The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries

by Otto Penzler (Editor)

Stories contained within:
The Murders in the Rue Morgue / Edgar Allan Poe
The Problem of Cell 13 / Jacques Futrelle
A Terribly strange bed / Wilkie Collins
The Two bottles of relish / Lord Dunsany
The Invisible man / G. K. Chesterton
The Doomdorf mystery / Melville Davisson Post
The Adventure of the Speckled Band / Arthur Conan Doyle
The Wrong problem / John Dickson Carr
The Thing invisible / William Hope Hodgson
Department of impossible crimes / James Yaffe
The Aluminium dagger / R. Austin Freeman
The Crewel needle / Gerald Kersh
The Doctor's case / Stephen King
A Knife between brothers / Manly Wade Wellman
The Glass gravestone / Joseph Commings
The Tea leaf / Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace
The Flung-back lid / Peter Godfrey
The Crooked picture / John Lutz
Blind man's hood / Carter Dickson
The Man from nowhere / Edward D. Hoch
The Laughing butcher / Fredric Brown
The Sands of thyme / Michael Innes
The Flying death / Samuel Hopkins Adams
The Flying corpse / A. E. Martin
The Flying hat / Vincent Cornier
The Day the children vanished / Hugh Pentecost
The Twelfth statue / Stanley Ellin
All at once, no Alice / William Irish
Beware of the trains / Edmund Crispin
The Locked bathroom / H. R. F. Keating
Mike, Alec, and Rufus / Dashiell Hammett
The Episode of the Torment IV / C. Daly King
Greaves' disappearance / Julian Hawthorne
The House of haunts / Ellery Queen
The Monkey trick / J. E. Gurdon
The Ordinary hairpins / E. C. Bentley
The Phantom motor / Jacques Futrelle
The Theft of the Bermuda penny / Edward D. Hoch
Room number 23 / Judson Philips
The Burglar who smelled smoke / Lynne Wood Block & Lawrence Block
The Kestar diamond case / Augustus Muir
The Odour of sanctity / Kate Ellis
The Problem of the old oak tree / Edward D. Hoch
The Invisible weapon / Nicholas Olde
The Confession of Rosa Vitelli / Ray Cummings
The Locked room to end locked rooms / Stephen Barr
Nothing is impossible / Clayton Rawson
Where have you gone, Sam Spade? / Bill Pronzini
In a telephone cabinet / G. D. H. Cole & M. I. Cole
Death out of thin air / Stuart Towne
The Dream / Agatha Christie
The Border-line case / Margery Allingham
The Bradmoor murder / Melville Davisson Post
The Man who like toys / Leslie Charteris
The Ashcomb poor case / Hulbert Footner
The Little house at Croix-Rousse / Georges Simenon
The Bird in the hand / Erle Stanley Gardner
The Gulverbury diamonds / David Durham
The Fifth tube / Frederick Irving Anderson
The Strange case of Steinkelwintz / MacKinlay Kantor
Arsène Lupin in prison / Maurice Leblanc
The Mystery of the strong room / L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace
No way out / Dennis Lynds
The Episode of the codex' curse / C. Daly King
The Poisoned dow '08 / Dorothy L. Sayers
A Traveller's tale / Margaret Frazer
Death at the Excelsior / P. G. Wodehouse
Waiting for Godstow / Martin Edwards

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

956 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 9, 2014

About the author

Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.

Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.

Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.

Reviews

[Gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection of locked-room "impossible crime" short stories. I thought I was well read in the genre, but I hadn't read most of these stories. I really enjoyed most of them, and Otto Penzler's introductions to each story were fascinating.

My favorite stories included Martin Edwards' "Waiting for Godstow" (a clever story I'd read before), "Arsene Lupin in Prison" by Maurice Leblanc (charming and humorous), "The Episode of the Codex Curse" (using the common-yet-successful device of a seemingly supernatural occurrence explained), "The Ashcomb Poor Case" by Hulbert Footner (for the heroine Madame Storey), "The Phantom Motor" by Jacques Futrelle (the author is always quite clever, and I didn't previously know he'd died on the Titanic), and "Death Out Of Thin Air" by Stuart Towne (an alias for Clayton Rawson, one of my favorite writers).

