoy ingenious, idea-driven detective stories.