10 h 12 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the clue to an impossible crime waits in a test tube rather than a witness’s story?
In Arthur B. Reeve’s The Silent Bullet, Craig Kennedy brings the laboratory to the detective story. A chemistry professor at Columbia University in New York, he tackles poisonings, puzzling deaths, and schemes that seem to leave no clue. When the police are stuck, Kennedy turns to instruments and experiments to test what questions alone cannot settle.
Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter and Kennedy’s close friend, follows the investigations and tells each case. These twelve short tales explore a world alive with new inventions and the promise of science. Chemistry, physics, and the study of the body take the place of guesswork, making the search for evidence the heart of each puzzle.
What you’ll discover
- A professor at work Meet Craig Kennedy, whose best thinking happens in the laboratory rather than at a police station.
- A reporter beside him Follow Walter Jameson as he watches his friend investigate and tells what he sees.
- Science against guesswork Watch chemistry, physics, and instruments turn uncertain claims into questions Kennedy can put to the test.
- Crimes that resist explanation Encounter poisonings and strange deaths that leave the police stuck and demand a different approach.
- Twelve compact puzzles Explore short, clearly patterned cases built around the search for clues and the promise of scientific method.
Who will love it
For readers who love puzzle stories, early detective fiction, or the history of science in popular writing, with crimes solved through chemistry, laboratory tests and ingenuity.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Professor Who Solves Crimes in a Laboratory
- Walter Jameson Tells the Cases
- Science Takes the Place of Guesswork
- How the Stories Are Built and What They Show
Who’s who
- Craig KennedyA Columbia University chemistry professor who uses laboratory methods and instruments to solve crimes that the police cannot.
- Walter JamesonA newspaper reporter and Kennedy's friend, who follows the cases closely and tells each story as he saw it.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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La bala silenciosa
by Arthur B. Reeve· 1912
Craig Kennedy turns puzzling deaths into experiments, using chemistry to uncover crimes that seem to leave no clue.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A Professor Who Solves Crimes in a Laboratory
Craig Kennedy is not a police officer and not a private eye in the usual sense. He is a professor who teaches at Columbia University in New York, and his laboratory is where he does his best thinking. When a crime baffles the authorities, they come to him, or Jameson brings him the case.
Kennedy believes that people can lie but physical facts cannot. A stain, a powder, a pulse rate or a trace of poison will say what a witness hides. So he does not begin by guessing at motives. He begins by asking what can be measured, tested or seen under proper conditions.
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What is The Silent Bullet about?
It is a collection of detective stories in which Professor Craig Kennedy uses chemistry and laboratory methods to solve crimes. His friend Walter Jameson, a reporter, tells each case.
Who is Craig Kennedy?
Craig Kennedy is Arthur B. Reeve's detective, a professor at Columbia University. He treats crimes as scientific problems and often uses instruments and tests where other detectives rely on clues and hunches.
Who is Walter Jameson in the Craig Kennedy stories?
Walter Jameson is a newspaper reporter and Kennedy's friend. He tells the stories, asks the questions readers would ask, and plays a role similar to Watson in the Sherlock Holmes tales.
The author
Arthur B. Reeve
1880–1936 · American mystery writer
Arthur Benjamin Reeve (1880–1936) was an American journalist and writer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Trenton, New Jersey. He wrote detective stories featuring Craig Kennedy, beginning in 1910. His books include The Silent Bullet (1912) and The Dream Doctor (1914).
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