Poe’s three classic tales of mystery and detectionWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MATTHEW PEARL

Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with these three mesmerising stories of a young French eccentric named C. Auguste Dupin- ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogat’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’. Years later Dorothy Sayers would describe these tales as ‘almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice’. Indeed, Poe’s short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes.Today the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners.This edition reproduces the definitive text of these stories and an introduction and appendix on ‘The Earliest Detectives’ by the novelist Matthew Pearl.