Foreword by Lewis E. Lawes vii
Author’s Preface ix
It Stands to Reason! _A New National Game_ xix
1. A Crack Shot 1
2. On the Scent 3
3. Fatal Error 5
4. The Poison Murder Case 7
5. A Strange ‘Kidnaping’ 9
6. A Valuable Formula 11
7. Strangled 13
8. Death in the Office 15
9. They Usually Forget Something 17
10. The Professor Gives a Lesson 19
11. Upstairs and Down 21
12. Class Day 23
13. A Hot Pursuit 25
14. A Question of Identity 27
15. A Yachtsman’s Alibi 29
16. Murder at Coney Island 31
17. Too Clever 33
18. Bloody Murder 35
19. Death Back-Stage 37
20. An Easy Combination 39
21. A Modern Knight 41
22. The Jewel Robbery 43
23. Before the Coroner’s Inquest 45
24. The Fifth Avenue Hold-Up 47
25. Behind Locked Doors 49
26. Lost at Sea 51
27. A Suave Gunman 53
28. Accidental Death 55
29. Easy Money 57
30. Robbery at High Noon 59
31. The Wrong Foot Forward 61
32. Death Attends the Party 63
33. No Way Out 65
34. Midnight Murder 67
35. Speakeasy Stick-Up 69
36. Behind Time 71
37. A Broken Engagement 73
38. The Holden Road Murder 75
39. Fisherman’s Luck 77
40. The Unlucky Elephant 79
41. The Professor Listens 81
42. Ten-Fifteen 83
43. Rapid Transit 85
44. The Professor is Disappointed 87
45. A Dramatic Triumph 89
46. Murder at the Lake 91
47. The Professor Studies a Coat 93
48. Too Late 95
49. Sergeant Reynolds’s Theory 97
50. Daylight Robbery 99
51. A Simple Solution 101
52. Who? 103
53. Murder in the Swamp 105
54. Death by Drowning 107
55. Tragedy at the Convention 109
56. A Murderer’s Mistake 111
57. Babe Comes Through 113
58. A Soldier of Fortune 115
59. Number Twenty-Six 117
60. The Pullman Car Murder 121
61. Forgery 123
62. The Christmas Eve Tragedy 125
63. A Knight of the Bath 127
64. Murder in the First Degree 129
65. A Rendezvous with Death 131
66. A Rum Regatta 133
67. Who is the Heir? 135
68. The Professor Stops a Blunder 137
69. The Perfect Crime 139
70. The Professor Sees Through It 141
71. The Kidnapers’ Cleverness 143
Solutions 145
IT STANDS TO REASON!
A NEW NATIONAL GAME
Here is a fascinating game of wits for a party of any size. It can be
played in either of two ways.
1. Select one or more stories from the _Minute Mysteries_ that
particularly appeal to you. Make as many copies of each as there are
guests at the party. Then pass the copies around and allow three
minutes, say, for your guests to study them. At the end of this time
each must hand you a written solution, giving the line of reasoning
which was used. You compare these with the solutions at the back of the
book; the one who is most often correct is the winner.
2. Instead of making copies of each story, you may read it aloud, slowly
and carefully. If any of the listeners so desire, it may be read a
second time. But after this no questions may be asked.
After the period agreed upon has elapsed, each guest writes out his
solution as in (1), and hands it to you for comparison with the book.
Method number 1 puts the emphasis on one’s powers of reasoning and
analysis; method number 2 adds to these a premium on an accurate memory.