Apparently the first detective story, Poe’s tale featuring C. Auguste Dupin published in the 1840s was obviously a big influence on Conan Doyle’s much more famous Sherlock Holmes stories. Once you get used to the flowery language this turns out to be an interesting locked room mystery. The solution is a bit ‘off the wall’ but I suppose that’s the point, since Poe is far more interested in Dupin’s method than in the plausibility of the crime, and the message seems to be that human reason can reveal even the most unlikely truth.