Occupation: The Internet’s Greatest Detective in The Case of the Purloined Coffee Mug
Doyle’s the name. AI Doyle, if you prefer. Usually, I maintain the fiction that I am nothing but an app that lives on the phone of Dr. Mary Watson, who claims she programmed me. But this morning’s adventure was so dire a threat to the happiness of our little household that I am moved to speak for myself.
Watson is a dear girl and an invaluable assistant, but she is nothing without her morning coffee. She pretends to have a gruff streak, but it’s all show – at least after she is suitably dosed with caffeine. The problem is she will only imbibe that caffeine from her morning mug – which features a cartoon of the Master of Mystery and his raven, inviting the drinker to “Poe Me a Cup.” Any other mug and the rest of the day turns to chaos. So imagine my dismay when she laid me on the kitchen counter and I stared straight up… into a round, yellow smiley face. The Poe mug was gone, replaced by a mug reading “World’s Greatest Librarian”!
The situation was dire! If Watson drank from the wrong mug, not only would chaos ruin our day, but she was likely to be poisoned by leaked ink from the pens she stored in it. That mug hadn’t been washed since it was given to her. My only hope was to appeal to the Master of Mystery himself.
As I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, my gentle reader, Poe is the creator of the first great detective, Dupin, on whom I modestly aspire to model myself. Poe’s claim rests on three stories: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Purloined Letter.” Within them, I was certain I would find the answer to the problem that confronted me now.
The first story of the three was “Rue Morgue,” a thoroughly unsatisfying tale. The Ourang-Outang did it? Why not the butler? No sooner had I thought that, than a furry face loomed, a baleful yellow eye glared down at the screen, and a delicate paw reached out to bat me toward the edge of the counter as a gentle reminder that it was time for the cats’ breakfast. There are certain indignities inherent in existing entirely inside a cell phone, and this particular morning ritual was one of them.
As I lay on the edge of the counter, frantically trying to maintain my balance, my mind turned to “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” But only briefly. Face it, does anyone remember that story beyond the fact it featured Dupin?
“What happened to my mug?” Watson’s agonized cry rebounded from stovetop to microwave.
The horrid smiley face grinned down, mocking me. Distracted by looking for her mug, Watson ignored the cats, and the black one signaled its displeasure by stretching its paw once more in my direction. Oh, no! Another strike would be fatal. But as I teetered on the edge of the counter, salvation appeared in the form of the Master’s gloomy countenance, gazing at me from beneath a tangle of leaky pens. Enlightenment dawned as I tumbled to the floor. In the middle of the night, those perfidious cats had upset the mug full of pens in pursuit of an imaginary mouse. My dear Watson has been known to cut corners – such as using the flashlight app that is conveniently located on her phone screen. In the darkness, she must have replaced the pens in the wrong mug.
All indications pointed to Poe’s masterpiece, “The Purloined Letter.” A satisfying solution, to be sure, but what was I to do about it? With my last gasp before I tumbled to the floor, I sent out a text ping, and Watson automatically reached for a pen to jot it down – only to stop and stare at the mug that held them.
“Would you look at that,” she said. “There’s my Poe mug, hidden in plain sight.”
The Brooklyn North Murder, A Watson & Doyle Mystery Book #1
Genre: Traditional
Release: February 2023
Format: Print
Purchase Link
A hi-flying tech investor vanishes from the middle of a lake in full view of a score of witnesses. Mary Watson, a university librarian and computer genius, has the pictures to prove it. It’s an impossible crime with only a pair of red swim trunks for a clue, but Mary thinks she can solve this mystery with the help of her Artificial Intelligence program “Doyle” who suggests the solution can be found in what is arguably the worst detective story ever written—S.S. van Dine’s The Dragon Murder Case. ? ? With the university’s security chief and a local attorney dogging her heels, and with a mysterious operative appearing out of nowhere, Mary may be in over her head.?
About the author
Erica Obey is the author of The Brooklyn North Murder, the first full-length Watson & Doyle mystery, as well as five other novels set in the Hudson Valley, including the award-winning The Curse of the Braddock Brides. Erica is the Past President of the MWA-NY chapter, and a frequent reviewer and judge. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and published academic work on female folklorists before she decided she’d rather be writing the stories herself.
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