The Silent Bullet
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Arthur Benjamin Reeve (Oct 15, 1880 - Aug 9, 1936) was an American author of detective novels. His most remarkable works is the professor Craig Kennedy Series, often regarded as American Sherlock Holmes. Kennedy stories were polished in Cosmopolitan magazine in the beginning of XX century. Besides writing novels, Reeve was also writing screenplays, some of which were based on his own novels like The Exploits of Elaine. His career ended when he went bankrupt because of contract issues.
The Silent Bullet is a collection of short detective stories by Arthur B. Reeve. The central figure of every story is detective Craig Kennedy, whose major tool of solving cases and mysteries is science. Chemistry, physics, psychology – every knowledge can be applied practically by Kennedy, when criminals are on the large and else is there make things right. Craig Kennedy stories are the predecessor of all C.S.I. style modern detective fiction that is so popular.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in 1912, this entertaining collection of 12 stories by Reeve (1880–1936) features Craig Kennedy, a New York City university chemistry professor, whose journalist friend and Watsonian narrator, Walter Jameson, recommends his services to the NYPD. In the baffling title tale, a stock broker drops dead in the middle of a business meeting from a gunshot despite no one present seeing a firearm or hearing a shot. "Spontaneous Combustion" is especially clever, offering a logical explanation as to how a man ended up dead in his home, burnt from the waist up, with the only copy of his will missing. Another highlight is "The Terror in the Air," centered on two fatalities during the test of a new flying machine, whose inventor hopes Kennedy can prove his device was sabotaged. Never mind that the characters and puzzles aren't on a par with R. Austin Freeman's Dr. Thorndyke stories from the same era. Those interested in early forensics will want to check this out.