At over 900 pages, it took me a while to read all the stories, but it was well worth the effort. I'm off to look up many of the authors I wasn't previously familiar with, to read their other work.

[Miglė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pabaigiau šią gigantišką “Užrakinto kambario” detektyvinių apsakymų knygą. Sudarytojas atliko milžinišką darbą, ne tik atrinkęs 68 apsakymus (jei gerai suskaičiavau), bet ir parašęs kiekvienam po trumpą įvadą apie autorių ir kontekstą. Kaip ir reikėjo tikėtis, dauguma apsakymų yra iš detektyvų “aukso amžiaus” laikų, taigi atitinkama atmosfera, kalba ir pan. Tiesa, buvo ir hard-boiled apsakymų, ir Stepheno Kingo parašyta Šerloko Holmso fan fiction, ir keistas vesternas apie tris religingus kaubojus, kurie atranda nekenčiamą alkoholio prekeivį negyvą savo kambaryje, ir “psychic detective”, kuris sprendžia tiek tikrus, tiek tariamus paranormalius įvykius ir kiekvienąkart taip įsigąsdina, kad pats vos nemiršta.

Sudarytojas taip rašo apie šio autoriaus (William Hope Hodgson) kūrinių struktūrą, t.y. kaip “psychic detective” perpasakoja savo nuotykius:

After a case is concluded and he is ready to talk about it, he sends a note to three friends who come to his house to listen. He settles into his easy chair, lights a pipe, and recounts the adventure without preamble. When the story is finished, he genially says “out you go” and the evening is concluded.

Na, argi ne puiki idėja susibūrimų pabaigai?

Dar kelios mintys:

Pėdsakai sniege, smėlyje ir pan. turi savo atskirą kategoriją. Yra tikrai puikių sprendimų, kaip apeiti (cha) šią kliūtį, yra ir nuviliančių (lėktuvas).

Cirko artistai! Kai pagalvoji, o ką anuometiniams rašytojams daryti, kai reikia atlikti neįmanomą žmogžudystę? Reikia žmonių, kurių gebėjimai neeiliniai. Mane vis tiek išmušdavo iš vėžių, kai perskaitydavau “Tuo metu kaip tik ten gastroliavo cirkas..”, gal kad tas cirkas kitoks šiais laikais. Nors neslėpsiu, visai smagu įsivaizduoti, kaip “Cirque de Soleil” artistai sustoję priamide rangosi pro lango plyšį užmušti kokio turčiaus ir pavogti deimanto.

Pavogti deimantai, “kompromituojančios nuotraukos”, pianinai – žavūs savo konkretumu tie laikai be interneto.

Techniniai sprendimai – yra labai fainų, bet nemažai ir tokių, kur, nežinant, kaip veikė tuometinis, tarkim, telefono aparatas, sunku suprasti.

Vis dėlto geriausi sprendimai – paprasti, kur veikia apgavystė ar klaida, kur žaidžiama išankstinėmis nuomonėmis ar minties automatizmais. Pavyzdžiui, pamatė žmogų einant į viešbučio kambarį ir padarė prielaidą, kad nuėjo į SAVO kambarį. Kodėl? Nes nepasibeldė. Nu puiku, džiaugiasi skaitytojos širdis.

Nors kitas autorius, Lord Dunsany, savo apsakyme (beje, puikiame) “The two bottles of relish”, įspėja:

Murder tales seem nice things sometimes for a lady to sit and read all by herself by the fire. But murder isn’t a nice thing, and when a murderer’s desperate and trying to hide his tracks he isn’t even as nice as he was before. I’ll ask you to bear it in mind. Well, I’ve warned you.

Vėliau sako:

That’s really the crab of the story, if you’ll excuse the expression.

Tikrai atleisiu šį išsireiškimą, nes jo visai nesuprantu.

Apskritai yra labai gražių / juokingų pasakymų, štai Šerlokas Holmsas sako:

You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to this floor.

Kitas, iš Judson Philips “Room Number 23”

Belamy rose from his couch and pulled the plug out of the coffee percolater.
‘Me for some breakfast,’ he said.

Detektyvų rašytojai, regisi, taip gerai išmano žmonių psichologiją, techniką, netgi chemiją! Ir tiesiog ŠOKIRUOJANČIAI PRASTAI išmano gyvūnus. Conan Doyle’iui dar galiu atleisti už “The Speckled Band”, visgi klasika, bet buvo keli baisiai supykdę apsakymai, kur įtampa išlaikoma puikiai, nuostabiai surašyta, grynai negali atspėti išrišimo, o išrišimas yra… voras. Negana to, voras medžiotojas iš “tolimos šalies”, kuris mezga tinklus (ko vorai medžiotojai paprastai nedaro), yra toks didelis ir baisus, kad žmones priveda prie kone savižudiškos panikos ir… plaukdamas vejasi MOTORINĘ VALTĮ. Come on! Arba – gyvatės nuodais ištepti katei nagus, kuri su tais nuodais atseit praleis visą dieną, o vakare įdrėks žmogui ir jis iškart mirs. Kurgi. Tai šitas gal buvo labiausiai nuviliantis dalykas.
Nors ne, labiausiai nuviliantis dalykas buvo apsakymas su baisiomis antisemitinėmis klišėmis (Vincent Cornier “The Flying Hat”). Greičiausiai jį įtraukė dėl žmogžudystės sprendimo, bet būčiau nieko prieš, jei jį būtų išcenzūravę ar bent jau perspėję.

Na, bet kad nebaigčiau šitos recenzijos antisemitizmu, dar keli kalbos pavyzdžiai.

Labai fancy:

The sacred rite of the “tub” had been duly performed, and the freshly-dried person of the present narrator was about to be insinuated into the first instalment of clothing, when a hurried step was heard upon the stair, and the voice of our laboratory assistant, Polton, arose at my colleague’s door.

(R. Austin Freeman “The Aluminium Dagger”)

Every window concealed a nest of aristocratic pirates plotting and scheming for more gold. In the street the hoi polloi were running errands for them, enviously cognizant of the shiny silk hats and limousines of their employers.

(Frederick Irving Anderson “The Fifth Tube”)

Banter banter:

“There will be no fire here, and no flood, either. A book in my library will be, ah, what is the expression? Snug as a slug in a rug.”
“A bug,” I said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“A bug in a rug,” I said. “I think that’s the expression.”
His response was a shrug, the sort you’d get, I suppose, from a slug in a rug.

(Lynne Wood Block and Lawrence Block “The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke”)

Now don’t go talkin’ that way,” he soothed. “People can’t help it when they get that kleptomania, any more than they can help sleep-walkin’ or coke-snuffin.

(Erle Stanley Gardner “The Bird in the Hand”)

He had goggling, bloodshot eyes, mangy mustaches, and a broken nose. His voice betrayed a barrack-room intonation of the worst order, and he had the dirtiest pair of hands I ever saw – even in France.

(Wilkie Collins “A Terribly Strange Bed”)

[Ramazan Atlen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Polisiye edebiyatın belki de en özel alt türlerinden biri olan kilitli oda polisiyelerinde cinayet içeriye girilmesi mümkün görünmeyen kilitli bir mekân içerisinde işlenir ve asıl gizem, katilin kim olduğundan çok cinayetin nasıl işlendiğiyle ilgilidir. Edgar Allan Poe’nun 1841’de Graham’s Magazine’de yayınlanan Morg Sokağı Cinayeti polisiye edebiyatı başlatan öykü olduğu gibi kilitli oda muammalarının da ilkidir. Sonrasında Altın Çağ başta olmak üzere pek çok polisiye yazarı, bu temayı daha da geliştirerek kendi eserlerinde kullanmışlardır.

Ülkemiz polisiyesinin önde gelen isimlerinden Algan Sezgintüredi’nin temiz çevirisiyle keyifli bir okuma vaat eden Kilitli Oda Muammaları, klasik polisiye düşkünleri başta olmak üzere bütün polisiyeseverlerin kitaplığında mutlaka bulunması gereken özel bir seçki.

İncelemenin tamamı için:
https://dedektifdergi.com/kilitli-oda...

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Otto Penzler, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop, created a wonderful anthology featuring locked-room mysteries from the advent of the genre to the present. Penzler introduces each story with comments about the author's work in the genre and mentions prominent writings. While the mystery selected may not be the one usually chosen for mystery anthologies, the selection always fits the "locked-room" subgenre. As with most anthologies, some stories provide more enjoyment than others. It is difficult to write mysteries in short-story form because of the lack of time for character development, red herrings, and other genre characteristics. A few entries seem to be great examples of how it can be done, but readers can find a fault or two in most included stories. In the grand scheme of anthologies featuring mystery short stories, this one outshines most. (3.5 stars)

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This "Mother of all Locked Room anthologies" has become unbearable. Like the magical water of India, it's going on, and on, and on. I have read crisp stories herein. Stories that had once appeared smart but now look only contrived, have also been read here. I have read humorous stories and pretentious & portentous stories devoid of even a sliver of humour. And finally, even without fully exhausting this book, I have become so exhausted that I can't take it any more.
If you want to appreciate the rise and fall of such a sub-genre within Crime Fiction, read it.
If you want entertainment, there are better options.

[Arnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...

[Aylin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kilitli Oda Muammaları; çözülmesi imkansız görünen cinayetler, analitik düşünme yeteneği ile hapishaneden kaçan biliminsanları, insanları tek başına öldüren yüksek deha ürünü suç aletleri, içeriden kilitli bir odada bulunan cesetler, bir bulmaca niteliği taşıyan suçlar, milyonlarca yıl önce yaşamış canlılara ait izlerin yanında bulunmuş bedenler, bir anda kaybolan ve iz bırakmayan karakterler, kayıplara karışan ve geride ipucu bırakmayan kişiler, kapalı bir odadan herhangi bir işaret bırakmadan yapılan hırsızlıklara dair 57 suç öyküsü içeriyor. 970 sayfadan oluşan bu kitap; ilk yarısı ile şaşırtıcı varsayımlar, ipuçlarına dayanan akıl yürütmeler, sürpriz dönemeçler ile keyif aldığım bir yapıya sahipken, ikinci yarısından itibaren zeki bir insanın kimsenin göremediği bağlantıları idrak edip, tahminler ile sonuca ulaştığı öykülerin tekrarına dönüştü. Esrarengiz, gizemli olayların konu aldığı pek çok öykünün bulunması açısından yine de keyif aldığımı söyleyebilirim.

Bu suç öyküleri cinayet mahaline, bırakılan izlere ve cinayetin işleniş şekillerine göre 9 ana başlık altında sınıflandırılıyor. Öykülerden en sevdiklerim;

Hücre 13 Problemi-Jacques Futrelle : "Akıl herşeyin efendisidir" görüşünü savunan Düşünme Makinesi lakaplı Profesör Van Dusen'in; kaçışın mümkün olmadığı bir idam hücresinden aklını kullanarak kaçabileceği fikrini yaşama geçirmesini konu alıyor.

Doomdorf Muamması-Melville Davisson: Hakim Rudolf ve Abner Amca, zengin ve güçlü bir adamı dağlardaki evinde vurulmuş olarak bulurlar. Ancak evde bulunan kişilerin hepsi bu cinayetten sorumlu olduğunu iddia etmektedir.

Benekli Şerit-Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock ve Dr. Watson evlilik arifesinde olan genç bir kadının yaşadığı evde ortaya çıkan esrarengiz olayların peşine düşüyor.

Doktor'un çözümü-Stephen King: Sherlock Holmes ve Doktor Watson'ın yüz yüze geldiği gizemi, kilitli oda muammasını; Watson'ın merkezde olduğu bir açıdan anlatıyor.

Kardeşler Arasında Bir Bıçak-Manly Wade Wellman: Tsichah rezervasyonunda evin içinden başka türlü erişelemeyecek bir yerde ölü bulunan bir adam polis şefi David Return'ü harekete geçirir. Evde bir de kardeşi bulunmaktadır. David ipuçlarından nasıl bir sonuca varacaktır.

Uçan Ölüm-Samuel Hopkins Adams:Bir bilim insanı, bir muhabir ve tıp öğrencisi bir yarın kenarındaki sahil şeridinde bir ceset bulurlar. Ensesinden bıçaklanarak öldürülmüş gibi görünen bedenin yanında milyonlarca yıl önce yaşadığı düşünülen bir canlının pençe izlerinden başka iz bulunmamaktadır.

Alice'i Gören Yok-William İrish : Yeni evli çift balayı sırasında uğradıkları şehirde sezon yoğunluğu sebebi ile boş oda bulamaz. Ancak Jimmy Cannon bir otelde tek kişilik yer bulur ve eşi Alice'i oraya yerleştirir. Sabah eşini almaya gelen Jimmy eşinin orada olmadığını ve hatta otel çalışanlarının ne Jimmy'i ne de eşi Alice'i hatırlamadıklarını görür.

Rüya-Agatha Christie: Zengin bir iş adamı, her gece rüyasında saat 15.28' de kendini vurduğunu görür. Bu tekrarlayan rüyanın ne anlama geldiğini, tehlikede olup olmadığını kestirmek için Hercule Poirot ile iletişime geçer.

Ashcomb Poor Cinayeti-Hulbert Fooner: Zengin ve tanınmış Ashcomb Poor, evinin kitaplığında sırtından vurulmuş bulunur. Herkes evde çalışan Phillipa Dean'den şüphelenirken, ünlü ve maharetli araştırmacı Madam Storey gerçeğin peşini bırakmayacaktır.

Bu kitap, zihin çalıştıran bulmacaları, farklı açılardan yaklaşan ilgi çekici karakterleri, gizemli olay örgüleri ile suç öykülerini sevenlere önerimdir.

[Graham Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anthology of 900+ pages aims to be comprehensive, and it largely succeeds. There are many well-known stories here - there's even a separate section for the most familiar - but there are many that have been forgotten, too. As with any anthology of this scope, every selection won't please everyone, and there are a few whose old-fashioned storytelling seems to drag, but in general I'd have to say that editor Otto Penzler has succeeded.

My personal favorite is Stephen King's "The Doctor's Case", which I first read many years ago. I somehow remembered it as being by Gene Wolfe, though, so when I read it as by King I was surprised all over again.

If you are a fan of locked-room mysteries, many of the stories here will be familiar, but some of the best are the more obscure ones, and as a whole I really enjoyed this book.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the fact that this book (all 936 pages of stories) put me 3 books behind in my reading challenge.

On to the review- One of the things I like most about these monstrously large collections by Otto Penzler is that you can read some writers or work that doesn’t always get seen - some of these writers work can be insanely difficult to find.

Of the 68 short stories I found most of them interesting. Some I’d read before - (Sherlock Holmes and the Hulbert Footner) but others I had not ( C. Daly King & MacKinlay Kantor)

The stories are some what gathered in sections by murder weapon or disappearance of items (along with murder.) that seem impossible- which goes along with the whole focus on the types of murders- if the room is locked from within (or location) then how was the murder committed and the murderer escaped. The very last story in the collection by Martin Edwards - I read and thought— how does this fit in to locked rooms and figured it out. Who was locked in a room?

I’ve read a number of locked room novels and short stories before but this collection has some rare works to make it really a good find. Would recommend this to someone who likes both new and older mysteries - I would say that many focus on a time period of 1950 and older. Locked Room mysteries had many fans in the Golden Age of Mystery, and I would say also in the Victorian era with Holmes. It’s a challenge to the reader and writer, can you figure out how it was done. Also if you like these kind of mysteries, even if you don’t like one or two of the stories- there’s a whole lot there to like.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my God. Over 900 pages of 2-column print. Still, if I had found this book when I was eleven I would have been in ecstasies. As it is, I still got very excited, and thought a two-week vacation would be the perfect opportunity to immerse myself in it.

Too much candy. But a lot of good candy. These are not stories of significance--they are puzzles and magic tricks. Wish there were more modern stories--and I missed my favorite locked room story (and time travel story) of all ("Big Time Operator" by Jack Wodhams). BUT: Terrific classics ("The Problem of Cell 13," "The Invisible Man," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"), some of the best stories by great mystery writers (Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr, Lawrence Block, Hugh Pentecost, Stanley Ellin), great stories by obscure specialists (Clayton Rawson, C. Daly King), and a whole lot of Clark bars and that cheap chocolate you find in the dollar store at Easter. I got into a bad run at the end, and to read it all again would be incredible torture. But in a year I'll be ready for more chocolate.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of 68 stories by (I think) 62 different authors, including most of the familiar names from mystery writing thru the 1960s. Each comes with a one-page bio of the author, all of which are informative given their brevity. Although some stories were improbable in their setup, only one had me groaning, "That would never work." Almost all were true to the spirit of locked room mysteries, even if not literally in a locked room (in one, a skydiver was apparently murdered between releasing his chute and landing), and the couple that did not seem to me true locked-room types were good stories anyway. Although the various stories include elements of police procedure, drama, romance, psychology, and adventure, the emphasis is always on the mystery.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF

