The detective story heretofore has been based upon one of two methods: analysis or deduction. The former was Poe's, to take the typical example; the latter is Conan Doyle's. Of late the discoveries of science have been brought into play in this field of fiction with notable results. The most prominent of such innovators, indeed the first one, is Arthur Reeve, an American writer, whose "Black Hand" will be found in this collection; which has endeavoured within its limited space to cover the field from the start—the detective story—wholly the outgrowth of the more highly developed police methods which have sprung into being within little more than half a century, being only so old
Contents The Purloined Letter Edgar Allan Poe The Black Hand Arthur B. Reeve The Biter Bit Wilkie Collins Missing: Page Thirteen Anna Katherine Green A Scandal In Bohemia A. Conan Doyle The Rope Of Fear Mary E. And Thomas W. Hanshew The Safety Match Anton Chekhov Some Scotland Yard Stories Sir Robert Anderson