Let’s get something out of the way: what exactly do we mean by the term “locked-room mystery”? It’s a phrase I’ve seen used incorrectly in the past to refer to works in the similar but distinct “closed circle mystery” subgenre. What sets locked-room mysteries apart from the rest is an element of impossibility. As a matter of fact, I tend to use the term synonymously with “impossible crime,” meaning a story in which a crime (usually murder) is committed under seemingly impossible circumstances. Often these stories have an ambiance of the eerie and macabre, with apparently supernatural occurrences and foreboding atmosphere. However (and this is crucial) the whole thing is ultimately unravelled in dazzling style by an ingenious sleuth, and a rational explanation provided.
So where did the genre begin? The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe is sometimes cited as the first locked-room mystery. This status is debatable; it’s more of a horror story than a mystery, with little in the way of actual detection. But there’s no denying that it is nonetheless highly influential, and helped to set the template for the genre in the ensuing years. Other early titles include Wilkie Collins’s short story “A Terribly Strange Bed” (Collins, of course, is sometimes credited with writing the first proper “detective novel,” The Moonstone. Again, this is debatable, but like Poe the genre wouldn’t be the same without him) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” By the turn of the twentieth century, the locked-room mystery was really beginning to take shape. Israel Zangwill’s The Big Bow Mystery and Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room were early highlights of a genre which was still in an upward trajectory.
The golden age of detective fiction saw a boom in popularity of locked-room mysteries. They are after all a particularly challenging subset of the “fair-play mystery” in which the puzzle is key. Great writers such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and (particularly) Ellery Queen made a point of playing fair with the reader by providing all the clues necessary for the reader to solve the fictional crime themselves—this is also a major element of the locked-room mystery, as well as a vital component of the genre as we understand it today.
But it was not until the early 1930s, at the height of the golden age, that John Dickson Carr exploded onto the literary scene. Carr remains the undisputed master of the locked-room mystery, and a constant source of inspiration to me. Throughout the ’30s and ’40s he wrote one masterpiece after another, and his career was defined by his ability to devise seemingly insoluble problems which he then explained away with stunning flair. He was born in the US but lived in England throughout the ’30s and most of the ’40s. As such, he was welcomed by the British crime-writing community, and was one of only two Americans to be inducted into the prestigious Detection Club.
The locked-room mystery experienced a dip in its popularity in the aftermath of the Second World War (though there were still many excellent examples published during the ensuing decades), but its fortunes have since improved considerably. TV shows such as Jonathan Creek, Monk and Death in Paradise have introduced new generations to the delights of the impossible problem. It continues to thrive in books too, with authors such as Daniel Stashower and Bill Pronzini continuing to pen memorable and imaginative examples. But if you’re new to the genre, where should you begin? To get you started, I’ve put together a list of my personal top ten locked-room mysteries. I think these represent the very best of a genre which has produced some truly dazzling work over the last century.
I’ve limited myself to just one novel per author (an almost impossible task in itself), and every day I am discovering new favourites to add to my rapidly buckling bookshelves. But for now, this is my top ten (in reverse order, for the sake of suspense):
First, an honourable mention…
WHISTLE UP THE DEVIL (1953) by Derek Smith
I feel a particular kinship to Derek Smith because like me he began writing locked-room mysteries to pay tribute to the greats he admired. Whistle up the Devil, originally published in 1953, is an unsung triumph of the genre, with Carrian atmosphere and two devilish impossible murders. It all begins on a rainy night, with the murder of a man named Roger Querrin. The amateur sleuth Algy Lawrence appears again in the no less brilliant Come to Paddington Fair, but sadly this first novel was the only one to be published in Smith’s lifetime. It is only during the last decade or so that Smith has begun to receive the acclaim he deserves, with Whistle up the Devil being hailed as a masterpiece by the Washington Post.
- BLOODHOUNDS (1996) by Peter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey is a leading light of the classic-style puzzle mystery, and his Peter Diamond series is a perfect blend of the fair-play problem with the police procedural. Bloodhounds is an exemplary novel in which a group of mystery fiction enthusiasts (the titular “Bloodhounds”) find themselves caught up in a real-life locked-room mystery. As such, John Dickson Carr is referenced prominently. The problem is also a highly unusual one: a murder on a locked and impenetrable canal barge. If you’re completely new to the genre and perhaps a little sceptical about it, this is a fine place to start.
