(LARGE PRINT EDITION) 1929. Part 1 of 2. A classic collection from the realist school of scientific detective fiction. In his Preface the Freeman describes his criteria for successful detective fiction which include: The one essential, sine qua non, is a problem, the solution of which shall afford the ingenious reader an agreeable exercise in intellectual gymnastics. But in order to attain this result the Detective Story must conform to three indispensable condition: 1. The problem must be susceptible of, at least approximate, solution by the reader; 2. The solution offered by the author through the official investigator must be absolutely conclusive and convincing; 3. No material fact must be withheld from the reader. All the cards must be honestly laid on the table before the solution is announced. The stories in this collection are divided into two groups, Inverted and Direct. Freeman's Inverted stories are the result of the his experimentation with the usual conditions as set out above. In these stories he has reversed the rules and from the beginning taken the reader entirely into the author's confidence. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Other volumes in this set are ISBN(s): 1417911077.