Like a character in a locked-room mystery who proclaims mind-reading powers, I’m going to look into your mind. Yes, right now. I see that you’ve been hearing more about the locked-room mystery genre lately. But like the rational solution of a seemingly supernatural locked-room mystery, there’s no real mind-reading going on. The genre has recently been making a comeback.
Thanks to a combination of publishers reissuing older books, foreign-language novels being translated into English for the first time, and closed circle mysteries appealing to people more generally based on the current state of the world, there are more terrific choices than ever. I’ve been a locked-room mystery nerd for decades, so I’m pleased to see one of my favorite genres gaining renewed popularity. Where should you start? Here are some tips as you dive into this deviously delicious style of mystery.
A quick overview of definitions
- Locked-room mystery: A crime has been committed in a room or other location that’s been sealed from the inside, with no way out. An example is a dead man found inside a windowless room that’s been sealed from the inside, dead from a gunshot wound that people outside the room heard fired, yet inside the room there’s no gun and no way for the culprit to have escaped. Thus a locked room is only part of the equation; the key is that the situation appears impossible.
- Impossible crime: Often used as a synonym for a locked-room crime, it’s the umbrella term for any seemingly impossible crime that’s resolved with a rational explanation in the end. Also sometimes referred to as a miracle problem.
- Closed circle: The mystery involves a limited number of suspects, such as strangers brought together onto a secluded island with no way for anyone to leave or be rescued. This plot device is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a locked-room mystery. A story can be both, but a closed circle doesn’t mean it’s necessary an impossible crime or locked-room mystery.
- Golden Age of detective fiction: Puzzle plot mysteries written in the period between the two world wars, in the 1920s and ‘30s.
- Fair play puzzle plot: The writer presents all the clues needed for the reader to solve the crime before the detective unveils the solution.
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The Classics
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The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr
No author is more synonymous with the locked-room mystery genre than John Dickson Carr, and no book of his is more famous than The Three Coffins (1935), for good reason. The novel shows Carr in top form, with a skillfully plotted locked-room mystery, an eerie atmosphere with a hint of the supernatural, and Dr. Fell’s famous “locked-room lecture,” in which the detective explains the possible types of impossible crime solutions.
Dr. Fell solves the mystery of a man who kills a professor who was debunking an ancient superstition of people rising from their coffins, then simply vanishes from a locked room, leaving no trace, even when it was impossible for him not to leave footprints in the snow. Dr. Fell is a larger than life character in both his literal size and his personality and humor. The language is dated, but the characters and plot make this a compelling read.
The Three Coffins is the sixth book in Carr’s Dr. Gideon Fell series, but unlike many modern series where relationships and character development are a bigger part of the story, this series need not be read in order. Also highly recommended by John Dickson Carr: Hags Nook, The Burning Court, The Problem of the Green Capsule, and dozens of others.
Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson
Clayton Rawson was a contemporary of John Dickson Carr (they were both born in 1906). Death from a Top Hat (1938) introduces the Great Merlini, Rawson’s magician sleuth, who must solve the mystery of two locked-room murders. Narrated by Ross Harte, a reporter and mystery novelist himself, the book is a fair play puzzle, with readers given all the clues they need to solve the mystery.
Magicians like Merlini frequently appear as impossible crime sleuths because their skills in misdirection are perfectly suited to the genre. Death from a Top Hat has recently been issued by American Mystery Classics, so now that it’s back in print you can easily find it.
Carr and Rawson are best known for writing locked-room mysteries, but many other classic mystery writers wrote them as well. Two masters of fair play puzzle plots, Ellery Queen and Agatha Christie, also wrote locked-room mysteries, including The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen (1934) and Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (1938).
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Modern locked-room mysteries
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The Fourth Door by Paul Halter
Paul Halter is perhaps the most prolific present-day writer of locked-room mysteries. The French author won the prestigious Prix de Cognac award for The Fourth Door (1988), his debut novel. His books have only recently been translated into English.
In The Fourth Door, Dr. Alan Twist must solve a series of seemingly impossible crimes, including a murder inside sealed room in a haunted house and a man who might be the reincarnation of Houdini. Also highly recommended by Paul Halter: The Crimson Fog, The Phantom Passage, and The Demon of Dartmoor.
Angel Killer by Andrew Mayne
Not technically a locked-room mystery, but multiple ingenious impossible crimes feature into the first Jessica Blackwood thriller by magician Andrew Mayne. In Angel Killer (2014), a killer calling himself the Warlock claims to be using supernatural powers to perform deadly miracles, and only former stage magician Jessica Blackwood, now an FBI agent, can see through his tricks.
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Japanese “Shin-Honkaku” mysteries
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Publisher Locked Room International has been translating foreign language impossible crime novels into English. Many are by Japanese authors, because of the genre’s popularity in Japan. The Japanese term “Shin-Honkaku” refers to the logic mystery genre, similar to what we think of as a puzzle plot mystery.
In the brilliantly baffling The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Sōji Shimada (1981), two armchair detectives solve a heinous crime from 40 years before. This one isn’t for readers who can’t stomach violence, though the gruesome killings do take place off the page. In The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (1987), the story begins with a classic set-up of a group of university students deciding to visit a remote island where multiple murders had taken place the year before. They begin to be killed one by one… but the solution isn’t one you’ll see coming.
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Short Stories
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One of the main enticements of a locked-room puzzle is the solution that must simultaneously be believable and so well hidden that the reader doesn’t guess on their own, so it’s not surprising that locked-room mysteries flourish in the form of short fiction. (Indeed, in my own writing it’s my short stories that feature locked-room crimes.)
Anthologies (a few of the many terrific ones): All but Impossible, ed. Ed Hoch, The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries, ed. Otto Penzler, Realm of the Impossible, eds. John Pugmire and Brian Skupin, and Miraculous Mysteries, ed. Martin Edwards.
Stories by classic mystery writers you might not think of as locked-room writers: “Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allen Poe (1841), frequently sited (and debated) as the first locked-room mystery, and Sherlock Holmes story “The Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892).
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The books and stories discussed above are only a small sampling of a rich genre. Whether you feel like diving into a classic or a modern story, told as a novel or a short story, I hope you’ll have fun exploring these ingenious mysteries.