- INVISIBLE GREEN (1977) by John Sladek
John Sladek is an important figure in the world of science fiction, which unfortunately means his excellent impossible crime novels, Black Aura and Invisible Green have been long-neglected. Invisible Green in particular demonstrates its author’s versatile imagination, lively prose and his keen logic. The books themselves are anomalies in that they appeared in the 1970s, long after the golden age had ended. In spite of this, these are perfect examples of golden age locked rooms, with amateur sleuth Thackeray Phin cut from the same cloth as Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen. It’s just a shame that Phin appeared in only two novels and a short story before Sladek abandoned him in favour of sci fi. Who knows what else he could have achieved?
- NINE TIMES NINE (1940) by “H.H. Holmes” (Anthony Boucher)
Anthony Boucher was a true scholar of the mystery genre, whose name continues to loom large thanks to the world-famous Bouchercon in spite of the fact that he actually wrote few mysteries. But the few that he did write are of a startling quality. Nine Times Nine features a sinister cult called the Children of Light. When a non-believer finds himself cursed by the cult’s enigmatic, hooded leader, it is not long before he dies in highly dubious circumstances and a mysterious man in a yellow robe is witnessed at the scene of the crime before vanishing into thin air. A nun named Sister Ursula is the only one who can unravel the various tangled threads of this complex case.
- MR. SPLITFOOT (1969) by Helen McCloy
When it comes to locked-room mysteries, Helen McCloy’s Through a Glass Darkly usually comes in for high praise in critical discussions- and deservedly so. It’s a fabulous entry in her series featuring psychologist Dr. Basil Willing, where the seemingly impossible problem is the appearance of a doppelganger. As such, it has a very sinister, almost dreamlike atmosphere and a haunting ending. However, the McCloy title I’ve chosen to include here is a later work in the Basil Willing series which I feel is more of a locked-room mystery in a literal sense. Like Through a Glass Darkly, though, Mr. Splitfoot does not skimp on atmosphere. The title, for instance, is a reference to none other than Satan himself. This novel is about a haunted room where legend tells it that those who spend the night will be found dead come the morning. As you can imagine, it is a little too easy to find a volunteer willing to put the legend to the test…
- THE HONJIN MURDERS (1946) by Seishi Yokomizo
Though first published in 1946, The Honjin Murders is a comparatively new discovery for me thanks to a recent translation by Louise Heal Kawai. Yokomizo is a legend in Japan, where his fictional detective Kosuke Kindaichi is a pop culture phenomenon akin to Sherlock Holmes. The Honjin Murders marks the first of Kindaichi’s seventy-seven appearances in Yokomizo’s fiction, and sees the somewhat unkempt private detective tackling the case of a pair of newlyweds who are found brutally murdered on their wedding night.
- DEATH FROM A TOP HAT (1938) by Clayton Rawson
Death from a Top Hat is a stunning debut from an author who specialised in literary magic tricks. As a matter of fact, he was a magician himself, and a close personal friend of John Dickson Carr. Like Carr, Clayton Rawson was an admirer of the legendary illusionists of the past such as Harry Houdini. There is certainly an element of Houdini in Rawson’s detective, The Great Merlini. In some ways, the Merlini stories are the purest example of the overlap between professional magic and professional mystery. In both cases, the key to the trick lies in the art of misdirection.
- THE CRIMSON FOG (1988) by Paul Halter
Paul Halter is often described as the natural successor to John Dickson Carr—and with good reason. He has a knack not only for coming up with unique problems, but also for creating a fabulous air of suspense and unease. All his novels are highly recommended, but I think The Crimson Fog is an ideal starting point for readers who are new to his work- it features an impossible murder which takes place on stage during a magic show. Talk about audacious! And it also features a cameo appearance by none other than Jack the Ripper himself.
- RIM OF THE PIT (1944) by Hake Talbot
Surprise! Another magician. Hake Talbot was the pseudonym under which professional illusionist Henning Nelms published two fantastic locked-room mysteries, The Hangman’s Handyman and Rim of the Pit. Both feature adventurer-cum-detective Rogan Kincaid and make plentiful use of their author’s knowledge of misdirection. Rim of the Pit has a surreal and almost demonic atmosphere, with eerie phantom presences roaming the snowy rural setting. But of course, nothing is as it seems…\
- DEATH OF JEZEBEL (1948) by Christianna Brand
Christianna Brand was a truly brilliant writer of mysteries—it’s just a shame she wasn’t more prolific. Her book Green for Danger, set in an English country house which serves as a field hospital during the Second World War, is arguably her most widely-read work. It is indeed a truly great golden age mystery. But when it comes to locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes, you can’t beat Death of Jezebel. It features her series detective Inspector Cockrill, and gives him a particularly unusual and puzzling problem to solve: an aging and much-maligned actress is killed onstage under decidedly mysterious circumstances. The solution to the puzzle is simply dazzling, and has to be read to be believed!
