"It Is Not So Much the Crime Itself That Attracts As the Unraveling of the Mystery by the Super-brain of the Great Detective, As Silent As He Is Efficient"

FOR FAITHFUL READERS of this weblog (and, to be serious for a moment, we really do appreciate you), Canadian polymath and humorist Stephen Leacock needs no introduction. Our experience is that somewhere (or several somewheres) in one of his pieces the reader won't be able to resist laughing out loud, something that can't always be said of every writer wearing the label of "humorist." Today Leacock returns to one of his favorite themes . . .

"The Great Detective."
By Stephen Leacock (1869-1944).
Chapter (10 pages as a PDF) in Short Circuits (1928).
Online at Faded Page (HERE; go down to page 203).

     "The tempting point about a detective story—both for the writer and the reader—is that it is so beautifully easy to begin. All that is needed is to start off with a first-class murder."

Since the essence of humor is in how it's told, we won't interfere with the author any 
further. Enjoy.

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   Bonus story:

"The Mariposa Bank Mystery."
By Stephen Leacock (1869-1944).
Chapter IX of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912).
Online at Faded Page (HERE; go down to page 187).

     "But apart from the general merits of the question, I suppose there are few people, outside of lovers, who know what it is to commit suicide four times in five weeks. Yet this was what happened to Mr. Pupkin, of the Exchange Bank of Mariposa."

. . . and what, you're probably wondering, do Mr. Pupkin's multiple suicides have to do with a bank job? Read on, Macduff . . .

Resources:
- Previous ONTOS encounters with Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock can be found (HERE) and (HERE).

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