The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries

"The mystery of a bloody murder has been a perennially classic theme, drawing readers to examine what motivates heinous crimes and how the investigative procedure takes us behind the scenes of tragedy. These stories from the 19th and early 20th centuries introduce the earliest detectives, both male and female, that inspired iterations from BBC radio dramas to American television. Sims's selections showcase evil masterminds, suspect narrators, early female detectives, shipboard murders, and psychological and scientific inquiries. And then, there are Clue-like titles such as 'The Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study' that a modern murder mystery fan can't resist. The [book] features stories by classic authors such as Anton Chekhov, Louisa May Alcott, and Charles W. Chesnutt along with early crime writing luminaries such as Austrian novelist Augusta Groner and the prolific American Geraldine Bonner. Surprises include a dark Irish detective story published 14 years before Poe's Dupin investigated the doings in the Rue Morgue--sixty years before the debut of Sherlock Holmes--and a Canadian First Nations detective who investigated a century before Dana Stabenow introduced Kate Shugak"--