The adventures of Dr. Thorndyke (The singing bone)

A collection of detective short stories centered on a medico-legal investigator who applies scientific reasoning and meticulous reconstruction to unravel puzzling crimes. Several narratives adopt an inverted format that gives the reader the facts of the offense while the detective must deduce their significance, directing attention to causal mechanisms and the stepwise evolution of evidence; other tales follow more conventional mystery structures. Cases move between domestic theft, calculated premeditation, maritime misadventure, and troubled personal relationships, each narrated with precise procedural detail, emphasis on logical inference, and close readings of small, otherwise overlooked clues.