The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Often called the first modern detective story, this short tale is set in Paris. A shocking crime in a locked upper room baffles the police and the newspapers. An unnamed narrator, who shares lodgings with the brilliant and eccentric C. Auguste Dupin, watches as his friend takes up the case out of curiosity. Dupin relies on close observation and patient reasoning rather than official methods. The story set a pattern that later detective fiction followed, with a clever investigator and an admiring companion who tells the tale.