"The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter" introduce C. Auguste Dupin, the first fictional detective. Also included: "William Wilson," "MS. Found in a Bottle" and "The Oblong Box."

Who is the uninvited guest wearing a creepy costume at Prince Prospero's ball? Can a man be driven mad by the "sounds" of the crime he has committed? These spine-tingling stories and others by Edgar Allan Poe are adapted for a first chapter book reader.

The last chapter of the volume considers films - in particular, the Roger Corman Poe series, Chinatown, Seven, and Blade Runner - that connect the horror and detective genres."--BOOK JACKET.

A collection of horror stories includes depictions of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife, strange plots of revenge, and a traveler trapped on a ghost ship.

A new selection for the NEA’s Big Read program A compact selection of Poe’s greatest stories and poems, chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts for their Big Read program. This selection of eleven stories and seven poems contains such famously chilling masterpieces of the storyteller’s art as “The Tell-tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and such unforgettable poems as “The Raven,” “The Bells,” and “Annabel Lee.” Poe is widely credited with pioneering the detective story, represented here by “The Purloined Letter,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Also included is his essay “The Philosophy of Composition,” in which he lays out his theory of how good writers write, describing how he constructed “The Raven” as an example.

Stories blending science fiction and horror, including a classic that predicted the terror of climate change. It starts with common mildew—mold appearing where it has never grown before. A strange kind of mold, it spreads across the entire globe in a matter of months. Although it’s harmless, it’s an indication of something much more terrifying. Without our noticing, the Earth’s climate has changed. But as the world’s greatest scientists rush to save the planet, they realize it may already be too late. The balance of nature has been disturbed, and mankind is about to become an endangered species. “The Great Fog” is a chilling piece of hard science fiction that predicted global climate change decades before it became a reality. Like the other stories in this volume—including “Eclipse,” “The Crayfish,” and other classics—it shows author H. F. Heard at his best. A spiritualist, scientist, and early advocate of environmentalism, Heard was one of the leading thinkers of his day. A colleague of Aldous Huxley, author of the legendary Brave New World, he used his unique background to redefine the budding field of science fiction, producing elegant, odd short fiction that still “makes the flesh creep [and] the conscience crawl” (Time).

As every detective novel addict knows, there's no greater high than figuring out "whodunit" before the final revelation, resulting in the kind of intellectual satisfaction a shot of bourbon can never offer. Dove takes this reader/writer play to a new level by critically assessing the genre through the principles of Reader Response Theory, outlining the detective story as a special case of reading governed by rules and a specialized formula that traces its genealogy back to Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR