I'll just come right out and say it: these are weird. You might be thinking, "Duh, it's Poe." But believe me when I say, these stories aren't Poe-weird. They're just weird. 
 Heralded as the first murder mysteries, The Murders in the Rue Morgue are disjointed, written like a dictionary, and unexciting. The killer almost never shows up in the story, and half the time, the killer isn't even one of the introduced suspects. It's odd and definitely not like the mystery stories we're used to today. But that's just it. Poe was trying something new and you have to give him credit for that in and of itself. 
 Overall, if you want to read these simply because they're the first mysteries, go right ahead! It's interesting to see how far the genre has come. But don't read these expecting genius.