Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen — known as “The Thinking Machine” — makes a bet: he can escape from any prison cell within a week using only his intellect. Locked in death-row Cell 13 of Chisholm Prison, he sets about proving it. Jacques Futrelle’s The Problem of Cell 13 (1905) is one of the most celebrated puzzle stories in the history of detective fiction, and the escape method, when revealed, is both logical and genuinely surprising.
Futrelle died in the Titanic disaster in 1912, leaving behind a small but brilliant body of work. Download the free EPUB and discover the stories that earned The Thinking Machine his legendary reputation.