Jacques Futrelle

For the world’s most brilliant criminologist, every mystery has a solution His name is Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, but to the newspapers he is known as “The Thinking Machine.” Slender, stooped, his appearance dominated by his large forehead and perpetual squint, Van Dusen spends his days in the laboratory …

"The Problem of Cell 13" is a short story by Jacques Futrelle first published in 1905 and later collected in The Thinking Machine, which was featured in crime writer H. R. F. Keating's list of the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. The story was selected by science fiction author Harlan Ellison for …