The Book of Extraordinary Impossible Crimes and Puzzling Deaths: The Best New Original Stories of the Genre

by Maxim Jakubowski (Editor)

A murder has been committed but how could it have happened? Was the room locked from the inside? Was the suspect or killer actually close to the scene or death or, impossibly, miles away? How come the body shows no sign of violence? Where is the weapon that inflicted the deadly blow? Was the right person actually killed? Crime and mystery fiction can be full of impenetrable conundrums and endless question marks when the story itself becomes a reality-defying puzzle for the sleuth or policeman in attendance to solve. Some of mystery fiction's most clever talents from the USA and the UK offer a series of brand-new ingenious stories which will have the reader scratching his brow until the very last minute and delight in the Macchiavellian solutions. This is the third volume in Mango's innovative collections of the best that crime fiction has to offer.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Audiobook

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2020

About the author

Maxim Jakubowski is a crime, erotic, and science fiction writer and critic.

Jakubowski was born in England by Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has also lived in Italy and has travelled extensively. Jakubowski edited the science fiction anthology Twenty Houses of the Zodiac in 1979 for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention (Seacon '79) in Brighton. He also contributed a short story to that anthology. He has now published almost 100 books in a variety of areas.

He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop[1], the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was for eight years the crime columnist for Time Out and, presently, since 2000, the crime reviewer for The Guardian. He is also the literary director of London's Crime Scene Festival and a consultant for the International Mystery Film Festival, Noir in Fest, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy. He is one the leading editors in the crime and mystery and erotica field, in which he has published many major anthologies.

His novels include "It's You That I Want To Kiss", "Because She Thought She Loved Me", "The State Of Montana", "On Tenderness Express", "Kiss me Sadly" and "Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer". His short story collections are "Life in the World of Women", "Fools for Lust" and the collaborative "American Casanova". He is a regular broadcaster on British TV and radio and was recently voted the 4th Sexiest Writer of 2,007 on a poll on the crimespace website.

Reviews

[France-Andrée · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology that I found a little different from others, I just realized that the title is longer than I thought and the words "puzzling death" are included, that does make sense because I did wonder in some stories where the crime was. The other thing that makes me say different is that several stories have a science fiction twist or another genre mixing with the mystery part.

I guess my two favorites were: Whatever Remains by Ashley Lister, it had a twist I didn't see coming at all; Killing Kiss by Lavie Tidhar which is part fantastic with Hitler as a PI in England and WWII not having happened, the story was good and I liked that it is the imaginings of a Jewish man during WWII that gives us the mystery, in fact, the concept was used in the book A Man Lies Dreaming and that joined by TBR.

Most of the stories are good, but the excellent ones were scarce. A good anthology.

[Theunis Snyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a mix of the good and the bad. Some are real locked room murders, but others are either science fiction or supernatural stories. And among the real locked room murders some are good and some are bad, some even very bad. A mixed bag where everybody will find some stories that they like. But everybody will not like everything. Real locked room fans will delight in some of the stories for their humor and their ingenuity.

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mainly enjoyable but not the "best".

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

20% badly-written stories, 70% average, 10% gems. With only 18 stories to choose from, this means you get only two really good ones. I’ll leave you to figure out which are which.

[Elliemay Ride · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narration of the audiobook put me off mainly, this was due got he weird accents the narrator was using to recreate characters; while I appreciate the dedication it was over the top and off putting in some areas. The stories themselves were a mix of good and bad, seemingly better towards the end, some of them tho were straight up daft and the sort of story your grandparent might crazily spin off to you

[Moira L. Mefein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike other reviewers, I enjoyed every story in this collection. That is not to say that I would recommend it for the Nobel Prize in literature, but I found the variety of why, how, and who-done-it delightful. One caveat....I suggest reading one or two stories at a time, so that each has a chance to mellow in its own way. Some of the stories are especially deserving , and will stay with you long after you close the book.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 1 out of 5]

