Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that was published in 1841. This story changed literary history as it is often cited as the first detective fiction ever. Poe's character Dupin became the prototype for quite a few future detective characters including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" would also establish many of the tropes that became commonplace in detective fiction of the time; the eccentric yet brilliant detective, the bumbling police officers, and the first person narrative of a close personal friend. If you have read any of Sherlock Holmes' or Poirot's exploits, then you are going to be familiar with how "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" plays out. The police investigate the brutal murder of Madame L'Espanaye who was nearly decapitated and her daughter who was shoved up a chimney. The cops eventually decide that a bank courier who delivered a large sum of money to them a few days prior is the murderer. As we all know from every detective novel ever, they're wrong. Dupin suspects as much and comes to inspect the scene the following day. Upon thorough inspection of the crime scene, Dupin concludes that the courier could not have murdered the mother and daughter in such a gruesome manner. Instead, he finds that an orangutang has killed these two women. He places an ad in the paper saying such an animal has been found. A local sailor responds to the ad and offers Dupin a reward, but Dupin is only interested in finding out what happened the night of the murderers. The sailor confirms Dupin's theory, and it was, in fact, an orangutang with a straight razor who killed the Madame and strangled her daughter.