'I see wrong in everything,' said Mr Reeder, 'I have the mind of a criminal.' Working for the Public Prosecutor he finds plenty to stretch his extraordinary mind. Here are eight thrilling, highly original tales from one of the greatest talents ever applied to detective fiction.

Mr. J. G. Reeder, mild-mannered, slightly shabby, and a throw-back with his mutton-chops and silk hat, is often mistaken for an office clerk. But his superiors have recognized his special gift: Reeder has a criminal mind. As an employee of the Department of Public Prosecutions, he’s frequently called upon to exercise his unusual talent to solve crimes that have confounded the local police. In this collection of eight stories, Mr. Reeder solves robberies, burglaries, and murders, often at great risk to his personal health and well-being, and frequently employing his great insight into human nature and the criminal mind. Published under the title The Murder Book of Mr. J. G. Reeder in the United States, these stories were adapted for British television between 1969 and 1971 and also for BBC Radio in 2007. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Despite his insignificant appearance, Reeder is a cold and ruthless detective who credits his success to his 'criminal mind' which allows him to solve a series of complex and audacious crimes and outwit the most cunning of villainous masterminds.

This irascible genius, this diminutive egghead scientist, known to the world as “The Thinking Machine,” is no less than the newly rediscovered literary link between Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe: Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, who—with only the power of ratiocination—unravels problems of outrageous criminous activity in dazzlingly impossible settings. He can escape from the inescapable death-row “Cell 13.” He can fathom why the young woman chopped off her own finger. He can solve the anomaly of the phone that could not speak. These twenty-three Edwardian-era adventures prove (as The Thinking Machine reiterates) that “two and two make four, not sometimes, but all the time.”

Republished for the first time in nearly 95 years, a classic winter country house mystery by the founder of the Detection Club, with a twist that even Agatha Christie couldn’t solve!