Author(s): Edgar Allan Poe

Crime Fiction

With "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter" Edgar Allan Poe single-handedly invented the genre of detective fiction, featuring Parisian detective C. Auguste Dupin.In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", all of Paris is in shock following the ghastly murder of two women - but with all witnesses claiming to have heard the suspect speak a different language, the police are stumped. When Dupin finds a suspicious hair at the crime scene, and places an advert in the newspaper asking if anyone has lost an 'Ourang-Outang', things take an unexpected turn...In "The Mystery of Marie Roget", Dupin and his sidekick undertake to solve the murder of the beautiful young grisette who works in a perfume shop, whose body is found floating in the Seine...And "The Purloined Letter", the final in the series, finds Dupin engaged on a matter of national importance: a private (and highly compromising) letter has been pilfered from the Queen's private drawing room. The police know who the unscrupulous culprit is, but they can not find the letter, and therefore are unable to pin the crime on him.