The Old Man in the Corner

by Emmuska Orczy Orczy

"The Old Man in the Corner" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy Orczy is a collection of detective short stories first published in The Royal Magazine in 1901. The stories feature an unnamed armchair detective who solves sensational crimes from his seat in a London tea-room, relating his deductions to a female journalist while tying knots in string. Unlike conventional detectives, he never brings criminals to justice, merely identifying them through logic and newspaper accounts. The final story hints that the Old Man himself may be a criminal.