[M.L.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked out this collection for one story: Blind Man's Hood by Carter Dickson, which I love. So creepy! If it were just this one story, I'd give it 5 stars. Alas. There are more clunkers than what I was expecting in a volume this size. Also, Penzler's curation of this volume leaves a lot to be desired. It's really pretty ridiculous to have multiples stories from a single contributor (as much as I love John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson). And it took over 400 pages to get a story from a woman--and it was co-written with her husband. The female to male author ratio is abysmal. Do better.

[Garden Gal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent selection - even some authors and stories I hadn't yet encountered.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways, the locked-room puzzle is the purest form of the detective story. Stripped of unnecessary and extraneous material, the bare bones of the form are laid bare in front of the reader. Look at this baffling mystery whose operation is limited to one specific location – and tell me how it was done. Or simply watch the puzzle unfold and resolve in front of you. Fans of Jonathan Creek understand. Whether or not a literal “locked room” is involved in the murder, or merely any form of “impossible crime”, located on a beach, a cable car, or a castle keep – stories in which the crime apparently cannot have taken place have entertained readers and kept writers inventing creative solutions for over a century now. The single story generally credited with giving birth to the entire detective/mystery genre, Edgar Allen Poe’s "The Murders In The Rue Morgue", is a locked-room puzzle, and it is the story which opens this weighty collection of nearly 70 tales edited by Otto Penzler, first published in 2014.

The collection is organised thematically, beginning with a handful of stories which represent the most widely anthologised and reprinted in the genre, from Poe’s classic to Arthur Conan Doyle’s "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", G. K. Chesterton’s "The Invisible Man" and Jacques Futrelle’s "The Problem Of Cell 13". From there we have a section of stories featuring stabbing, a section of stories taking place in remote expanses like beaches and fields rather than rooms, a section of stories featuring poison, a section in which the central question is how an object or person came to be removed from a locked room, and so on. The authors include well-known masters of the form like Agatha Christie (represented by a Hercule Poirot story called "The Dream") and John Dickson Carr (his story "The Wrong Problem" makes an appearance here, as does "Blind Man’s Hood" which he wrote under the Carter Dickson name), and famous names like Dashiell Hammett, P. G. Wodehouse (yes, he wrote detective stories as well as his Jeeves & Wooster exploits), and Stephen King (his Sherlock Holmes story "The Doctor’s Case" is featured), as well as a bewildering array of writers mostly drawn from the first half of the twentieth century, inevitably mostly white British and American men, whose names might be less familiar to the non-specialist reader – Hugh Pentecost, Edward D. Hoch, Stanley Ellin, John Lutz, Bill Pronzini, Kate Ellis, H. R. F. Keating, Manly Wade Wellman, E. C. Bentley, R. Austin Freeman, Augustus Muir and many more. Each author is given a brief, one-page introduction by Otto Penzler, who also writes an amiable and informative introduction to the book.

Like any such anthology, trends can be spotted – as the reader progresses through the collection the distinction between the genteel British voices and the rougher, slangier American narratives become sharp, and of course the basic structure of the impossible crime story, for the most part, remains: the murder takes place; the scene is examined and its various impossibilities noted; clues are discovered; there is a moment of revelation; and then a dénouement. For the most part I can’t emphasise enough what tremendous fun most of these tales are: full of creative and often silly solutions to murder problems, they provide a bumper pack of entertaining mystery stories. You’ll thrill! at detectives and sleuths with names like Don Diavolo, S. F. X. Van Dusen, Slot-Machine Kelly and Rolf le Roux, and you’ll gasp! at some truly wild solutions (which I won’t spoil here, much as I’d like to).

Not all stories are created equal, of course, and some are more successful than others. But I want to give particular mention to some of my favourites from the anthology: "Death Out Of Thin Air" by Stuart Towne, one of the longer stories, kept me riveted, as did "All At Once, No Alice" by William Irish, a story with a genuine sense of unhinged, Hitchcockian menace running throughout it in a way that really stuck out in this collection. "The Day The Children Vanished" by Hugh Pentecost is a successful mixture of macabre and whimsical, while Ellery Queen’s "The House of Haunts" is just a superbly executed mystery. Probably the creepiest story here is Lord Dunsany’s classic "Two Bottles Of Relish", a story which, on account of its gruesome conclusion and unforgettable final sentence, took several years to see the light of day, eventually being published in 1932.

