The Realm of the Impossible

by John Pugmire (Editor), Brian Skupin (Editor), Otto Penzler (Foreward)

Here is a groundbreaking collection of 26 impossible crime stories from over 20 countries, demonstrating the global reach of this most fiendishly ingenious tale. Several stories appear here for the first time, many have never been anthologized, and a few classics are included. Also included are 12 short anecdotes of real-life impossibilities: How can a man locked in his room without alcohol get drunk every night? How can heavy stone coffins in a sealed crypt be moved? How can hundreds of rare French books be stolen from an ancient library? These are just a few of the actual impossibilities that are explained in The Realm of the Impossible. In his Foreword, Otto Penzler writes: “The range of authors collected in this surprising and welcome volume, and the diversity of their backgrounds, is a tribute to the detective skills of the editors, who have somehow unearthed a cornucopia of virtually unknown stories that deserve the attention they will now receive. It is… well… impossible to applaud loudly enough...”

Genres: Mystery

430 pages, Paperback

Published August 24, 2017

Reviews

[Puzzle Doctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of mostly outstanding locked room mysteries from around the world, alongside some important tales from the genre. Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com

[Theunis Snyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful if you like puzzles and seemingly impossible crimes.

[Pedro Gardel Camara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all novels are great, but there's plenty of variety of solutions, narratives and authors - including, unexpectedly, Alexandre Dumas and Jorge Luis Borges.

As with most works in this genre, these are certainly not for people who like realistic stories or well-written characters, but for those who enjoy cracking puzzles regardless of how gimmicky the crimes are.

Among my favourite ones, I recommend:

Twelve Figures of the World, Lying Dead and Turning Cold, Martian Crown Jewels, Miracle on Christmas Eve, and Locked House of Pythagoras (which was the reason why I purchased this book)

[Theunis Snyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful for a person who loves puzzles and the seemingly impossible.

[Gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of locked-room mysteries by authors from across the globe. While it included many classic stories, most of these I'd never before seen in an impossible crime stories collection.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short fiction punctuated by true life cases of supposedly impossible crimes and happenings. A world-tour of locked room stories.

Jacob's Ladder (Paul Halter) PLOT: an odious man in a rural town is found dead, ostensibly haven fallen from a great height onto a pond on his family's land; but the pond has no tall topography, trees of other places he could have fallen from. REVIEW: an OK story from the French Impossible Crime master. It's not that intriguing and the solution not that surprising. ***

Cyanide In The Sun (Christianna Brand) PLOT: a group of holiday guests at an English seaside resort listens with nervousness as their landlady recounts a string of poisonings in the town, some of which she witnessed. Then her guests start to die. REVIEW: nicely told tale with a logical outcome. ****

Windfall (Ulf Durling) PLOT: Two old friends recount a years-old mystery concerning the death of an old man who is standing in the way of his niece's true love. One of the friends has recently figured out how the old man died, although someone had already confessed. REVIEW: an interesting take on the problem of a death where no one could have approached the victim. But I thought that how one character acts was totally preposterous. **

The Case of the Horizontal Trajectory (Joseph Skvorecky) PLOT: a not-particularly appealing police investigator looks into the obvious murder of an old woman in her locked bedroom. REVIEW: nice to read a story by a Czech author, but I wondered why he made the detective so unpleasant. The solution to the crime isn't that well explained; although the detective mentions drawing diagrams pertaining to the solution, we are not presented with them. ** ½ *

The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express (Freeman Wills Crofts) PLOT: aboard a train gunshots ring out and two people inside a compartment die, while the third occupant is unable to exit because the door is wedged shut from the outside. Other travelers (including the third occupant) are cleared of suspicion, and when the train and surrounding areas are searched no one can be found -- it seems impossible anyone could have left the train undetected. REVIEW: a fun ride, but the story cried out for a diagram of the railway car involved, although the train layout is meticulously written about. ****

Dead Man in the Scrub (Mary Fortune) PLOT: a decomposing body is found inside a sealed tent in the Australian outback. REVIEW: gets points for unusual setting and time (written in the 1860's.) Not really a locked-tent puzzle since the policeman discovers what was done right away. The reason behind sealing the tent is never fully explained and the culprit is discovered by one of those outlandish coincidences authors sometimes employ. Enjoyable nevertheless. ****

The Hidden Law (Melville Davisson Post) PLOT: Uncle Abner is called in by a neighbor whose gold has been stolen from his home in which all doors and windows have been barred. REVIEW: As referenced in the introduction, I found the religious proselytizing by Abner tiresome, and the author telegraphs the solution early on in the tale. **

House Call (Alexandre Dumas) â PLOT: a school girl is abducted from her locked bedroom at a boarding school. REVIEW: adapted from two chapters in an 1854 book, it was probably included because of its historic nature. It's not that interesting â the detective spends most of the time figuring out how many people were involved by examining ladder impressions in the garden. Meanwhile no one makes sure the locked and shuttered room is really empty. And it ends very abruptly. *

The Twelve Figures of the World (Jorge Luis Borges & Adolfo Bioy Casares) PLOT: a man endures a test as an initiation, which results in murder. REVIEW: not a locked room story, more like an illusionist's crime. I found it a bit confusing. **

Rhampsinitos and the Thief (Herodotus) PLOT: an Egyptian king's treasure trove is pilfered from a seemingly sealed chamber. REVIEW: Not a mystery, but an interesting ancient story. ***

The Martian Crown Jewels (Poul Anderson) PLOT: A Treasure disappears from an unmanned rocket when it lands on Phobos. REVIEW: A mostly tongue in cheek 1956 tale set in the future when trade is common between the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th planets, but unfortunately cigarettes are still in full use. ***

Leaving No Evidence (Dudley Hoys) PLOT: An American adventurer in Lebanon is confronted by the disappearance of two of his mountain guides, whose footprints end in virgin snow. REVIEW: A clever take on this plot device and a nicely written tale. *****

The Venom of the Tarantula (Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay) PLOT: a doctor in India seeks help to determine how a patient continues to ingest a poison despite being watched day and night. REVIEW: OK tale with a sort of predictable solution. ***

Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture (Victor L. Whitechurch) PLOT: While being transported on a short railroad line, a wagon containing a valuable painting goes missing, from the middle of the train. REVIEW: a clever trick explained by the mastermind behind it. ****

The Miracle on Christmas Eve (Szu-Yen Lin) PLOT: A man enlists the aid of a detective to prove the existence of Santa Claus because of a mysterious event when he was a child. REVIEW: Nice take on a locked-room mystery (not a crime, though.) ****

Seven Brothers (Alexis Kivi) PLOT: a two page excerpt from a 1870 novel in which a man encounters human footprints in snow that turn into fox footprints. REVIEW: clever interpretation of snow vs. footprints. ***

Lying Dead and Turning Cold (Afonso Carreiro) PLOT: people at a remote building in a snowy region of Portugal are confronted with a murder. REVIEW: Another clever take on the "footprints in the snow" trope that evokes the dread the people feel. *****

The "Impossible" Impossible Crime (Edward D. Hoch) PLOT: two men are at a remote cabin in Northern Canada when one of them finds the other has been shot. REVIEW: Short and to the point, which is a nice twist. ****

The Locked Tomb Mystery (Elizabeth Peters) PLOT: the sealed tomb of a woman buried with treasure is found to have been looted. REVIEW: Well told but only OK variation on the trick. ****

Deadfall (Samuel W. Taylor) PLOT: Two men trapped in a snowbound cabin write a journal mentioning mysterious footprints in the snow. REVIEW: interesting take on the problem that leaves you thinking in the end. *****

The Lure of the Green Door (Rintaro Norizuki) PLOT: a locked-room mystery fan uncovers the truth about a locked-room mystery collector's supposed suicide. REVIEW: Clever solution and nicely written, but an action by the culprit didn't make much sense. ***

The Barese Mystery (Pietro De Palma) PLOT: a man is discovered in a locked room days after his death. REVIEW: tongue and cheek tale which references a number of classic locked room books. Solution is different. ****

The Witch Doctor's Revenge (Jochen Fusler) PLOT: A man enlists a policeman's help because he fears he and his friend are in danger of disappearing. REVIEW: Nicely told story that details how the men did actually disappear. ****

All the Birds of the Air (Charles B. Child) PLOT: a revered old man in Baghdad dies in a watched room guarded by police. REVIEW: Interesting setting and plausible (though oft-used) method of death. ****

The Warder of the Door (L.T. Meade & Robert Eustace) PLOT: An ancient curse on a family's first born seems to have come true. REVIEW: good use of a supernatural atmosphere and an (almost) realistic denouement. ****

The Locked House of Pythagoras (Soji Shimada) PLOT: A man and his mistress are found brutally stabbed in a locked room the floor of which is covered in papers the man was judging for a school art project. REVIEW: an eye-glazing solution (complete with floor plans) marred by a sort of obnoxious schoolboy who solves the puzzle. ***

