The Poisoned Pen

Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective #2

by Arthur B. Reeve

A dozen astonishing mysteries from the case files of scientific detective Craig Kennedy

Whenever the New York City police department encounters a mystery so strange it seems impossible to solve, they head to Columbia University in search of Professor Craig Kennedy. When he’s not lecturing students on the science of chemistry, Kennedy uses his superlative intellect and his facility with the latest technological advancements to capture the city’s most diabolical villains. In “The Confidence King,” he matches wits with a thief whose counterfeiting skills extend from paper currency to fingerprints. In “The Firebug,” Kennedy stops an arson epidemic by means of sophisticated handwriting analysis. And in the title story, the surprise antidote to a case of cyanide poisoning turns out to be as dangerous as it is effective.
 
First appearing in the pages of Cosmpolitan magazine, scientific detective Craig Kennedy was so popular during the early twentieth century that he became known as the “American Sherlock Holmes.”
 
This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Genres: Mystery, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, New York, Amazon

149 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Arthur Benjamin Reeve (October 15, 1880 - August 9, 1936) was an American mystery writer. He is best known for creating the series character Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called "The American Sherlock Holmes", and Kennedy's Dr. Watson-like sidekick Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter, in 18 detective novels. The bulk of Reeve's fame is based on the 82 Craig Kennedy stories, published in Cosmopolitan magazine between 1910 and 1918. These were collected in book form; with the third collection, the short stories were stitched together into pseudo-novels. The 12-volume Craig Kennedy Stories were released in 1918; it reissued Reeve's books-to-date as a matched set.

Reviews

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I don’t understand very very low reviews, perhaps not enough sex, bad language and violence.

[The Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

The American Sherlock Holmes.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this, it was light and fun. It tried to be Sherlock Holmes and while it fell a little short of that I still liked it.

Sometimes the science explanations get a little long-winded, I must have tuned out a whole paragraph of The Campaign Grafter because Reeve just went on about processes and causes of things, as well as in other stories. It doesn't help that nobody has ever heard of things such as telelectrographs anymore.

Cute stories overall!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Poison Pen is a book of short stories - along the line of Author R. Austen Freeman but not quite as good. If you'd liked like to try either author they can be found in all the free book places, so no need to part with money at Amazon and the like.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Craig Kennedy investigates while Walter Jameson, reporter, assists

1.The Poisoned Pen - Craig Kennedy is employed by Senator Adrian Willard to prove the innocence of Dr Dixon in the death of actress Vera Lytton.
2.The Yeggman - the president of Standard Burglary Insurance Company requests the help of Professor Kennedy in the case of the stolen Branford pearls and the death of a maid.
3. The Germ of Death - Dr Kharkoff visits Kennedy because several freinds have strange sysmphoms -not that interesting
4.The Firebug - Fire Marshall McCormick believes that a series of incendiary firesin the business district aredue to a firebug and wants Kennedy to discover the person who has alsokilled six people in these fires.
5. The Confidence King - A counterfeit of notes is in cicrulation but when the guilty party is discovered the fingerprints do not match.
6. The Sand-Hog - What is behind the accidents at the tunnel construction site overseen by Jack Orton, and what could be the motive.
7.The White Slave - Georgette Gilbert has gone missing and her parents request Kennedy investigate.
8.The Forger - Stevenson Williams of Continental Surety, a broker of forgery insurance, request the help of Kennedy in a vast forgery fraud.
9.The Unofficial Spy - The house detective at the Hotel Vanderveer asksKennedy to look at the body discovered in one of the rooms. She was registered as Madame de Nevers
10.The Smuggler - Jack Herndon, Customs House of New York, involves Kennedy in the investigation of the smuggled gowns and jewellery from Paris
11.The Invisible Ray - Dr Burnham, ex-attending doctor to millionaire Stephen Haswell is suspiciousof hid illness and asks Kennedy to investigate.
12.The Campaign Grafter - Wesley Travis of the Reform party has had some photographs stolen from his home and is now being blackmailed. Can Kennedy prove them fake before the election takes place.
Overall some entertaining short stories,but not of enough interest to want to read again.

[Reading Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories from the American version, so they say, of Sherlock Holmes.

To be honest, I don't care for the original Doyle stories--they're very much gimmick and very little character. Modern iterations of the characters are much more engaging.

However, even compared to the rather dry original Holmes stories, this is...not engaging. While Holmes is a master of logic and a general walking wikipedia, his hero genius is a professor of chemistry, with chemistry at the core of every puzzle. It's a fun concept, but the characters are, very flat, and in most cases, the New York of the stories seem...really thinly drawn. Maybe I'm spoiled by so much historical fiction that feels the need to drench the reader in timely details.

Still, as a curiosity, worth reading. I kind of hope some modern author take up these characters and the chemical conceit, and make it a lot more fun.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a fan of early detective stories, so this short story collection was immediately downloaded from FadedPage. It is interesting, mainly because of the "scientific detective" who is Reeve's hero. He is the ultimate "jack of all trades", utilizing new camera techniques, audio recording, the forerunner of the fax machine.... and a lot of gadgets that probably wouldn't have worked, in actuality. The writing style is pedestrian and the characters are stereotypical, so anyone looking for great literature, keep moving.

[Mary Standard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting array of mystery stories:

As each story had its own mystery there was always something new to ponder. This book was quite interesting with all of the older scientific methods he used in each tale.

[SapphireFox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the stories well enough - though one should perhaps not take them too seriously and they can become quite caught up in technical terms.
What I really enjoyed was Elliott Miller's reading of them in this LibriVox recording!

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first short story book I have listened to. There were 9 or 10 stories. Though I did enjoy 3 a lot, the other 6/7 I found hard to follow or if I could follow them the ending was dull and seemed rushed.

[Tweety · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little murder mystery! poison and all. I didn't guess the end, but then I didn't have the details. We find out at the big reveal.

[Barbara Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting plot.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice format each chapter a different short story.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for fans of the Golden Age but this is really not fair-play and the resolutions are more like Poe than Christie. Too much science for me.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrator, Elliot Miller, used differing timbres & accents making it more like an old radio show & helped distinguish cast members. Well done! Each chapter is a different story. Recommended for classic mystery readers.

Available free (text) at Gutenberg.org
and free (audio) at Librivox.org

[Laura Carlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor man's Sherlock Holmes. Every story ended with a physics or chemistry lesson, and a "I'm sure you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today" scene. Tedious.

[Tasha]

Some of the mysteries were pretty silly, but overall enjoyable.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Period piece

This book of short stories is a great example of early 20th century Americana. The plots and characters are great.

[Tonya Mathis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. Not too bad for a mystery. I think a science geek or a tech nerd would enjoy this book though.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style was a bit stodgy but the cases covered a range of interesting problems.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels for over 25 years. So I was intrigued when I read the blurb on this book which said that kraig Kennedy was known as America's answer to Sherlock Holmes during the early part of the 20th century. The author wrote several books and several collections of short stories. This book is a collection of some of the short stories. The stories feature Kraig and his friend Walter, a newspaper reporter who Plays a supporting role similar to doctor Watson. Kraig Kennedy is a chemist and inventor. He solves mysteries with logic, observation, and science. I enjoyed this book, and I plan to read more from this author.