Masterstrokes of Crime Detection by Lassiter Wren (1929)

 

About the author: Lassiter Wren is the author of The Baffle Books, as well as (along with Randle McKay) the Baffle Cases which were contained in the some of the 1930's Mystery League titles.

Synopsis:

This is a collection of 13 true and somewhat fictional(?) stories of crime detection, all by Lassiter Wren.

The Strange Eclipse of John Smith's Candle (England): A traveling jewelry merchant is found dead in his host's home, and the only clue to what happened is the odd movement of a candle seen by a passerby.

How They Traced the Triple Murder on the Yukon: Three prospectors in gold-rush Yukon disappear while on the trail.  What happened to them? And who did it?

The Black Trackers of Australia: Master Detectives: Two accounts of native trackers demonstrate their skills of observation.

The Man Who Murdered Papa Désiré (France): M. Gustave Macé of the Paris police tracks down a murderer who dismembered his victim and scattered the pieces all over Paris.

Trapping the Robbers of Muswell Lodge (England): A hermit fortifies his home against robbers, but they get in anyway.

Subtleties of Crime in India: Various citizens manipulate evidence to confound the authorities.

Detective Geye's Brilliant Long Shot (USA): A detective finds a killer by imagining her relationship with a trolley driver.

The Incomparable Vidocq: First Great Detective (France):  A biographical sketch of Eugène-François Vidocq, criminal turned detective.

Twenty-one Splinters of Glass (New York City): A detective tracks a hit-and-run by piecing together glass fragments from the crash scene to locate the car.

Constabulary vs. District Tubbercurry (Ireland): Detectives finally track down a killer who eluded them for years.

The Secret of the Conrad Door (Germany): A complex locked-room puzzle, six dead inside a locked room, but a book is found inside opening to a page describing how to do it (oops!)

The Triumph of Kali Dass (India): The only witness to a murder is a deaf-mute. How do they get him to testify?

The Daring Feat of "James McKenna" (Pennsylvania): A detective infiltrates the Molly Maguires, a secret terror organization of coal miners.

Review:

I picked up this book as the name Lassiter Wren jumped out at me, remembering him as the author of The Baffle Books, and the Baffle Cases contained in some of the 1930's Mystery League titles.

The stories are set in locations around the world, and read much like the short vignettes in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Initially I thought this was a collection of true detective stories, but it appears to be a mix of both true and somewhat fictional, perhaps only inspired by real persons or events. For example, there are accounts of General Charles Hervey (India), Eugène-François Vidocq  (France), and James MacParlin (USA); all precise accounts of historical detectives - as my quick fact check confirmed. Some stories (Muswell Lodge and The Conrad Door) read more like 1930's weird thrillers, and I found it difficult to believe they are anything more than just complete fiction. Some illustrate plain old routine, plodding detective work (21 Splinters, District Tubbercurry, Murder on the Yukon) and it is a stretch to place them in the "Master stroke" category.

The foreword (which also appears as the Goodreads description) states it contains "twenty-odd" stories, but actually only 13.

Physically speaking, this is a strange book. It is oversize, being 9.5" x 6", yet when opened - surprise! The printing plates used were for a much smaller book, resulting in huge margins!

And then there are the garish orange endpapers, but still bright after 93 years!