[Alberto Avanzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Even so, gentlemen, I believe there are crimes that are so unbelievable they can't be explained even by the presence of the Supernatural". Se il buongiorno si vede dal mattino, come non amare una raccolta che inizia con un racconto con questo incipit?
Ho preso questa raccolta all’inizio del 2020, ma l’ho letta solo di tanto in tanto, intervallando un suo racconto a romanzi o raccolte di racconti, e solo ora l’ho terminata.
Curata da John Pugmire e Brian Skuipin, questa antologia è eccezionale, dal momento che unisce in un solo volume racconti accomunati dal tema del delitto impossibile, provenienti da ogni tempo, paese e cultura. Abbiamo autori nostri contemporanei, e abbiamo Erodoto, Dumas, i pionieri del giallo, i grandi della golden age. Per di più i curatori hanno deciso di evitare le scelte troppo facili, lasciando fuori gli autori e i racconti più conosciuti, e prediligendo storie difficili da trovare altrove, permettendo quindi anche al lettore esigente ed esperto di trovare pochissime storie che già conosce. La qualità media dei ventisei racconti, pur con le ovvie differenze di gusto, si mantiene sempre altissima. E ulteriore chicca, ci sono anche dodici casi di delitti impossibili tratti dalla vita reale, alcuni risolti (la morte di Sissi, che grande ispirazione ha dato ai giallisti) altri irrisolti.
Vi accenno brevemente alcuni dei racconti che mi hanno più colpito, con l’avvertenza che ce ne sono molti altri validissimi, e che quei pochi che mi hanno colpito meno probabilmente sono anch’essi validi, ma accostati ad autentici capolavori non rendono appieno il loro valore.
L’unico punto debole della raccolta è il fatto che non sia mai stata tradotta nella nostra lingua, tocca leggerla in inglese.
===
Paul Halter, Jacob’s ladder
E’ il racconto che apre l’antologia, e che utilizza l’incipit che ho messo all’inizio. Qui il soprannaturale entra in scena addirittura con il richiamo biblico alla scala di Giacobbe. Suggestione? Allucinazioni? Ma come potrebbero spiegare la morte di un uomo che sembra precipitato dall’alto e sfracellato a terra, se è ambientato nella piattissima campagna francese, lontanissimo da qualsiasi campanile, fienile o comunque costruzione alta? Un racconto superbo sia per l’atmosfera che per la soluzione, e che tende a farmi condividere una affermazione che spesso Gabriele ha fatto relativamente alla preferenza di Halter come autore di racconti più che come romanziere.
===
Christianna Brand, Cyanide in the sun
Si tratta di uno dei miei autori preferiti, quindi rischio di essere di parte, ma non esito a dire che è un racconto eccellente, con tutte le premesse per creare tensione, descrivendo una situazione di avvelenamento impossibile molto intrigante e coinvolgente, e caratterizzata da una soluzione nella quale l’autrice gioca un tiro mancino al lettore.
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Szu Yen Lin, The miracle on Christmas Eve
Mi piace sotto Natale leggere racconti gialli (e non solo) a tema natalizio. In questo corto, l'autore taiwanese descrive non un delitto ma una apparizione impossibile e spiegabile solo, letteralmente, credendo a Babbo Natale. È stato bellissimo ritrovare la stessa atmosfera trasognata che avevo trovato pochissimi giorni prima leggendo una storia a fumetti di Faraci e Cavazzano, Manetta e l'indagine natalizia. Qui però pur non essendoci delitto è pur sempre un giallo (mentre la storia disneyana era umoristica) e quindi alla fine troviamo una spiegazione, che pur molto semplice accentua invece di indebolire la magia del Natale, regalando con le battute finali un pizzico di commozione.
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Rintaro Norizuki, The lure of the green door
Bellissimo, tensione e ironia mescolate nella giusta misura, carico di suggestioni letterarie (cita un racconto di Wells, che non conoscevo e sono andato subito a cercare e a leggere) e di ammiccamenti al lettore (al quale viene detto che i delitti impossibili avvengono nella letteratura, non nella realtà). I protagonisti sono uno scrittore e una bibliotecaria, che si trovano a indagare su una camera chiusa all'apparenza inestricabile. La soluzione riesce a essere al tempo stesso originale, credibile e suggestiva.
===
Soji Shimada, The locked house of Pithagoras
Un bellissimo racconto su una camera (anzi, un'intera casa) chiusa. Due persone sono trovate morte accoltellate, in modo tale che non possa essere suicidio o suicidio-omicidio, in una casa con porte e finestre chiuse dall'interno e senza impronte che conducano alla casa. Un classico del delitto impossibile, risolto in modo poco innovativo dal punto di vista della soluzione tecnica, ma in compenso eccellente come atmosfera, macabra e ammaliante. Molto cinematografico, con spargimento di sangue (in senso letterale) e con un mistero nel mistero legato ai 140 (o 136?) disegni di un concorso artistico ...
===
Alfonso Carreiro, Lying Dead and Turning Cold
Uno dei topoi del delitto impossibile riguarda la morte su una superficie nevosa, o sabbiosa, senza lasciare impronte. Questo racconto ne è un po’ la quintessenza, anche se per una volta l’ambientazione della campagna inglese o americana cede il campo al paesaggio montagnoso dell’interno del Portogallo. Un uomo, odiato da tutti per essere ubriacone, ricattatore e cacciatore di donne, viene trovato morto strangolato vicino alla casa del padre, in mezzo a un campo coperto di neve, ma dove mancano le impronte di chi avrebbe dovuto strozzarlo. Troviamo persino la sfida al lettore, e la soluzione pur non particolarmente originale (ma si sa, lo diceva pure Carr, è più facile trafficare con serrature e porte che trovare il modo di far sparire le impronte sulla neve) risulta molto convincente, a completare un racconto di grande atmosfera.
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Dudley Hoys, Leaving No Evidence
Ambientato sulle montagne del Libano, in questo pur brevissimo racconto del 1938 si tratteggiano bene i due protagonisti, l’avventuriero e viaggiatore americano Corland e la sua guida, il libanese Fahmi. Quest’ultimo racconta di un’entità, che chiama semplicemente “la Cosa”, che cattura e fa svanire, nel tempo di uno schioccare di dita, le persone che attraversano il versante innevato di una certa montagna.
Corland, affascinato, desidera sfidare la Cosa, trovando finalmente un’avventura capace di dargli le emozioni che va cercando. Con Fahmi e i suoi due assistenti, Arzuf e Faraja, si incammina per il monte, ricoperto da neve freschissima e senza tracce, con l’accortezza per i quattro uomini, come suggerito da Fahmi, di non camminare vicini ma di tenersi a debita distanza, in modo che la Cosa si possa prendere uno solo di loro. Ma sotto i suoi occhi la Cosa entra in azione … L’incredulo Corland prosegue l’escursione, il cui finale non va svelato, dal momento che tanto il “come” quanto il “perché” delle sparizioni sono entrambi geniali e voglio lasciare al lettore il gusto di scoprirli
Ecco, non so se alla fine Corland sia riuscito a trovare le emozioni che cercava, io da lettore certo che le ho trovate, in questo racconto.
===
Pietro De Palma, The Barese mystery
Chiudiamo in bellezza. L’unico rappresentante italiano di questa antologia , lo conoscevo come critico, e ho avuto il piacere di scoprirlo anche come autore. Una bella camera chiusa, omaggio ai grandissimi presentando una variante di uno schema più volte usato dai classici, con un’ambientazione doppiamente bella: perché i protagonisti vivono nel mondo dei collezionisti di libri e la vicenda ruota attorno a un presunto manoscritto contenente un inedito di un autore della golden age. E perché viene ambientato, in modo impeccabile, in una città italiana (fra l’altro una città bellissima e non abbastanza conosciuta rispetto a quanto meriterebbe) con il solito senso di familiarità dato dalle ambientazioni nostrane, quando come qui sono rese bene.