I would encourage any reader with an interest in mystery or detective fiction to give this collection a go – superb company on long winter evenings when you lock your doors and, of course, imagine yourself safe...

[Randal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating has nothing to do with the quality of the editing or selections and everything to do with the nature of the stories.

I like clever mysteries and hadn't ever considered the idea of "locked room" stories as a sub-genre. Turns out I'm not a big fan. Most of the stories don't hang together all that well (you could almost call this the Big Book of Mysteries with Glaring Plot Holes), because let's face it, you can't actually stab somebody to death from outside a truly empty locked room. So the story where the guy with the heart condition carries the dwarf on his back until he dies, then the dwarf puts on a pair of the guy's shoes and walks backward in the guy's tracks through the snow in order to hide the fact there were two of them in the snowfield? How is a three-foot tall person, wearing shoes far too large for him and backwards, supposed to stay in the footprints of a running man well enough to not make it obvious to the detectives examining the crime scene that the well-known local little person wasn't hopping backwards through the snow?? Hmm??

So most of the stories are improbable at best. There's also not much range in very short, "aha!" mysteries that revolve around impossible murders, so they start to run together pretty quickly. If a clever, wildly contrived, twist is more important than having them actually hang together, this book might be for you. I found it too much of a grind to finish.

[Brett Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penzler makes a number of choices as an editor that I really enjoy. He likes historical continuity so tends to track threads of technique and content throughout a genre, and he writes nice short introductions that are full of data and short on blog-style blather. On the downside, that historical focus means the inclusion of a number of fairly mediocre authors from the "baffle them with bulls**t" mentality, but the majority of the short stories in this collection are fascinating looks at the locked-room mystery, a type of thought-puzzle where someone is killed in a sealed room and you either have a limited set of unlikely suspects or no suspects at all. Logically, if we believe in a consistent universe with cause-effect patterning at its core, there is an answer, but the twists and turns we take to get there make these stories fun little mental roller coasters. Like most good authors who were driven to pulp by being untrendy, many of these authors use their canvas not just for the thought gymnastics at hand but to express some timeless truths of what it is to be a thinking animal. Those who like contemplative but stirring reads would do well to pick up this volume.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading this collection on and off for months, and will keep it handy as I reread stories. (At 937 pages, 68 stories, it helps that it's a paperback, and not painfully heavy.)

There are stories by familiar writers such as E A Poe, Conan Doyle, Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, P G Wodehouse, Margaret Frazer.

The collection covers decades, and offers many mysteries that first appeared in popular mystery magazines.

Many of these writers can't be found currently in public libraries as shelves are culled and new publications replace the old.

Some of my favorites are Margery Allingham, George Simenon, Edmund Crispin, Jacques Futrelle, John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, and Leslie Charteris.

It is a brilliant collection, and each is introduced with a short bio of the author. Otto Penzler provides a diverse, well-chosen selection that keeps on entertaining the reader.

The only warning I offer is that many new names will end up on that endless list of TBR authors that we maintain.

[Brad McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any short story collection knocking on the door of 1000 pages, this one was all over the place.

Though the Golden Age of Mystery (1920s-30s) is the only age that adhered (mostly) to the Fair Play Rule where all the clues are presented early enough for the reader to figure whodunnit, I always prefer stories that follow. Even if I rarely guess the solution. There were a fair number of stories that followed the rule here.

But there were even more than introduced the crucial clue at the 11th hour. But that beats those stories that had solutions too bonkers to be believed.

Some of the stories pulled me in with the crimes, other with the characters. Some of the stories asked too much of me for the same reasons. I read it over two months and took breaks. That's the only way to read such a brobdinagian collection. Pace yourself.

If you're a mystery fan, then you should give this one a go.

[Andy Lind · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things that makes a great anthology is variety and Otto Penzler gives it to us in this one. The stories are all different characters, authors, and murders.

In Fact, if I was to rank all of The Otto Penzler anthologies I have read, here is where I would I would put them.

