The magic casket

A masterful collection of six detective stories featuring Dr. John Thorndyke, the original scientific sleuth. In The Magic Casket, R. Austin Freeman pairs his celebrated medico-legal hero with a series of ingenious puzzles — a vanished corpse, a poisoned heiress, a cryptogram hidden in an antique casket — each solved through patient observation, forensic chemistry, and the unshakeable logic of a trained medical mind. This edition presents the complete, unabridged original text of the 1927 collection, accompanied by a new introduction and reader's notes that illuminate Freeman's place in the history of detective fiction. Whether you are discovering Thorndyke for the first time or returning to a beloved classic, this volume offers the full richness of Freeman's craft: wit, suspense, and the quiet thrill of deduction. Part of The Founding Texts Library.