This is a wonderful book with an interesting assortment of short mystery and detective stories. As this book was published in 1928, all of the stories were written before that date, many of them centuries earlier. It included numerous works by famous authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rudyard Kipling, and many more, both famous and not so famous. Almost all of the stories were unknown to me, so it was a joy to read, and also to find so many good stories in one volume. This compilation also included several stories which were attributed to French or British prison records, criminal records, chronicles, and biographies. It was interesting to compare the various writing styles as well as the historical aspects of each story. It was well worth reading. ( )

I was especially pleased with being introduced to the following:
Jimmie Dale (by F. L. Packard).
Professor S. F. X. Van Dusen: The Thinking Machine (by Jacques Futrelle), with detective Mallory.
James Tierney, Inc. (by John A. Moroso), with Frothingham Phillips, Mickey Reilley, William Winthrop (Boston Willie) and Miss Nellie Regan (stenographer).
But, Ouida writes very long sentences.
And there was too much unknown and untranslated French. ( )