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Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries
Fourteen impossible crimes from the American masters of the form For devotees of the Golden Age mystery, the impossible crime story represents the period’s purest it presents the reader with a baffling scenario (a corpse discovered in a windowless room locked from the inside, perhaps), lays out a set of increasingly confounding clues, and swiftly delivers an ingenious and satisfying solution. During the years between the two world wars, the best writers in the genre strove to outdo one another with unfathomable crime scenes and brilliant explanations, and the puzzling and clever tales they produced in those brief decades remain unmatched to this day. Among the Americans, some of these authors are still household names, inextricably linked to the locked room mysteries they John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Clayton Rawson, Stuart Palmer. Others, associated with different styles of crime fiction, also produced great works―authors including Fredric Brown, MacKinlay Kantor, Craig Rice, and Cornell Woolrich. All of these and more can be found in Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries , selected by Edgar Award-winning mystery expert and anthologist Otto Penzler. Featuring a delightful mix of well-known writers and unjustly-forgotten masters, the fourteen tales included herein highlight the best of the American impossible crime story, promising hours of entertainment for armchair sleuths young and old.
492 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2022
77 people are currently reading
386 people want to read
About the author
Otto Penzler
374 books532 followersOtto 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 26, 2022
I wish to thank NetGalley and Penzler Publications for the opportunity to read this fine collection of 14 locked room stories from the Golden Age of mysteries (mainly written in the 1930s-40s). I admit I am old enough to have read some of these authors who were still writing books later than this time period, and I was pleased that some of my favourite past authors were included in this book.
This collection focuses on classic stories in the locked room category. This refers to a murder committed in a room locked from the inside, or in another location where the crime seems impossible to have been committed or to solve. My favourite mystery writers of the past were John Dickson Carr and Cornell Woolrich and was excited that they were included in this anthology. I had read the books Woolrich wrote under the name of William Irish. I also enjoyed Frederic Brown, known for his extremely brief short stories.
I have come to prefer modern mysteries that rely more on showing rather than telling and with some intensity of action. Classic locked room mysteries challenged the reader with subtle clues, but it took a detective or an amateur sleuth to describe whodunit and by what ingenious method. They solved the crime by brilliant logic and deduction and explained it all at the conclusion. I felt the characters were underdeveloped, probably due to the abbreviated length of most of the stories.
These sleuths worked without modern scientific techniques, such as DNA, surveillance cameras, and GPS tracking by cellphone or hidden devices. This made solving these impossible crimes more challenging but very clever. Their solution to a crime was creative and surprising. There was some obsolete slang that was not a problem. Stories involving a telephone switchboard and an automat dated them firmly to the past. Happily, there were no racist overtones frequently displayed in stories in that era.
I thought the story by my former favourite, John Dickson Carr, to be too complex, overly long and drawn out to the point of becoming boring. The story by Ellery Queen was more the length of a novella, and it was just OK for me. With any anthology, readers will vary in their choices of stories they enjoy the most. My favourite were those by Anthony Boucher, Frederic Brown, Mignon Eberhart, and Cornell Woolrich, authors familiar to me. I also enjoyed some writers I was reading for the first time; Stuart Palmer, Craig Rice, and MacKinlay Cantor.
Recommended for readers who are fans of classic mysteries, especially the locked room category.
This collection focuses on classic stories in the locked room category. This refers to a murder committed in a room locked from the inside, or in another location where the crime seems impossible to have been committed or to solve. My favourite mystery writers of the past were John Dickson Carr and Cornell Woolrich and was excited that they were included in this anthology. I had read the books Woolrich wrote under the name of William Irish. I also enjoyed Frederic Brown, known for his extremely brief short stories.
I have come to prefer modern mysteries that rely more on showing rather than telling and with some intensity of action. Classic locked room mysteries challenged the reader with subtle clues, but it took a detective or an amateur sleuth to describe whodunit and by what ingenious method. They solved the crime by brilliant logic and deduction and explained it all at the conclusion. I felt the characters were underdeveloped, probably due to the abbreviated length of most of the stories.
These sleuths worked without modern scientific techniques, such as DNA, surveillance cameras, and GPS tracking by cellphone or hidden devices. This made solving these impossible crimes more challenging but very clever. Their solution to a crime was creative and surprising. There was some obsolete slang that was not a problem. Stories involving a telephone switchboard and an automat dated them firmly to the past. Happily, there were no racist overtones frequently displayed in stories in that era.
I thought the story by my former favourite, John Dickson Carr, to be too complex, overly long and drawn out to the point of becoming boring. The story by Ellery Queen was more the length of a novella, and it was just OK for me. With any anthology, readers will vary in their choices of stories they enjoy the most. My favourite were those by Anthony Boucher, Frederic Brown, Mignon Eberhart, and Cornell Woolrich, authors familiar to me. I also enjoyed some writers I was reading for the first time; Stuart Palmer, Craig Rice, and MacKinlay Cantor.
Recommended for readers who are fans of classic mysteries, especially the locked room category.
November 29, 2025
Should add what is one of the very best (and a great place to start) locked-room stories, which I have now read:
* G. K. Chesterton, “The Invisible Man” (1911)
and a new(ish) collection:
Martin Edwards, *As If by Magic: Locked-Room Mysteries & Other Impossible Crimes*
Here is the final set for now, a couple of which are outstanding. I still stick to my original claim that the short form, so popular for Locked Room mysteries, is still not an ideal form for it. Yet thousands upon thousands have been written, as a glance at Robert Adey’s bibliography will show. At any rate I have found a set of Locked Room short stories that will work for my purposes and I can now go on to other things. Here are the next four:
* Carter Dickson, “The Silver Curtain” (1939) [6]
in Mike Ashley. The Mammoth Book of Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes; or in Carter Dickson, The Department of Queer Complaints (1940)
* Arthur Porges, “No Killer has Wings” (1960) [6-]
in M. Ashley. The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries
D. L. Champion, “The Day Nobody Died” (1944) [5]
in the Inspector Allhoff series (really a pulp story, but pretty good)
Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Exact Opposite” (1941) [4]
in The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith
(Leith is the dapper, Robin Hood of thieves — stealing [back] from the
crooked and giving to the needy. I found him annoying, tbh)
Another really nice one is:
* Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Clue of the Runaway Blond” [5.5] (See my review ad loc.)
[This case is concerned with a victim found stabbed in the middle of a ploughed field without any traces of footprints roundabout; but it is also so much more…]
Here is another excellent Locked Room short story:
* Edward D. Hoch, “The Leopard Locked Room” (1971) [5.5] in EQMM October 1971, rpt. in *Leopold’s Way*
https://www.homeworkforyou.com/static...
This is the final installment of a useful series of blog posts: https://moonlight-detective.blogspot....
And some good Japanese (and other) locked room titles: https://www.mylri.com/books/
Two more… (below)
I’ve been searching for a set of locked-room short stories or novellas, preferably Golden Age, which would be suitable and accessible for students in an introductory class on Crime Fiction. I have yet to find what I’m looking for. [The really short form, at least, does not really lend itself *persuasively* to locked-rooms or to impossible crimes.]
At any rate, here are six more stories, two of which are, in fact, really excellent (Hoch and Dunsany)
* Edward D. Hoch, “The Long Way Down” (1965) [5.5]. This is really excellent. Reprinted in E. Hoch, The Night My Friend (collected stories)
Ellery Queen, Lamp of God [House of Haunts] (1935) [5+] — a novella, often anthologized, it is now reprinted under the original 1935 title *The House of Haunts* (*The Lamp of God* was used for the reprint of 1940) in Penzler’s *Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries* [this volume], where is the best entry of otherwise somewhat mediocre collection.
* Lord Dunsany, “The Two Bottles of Relish” (1932) [5.5], in Penzler (ed.), in Penzler, Black Lizard. [“Ellery Queen once ran a survey [publ in EQMM, April 1952] to determine the ten greatest mystery stories ever written and, to the surprise of no one who has ever read it, “The Two Bottles of Relish” made the list.”] See Rochelle Kronzek (ed.) *All-Time Favorite Detective Stories* (2010), where they are published as an anthology: https://www.amazon.com/All-Time-Favor...
Georges Simenon, “Little House at Croix-Rousse” (1935) [4.5]. Translated by Anthony Boucher (1947), in Penzler (ed.), Black Lizard {= the story cited by Robert Adey as “The Case of Dr. Ceccioni”, which is the title used by an earlier, 1935, translation.}
Ronald Knox, “Solved By Inspection” (10; 1931) ⛔️ [this story has some racist language in it [4+], rpt. in The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories
Ben Hecht, Mystery of the Fabulous Laundryman (1933) [4], in Ch. Greyson, ed. Stories for Men (1944) [v. Hechtian in its flowery language]. A hard to find volume.
From this Penzler collection (ostensibly under review), John Dickson Carr, The Third Bullet (1937) is a novella. It is not too long and it is a decent example of a locked-room mystery, and something that I had hoped would be suitable for students. But it is somewhat dry and second-rate. This story also appears in JDC’s *The Third Bullet and Other Stories* (1954) and is often anthologized [4]. Maybe I should reread it.
Some additional stories that I’ve tried on:
John Dickson Carr, “The Locked Room” (1947) [v. abbreviated, but a good LR sample] [5] - in JDC, *The Third Bullet*
Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace, “The Tea Leaf” (1925) [5] - Black Lizard
Jacques Futrelle, “The Phantom Motor” (1905) [rather slight, but nice] [5-] - Black Lizard
Jacques Futrelle, “The Problem of Cell 13” (1907) [a widely anthologized story; pretty good] [4.5] - Black Lizard
John Dickson Carr, The Third Bullet (1937) [novella; very much of a locked room mystery, but a dry] [4] - *The Third Bullet*
John Dickson Carr, “The House in Goblin Wood” (1947) [4] - JDC *The Third Bullet & Other Stories*
Fredric Brown, “Whistler’s Murder” (1946) [short/neat/cute] [4-] - Penzler, Golden Age
John Dickson Carr, “The Wrong Problem” (1936; rev. 1947) [3] - Black Lizard
For some of the principal anthologies, see:
Martin Edwards, *As If by Magic: Locked-Room Mysteries & Other Impossible Crimes*
Otto Penzler, Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries [this volume]
Otto Penzler, The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries
M. Ashley, The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries
M. Ashley, The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes
J. Adrian & R. Adey (ed.), Murder Impossible: An Extravaganza of Miraculous Murders Fantastic Felonies & Incredible Criminals
* G. K. Chesterton, “The Invisible Man” (1911)
and a new(ish) collection:
Martin Edwards, *As If by Magic: Locked-Room Mysteries & Other Impossible Crimes*
Here is the final set for now, a couple of which are outstanding. I still stick to my original claim that the short form, so popular for Locked Room mysteries, is still not an ideal form for it. Yet thousands upon thousands have been written, as a glance at Robert Adey’s bibliography will show. At any rate I have found a set of Locked Room short stories that will work for my purposes and I can now go on to other things. Here are the next four:
* Carter Dickson, “The Silver Curtain” (1939) [6]
in Mike Ashley. The Mammoth Book of Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes; or in Carter Dickson, The Department of Queer Complaints (1940)
* Arthur Porges, “No Killer has Wings” (1960) [6-]
in M. Ashley. The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries
D. L. Champion, “The Day Nobody Died” (1944) [5]
in the Inspector Allhoff series (really a pulp story, but pretty good)
Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Exact Opposite” (1941) [4]
in The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith
(Leith is the dapper, Robin Hood of thieves — stealing [back] from the
crooked and giving to the needy. I found him annoying, tbh)
Another really nice one is:
* Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Clue of the Runaway Blond” [5.5] (See my review ad loc.)
[This case is concerned with a victim found stabbed in the middle of a ploughed field without any traces of footprints roundabout; but it is also so much more…]
Here is another excellent Locked Room short story:
* Edward D. Hoch, “The Leopard Locked Room” (1971) [5.5] in EQMM October 1971, rpt. in *Leopold’s Way*
https://www.homeworkforyou.com/static...
This is the final installment of a useful series of blog posts: https://moonlight-detective.blogspot....
And some good Japanese (and other) locked room titles: https://www.mylri.com/books/
Two more… (below)
I’ve been searching for a set of locked-room short stories or novellas, preferably Golden Age, which would be suitable and accessible for students in an introductory class on Crime Fiction. I have yet to find what I’m looking for. [The really short form, at least, does not really lend itself *persuasively* to locked-rooms or to impossible crimes.]
At any rate, here are six more stories, two of which are, in fact, really excellent (Hoch and Dunsany)
* Edward D. Hoch, “The Long Way Down” (1965) [5.5]. This is really excellent. Reprinted in E. Hoch, The Night My Friend (collected stories)
Ellery Queen, Lamp of God [House of Haunts] (1935) [5+] — a novella, often anthologized, it is now reprinted under the original 1935 title *The House of Haunts* (*The Lamp of God* was used for the reprint of 1940) in Penzler’s *Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries* [this volume], where is the best entry of otherwise somewhat mediocre collection.
* Lord Dunsany, “The Two Bottles of Relish” (1932) [5.5], in Penzler (ed.), in Penzler, Black Lizard. [“Ellery Queen once ran a survey [publ in EQMM, April 1952] to determine the ten greatest mystery stories ever written and, to the surprise of no one who has ever read it, “The Two Bottles of Relish” made the list.”] See Rochelle Kronzek (ed.) *All-Time Favorite Detective Stories* (2010), where they are published as an anthology: https://www.amazon.com/All-Time-Favor...
Georges Simenon, “Little House at Croix-Rousse” (1935) [4.5]. Translated by Anthony Boucher (1947), in Penzler (ed.), Black Lizard {= the story cited by Robert Adey as “The Case of Dr. Ceccioni”, which is the title used by an earlier, 1935, translation.}
Ronald Knox, “Solved By Inspection” (10; 1931) ⛔️ [this story has some racist language in it [4+], rpt. in The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories
Ben Hecht, Mystery of the Fabulous Laundryman (1933) [4], in Ch. Greyson, ed. Stories for Men (1944) [v. Hechtian in its flowery language]. A hard to find volume.
From this Penzler collection (ostensibly under review), John Dickson Carr, The Third Bullet (1937) is a novella. It is not too long and it is a decent example of a locked-room mystery, and something that I had hoped would be suitable for students. But it is somewhat dry and second-rate. This story also appears in JDC’s *The Third Bullet and Other Stories* (1954) and is often anthologized [4]. Maybe I should reread it.
Some additional stories that I’ve tried on:
John Dickson Carr, “The Locked Room” (1947) [v. abbreviated, but a good LR sample] [5] - in JDC, *The Third Bullet*
Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace, “The Tea Leaf” (1925) [5] - Black Lizard
Jacques Futrelle, “The Phantom Motor” (1905) [rather slight, but nice] [5-] - Black Lizard
Jacques Futrelle, “The Problem of Cell 13” (1907) [a widely anthologized story; pretty good] [4.5] - Black Lizard
John Dickson Carr, The Third Bullet (1937) [novella; very much of a locked room mystery, but a dry] [4] - *The Third Bullet*
John Dickson Carr, “The House in Goblin Wood” (1947) [4] - JDC *The Third Bullet & Other Stories*
Fredric Brown, “Whistler’s Murder” (1946) [short/neat/cute] [4-] - Penzler, Golden Age
John Dickson Carr, “The Wrong Problem” (1936; rev. 1947) [3] - Black Lizard
For some of the principal anthologies, see:
Martin Edwards, *As If by Magic: Locked-Room Mysteries & Other Impossible Crimes*
Otto Penzler, Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries [this volume]
Otto Penzler, The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries
M. Ashley, The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries
M. Ashley, The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes
J. Adrian & R. Adey (ed.), Murder Impossible: An Extravaganza of Miraculous Murders Fantastic Felonies & Incredible Criminals
June 26, 2022
I received a free digital galley from the publisher, via Netgalley.
I always find it frustrating when book descriptions of short-story collections don’t include a list of the stories and their authors, so I’ll list them here in case the description isn’t updated at some point to include them:
Anthony Boucher: Elsewhere
Frederic Brown: Whistler’s Murder
John Dickson Carr: The Third Bullet
Joseph Cummings: Fingerprint Ghost
Mignon G. Eberhart: The Calico Dog
Erle Stanley Gardner: The Exact Opposite
MacKinlay Kantor: The Light at Three O’Clock
C. Daly King: The Episode of the Nail and the Reguiem
Stuart Palmer: The Riddle of the Yellow Canary
Ellery Queen: The House of Haunts
Clayton Rawson: From Another World
Craig Rice: His Heart Could Break
Manly Wade Wellman: Murder Among Magicians
Cornell Woolrich: Murder at the Automat
While these are supposed to be short stories, the Carr is almost novella length—and not really up to his usual standard, though it does include a drawing of the room, which I always enjoy in Golden Age tales. But the others are mostly entertaining takes on the fabled “impossible crime” subgenre. Murder at the Automat is a noirish take on murder, set in that brief bygone era when New York (and I don’t think much of anywhere else) offered food you could choose through a window after plugging in your coin. I enjoyed that one more for its atmosphere than the cleverness of its mystery.
A standout in this collection is Ellery Queen’s The House of Haunts, in which the mystery is the disappearance of an entire decrepit mansion on Long Island. This collection will help pass a pleasurable few hours.
I always find it frustrating when book descriptions of short-story collections don’t include a list of the stories and their authors, so I’ll list them here in case the description isn’t updated at some point to include them:
Anthony Boucher: Elsewhere
Frederic Brown: Whistler’s Murder
John Dickson Carr: The Third Bullet
Joseph Cummings: Fingerprint Ghost
Mignon G. Eberhart: The Calico Dog
Erle Stanley Gardner: The Exact Opposite
MacKinlay Kantor: The Light at Three O’Clock
C. Daly King: The Episode of the Nail and the Reguiem
Stuart Palmer: The Riddle of the Yellow Canary
Ellery Queen: The House of Haunts
Clayton Rawson: From Another World
Craig Rice: His Heart Could Break
Manly Wade Wellman: Murder Among Magicians
Cornell Woolrich: Murder at the Automat
While these are supposed to be short stories, the Carr is almost novella length—and not really up to his usual standard, though it does include a drawing of the room, which I always enjoy in Golden Age tales. But the others are mostly entertaining takes on the fabled “impossible crime” subgenre. Murder at the Automat is a noirish take on murder, set in that brief bygone era when New York (and I don’t think much of anywhere else) offered food you could choose through a window after plugging in your coin. I enjoyed that one more for its atmosphere than the cleverness of its mystery.
A standout in this collection is Ellery Queen’s The House of Haunts, in which the mystery is the disappearance of an entire decrepit mansion on Long Island. This collection will help pass a pleasurable few hours.
June 27, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers, American Mystery Classics for an e-galley of this collection of stories.
"Golden Age" is usually enough of a hook to reel me into any book with those words somewhere on the cover. This collection has the added incentive to try to solve "impossible crimes" which generally fall under the locked room genre. I have to say I was impressed with the list of authors when I first began to explore this book and enjoyed reading the stories. Stories such as these gave the author full control of whatever they wanted to give the reader in the form of clues and most of the stories included here were much too "original" for me to read the mind of the author and thusly solve the mystery. However, in most cases with this grouping I didn't object to having information withheld since I pretty much expected that to happen. There are tales woven around magic and even time travel in addition to the more usual body inside a room with no easily discernable exit. Try to solve these and you will come away with a wrinkled forehead and a "What the heck...." buzzing through your brain. All good fun.
In case you are curious about the authors and their stories, here is a list.
Elsewhen - Anthony Boucher; Whistler's Murder - Fredric Brown; The Third Bullet - John Dickson Carr; Fingerprint Ghost - Joseph Commings; The Calico Dog - Mignon G. Eberhart; The Exact Opposite - Earle Stanley Gardner; The Light at Three O'Clock - MacKinlay Kantor; The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem - C. Daly King; The Riddle of the Yellow Canary - Stuart Palmer; The House of Haunts - Ellery Queen; From Another World - Clayton Rawson; His Heart Could Break - Craig Rice; Murder Among Magicians - Manly Wade Wellman; and Murder at the Automat - Cornell Woolrich.
"Golden Age" is usually enough of a hook to reel me into any book with those words somewhere on the cover. This collection has the added incentive to try to solve "impossible crimes" which generally fall under the locked room genre. I have to say I was impressed with the list of authors when I first began to explore this book and enjoyed reading the stories. Stories such as these gave the author full control of whatever they wanted to give the reader in the form of clues and most of the stories included here were much too "original" for me to read the mind of the author and thusly solve the mystery. However, in most cases with this grouping I didn't object to having information withheld since I pretty much expected that to happen. There are tales woven around magic and even time travel in addition to the more usual body inside a room with no easily discernable exit. Try to solve these and you will come away with a wrinkled forehead and a "What the heck...." buzzing through your brain. All good fun.
In case you are curious about the authors and their stories, here is a list.
Elsewhen - Anthony Boucher; Whistler's Murder - Fredric Brown; The Third Bullet - John Dickson Carr; Fingerprint Ghost - Joseph Commings; The Calico Dog - Mignon G. Eberhart; The Exact Opposite - Earle Stanley Gardner; The Light at Three O'Clock - MacKinlay Kantor; The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem - C. Daly King; The Riddle of the Yellow Canary - Stuart Palmer; The House of Haunts - Ellery Queen; From Another World - Clayton Rawson; His Heart Could Break - Craig Rice; Murder Among Magicians - Manly Wade Wellman; and Murder at the Automat - Cornell Woolrich.
July 4, 2022
Who doesn’t love reading a locked room mystery? It’s fascinating how each author in this collection thought of a unique and intriguing impossible murder scenario. And then quickly unveiled their witty solution. Surely, one or more of the fourteen tales within the Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries will tickle your inner armchair detective. Or, even better, delight your inner child with their cleverness.
That said, some of the tales’ solutions are just silly. In addition, a few of the plots require a bit more knowledge of customs only in existence between the two great wars than an average modern reader may possess to solve their mysteries. However, there is great value to such a large collection of locked room mysteries. 4 stars!
Thanks to American Mystery Classics and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.
That said, some of the tales’ solutions are just silly. In addition, a few of the plots require a bit more knowledge of customs only in existence between the two great wars than an average modern reader may possess to solve their mysteries. However, there is great value to such a large collection of locked room mysteries. 4 stars!
Thanks to American Mystery Classics and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.
June 7, 2022
Otto Penzler is the owner of one of the best mystery bookshops. It is located in New York City. However, those who live elsewhere can benefit from his curating as this excellent collection demonstrates.
Read stories by those who made the “Golden Age” golden. Some of the authors offering treats to readers in this collection include John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen and Earl Stanley Gardner. What they have in common is the convention of the ‘locked room.”
I often think of the Golden Age as British. Here though the Americans are at work.
Lovers of classic short stories may want to give this book a look.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Press for this title. All opinions are my own.
Read stories by those who made the “Golden Age” golden. Some of the authors offering treats to readers in this collection include John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen and Earl Stanley Gardner. What they have in common is the convention of the ‘locked room.”
I often think of the Golden Age as British. Here though the Americans are at work.
Lovers of classic short stories may want to give this book a look.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Press for this title. All opinions are my own.
April 13, 2022
I received an ARC from Netgalley and am providing an honest review.
I really enjoy classic detective and mystery stories so was thrilled when I received this E-ARC of an Otto Penzler curated selection of locked room mysteries. Thematically, all of the stories in this collection are about 'impossible' situations - which mostly involved physical locked rooms but also other impossible situations. I am a big fan of the better known British crime writers - Agatha Christie for example - so was happy to get exposure to more classics especially American ones.
Positives - I really enjoyed all the stories and would recommend this collection to anyone who has an interest in classic detective fiction. A lot of them are certainly classic tropes - and would probably hit the mark more with someone who already is across the genre, and I enjoyed seeing, in some of them, the first iteration of now well-used tropes in detective fiction. I enjoyed all the stories but obviously some more than others. Some of them definitely show their dates...no spoilers but one story involved confirming the stereotype that blonde women are always innocent while darker haired women are not...I felt like that one, while the mystery was a good one, didn't quite hit the mark. On that note it would've been great for the curator to add in contextual details in the blurb.
Definitely on the topic of context - I think what I missed a bit was more contextual details about the story itself and the context of the author. As mentioned before some of the stories are definitely a bit of their time and this would have helped present the story as a reflection or snapshot of the specific period this was written in and what kind of values and ideas were being reflected and represented. In general, the stories start off with a short blurb about the author - but I would like some more general context or history which may have inspired the story itself. The collection that did this best for me is another collection on Japanese mythology in the urban setting 'Kaiki: Tales of the Metropolis' - which, while a different subject matter, had some amazing contextual discussion on the stories. I think when books involve a curation or collection which spans time and history it's very helpful to the reader to give more rather than less in the way of contextual and historical details.
I really enjoy classic detective and mystery stories so was thrilled when I received this E-ARC of an Otto Penzler curated selection of locked room mysteries. Thematically, all of the stories in this collection are about 'impossible' situations - which mostly involved physical locked rooms but also other impossible situations. I am a big fan of the better known British crime writers - Agatha Christie for example - so was happy to get exposure to more classics especially American ones.
Positives - I really enjoyed all the stories and would recommend this collection to anyone who has an interest in classic detective fiction. A lot of them are certainly classic tropes - and would probably hit the mark more with someone who already is across the genre, and I enjoyed seeing, in some of them, the first iteration of now well-used tropes in detective fiction. I enjoyed all the stories but obviously some more than others. Some of them definitely show their dates...no spoilers but one story involved confirming the stereotype that blonde women are always innocent while darker haired women are not...I felt like that one, while the mystery was a good one, didn't quite hit the mark. On that note it would've been great for the curator to add in contextual details in the blurb.
Definitely on the topic of context - I think what I missed a bit was more contextual details about the story itself and the context of the author. As mentioned before some of the stories are definitely a bit of their time and this would have helped present the story as a reflection or snapshot of the specific period this was written in and what kind of values and ideas were being reflected and represented. In general, the stories start off with a short blurb about the author - but I would like some more general context or history which may have inspired the story itself. The collection that did this best for me is another collection on Japanese mythology in the urban setting 'Kaiki: Tales of the Metropolis' - which, while a different subject matter, had some amazing contextual discussion on the stories. I think when books involve a curation or collection which spans time and history it's very helpful to the reader to give more rather than less in the way of contextual and historical details.
September 24, 2022
Puzzles? Ciphers? Unexplainable escapes? If these appeal to you, and check the box for your reading preferences, grab this book, settle back in your favorite nest, put your feet up and read this collection of fourteen tales. These are authors who, between the world wars, offered their readership posers that are not easily untangled, and require a reveal. Stories range from quaint to eerie to noir-ish, and can be read all at once, or as I did, one at a time - to ponder and roll over in my mind.
My favorites were House of Haunts, by Ellery Queen, Exact Opposite, by ES Gardner, and Calico Dog, by MG Eberhart. The tales will sweep you back in time, and offer an evening with the classics. . .for me that was a lovely way to welcome Autumn in. . .
A Sincere Thank You to Otto Penzler, ed, Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review! #GoldenAgeLockedRoomMysteries #NetGalley
My favorites were House of Haunts, by Ellery Queen, Exact Opposite, by ES Gardner, and Calico Dog, by MG Eberhart. The tales will sweep you back in time, and offer an evening with the classics. . .for me that was a lovely way to welcome Autumn in. . .
A Sincere Thank You to Otto Penzler, ed, Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review! #GoldenAgeLockedRoomMysteries #NetGalley
March 20, 2022
Otto Penzler's curated anthologies of classic mystery fiction are always a delightful combination of stories I've read and others that are completely new to me, and I suspect that this is true for other readers as well. This anthology feels a bit more hit-or-miss than some of the others, but it's still a very good collection of locked room stories, with highlights being tales by Mignon Eberhart, Ellery Queen, and Cornell Woolrich. The Queen is especially noteworthy for the fact that it's written in such a way as to make the reader overthink the solution, while the Eberhart offering features some excellent characterization.
Not all of the pieces hold up particularly well in terms of time passed since they were written, but neither are there any horribly racist stories in the book, which may well have taken some careful curation on Penzler's part. (Sexism is alive and well in several stories.) Mostly readers who aren't accustomed to stories from the early-to-mid 20th century could find themselves lost in outdated terms and tech; one story takes place in an automat while another relies heavily on a telephone switchboard. There's also not quite as many lost gems in this collection as in others, with a fair amount that I'd encountered in other books before. Having them all in one volume together, however, is very nice.
All in all, this is a very nice addition to the available reprints of Golden Age mystery stories. I could see it used in a classroom or book club setting just as easily as for personal enjoyment, and even if it isn't the best of Penzler's anthologies, it's still well worth picking up.
Not all of the pieces hold up particularly well in terms of time passed since they were written, but neither are there any horribly racist stories in the book, which may well have taken some careful curation on Penzler's part. (Sexism is alive and well in several stories.) Mostly readers who aren't accustomed to stories from the early-to-mid 20th century could find themselves lost in outdated terms and tech; one story takes place in an automat while another relies heavily on a telephone switchboard. There's also not quite as many lost gems in this collection as in others, with a fair amount that I'd encountered in other books before. Having them all in one volume together, however, is very nice.
All in all, this is a very nice addition to the available reprints of Golden Age mystery stories. I could see it used in a classroom or book club setting just as easily as for personal enjoyment, and even if it isn't the best of Penzler's anthologies, it's still well worth picking up.
June 16, 2022
Talk about delectable reading material...fourteen short mystery stories resplendent with oodles of poison, theft, spies, ghostly whispers, letters, candles and shadows and even a hypnotist! Each chapter contains a blurb about the Golden Age (the years between the two world wars) author who wrote that particular story, many well known and others you may not have heard of. I am always delighted to discover new-to-me authors and enjoy the often challenging hunt for their books. Several of the stories are literally locked room mysteries and others are impossible to solve, especially in the context of the age.
My favourite stories include "Elsewhen" by Anthony Boucher (I have yet to encounter a work by him which I did not enjoy) which involves the invention of a time machine and committing the perfect crime with it; the descriptive "Fingerprint Ghost" sleight of hand by Joseph Cummings (a new author to me); creative "The Calico Dog" by Mignon G. Eberhart which includes the intriguing statement, "The two of him has returned."; MacKinlay Kantor's brilliant "The Light at Three O'clock"; Daly King's locked room "The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem" and Stuart Palmer's "The Riddle of the Yellow Canary" with a particularly enticing first paragraph.
Golden Age readers ought to flock to this volume filled to the brim with fun, some stories more believable than others, but all delightful when read in the spirit in which they were written.
My sincere thank you to Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this terrific book! We as readers are so fortunate that editors including Otto Penzler revives stories of this era which would be a shame to lose.
My favourite stories include "Elsewhen" by Anthony Boucher (I have yet to encounter a work by him which I did not enjoy) which involves the invention of a time machine and committing the perfect crime with it; the descriptive "Fingerprint Ghost" sleight of hand by Joseph Cummings (a new author to me); creative "The Calico Dog" by Mignon G. Eberhart which includes the intriguing statement, "The two of him has returned."; MacKinlay Kantor's brilliant "The Light at Three O'clock"; Daly King's locked room "The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem" and Stuart Palmer's "The Riddle of the Yellow Canary" with a particularly enticing first paragraph.
Golden Age readers ought to flock to this volume filled to the brim with fun, some stories more believable than others, but all delightful when read in the spirit in which they were written.
My sincere thank you to Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this terrific book! We as readers are so fortunate that editors including Otto Penzler revives stories of this era which would be a shame to lose.
September 6, 2022
Another great collection with very helpful intros by Penzler. What I love about these collections is that I can read stories by authors whose work is close to impossible to read unless you got big $ to spend when you do find them.
Boucher's futuristic mystery was an interesting way to start, and reminded me of a Spanish film (much more current) that also used this same type of scenario. The interesting element of these stories (besides locked room) was the essence of macabre. Also, I think the shorter version of the mysteries also brought out the evil of the bad persons more.
Two authors that I haven't read stories of before (to my memory) are: Joseph Commings and Manly Wade Wellman.
Boucher's futuristic mystery was an interesting way to start, and reminded me of a Spanish film (much more current) that also used this same type of scenario. The interesting element of these stories (besides locked room) was the essence of macabre. Also, I think the shorter version of the mysteries also brought out the evil of the bad persons more.
Two authors that I haven't read stories of before (to my memory) are: Joseph Commings and Manly Wade Wellman.
March 29, 2022
A great collection of 14 impossible crimes with a great diversity in set ups and the detectives trying to solve them. From locked rooms, to impossible disappearances, and plenty of murders. Penzler knows how to pick ace examples.
August 22, 2022
I think this book was hamstrung by coming after Penzler’s earlier book The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes. The stories in this book are good but overall it suffers by comparison.
August 15, 2022
Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries
Edited by Otto Penzler
An ARC from NetGalley due to be published 5 July 2022, thanks to Penzler Publishers and distributor W. W. Norton for approval.
A “locked room” mystery is actually a crime that appears to have been impossible to commit based on location or surroundings. While a locked room itself is the most common, it can also be a physical location such as a snow-covered landscape with only the murder victim’s footprints in the snow. The Golden Age of detective fiction is usually considered to be the years between the two world wars. Penzler has selected fourteen short stories from some of the best authors of that period, ranging from those well-known to this day and others who have faded into obscurity, recognized only by die-hard mystery fans of the era. While a few publication dates fall past the period, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume they were still written within that time frame.
While the digital ARC I was provided had numerous format and spelling errors, I am confident that these will be addressed before the final product is released. Be prepared for out-of-date slang, different attitudes towards women, the poor, and the working class. Surprisingly enough, the racism common to the period appears to have been carefully eliminated (or possibly edited out).
The introductions are some of the best that I’ve seen in collections since Isaac Asimov passed away. I love the look at both the author and the story, its history, and whether there have been films and/or television series based on the stories (or series characters, if appropriate). This collection is definitely for the die-hard mystery fan who has either delved into this era or would like to. As with every collection, there are highs and lows. My favorite would have to be “The Light at Three O’Clock” by MacKinlay Kantor. Definitely a winner of a collection. 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.
_____________
“Elsewhen” by Anthony Boucher. (Published in 1946) Amateur inventor Harrison Partridge accidentally discovers a time machine, immediately beginning to dream of fame and fortune as well as marrying the much younger Faith Preston. Unfortunately the time travel is only to the past and only for less than an hour earlier, making it essentially worthless to those who might be interested in the device. However, when Faith announces her engagement to a handsome young man of wealth and status, it sets Harrison onto a murderous path in which his time machine is an essential part. A locked room murder, a hapless suspect in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a desperate fiancee, all mixed with a time machine. Lots of unrealized potential in Boucher’s story. The mixture of mystery and science fiction might’ve been better served in a longer novella format which would’ve allowed more time to develop Fergus O’Breen, the series private detective brought in to solve the crime by Faith. Harrison was the best developed character, even generating pity and some sympathy. Not one of Boucher’s best, but also not bad. 3 out of 5.
“Whistler’s Murder” by Fredric Brown. (1946) Can also be found as “Mr. Smith Protects His Client”. Henry Smith of Phalanx Insurance Co. was called to discuss a lapsed life insurance policy. Upon arriving at the young man’s residence, Henry discovers his client’s uncle was murdered and his client is under arrest. However the Sheriff cannot understand how the murderer actually gained access to the house without being seen by two private guards who were posted on the roof. Almost cozy, with a soft-spoken protagonist whose demeanor invites others to speak freely with him. The solution was cute, if you can call discovering who the murderers are with that term. A fun read. 3.5 out of 5.
“The Third Bullet” by John Dickson Carr. (1937 in England as a novella; 1948 in the U.S. in an edited form) This is the shorter version. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Colonel Marquis is intrigued by Inspector Page’s latest case, the murder of Justice Mortlake. It happened in almost plain sight of Page and a fellow officer, yet Page has serious doubts as to the identity of the perpertrator. A bit convoluted and with so much detail about pretty much everything to the point of boredom. My experience with Carr in the past has always been the same, long drawn out scenes as if he was writing in the early 1800s, not 1900s. If this is the shorter version, I cannot imagine what the longer one contained! By the time I was about halfway through the story, I didn’t really care who was guilty or how it was done. I did manage to struggle through, but to be honest, if this wasn’t an ARC, I probably would’ve DNF’d it. 2 out of 5.
“Fingerprint Ghost” by Joseph Commings. (1947) Senator Brooks U. Banner is told of a mysterious murder by a fellow magician. When the police finally admitted they had no clues or leads, the family turned to a medium to get answers. The magician Larry Drollen challenges the medium as well as hoping he can draw the murderer out into the open. Banner is a lumbering caricature of an amateur detective, yet there is still a charm about him that would’ve had me wanting to delve into more stories in this series. Stage magic, freak show marriages, and misdirections galore all combine into a delightful mystery with a clever solution. CW: off-page suicide, fetuscide. 4 out of 5.
“The Calico Dog” by Mignon G. Eberhart. (1934) Mrs. Idabelle Lasher, widow of multi-millionaire Jeremiah Lasher, is in a quandary. Twenty years ago their four year old son Derek disappeared with his nursemaid. Now two men, Derek and Duane, have appeared, claiming that they are the missing heir. Young Susan Dare, a mystery writer, is asked to find out which man is telling the truth, if either. Her plan to reveal the truth may put in motion more than she anticipated. As much a thriller as a mystery, but definitely a fun read. Dare is a bit careless with her plotting, but she definitely has her heart in the right place. 4 out of 5.
“The Exact Opposite” by Erle Stanley Gardner. (1941) Lester Leigh has been both a private investigator and a thief in the manner of Robin Hood, stealing from the crooked rich and giving the proceeds to charity, minus a 20% “recovery” fee. His valet, called Scuttle by Leith, is actually a spy who reports to police sergeant Arthur Ackley, a man obsessed with putting Leith in jail. Well aware of this, Leith plants misinformation with the undercover operator to be shared with a frustrated Ackley. Scuttle brings the murder of adventurer George Navin and the theft of a sacred ruby to his attention. Leith claims he has promised himself to stop working out any more academic crime solutions, but is tempted by this one. Huh. I’m not certain what to say about this story. The use of a thief as the hero is a trope that I’ve always loved, whether television series such as “It Takes a Thief”, “Garrison’s Gorillas”, “Leverage”, and “The Saint” (as well as the books) or films in the same vein. A twisty plan to get results that aren’t explained at the start is also more than acceptable. Despite all that, I just found it hard to lose myself in the story. The characters are fascinating as to be expected from the writer of the Perry Mason book series. Basically I found this to be too much setup for such a short story. The ending, however, was a delight. 3 out of 5.
“The Light at Three O’Clock” by MacKinlay Kantor. (1930) Switchboard operator Eddie Shultz is ready to quit when the buzzer and light for Room 22 keeps activating and there is no answer other than gurgling or rough breaths. The room is supposed to be unoccupied after the only resident was murdered the night before, or so the police believe to have happened. The body, based on the flimsy evidence, was taken away by the ones behind the attack. Now this was a ride! Part suspense, beginning with an undercurrent of horror, leading into the locked room mystery itself. I absolutely loved this story, from start to finish. 5 out of 5.
“The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem” by C. Daly King. (1935) While accompanying an apartment manager to the penthouse over a report of music played over and over again, Trevis Tarrant recognized the song as a requiem mass. With no answer to banging on the door or calls to the room telephone, Tarrant climbs up to peer through the skylight. There he observes the body of a naked young woman, a knife protruding from under her left breast. A relatively tightly constructed mystery from an author who truly deserves more attention. This is more a “howdunnit” rather than a “who-” or “why-”. 3.5 out of 5.
“The Riddle of the Yellow Canary” by Stuart Palmer. (1934) Schoolteacher and amateur sleuth Hildegard Withers is invited by NYPD Inspector Oliver Piper to the site of a suspected suicide as a way of showing how the police differentiate between a murder and a suicide. Everything seems to point to suicide, but something about it bothers Withers and she begins to investigate further. Quite possibly one of Palmer’s most known characters, Hildegarde is not the usual female protagonist. Smart, yes, but definitely not beautiful or even handsome in looks, the kind of older spinster who is a background character most of the time. She’s loud, tall, opinionated, and forceful when she needs to be. As to this inverted detective story (where the reader already knows who did the crime and how – think the television series “Columbo”), a rarity in mystery fiction, the author has done a bang-up job from start to finish. 3.5 out of 5.
