Nowadays, the inverted detective story, where we first witness the crime and then watch the attempt to solve it, is commonplace. After all, this is the format of every episode of the television detective series "Columbo" starring Peter Falk. However, this approach was an innovation in November 1910 when Freeman's "Oscar Brodski" appeared in "Pearson's Magazine". and immediately attracted attention. The "Northern Whig" said that "Oscar Brodski" was "one of the most powerful detective stories we have ever read." Bleiler said that this story "has always been considered one of the landmarks in the history of the detective story."