Publisher's Synopsis
"The Murders in Morgue Street" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been described as the first modern detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "reasoning tales."
C. Auguste Dupin is a man from Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses listened to a suspect, although no one agrees in what language it was spoken. At the crime scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.
As the first fictional detective, Poe's Dupin displays many traits that became literary conventions in later fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as the narrator, and the final revelation comes before the reasoning that leads to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter".
