Review: Thinking Machine Suffers Mechanical Failure
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2011
The Thinking Machine is--well--mechanical. Talk about formulaic writing! Professor Van Dusen (AKA The Thinking Machine) is an insufferable bore. The police are always too dumb to figure things out. Van Dusen recites to them (in EVERY SINGLE STORY) "two and two make four. Not sometimes but all the time." Ah, logic triumphs over all!If you are looking for character development, you won't find it here. The professor is unidimensional and not the least bit endearing. His dimwitted sidekick, Hatch, is always two or three steps behind. The book did have one redeeming quality--it a great help when I had a hard time falling asleep. A few pages and I would be out like a light!  And since the whole thing was summed up in the last couple of pages, you could just cut to the chase and save yourself a lot of time.If you want a good read, try Agatha Cristie (almost ANYTHING she's written), or if you like a hint of the egotistical devotee of logic, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a better choice--hands down!