This classic detective tale shares a number of characteristics with the Sherlock Holmes series penned by Arthur Conan Doyle -- enough to ensure that Holmes fans will feel right at home -- but the duo of sleuth Dr. Thorndyke and his protege Christopher Jarvis are unique enough to earn readers' loyalty on their own merits.

Eight compelling tales by "the father of the scientific detective story" feature inverted mysteries, in which crime and culprit are revealed at the outset and Dr. Thorndyke formulates evidence from subtle clues.

It was nearly nine o'clock. The noisy little clock on the mantelpiece announced the fact, and, by its frantic ticking, seemed as anxious as I to get the consultation hours over. I glanced wistfully at my mud-splashed boots and wondered if I might yet venture to assume the slippers that peeped coyly from under the shabby sofa. I even allowed my thoughts to wander to the pipe that reposed in my coat pocket. Another minute and I could turn down the surgery gas and shut the outer door. The fussy little clock gave a sort of preliminary cough or hiccup, as if it should say: "Ahem! ladies and gentlemen, I am about to strike." And at that moment, the bottle-boy opened the door and, thrusting in his head, uttered the one word: "Gentleman."

Before Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan and Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, there was Dr. Thorndyke, the first ever fictional forensic scientist. The only evidence against young Reuben Hornby in a jewel theft is his thumb print smeared in blood. It is enough to convict him of the crime until physician Dr. John Thorndyke dares to ask and answer the question, Can a fingerprint be forged?"

As I look back through the years of my association with John Thorndyke, I am able to recall a wealth of adventures and strange experiences such as falls to the lot of very few men who pass their lives within hearing of Big Ben. Many of these experiences I have already placed on record; but it now occurs to me that I have hitherto left unrecorded one that is, perhaps, the most astonishing and incredible of the whole series; an adventure, too, that has for me the added interest that it inaugurated my permanent association with my learned and talented friend, and marked the close of a rather unhappy and unprosperous period of my life.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Mystery of 31 New Inn" by R. Austin Freeman. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

When a Doctor is called to the bedside of a mysterious sick man by the name of Graves, a strange and sinister plot involving poisoning is uncovered. But who is Graves and who is the villainous Weiss into whose care he has been assigned? Doctor Thorndyke is summoned to help solve the mystery of the thirty-first new inn.

In Tuscany visiting friends with his wife, Gideon Oliver is asked to reexamine the bones of a couple whose deaths were ruled a murder-suicide. His findings do not agree with those of the Italian police.