First thing that made me suspicious was the first story penned by Martin Edwards. The usually trustworthy, consistent Edwards had produced a hashwork. From that point I went on my guard...
And faced one after another venomous dud.
First of all, many of these belonged to scifi genre. But unlike the Asimovian mysteries that relied upon actual, workable physics, these were based on pure pseudoscience. Even the most readable story of the collection— Ashley Lister's "Whatever Remains"— was based upon an improbable concept.
Secondly, there were ghost stories, weird tales and other assorted stuff that were peddled in this book. That in itself is a crime and might have resulted in some serious damage to frontal lobes of the people who had selected these tales.
Thirdly, except Keith Brooke's "By a Thread" (although it again relied upon something which is practically improbable) and Michael Brackett & Sandra Murphy's "Goobers" there were practically no police procedurals . Instead, heavy names have decided to dump some personal baggage in this collection in the name of 'Impossible Crimes'.
Most of the remaining stories were utterly joyless, reading which the biggest 'How Can This Be' that arises in one's mind is about the selection of such works, at the expense of masters.
I consider this book to be a classic example of extremely shoddy editorial work. It's precisely because of this type of bad work on part of Maxim Jakubowski (or whosoever is ghost-editing on his behalf) that I had decided to stay away from Mammoth anthologies. Unfortunately, Edward D. Hoch and Peter Lovesey had triggered my interest in 'Impossible' Mysteries. That had sort of forced my hand.
Never again.

[Pat · Rating 1 out of 5]

don’t buy it.

Nearly every story was either infantile or silly. The one about reconstruction was awful…three members had been seriously injured, the last one with among other things a broken jaw. No one expressed any sympathy. I have no idea what kind of story it was supposed to be…comedic..??? Several had stupid errors like…the house was so organized, a place for everything etc…which he said before going beyond an empty front hall. Another mentioned the Nazis camps in 1923. No one was worth reading…and I read all but the last. The second last one the wife walks in the door after being gone for hours and knows all the details they just discovered. Ridiculous. Save your money and your time for something worthwhile. I’m ashamed of the editor. I thought he could do better. Is this really the best on offer today?

[Paula Corregan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories!

I was impressed with the vast majority of the crime stories contained in the author's compilations. Many times I can't get through compilations of a particular genre because I find the stories boring. This was certainly not the case with this book. For the most part the stories were well written and held my interest throughout my reading of them. I highly recommend this book to other mystery readers.

[Gabriela Galescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bad/good story ratio disappointing

Too many bad stories in this collection. Also, *how bad* the bad stories are. Never mind poor writing and plotting; there are supernatural stories that were sadly and irritatingly misplaced in this collection. If I want to read supernatural/paranormal/ghost stories (which I genuinely don’t) I should find (or avoid) them in property labeled collections, not in a *crime story* collection.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a complimentary copy.

Excellent stories to keep you occupied for hours or days. You can easily find a crime or death that is interesting and this is a wonderful grouping.

[Megan Hinde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable I like a good mystery and this anthology has a good mix of who done it and how. I look forward to checking out some other titles by Maxim Jakubowski.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven, but kind of a fun lark to read all the different ways to solve a locked-room mystery. Kind of want to read more about Herr Wolf....

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Opened it at random. The story I read was terrible. Won’t even try to read another.

[Ann W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found all of the short stories interesting. Some were definitely a little odd but I enjoyed them. 3.5 stars

[SUSAN TURNER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reasonabl

I did find most of the stories easy to read. The ones most enjoyable were the ones with touches of comedy

[Gabika Szentandrasiova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Myslela som si že to budú skutočne príbehy.

[Hessah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite an interesting book, but the title is misleading. It promises puzzling and dumbfounding crimes but in reality the book is composed of fictional short stories or Novellas. Some of these especially the first 3 reminded me of Agatha’s method of writing. Others were clever with unbelievable motives or murder tactics.

[Mark Colvson · Rating 3 out of 5]

very mixed quality

[Joan Lloyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with more books of short stories there's wheat and chaff. In this case too much chaff. Despite the clever title it's not worth your energy.

[Jazzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this book were very middle of the road. I personally could have done without the sci-fi related stories, but I think most people who like impossible crimes would like this book. But the last story is incredibly terrible and bizarre. It reads to me like the author has some sort of nazi fetish. I would definitely skip that last story.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stories so corny and amateurish that I felt embarrassed for the writers.