[Gabriele Crescenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grandiosa raccolta di delitti impossibili e camere chiuse edita dalla LRI. Pugmire e Skupin hanno davvero fatto un lavoro eccellente, radunando assieme disparati racconti da altrettanti disparati paesi del mondo ma accomunati dal denominatore del crimine impossibile. Alcuni racconti sono dei veri e propri capolavori, come "The Locked House of Pythagoras" di Soji Shimada, con una camera chiusa geniale, "The Lure of the Green Door" di Rintaro Norizuki, una delle camere chiuse più ingegnose che abbia mai letto, "Cyanide in the Sun" di Christianna Brand, contenente uno degli avvelenamenti più scaltri che abbia letto, "The Jacob's Ladder" del grande Halter e molti altri.
Insomma un must per gli amanti del genere.

[Irene]

Contents:
1. Jacob's Ladder (Paul Halter - France)
2. Cyanide In The Sun (Christianna Brand - UK)
3. Windfall (Ulf Durling - Sweden)
4. The Case of the Horizontal Trajectory (Joseph Skvorecky - Czech Republic)
5. The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express (Freeman Wills Crofts - Ireland)
6. Dead Man in the Scrub (Mary Fortune - Australia)
7. The Hidden Law (Melville Davisson Post - U.S.)
8. House Call (Alexandre Dumas - France)
9. The Twelve Figures of the World (Jorge Luis Borges & Adolfo Bioy Casares - Argentina)
10. Rhampsinitos and the Thief (Herodotus - Greece)
11. The Martian Crown Jewels (Poul Anderson - Outer Space)
12. Leaving No Evidence (Dudley Hoys - Lebanon)
13. The Venom of the Tarantula (Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay - India)
14. Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture (Victor L. Whitechurch - UK)
15. The Miracle on Christmas Eve (Szu-Yen Lin - Taiwan)
16. Seven Brothers (extract) (Alexis Kivi - Finland)
17. Lying Dead and Turning Cold (Afonso Carreiro - Portugal)
18. The "Impossible" Impossible Crime (Edward D. Hoch - Canada)
19. The Locked Tomb Mystery (Elizabeth Peters - Egypt)
20. Deadfall (Samuel W. Taylor - U.S.)
21. The Lure of the Green Door (Rintaro Norizuki - Japan)
22. The Barese Mystery (Pietro De Palma - Italy)
23. The Witch Doctor's Revenge (Jochen Fusler - Germany)
24. All the Birds of the Air (Charles B. Child - Iraq)
25. The Warder of the Door (L.T. Meade & Robert Eustace - Ireland)
26. The Locked House of Pythagoras (Soji Shimada - Japan)

A little bit disappointed that the diversity of this collection is based on the setting of each story rather than where the authors are from, but it's still a million times more diverse than any anthology of mystery stories I've ever seen. Also, Herodotus?! Clearly this collection has range if nothing else.

Also - RIP John Pugmire. I read his translation of The Fourth Door and I know he single-handedly brought many mysteries from around the globe to English-speaking audiences through his publishing company Locked Room International.

[Mystic Miraflores · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most short story collections, some stories were good while some were just okay. The ones I particularly liked were: "Venom of the Tarantula"; "All the Birds of the Air"; "Cyanide in the Sun"; "Windfall"; "Leaving No Evidence"; "Deadfall"; and "The Miracle on Christmas Eve".
When I was elementary-school age, I read something about "The Moving Coffins" of Barbados in a magazine my parents had. For a few days after that, I was too scared to go into the basement by myself!

[Francine Chu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real pleasure of rare locked room mysteries from around the world, each one as seemingly impossible as the one before it. Anyway I’m glad I didn’t judge this book by its cover (which looked quite dated). Or is it deliberately befitting for a tome of locked room mysteries, where nothing is ever what it seems?

[Umer Abbas · Rating 2 out of 5]

when reading impossible crimes one is always looking for something new as there have been countless variations of stand methods used and reused endlessly. In this anthology two of the stories stood out one for a new method never before seen the "lure of the green door" (a locked room puzzle) and the other for great misdirection "lying dead and turning cold a footprints in the snow puzzle)..

[Lennart Guldbrandsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good selection of impossible crime and locked room short stories from around the world.

[James Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review -- https://jamesscottbyrnside.com/2019/1...

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Jacob's Ladder / Paul Halter --
Cyanide in the Sun / Christianna Brand --3
Windfall / Ulf Durling --
The Case of the Horizontal Trajectory / Joseph Skvorecky --
The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express / Freeman Wills Crofts --3
Dead Man in the Scrub / Mary Fortune --3
*The Hidden Law / Melville Davisson Post --
House Call / Alexandre Dumas --
*The Twelve Figures of the World / Borges & Casares --
Rhampsinitos and the Thief / Herodotus --
The Martian Crown Jewels / Poul Anderson --
Leaving No Evidence / Dudley Hoys --
The Venom of the Tarantula / Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay --
Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture / Victor Whitechurch --3
The Miracle on Christmas Eve / Szu-yen Lin --
Seven Brothers / Alexis Kivi --
Lying Dead and Turning Cold / Afonso Carreiro --
The "Impossible" Impossible Crime / Edward D. Hoch --
The Locked Tomb Mystery / Elizabeth Peters --3
Deadfall / Samuel W. Taylor --2
The Lure of the Green Door / Rintaro Norizuki --2
The Barese Mystery / Pietro de Palma --
The Witch Doctor's Revenge / Jochen Fusler --
All the Birds of the Air / Charles B. Child --4
The Warder of the Door / Meade & Eustace --2
*The Locked House of Pythagoras / Soji Shimada --