“The House of Haunts” by Ellery Queen. (1935) Can also be found as “The Lamp of God”. Ellery Queen is a man who believes in science and logic, a confirmed agnostic whose faith is in facts not fancy. When a lawyer friend calls for help, Queen agrees to go despite not knowing what is going on, but hearing a level of disturbance in his friend’s voice that concerns him. He is told to act as if he knows what is going on, not to ask any questions, leaving Queen to use what little information his friend can relay as well as what he can observe. There are strong gothic vibes within this mystery tale. The length is extreme for a short story, taking close to 20% of the collection. An extremely sloooooow read with a very convoluted plot and solution. I can see it appealing to many readers, but sadly I am not one of them. 3 out of 5.
“Off the Face of the Earth” by Clayton Rawson. (1949) The Great Merlini is fascinated by the information relayed to him by NYPD Inspector Gavigan regarding the Helen Hope disappearance. A man who claims to be from the dark cloud of Antares predicted her disappearance down to the date and time it would happen. Now he’s predicting the same for the Judge overseeing his arraignment. When that prediction comes true as well, in plain sight of two police officers, Merlini is determined to discover exactly how it was accomplished. I did enjoy this one! Mixing magic and mystery is something I truly enjoy when done right. And Rawson, an illusionist himself, definitely knows how to set-up the trick as well as sell it to his audience. I’m very pleased with the story and the characters within. 4 out of 5.
“His Heart Could Break” by Craig Rice. (1943) Shyster lawyer John J. Malone is furious when, while visiting his client on Death Row, the young man is found hanging in his cell. The man lives just long enough to utter “it wouldn’t break” to Malone before he dies. There was no reason for suicide considering Malone had finagled a new trial for him. Believing that his fees will go unpaid, Malone decides his only chance is to find the motive behind the hanging as well as how the rope was delivered and by who. It’s funny, as much as I enjoy stories with thieves and con-artists as the “heroes”, I strongly dislike those with crooked cops and lawyers. Here Malone doesn’t spare a moment to mourn his client’s cruel death, only the possible loss of his money. The prison-based song weaving through the story was an unusual touch, but well done. As was the solution to the mystery. 3.5 out of 5.
“Murder Among Magicians” by Manley Wade Wellman. (1939) Five musicians, four men and one woman, are invited to master magician and escape artist Securtaris’ isolated island. When a practical joke turns fatal, Homicide detective Grinstead must make his way there through the impending storm to determine what happened. So melodramatic, but in a good way. There is also a touch of blossoming romance, multiple secrets that spill out during the investigation and informal reading of the will, and a surprisingly satisfying conclusion. Almost Christie-like in the telling. 3.5 out of 5.
“Murder at the Automat” by Cornell Woolrich. (1937) Police detective Nelson and his partner Sarecky are called to an automat for the death of a man while eating. When the ambulance intern recognizes suspicious powder both on the man’s mouth and in the bologna sandwich, Nelson realizes it is murder. There were three other men, all strangers, eating at the same table, but one of them slipped away before the police could lock the place down. Nelson’s partner and captain are both convinced this is the killer. Nelson believes the man is innocent, but cannot say anything until he can find the real murderer. WARNING: contains police brutality (or as we call it nowadays, enhanced interrogation) and severe violation of a suspect’s rights. Nelson is a good cop, more interested in arresting the right man for the crime than grabbing whoever is to hand. An intriguing mystery with well-drawn out characters, good and bad. [For those too young to know or remember, automats were like cafeterias in many ways. Only the food would be put behind glass compartment doors. You would put your coin(s) in, usually a nickel or dime during that period, the door would unlock, and you would pull out your food. All self-serve. I was lucky enough to go to one of the last automats in New York City when I was young and, while the food wasn’t the best, it wasn’t bad for the price.] 4 out of 5.
Edited by Otto Penzler
An ARC from NetGalley due to be published 5 July 2022, thanks to Penzler Publishers and distributor W. W. Norton for approval.
A “locked room” mystery is actually a crime that appears to have been impossible to commit based on location or surroundings. While a locked room itself is the most common, it can also be a physical location such as a snow-covered landscape with only the murder victim’s footprints in the snow. The Golden Age of detective fiction is usually considered to be the years between the two world wars. Penzler has selected fourteen short stories from some of the best authors of that period, ranging from those well-known to this day and others who have faded into obscurity, recognized only by die-hard mystery fans of the era. While a few publication dates fall past the period, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume they were still written within that time frame.
While the digital ARC I was provided had numerous format and spelling errors, I am confident that these will be addressed before the final product is released. Be prepared for out-of-date slang, different attitudes towards women, the poor, and the working class. Surprisingly enough, the racism common to the period appears to have been carefully eliminated (or possibly edited out).
The introductions are some of the best that I’ve seen in collections since Isaac Asimov passed away. I love the look at both the author and the story, its history, and whether there have been films and/or television series based on the stories (or series characters, if appropriate). This collection is definitely for the die-hard mystery fan who has either delved into this era or would like to. As with every collection, there are highs and lows. My favorite would have to be “The Light at Three O’Clock” by MacKinlay Kantor. Definitely a winner of a collection. 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.
_____________
“Elsewhen” by Anthony Boucher. (Published in 1946) Amateur inventor Harrison Partridge accidentally discovers a time machine, immediately beginning to dream of fame and fortune as well as marrying the much younger Faith Preston. Unfortunately the time travel is only to the past and only for less than an hour earlier, making it essentially worthless to those who might be interested in the device. However, when Faith announces her engagement to a handsome young man of wealth and status, it sets Harrison onto a murderous path in which his time machine is an essential part. A locked room murder, a hapless suspect in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a desperate fiancee, all mixed with a time machine. Lots of unrealized potential in Boucher’s story. The mixture of mystery and science fiction might’ve been better served in a longer novella format which would’ve allowed more time to develop Fergus O’Breen, the series private detective brought in to solve the crime by Faith. Harrison was the best developed character, even generating pity and some sympathy. Not one of Boucher’s best, but also not bad. 3 out of 5.
“Whistler’s Murder” by Fredric Brown. (1946) Can also be found as “Mr. Smith Protects His Client”. Henry Smith of Phalanx Insurance Co. was called to discuss a lapsed life insurance policy. Upon arriving at the young man’s residence, Henry discovers his client’s uncle was murdered and his client is under arrest. However the Sheriff cannot understand how the murderer actually gained access to the house without being seen by two private guards who were posted on the roof. Almost cozy, with a soft-spoken protagonist whose demeanor invites others to speak freely with him. The solution was cute, if you can call discovering who the murderers are with that term. A fun read. 3.5 out of 5.
“The Third Bullet” by John Dickson Carr. (1937 in England as a novella; 1948 in the U.S. in an edited form) This is the shorter version. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Colonel Marquis is intrigued by Inspector Page’s latest case, the murder of Justice Mortlake. It happened in almost plain sight of Page and a fellow officer, yet Page has serious doubts as to the identity of the perpertrator. A bit convoluted and with so much detail about pretty much everything to the point of boredom. My experience with Carr in the past has always been the same, long drawn out scenes as if he was writing in the early 1800s, not 1900s. If this is the shorter version, I cannot imagine what the longer one contained! By the time I was about halfway through the story, I didn’t really care who was guilty or how it was done. I did manage to struggle through, but to be honest, if this wasn’t an ARC, I probably would’ve DNF’d it. 2 out of 5.
“Fingerprint Ghost” by Joseph Commings. (1947) Senator Brooks U. Banner is told of a mysterious murder by a fellow magician. When the police finally admitted they had no clues or leads, the family turned to a medium to get answers. The magician Larry Drollen challenges the medium as well as hoping he can draw the murderer out into the open. Banner is a lumbering caricature of an amateur detective, yet there is still a charm about him that would’ve had me wanting to delve into more stories in this series. Stage magic, freak show marriages, and misdirections galore all combine into a delightful mystery with a clever solution. CW: off-page suicide, fetuscide. 4 out of 5.
“The Calico Dog” by Mignon G. Eberhart. (1934) Mrs. Idabelle Lasher, widow of multi-millionaire Jeremiah Lasher, is in a quandary. Twenty years ago their four year old son Derek disappeared with his nursemaid. Now two men, Derek and Duane, have appeared, claiming that they are the missing heir. Young Susan Dare, a mystery writer, is asked to find out which man is telling the truth, if either. Her plan to reveal the truth may put in motion more than she anticipated. As much a thriller as a mystery, but definitely a fun read. Dare is a bit careless with her plotting, but she definitely has her heart in the right place. 4 out of 5.
“The Exact Opposite” by Erle Stanley Gardner. (1941) Lester Leigh has been both a private investigator and a thief in the manner of Robin Hood, stealing from the crooked rich and giving the proceeds to charity, minus a 20% “recovery” fee. His valet, called Scuttle by Leith, is actually a spy who reports to police sergeant Arthur Ackley, a man obsessed with putting Leith in jail. Well aware of this, Leith plants misinformation with the undercover operator to be shared with a frustrated Ackley. Scuttle brings the murder of adventurer George Navin and the theft of a sacred ruby to his attention. Leith claims he has promised himself to stop working out any more academic crime solutions, but is tempted by this one. Huh. I’m not certain what to say about this story. The use of a thief as the hero is a trope that I’ve always loved, whether television series such as “It Takes a Thief”, “Garrison’s Gorillas”, “Leverage”, and “The Saint” (as well as the books) or films in the same vein. A twisty plan to get results that aren’t explained at the start is also more than acceptable. Despite all that, I just found it hard to lose myself in the story. The characters are fascinating as to be expected from the writer of the Perry Mason book series. Basically I found this to be too much setup for such a short story. The ending, however, was a delight. 3 out of 5.
“The Light at Three O’Clock” by MacKinlay Kantor. (1930) Switchboard operator Eddie Shultz is ready to quit when the buzzer and light for Room 22 keeps activating and there is no answer other than gurgling or rough breaths. The room is supposed to be unoccupied after the only resident was murdered the night before, or so the police believe to have happened. The body, based on the flimsy evidence, was taken away by the ones behind the attack. Now this was a ride! Part suspense, beginning with an undercurrent of horror, leading into the locked room mystery itself. I absolutely loved this story, from start to finish. 5 out of 5.
“The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem” by C. Daly King. (1935) While accompanying an apartment manager to the penthouse over a report of music played over and over again, Trevis Tarrant recognized the song as a requiem mass. With no answer to banging on the door or calls to the room telephone, Tarrant climbs up to peer through the skylight. There he observes the body of a naked young woman, a knife protruding from under her left breast. A relatively tightly constructed mystery from an author who truly deserves more attention. This is more a “howdunnit” rather than a “who-” or “why-”. 3.5 out of 5.
