author
Jacques Futrelle
1875–1912
Best known for creating "the Thinking Machine," he wrote brisk, clever mysteries built on logic and surprise. His career was cut short in 1912, when he died in the sinking of the Titanic.
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 was an American journalist and mystery writer. Before turning fully to fiction, he worked in newspapers in Atlanta, New York, and Boston, and that reporting background helped give his stories their speed, clarity, and sense of intrigue.
He is remembered above all for his detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, nicknamed "the Thinking Machine." These tales helped popularize the puzzle-style mystery, with solutions driven by logic rather than force, and they remain his best-known work.
Futrelle died in April 1912 during the sinking of the Titanic, while his wife, writer May Futrelle, survived. Because he died at just 37, his body of work is relatively small, but his inventive detective fiction has kept his name alive with readers who enjoy classic mysteries.