Mysteries

--Terence Winch

All last night I kept speaking in this

archaic language, because I had been reading

Poe and thinking about him. I read 'The Murders

in the Rue Morgue' which is supposedly the first

detective story. Who dun it? I wondered.

It turns out an orangutan was the murderer.

Its looks to me like the detective story genre got off

to a pretty ridiculous start. I used to visit

Poe's house in the Bronx. I used to think,

God, Poe must have been a midget. Everything

was so small. Poe died in Baltimore and I can see why.

In Baltimore, all the people are very big and sincere.

During dinner last night, I told Doug and Susan

about 'Murders in the Rue Morgue.' I said I hadn't

finished it yet, but it looked like the murderer

was going to turn out to be an orangutan, unless

the plot took a surprising new twist. Then Doug

suggested that he and I collaborate

on a series of detective stories in which

the murderer is always an orangutan.