“The Riddle of the Yellow Canary” by Stuart Palmer. (1934) Schoolteacher and amateur sleuth Hildegard Withers is invited by NYPD Inspector Oliver Piper to the site of a suspected suicide as a way of showing how the police differentiate between a murder and a suicide. Everything seems to point to suicide, but something about it bothers Withers and she begins to investigate further. Quite possibly one of Palmer’s most known characters, Hildegarde is not the usual female protagonist. Smart, yes, but definitely not beautiful or even handsome in looks, the kind of older spinster who is a background character most of the time. She’s loud, tall, opinionated, and forceful when she needs to be. As to this inverted detective story (where the reader already knows who did the crime and how – think the television series “Columbo”), a rarity in mystery fiction, the author has done a bang-up job from start to finish. 3.5 out of 5.
“The House of Haunts” by Ellery Queen. (1935) Can also be found as “The Lamp of God”. Ellery Queen is a man who believes in science and logic, a confirmed agnostic whose faith is in facts not fancy. When a lawyer friend calls for help, Queen agrees to go despite not knowing what is going on, but hearing a level of disturbance in his friend’s voice that concerns him. He is told to act as if he knows what is going on, not to ask any questions, leaving Queen to use what little information his friend can relay as well as what he can observe. There are strong gothic vibes within this mystery tale. The length is extreme for a short story, taking close to 20% of the collection. An extremely sloooooow read with a very convoluted plot and solution. I can see it appealing to many readers, but sadly I am not one of them. 3 out of 5.
“Off the Face of the Earth” by Clayton Rawson. (1949) The Great Merlini is fascinated by the information relayed to him by NYPD Inspector Gavigan regarding the Helen Hope disappearance. A man who claims to be from the dark cloud of Antares predicted her disappearance down to the date and time it would happen. Now he’s predicting the same for the Judge overseeing his arraignment. When that prediction comes true as well, in plain sight of two police officers, Merlini is determined to discover exactly how it was accomplished. I did enjoy this one! Mixing magic and mystery is something I truly enjoy when done right. And Rawson, an illusionist himself, definitely knows how to set-up the trick as well as sell it to his audience. I’m very pleased with the story and the characters within. 4 out of 5.
“His Heart Could Break” by Craig Rice. (1943) Shyster lawyer John J. Malone is furious when, while visiting his client on Death Row, the young man is found hanging in his cell. The man lives just long enough to utter “it wouldn’t break” to Malone before he dies. There was no reason for suicide considering Malone had finagled a new trial for him. Believing that his fees will go unpaid, Malone decides his only chance is to find the motive behind the hanging as well as how the rope was delivered and by who. It’s funny, as much as I enjoy stories with thieves and con-artists as the “heroes”, I strongly dislike those with crooked cops and lawyers. Here Malone doesn’t spare a moment to mourn his client’s cruel death, only the possible loss of his money. The prison-based song weaving through the story was an unusual touch, but well done. As was the solution to the mystery. 3.5 out of 5.
“Murder Among Magicians” by Manley Wade Wellman. (1939) Five musicians, four men and one woman, are invited to master magician and escape artist Securtaris’ isolated island. When a practical joke turns fatal, Homicide detective Grinstead must make his way there through the impending storm to determine what happened. So melodramatic, but in a good way. There is also a touch of blossoming romance, multiple secrets that spill out during the investigation and informal reading of the will, and a surprisingly satisfying conclusion. Almost Christie-like in the telling. 3.5 out of 5.
“Murder at the Automat” by Cornell Woolrich. (1937) Police detective Nelson and his partner Sarecky are called to an automat for the death of a man while eating. When the ambulance intern recognizes suspicious powder both on the man’s mouth and in the bologna sandwich, Nelson realizes it is murder. There were three other men, all strangers, eating at the same table, but one of them slipped away before the police could lock the place down. Nelson’s partner and captain are both convinced this is the killer. Nelson believes the man is innocent, but cannot say anything until he can find the real murderer. WARNING: contains police brutality (or as we call it nowadays, enhanced interrogation) and severe violation of a suspect’s rights. Nelson is a good cop, more interested in arresting the right man for the crime than grabbing whoever is to hand. An intriguing mystery with well-drawn out characters, good and bad. [For those too young to know or remember, automats were like cafeterias in many ways. Only the food would be put behind glass compartment doors. You would put your coin(s) in, usually a nickel or dime during that period, the door would unlock, and you would pull out your food. All self-serve. I was lucky enough to go to one of the last automats in New York City when I was young and, while the food wasn’t the best, it wasn’t bad for the price.] 4 out of 5.
March 2, 2024
A great set of stories from the 30s through the 50s. The locked room trope is explored well, many of the great detective series from that time are included, and the authors of the period are well represented.
The book includes perhaps the single best Ellery Queen novella, The Lamp of God. It may be a bit of a stretch to call this a locked-room mystery, but is surely is an "impossible event" mystery. If you've never read it, it's worth the book just for that.
My only real complaint is opening the collection with an Avram Davidson (The Avram Davidson Treasury: A Tribute Collection) that depends on time travel. While Davidson was both a mystery and science fiction staple in the 40s, I think that was a poor choice for the collection and especially for the opening story. No other stories have a science fiction or fantasy element, and this one seemed an anomoly.
Most of these stories are fun-to-solve mysteries, and a reminder of why these authors were so popular in their time -- and still entertain today.
The book includes perhaps the single best Ellery Queen novella, The Lamp of God. It may be a bit of a stretch to call this a locked-room mystery, but is surely is an "impossible event" mystery. If you've never read it, it's worth the book just for that.
My only real complaint is opening the collection with an Avram Davidson (The Avram Davidson Treasury: A Tribute Collection) that depends on time travel. While Davidson was both a mystery and science fiction staple in the 40s, I think that was a poor choice for the collection and especially for the opening story. No other stories have a science fiction or fantasy element, and this one seemed an anomoly.
Most of these stories are fun-to-solve mysteries, and a reminder of why these authors were so popular in their time -- and still entertain today.
April 27, 2024
elsewhen 4/5
whistler’s murder 4/5
the third bullet 3/5
fingerprint ghost 4/5
the calico dog 3/5
the exact opposite 4/5
the light at three o’clock 5/5
the episode of the nail and the requiem 5/5
the riddle of the yellow canary 5/5
the house of haunts 5/5
off the face of the earth 4/5
his heart could break 3.5/5
murder among magicians 3/5
murder at the automat 4/5
whistler’s murder 4/5
the third bullet 3/5
fingerprint ghost 4/5
the calico dog 3/5
the exact opposite 4/5
the light at three o’clock 5/5
the episode of the nail and the requiem 5/5
the riddle of the yellow canary 5/5
the house of haunts 5/5
off the face of the earth 4/5
his heart could break 3.5/5
murder among magicians 3/5
murder at the automat 4/5
November 20, 2025
The title really says it all. Most of these stories are winners, and there are enough that were new to me to make it an enjoyable read.
February 27, 2023
Some of these stories strained credulity, but others were a lot of fun. "The Third Bullet" was fantastic.
April 24, 2022
“Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries” is the latest in the series of American Mystery Classics curated and/or edited by Otto Penzler. This is a collection of 14 short stories, all involving the “locked room” type of puzzle, a seemingly impossible murder that eventually gets solved/explained. The acknowledged master of this subgenre is John Dickson Carr, who is represented here, along with Ellery Queen, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Craig Rice, and others who may not be as well known.
As is typical in this type of collection, some of the stories appealed to me more than others, and the length of a few of these stretch the definition of “short” stories, but this is definitely a collection worth reading.
“Elsewhen” by Anthony Boucher. A fun story of a time machine with limited usefulness.
“Whistler’s Murder” by Fredric Brown. An insurance investigator needs to prove his client innocent if he wants to sell him a policy. Cute.
“The Third Bullet” by John Dickson Carr. Although he is the acknowledged “master”, I seem to always find Mr. Carr’s stories needlessly complex and a bit boring. This one definitely fits that mold.
“Fingerprint Ghost” by Joseph Commings. One of a couple of magician stories.
“The Calico Dog” by Mignon G. Eberhart. Two young men try to prove they are a missing child, but one of them is a murderer, but which one?
“The Exact Opposite” by Erle Stanley Gardner. The thief Lester Leigh has a long adventure solving a murder and the theft of a ruby. A bit of fun with the police and their spy.
“The Light at Three O’Clock” by MacKinlay Kantor. A switchboard operator keeps on getting calls from an empty apartment. Fun and suspenseful.
“The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem” by C. Daly King. A woman stabbed in a locked penthouse.
“The Riddle of the Yellow Canary” by Stuart Palmer. A schoolteacher helps solve a questionable suicide.
“The House of Haunts” by Ellery Queen. A long story about a missing inheritance, a long-lost heiress, and a missing house in the woods. Interesting, even though a bit far-fetched.
“Off the Face of the Earth” by Clayton Rawson. Another magician mystery, not my favorite.
“His Heart Could Break” by Craig Rice. A lawyer tries to prove his “found dead in his cell by suicide” client was actually murdered in order to collect his fee. A little bit of morbid humor here.
“Murder Among Magicians” by Manley Wade Wellman. Another magician puzzle.
“Murder at the Automat” by Cornell Woolrich. A fun ending to the collection, a man who is murdered at an automat while eating his bologna sandwich.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Penzler Publishers, American Mystery Classics via NetGalley. Thank you!
As is typical in this type of collection, some of the stories appealed to me more than others, and the length of a few of these stretch the definition of “short” stories, but this is definitely a collection worth reading.
“Elsewhen” by Anthony Boucher. A fun story of a time machine with limited usefulness.
“Whistler’s Murder” by Fredric Brown. An insurance investigator needs to prove his client innocent if he wants to sell him a policy. Cute.
“The Third Bullet” by John Dickson Carr. Although he is the acknowledged “master”, I seem to always find Mr. Carr’s stories needlessly complex and a bit boring. This one definitely fits that mold.
“Fingerprint Ghost” by Joseph Commings. One of a couple of magician stories.
“The Calico Dog” by Mignon G. Eberhart. Two young men try to prove they are a missing child, but one of them is a murderer, but which one?
“The Exact Opposite” by Erle Stanley Gardner. The thief Lester Leigh has a long adventure solving a murder and the theft of a ruby. A bit of fun with the police and their spy.
