The Big Bow Mystery and The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The cover title for this book is The Perfect Crime, the name of a film based on The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill (1892). The Perfect Crime was released as a semi-silent film in 1928 and remade in 1934 as The Crime Doctor and in 1946 as The Verdict. There are two stories in this book as it also includes The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe(1841).

The Big Bow Mystery was originally written as a serial and published in the Star newspaper over two weeks in 1891. In the preface of the 1895 edition of the book the author wrote that many readers contributed ideas as to the possible solution of the case as the serial progressed. The Big Bow Mystery is considered to be the first 'locked door' crime novel published.

The crime occurs in a boarding house in Glover Street, Bow, where a lodger, Arthur Constant, is found murdered in his bed in his room. The door is bolted and locked. The landlady, Mrs Drabdump, and  retired inspector George Grodman, discover the body after Grodman breaks down the door. Inspector Edward Wimp arrives to solve the crime and arrests another tennant of the boarding house. Grodman and his supporters are convinced that Wimp has arrested the wrong man.

Much of the novel sets the scene with descriptions of the working class movement in London at the time with references to current events. The newspaper report of the murder and the detailed account of the trial take up much of the story. 

The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short story that is the first 'locked door' crime mystery published. It is one of the crime stories featured in the Future Learn course Classic Detective Fiction prepared by the University of Newcastle (NSW).

When the bodies of a mother and daughter are discovered murdered in a locked room Monsieur C Auguste Dupin and an unnamed narrator set out to discover the perputrator of the crime and how it could possibly have been carried out. Dupin's investigation, based on observation of the facts, significant or irrelevant to produce a logical solution, amazes his narrator friend.  The police are baffled by the crime and arrest the wrong suspect until the unexpected solution is revealed.

As well as writing the first 'locked door' crime mystery,  Poe created the first crime investigator to appear in more than one story. Dupin also appears in The Mystery of Marie Roget (1842) and The Purloined Letter (1844). The three stories by Poe featuring Dupin are available online as part of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe volume 1 (Project Gutenberg). The Works of Edgar Allan Poe should be available in most public libraries and is also available as an ebook.