10. The Big Book of Reel Murders
9. The Big Book of Ghost Stories
8. Dangerous Women
7. The Big Book of Pulps
6. The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes
5. The Big Book of Jack The Ripper
4. The Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries
3. The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
2. The Big Book of Rogues and Villains
1. Black Noir

This is an anthology you can put on your coffee table and house guests will flip through it and ask you questions about it. Although, I wouldn't put it in the guest room, for the sole reason that those spending the night at your home might think you were up to something.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with a a collection edited by Otto Penzler, especially if it’s a collection of stories across history. This is a broad look at locked-door mysteries, from Poe to the modern age, with brief intros for each story providing context.

Penzler has the singular ability to assemble a cross-section of stories that are both interesting historically and entertaining as stories. Since the stories are arranged thematically, the intros are helpful - if you know know a story was written in 1906, you aren’t expecting phones and DNA tests.

Every story is interesting, though a small handful of the older stories are either extremely contrived or have conclusions that aren’t really believable. Overall, an excellent read.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite thing to do on vacation is to get a big book edited by Otto Penzler, and spend the week immersing myself in the wonderfully curated stories that he puts together. The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries is chock full of impossible murders, heists and "escapes". So many to tickle the fancy of any detective fiction fan. Of the 68 amazing tales in this collection, two stand out for me: the first is Lord Dunsany's The Two Bottle of Relish-this one is absolutely flawless, brilliant, and downright creepy!; the other is MacKinlay Kantor's The STrange Case of Steinkelwintz-whcih made me laugh out loud and uproariously!

[Daniel Hiland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! For pure escapism, nothing beats this 937-page, 68-story collection of "locked room" mysteries. As with Penzler's book on rogues and villains, this one offers a summary of each author and the story being featured, writers as varied as Poe, Doyle, Hoch, Christie and Dickson featured. The book's format is chronological, but you can always skip around if you want more variety. Further, the editor shows great taste in the quality of stories collected. It would make a great gift for the mystery-lover, or readers just looking for fascinating tales of puzzlement.

[Ellis Knox · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a great collection, but the stories do show their age. There must be over a hundred stories in here, and 95% of them follow the exact same formula. I was surprised by how distancing the narrative technique is. The characters aren't very important. They don't have much depth. The whole structure of the story is simply to set up the final scene where the solution is presented. This is one of those collections where it's best just to read one or two every now and again.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

You really don't want to read it straight through, but dipping into its few score stories over a few weeks was highly enjoyable.

I'm not going to comment on the individual entries except to say that P G Wodehouse won the Strangest Deadly Weapon prize hands down, in a story that had little or nothing in common with Jeeves, Bertie, or even Blandings Castle.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a collection this long (68 stories, almost 1,000 pages), it's surprising how many were great. There were a few less than stellar ones (I'm looking at you, Joseph Commings), but there were way more discoveries than duds. Favorite stories were: The Adventure of the Speckled Band (Doyle), The Twelfth Statue (Ellin), The Wrong Problem (Carr), The Ashcomb Poor Case (Footner) and The Gulverbury Diamonds (Durham). Highly recommended for locked-room fans.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries" by Otto Penzler has a large selection of good 'locked-room' mystery short stories from the 1840s to the 2000s. It was quite an education as Penzler has selected a wide range of plots. Although they all had a 'locked-room" plot the stories weren't repetitious. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Lisa Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the thing about locked room mysteries. Authors don't really give us enough info for us to figure out the solution to the puzzle. In other mysteries, we can mull over the clues as we progress to the conclusion of the story. In locked room mysteries, I find that the author springs some new detail about the room or the characters at the very end of the story. Not fair! Enjoyable nonetheless.

[Bill Plott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not finished this massive book -- 941 pages, 68 stories by the mystery field's great writers. This is not a sit-down and-read-it book. This is a pick-it-up-from-time-to-time book. A couple of these stories offer a pleasant break between whatever novels I'm reading at the time. Like any genre book edited by Otto Penzler, this is well worth adding to your bookshelf.

[Starry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read every story in this huge book, but my kids and I certainly enjoyed passing it around for a month and comparing notes on which surprised, delighted, or disgusted us. Lots of good mysteries in here, some from famous authors and some new to me.