“The Light at Three O’Clock” by MacKinlay Kantor. A switchboard operator keeps on getting calls from an empty apartment. Fun and suspenseful.
“The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem” by C. Daly King. A woman stabbed in a locked penthouse.
“The Riddle of the Yellow Canary” by Stuart Palmer. A schoolteacher helps solve a questionable suicide.
“The House of Haunts” by Ellery Queen. A long story about a missing inheritance, a long-lost heiress, and a missing house in the woods. Interesting, even though a bit far-fetched.
“Off the Face of the Earth” by Clayton Rawson. Another magician mystery, not my favorite.
“His Heart Could Break” by Craig Rice. A lawyer tries to prove his “found dead in his cell by suicide” client was actually murdered in order to collect his fee. A little bit of morbid humor here.
“Murder Among Magicians” by Manley Wade Wellman. Another magician puzzle.
“Murder at the Automat” by Cornell Woolrich. A fun ending to the collection, a man who is murdered at an automat while eating his bologna sandwich.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Penzler Publishers, American Mystery Classics via NetGalley. Thank you!
June 30, 2022
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries is an anthology of American crime fiction from the first half of the 20th century (1930 - 1949) collected and curated by crime fiction historian Otto Penzler. Due out 19th July by Penzler on the American Mystery Classics imprint, it's 508 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.
This is a selection of 14 short works from very well known golden age authors from Craig Rice to Anthony Boucher, John Dickson Carr, Cornell Woolrich et.al. All the authors are relatively well known and will be familiar to most readers. Of the stories selected, only half were previously familiar to me (and provided a welcome re-read, I had forgotten most of the denouements). The detectives are selected from the authors' best known, and all of the stories are of a very high quality. Especially considering the addition of the information rich story notes, it's a very satisfying read overall.
In the introduction and story notes, we are gifted a multitude of plum trivia and factoids which are delightfully obscure and lift the whole to another level of wonderfully nerdy and edifying. Background such as Mr. Penzler provides really enhances the overall enjoyment of the stories themselves and I always (always!) look forward to reading his insightful commentary. This volume also provides guided reading notes for classroom or bookclub discussion which will come in handy for more formal discussion (or solo rumination).
Along with the classic and engaging stories, the background info and notes, and the discussion content, this is one of a series with coordinated cover art and layouts which provide a worthy service by protecting these early stories and presenting them to newer generations of readers.
Five stars. The stories themselves are solidly 3.5 - 5 stars, weighted toward the higher end of the scale. Despite being pretty firmly an e-reader prejudiced reader at this point (sorry, not sorry), I have acquired these in physical copies as well, and I love the way they look on my bookshelves. This would make a good selection for library acquisition, book club & classroom use, or plain reading enjoyment. I recommend the series (and its editor) very highly.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries is an anthology of American crime fiction from the first half of the 20th century (1930 - 1949) collected and curated by crime fiction historian Otto Penzler. Due out 19th July by Penzler on the American Mystery Classics imprint, it's 508 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.
This is a selection of 14 short works from very well known golden age authors from Craig Rice to Anthony Boucher, John Dickson Carr, Cornell Woolrich et.al. All the authors are relatively well known and will be familiar to most readers. Of the stories selected, only half were previously familiar to me (and provided a welcome re-read, I had forgotten most of the denouements). The detectives are selected from the authors' best known, and all of the stories are of a very high quality. Especially considering the addition of the information rich story notes, it's a very satisfying read overall.
In the introduction and story notes, we are gifted a multitude of plum trivia and factoids which are delightfully obscure and lift the whole to another level of wonderfully nerdy and edifying. Background such as Mr. Penzler provides really enhances the overall enjoyment of the stories themselves and I always (always!) look forward to reading his insightful commentary. This volume also provides guided reading notes for classroom or bookclub discussion which will come in handy for more formal discussion (or solo rumination).
Along with the classic and engaging stories, the background info and notes, and the discussion content, this is one of a series with coordinated cover art and layouts which provide a worthy service by protecting these early stories and presenting them to newer generations of readers.
Five stars. The stories themselves are solidly 3.5 - 5 stars, weighted toward the higher end of the scale. Despite being pretty firmly an e-reader prejudiced reader at this point (sorry, not sorry), I have acquired these in physical copies as well, and I love the way they look on my bookshelves. This would make a good selection for library acquisition, book club & classroom use, or plain reading enjoyment. I recommend the series (and its editor) very highly.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
April 25, 2022
This should be fully expected to be the exemplary in the world of locked room mysteries – thefts that are impossible, murders of people who remain completely out of reach to both man- and monkey-kind. I started for convenience sake with one of the longer works, and lo and behold it was the John Dickson Carr contribution, although here I found the build-up to the mystery to be more satisfying than how the big reveals at the end are played out. I then went back to the opening piece, which was only appropriate, considering it does feature a bloke able to travel back in time to a small extent, which helps him create a locked room in which to commit a murder and get out.
I tried the other long piece next and again found an author I should have slapped wrists for not reading before. Ellery Queen doesn't really offer a locked-room mystery, but he posits a bravura piece of the impossible instead, and it's just the right kind of slap-something-other-than-wrists obvious what the impossible solution is. And it's the joy of the impossible that is the key here, whether it be a seance-giver offed while all around him are in straitjackets, someone killing themself in a prison cell just when their award of a retrial gives them the reprieve from death row they wanted, or an artist's model both murdered and replicated on canvas. Sometimes things are stretched a little too far – one effort tries to have a smoking gun without an identifiable shooter but has spent too long on two identical claimants to the same inheritance, Erle Stanley Gardner's hooey, and the joy of an insurance salesman defending his client is kind of offset by the contrivance by which he says the crime was done.
There is a case for saying the whole Pushkin Vertigo imprint has more stand-out locked room mysteries than this volume has, and knowledge of those proves this is highly flawed by not having anything in translation. The 'Golden Age' here is very much from a reduced canon, then, but that being said this is an enjoyable book. Reading it digitally and early there were hundreds of type-setting errors for the publishers to work through, such as broken paragraphs and changes of scene going unregistered by line breaks, but that preparation under its belt this should still earn four stars. These stories may have been ten-a-penny back in the days of the pulp magazines, but they're not always read now, yet still make for some fine diversions at their best.
I tried the other long piece next and again found an author I should have slapped wrists for not reading before. Ellery Queen doesn't really offer a locked-room mystery, but he posits a bravura piece of the impossible instead, and it's just the right kind of slap-something-other-than-wrists obvious what the impossible solution is. And it's the joy of the impossible that is the key here, whether it be a seance-giver offed while all around him are in straitjackets, someone killing themself in a prison cell just when their award of a retrial gives them the reprieve from death row they wanted, or an artist's model both murdered and replicated on canvas. Sometimes things are stretched a little too far – one effort tries to have a smoking gun without an identifiable shooter but has spent too long on two identical claimants to the same inheritance, Erle Stanley Gardner's hooey, and the joy of an insurance salesman defending his client is kind of offset by the contrivance by which he says the crime was done.
There is a case for saying the whole Pushkin Vertigo imprint has more stand-out locked room mysteries than this volume has, and knowledge of those proves this is highly flawed by not having anything in translation. The 'Golden Age' here is very much from a reduced canon, then, but that being said this is an enjoyable book. Reading it digitally and early there were hundreds of type-setting errors for the publishers to work through, such as broken paragraphs and changes of scene going unregistered by line breaks, but that preparation under its belt this should still earn four stars. These stories may have been ten-a-penny back in the days of the pulp magazines, but they're not always read now, yet still make for some fine diversions at their best.
September 28, 2022
This recent American Mystery Classic release is a collection of 14 stories from the 1930s and 40s. They all have impossible crimes. Usually, a body is found in a room locked from the inside with no possibility that a murderer could get in or out. It is a classic murder mystery plot.
Otto Penzler, in his introduction, puts his finger on the problem with these stories. "Be warned. As you read these stories you will inevitably be disappointed, just as explanations of stage illusions exterminate the spell of magic..."
The buildup and unfolding of the mystery are frequently more enjoyable than the rushed two-page explanation of an improbable and overly complicated solution.
These types of stories present two issues. First, there is seldom a legitimate reason to set up an impossible crime. It would almost always be easier, and more likely to not get you caught, to just kill the victim. If you set up an elaborate "impossible crime", you almost guarantee that the police and any amateur detective in the neighborhood will put all of their energy into solving it.
Second, the solutions typically rely on elaborate predictions about how the victim and witnesses will act. Those types of predictions never work, not to mention the elaborate gadgets and trip wires which also never work as planned. The murders seem to underestimate how embarrassing it will be if their elaborate plan misfires.
Penzler notes that John Dickson Carr was the king of the locked room story. His excellent story, "The Third Bullet", is the longest in the collection. He is a master at building up the story so it seems harder and harder to come up with a solution and then tying it all up with a reasonable answer. He shows off by having impossible shots from three different guns in this story.
Most of the stories are solid. My favorite was Cornell Woolrich's "Murder at the Automat", which is actually more of a locked sandwich story than a locked room story.
Otto Penzler, in his introduction, puts his finger on the problem with these stories. "Be warned. As you read these stories you will inevitably be disappointed, just as explanations of stage illusions exterminate the spell of magic..."
The buildup and unfolding of the mystery are frequently more enjoyable than the rushed two-page explanation of an improbable and overly complicated solution.
These types of stories present two issues. First, there is seldom a legitimate reason to set up an impossible crime. It would almost always be easier, and more likely to not get you caught, to just kill the victim. If you set up an elaborate "impossible crime", you almost guarantee that the police and any amateur detective in the neighborhood will put all of their energy into solving it.
Second, the solutions typically rely on elaborate predictions about how the victim and witnesses will act. Those types of predictions never work, not to mention the elaborate gadgets and trip wires which also never work as planned. The murders seem to underestimate how embarrassing it will be if their elaborate plan misfires.
Penzler notes that John Dickson Carr was the king of the locked room story. His excellent story, "The Third Bullet", is the longest in the collection. He is a master at building up the story so it seems harder and harder to come up with a solution and then tying it all up with a reasonable answer. He shows off by having impossible shots from three different guns in this story.
Most of the stories are solid. My favorite was Cornell Woolrich's "Murder at the Automat", which is actually more of a locked sandwich story than a locked room story.
July 21, 2022
“Among aficionados of detective fiction, the term “locked room mystery” has become an inaccurate but useful catchall phrase meaning the telling of a crime that appears to be impossible. The story does not require a hermetically sealed chamber so much as a location with an utterly inaccessible murder victim. … “
My thanks to Penzler Publishers for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries’ edited by Otto Penzler.
This anthology is part of the publishers’ excellent American Mystery Classics series. It is edited and introduced by Otto Penzler. He also provides a short introduction for each of its fourteen authors and the stories selected, providing biographical details and publication history.
In discussing the attraction of the ‘locked room mystery’, Penzler writes: “It is not realistic and was never intended to be. It is entertainment, as all fiction is . . . or should be. Dorothy L. Sayers pointed out that people have amused themselves by creating riddles, conundrums, and puzzles of all kinds, with the apparently sole purpose being the satisfaction they give themselves by deducing a solution.”
I found the anthology well curated and a pleasure to read. Rather than read straight through, I read a few stories each day. All were good, rating between 4-5 stars. My favourites were Ellery Queen’s ‘The House of Haunts’, John Dickson Carr’s ‘The Third Bullet’, and Anthony Boucher’s ‘Elsewhen’, which cleverly blended mystery with science fiction.
The book is rounded out with suggested discussion questions and a list of the titles to date in the American Mystery Classics series, providing plenty of ideas for future reading.
I expect that this anthology will appeal to readers interested in seeing how various American Golden Age crime writers approached the ‘locked room’ mystery.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
My thanks to Penzler Publishers for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries’ edited by Otto Penzler.
This anthology is part of the publishers’ excellent American Mystery Classics series. It is edited and introduced by Otto Penzler. He also provides a short introduction for each of its fourteen authors and the stories selected, providing biographical details and publication history.
In discussing the attraction of the ‘locked room mystery’, Penzler writes: “It is not realistic and was never intended to be. It is entertainment, as all fiction is . . . or should be. Dorothy L. Sayers pointed out that people have amused themselves by creating riddles, conundrums, and puzzles of all kinds, with the apparently sole purpose being the satisfaction they give themselves by deducing a solution.”
I found the anthology well curated and a pleasure to read. Rather than read straight through, I read a few stories each day. All were good, rating between 4-5 stars. My favourites were Ellery Queen’s ‘The House of Haunts’, John Dickson Carr’s ‘The Third Bullet’, and Anthony Boucher’s ‘Elsewhen’, which cleverly blended mystery with science fiction.
The book is rounded out with suggested discussion questions and a list of the titles to date in the American Mystery Classics series, providing plenty of ideas for future reading.
I expect that this anthology will appeal to readers interested in seeing how various American Golden Age crime writers approached the ‘locked room’ mystery.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
August 14, 2022
As always, collections of short stories are a mixed bag. The issue with locked room mysteries is that the writer is more interested in the puzzle than the characters, so these types of stories can be a bit unsatisfying if you don't care about the cardboard cutouts moving through the motions. Perhaps its no surprise that my favorites were all stories (save one) starring a series character.
General thoughts: I think it was a mistake to open this collection with an SF/F entry by Anthony Boucher. It would've been better to start with the Cornell Woolrich entry instead of end with it, but I digress. It was also a pleasant surprise to see that Penzler stifled his tendency to spoil the plot lines in his intros in this one. Maybe he's learned his lesson? Here's hoping.
My favorites:
[+] "The Calico Dog" by Mignon G. Eberhart (1934) - A Susan Dare short. Two men show up after twenty years claiming to be a rich widow's prodigal son.
[+] "The Exact Opposite" by Erle Stanley Gardner (1941) - A Lester Leath short, quite amusing and clever - a locked room mystery with a side order of theft.
[+] "The Light at Three O'Clock" by Mackinley Kentor (1930) - Phone calls are coming into an operator from an empty apartment, where a man was killed and his corpse disappeared. SUPER creepy.
[+] "The House of Haunts" by Ellery Queen (1935) - aka "The Lamp of God." Ellery is confronted by a massive illusion, when a crumbling mansion in the middle of nowhere seems to disappear into thin air overnight.
General thoughts: I think it was a mistake to open this collection with an SF/F entry by Anthony Boucher. It would've been better to start with the Cornell Woolrich entry instead of end with it, but I digress. It was also a pleasant surprise to see that Penzler stifled his tendency to spoil the plot lines in his intros in this one. Maybe he's learned his lesson? Here's hoping.
My favorites:
[+] "The Calico Dog" by Mignon G. Eberhart (1934) - A Susan Dare short. Two men show up after twenty years claiming to be a rich widow's prodigal son.
[+] "The Exact Opposite" by Erle Stanley Gardner (1941) - A Lester Leath short, quite amusing and clever - a locked room mystery with a side order of theft.
[+] "The Light at Three O'Clock" by Mackinley Kentor (1930) - Phone calls are coming into an operator from an empty apartment, where a man was killed and his corpse disappeared. SUPER creepy.
[+] "The House of Haunts" by Ellery Queen (1935) - aka "The Lamp of God." Ellery is confronted by a massive illusion, when a crumbling mansion in the middle of nowhere seems to disappear into thin air overnight.
September 28, 2023
Someone should bring back the locked room short stories genre, because they're a delight. With the caveat that these were all originally published in the 30s and 40s and thus with the social values and vocabulary of the time, these stories were all so much fun. I did of course like some more than others, but overall the collection is evenly paced. Penzler's prefaces to each story were mostly interesting though not always contextually helpful. I would've loved to see more (or any tbh) diversity among the authors - there was hardly a dearth of women writing mysteries at the time, but only one makes it in.
May 3, 2022
Cops burst through a barred door into a room. It’s any room in the world. Windows, locked. Below, a deadly drop. It’s quiet and sedate: the Any-Room, unremarkable but for the putrefying corpse of a slain young girl; nude, prostrate and soaking the sofa with her blood.
That’s the rough setup in what was my favorite of the 14 stories included in “Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries” and it illustrates the niche celebrated in this new release from Penzler Publishers. How could a killer commit his crime, then exit a room that remains locked from the inside? The “locked room” mystery works as a shorthand for the impossible crime, the unbreakable life-and-death riddle.
Leave it to Otto Penzler to find the the myriad writers who perfected this brain-busting sub-genre, primarily in the years between world wars. This anthology is a blast from the past, reaching beneath the heights of Agatha Christie to authors like Ellery Queen and beyond to modern obscurity. It could feel anachronistic or slow to the unprepared reader, but the collection will be grist for any diehard mystery fan’s mill.
Approach knowing this is a genre that had its day, laying a foundation for innumerable talents to come. Penzler of course is the perfect curator, delivering the best from a time and place gone by, but no less fun to love.
That’s the rough setup in what was my favorite of the 14 stories included in “Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries” and it illustrates the niche celebrated in this new release from Penzler Publishers. How could a killer commit his crime, then exit a room that remains locked from the inside? The “locked room” mystery works as a shorthand for the impossible crime, the unbreakable life-and-death riddle.
Leave it to Otto Penzler to find the the myriad writers who perfected this brain-busting sub-genre, primarily in the years between world wars. This anthology is a blast from the past, reaching beneath the heights of Agatha Christie to authors like Ellery Queen and beyond to modern obscurity. It could feel anachronistic or slow to the unprepared reader, but the collection will be grist for any diehard mystery fan’s mill.
Approach knowing this is a genre that had its day, laying a foundation for innumerable talents to come. Penzler of course is the perfect curator, delivering the best from a time and place gone by, but no less fun to love.
July 5, 2022
Selected and edited by Otto Penzler, this anthology of 14 American impossible crime stories-seven from the 1930s and seven from the 1940s - has a roster of star authors. They run the gamut from Boucher to Woolrich, alphabetically, from Eberhart to Rawson, chronologically, and divide 2-12 by gender.
Many of the stories will be familiar to fans of the sub-genre, JD Carr being represented by The Third Bullet and Ellery Queen by the novella The House of Haunts/The Lamp of God, for instance. My personal favourites include Joseph Commings' Fingerprint Ghost and Clayton Rawson's delightfully-deft Off the Face of the Earth.
Mr Penzler's Introduction and introductory notes add great value to this useful and mostly entertaining volume. Newcomers to the world of the Locked Room will find it essential reading.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers for the digital review copy.
Many of the stories will be familiar to fans of the sub-genre, JD Carr being represented by The Third Bullet and Ellery Queen by the novella The House of Haunts/The Lamp of God, for instance. My personal favourites include Joseph Commings' Fingerprint Ghost and Clayton Rawson's delightfully-deft Off the Face of the Earth.
Mr Penzler's Introduction and introductory notes add great value to this useful and mostly entertaining volume. Newcomers to the world of the Locked Room will find it essential reading.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers for the digital review copy.
April 18, 2023
Assigned this to myself as required reading; I'm going to attempt writing a mystery with the locked room kind of setup. This chonky collection, almost 500 pages, is a must for anyone who likes this mystery subgenre. Sometimes a collection can be bumpy with a few standout stories and the rest rather mediocre. This one delivers. The stories are all tantalizing, from someone disappearing in a telephone booth in front of two witnesses, to JDC's lengthy Third Bullet where you go round and round to ferret out how three shots were fired from three different guns with only one person in the room whose single shot missed the target. I think my favorite is the Ellery Queen offering, "House of Haunts". In fact, I'll likely read it again before shelving this keeper of a book. Thank you, Otto Penzler!
August 5, 2022
I've always been a fan of an anthology, a group pf short stories tied together by a unique theme, such as locked room mysteries. This anthology is special in that it contains stories written by some of the greatest mystery writers of the "golden" era. Written when there was no technology to help them figure how the victim was killed in a room locked from the inside......readers had to read carefully to catch clues or outsmart some very clever crooks. Their style is unique to the writer, you won't find Erle Stanley Gardner's dedicated investigators anywhere else. I so enjoyed these stories. Read with an eye to the past and you will too.
May 22, 2022
A nice anthology of classic "locked room" mysteries dates from predominantly the 1930s and 1940s. The settings vary from a touch of the science fiction - a la HG Wells - to the supernatural, missing heirs, actors, greedy and murderous relatives. Add to this a strange selection of detective: a magician, a young girl, an insurance broker, the usual police / detectives, a spinster, and a switchboard operator. Each story is unique - some are lengthy, others short and to the point.
Nice retrospective look back at the golden age of locked room mysteries.
Nice retrospective look back at the golden age of locked room mysteries.
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