- THE HOLLOW MAN (A.K.A THE THREE COFFINS) (1935) by John Dickson Carr
And here is the reason I forced myself just to pick one title from each author. Because the fact is, John Dickson Carr wrote so many books which fall within the category of “masterpiece” that I could quite easily have padded out the list simply by reciting his oeuvre. The Hollow Man is perhaps his most famous work, and it’s a novel of such boundless imagination that it still dazzles me years after reading it for the first time. When Carr was at the top of his game—as he is here—he was unbeatable. The story finds Dr. Gideon Fell doing battle with an apparently invisible killer in the streets of snowbound London.
However, because I love Carr so much, I thought I’d also list some of his other brilliant locked-room mysteries. He wrote the Gideon Fell mysteries under his own name, but he also penned another series under the pseudonym Carter Dickson, which featured the larger-than-life sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale, known to his friends as H.M. All of the below titles are worth tracking down.
Written as John Dickson Carr…
It Walks By Night (featuring French sleuth Henri Bencolin)
The Lost Gallows (Bencolin)
Poison in Jest (a standalone mystery)
Hag’s Nook (Introducing the inimitable Dr. Gideon Fell)
The Blind Barber (Fell)
The Hollow Man/The Three Coffins (Fell)
The Burning Court (a standalone tour-de-force)
The Crooked Hinge (Fell)
The Problem of the Green Capsule/The Black Spectacles (Fell)
The Problem of the Wire Cage (Fell)
The Man Who Could Not Shudder (Fell)
The Case of the Constant Suicides (Fell)
The Emperor’s Snuff-Box (an excellent standalone)
Till Death Do Us Part (Fell)
He Who Whispers (Fell)
The Sleeping Sphinx (Fell)
Dr. Fell, Detective, and Other Stories (short fiction)
Below Suspicion (Fell)
The Third Bullet and Other Stories of Detection (short fiction)
Patrick Butler For the Defence (a return appearance for the rambunctious Irish solicitor Patrick Butler, who also features prominently in Below Suspicion)
Fire, Burn! (standalone)
The Dead Man’s Knock (Fell)
Scandal at High Chimneys (standalone)
In Spite of Thunder (Fell)
The Witch of the Low Tide (standalone)
The Men Who Explained Miracles (short fiction)
The House at Satan’s Elbow (Fell)
Panic in Box C (Fell)
Dark of the Moon (Fell)
Written as Carter Dickson…
The Bowstring Murders (standalone)
The Plague Court Murders (a dazzling debut for Sir Henry Merrivale, a.k.a. HM)
The White Priory Murders (HM)
The Red Widow Murders (HM)
The Unicorn Murders (HM)
The Ten Teacups/The Peacock Feather Murders (HM)
The Judas Window (HM)
Death in Five Boxes (HM)
The Reader is Warned (HM)
Drop To His Death/Fatal Descent (a fascinating and unique standalone co-authored with esteemed British mystery writer John Rhode)
The Department of Queer Complaints (short story collection featuring Colonel March)
Seeing is Believing (HM)
She Died A Lady (HM)
He Wouldn’t Kill Patience (HM)
The Curse of the Bronze Lamp/Lord of the Sorcerers (HM)
The Skeleton in the Clock (HM)
A Graveyard to Let (HM)
Night at the Mocking Widow (HM)
I’ve omitted some titles from these lists, but that’s not because they are not good- many of them are no less brilliant and imaginative than The Hollow Man—it’s simply because they do not fall entirely into the category of “locked-room mystery.” Some of the Gideon Fell stories and the HMs are straightforward whodunits without a hint of impossibility, but they are no less dazzling for that! To learn more about John Dickson Carr and his remarkable body of work, I cannot recommend Douglas Greene’s magisterial biography, The Man Who Explained Miracles, highly enough.
THE LOCKED-ROOM SHORT STORY
But it’s not just about novels. The locked-room mystery also thrives in the short story format, with publications such as Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine continuing to publish and celebrate works both old and new. I’ve written a number of locked-room mystery short stories myself (“The Indian Rope Trick” and “The Footless Phantom” have both appeared in EQMM), so I can tell you for a fact just how challenging it is to come up with a seemingly impossible problem which is then explained fairly and logically in the space of a few short pages. This just makes me respect authors like Edward D. Hoch all the more. In no particular order, here is a baker’s dozen to get you started:
“The Problem of the Old Oak Tree” by Edward D. Hoch (1978)
Hoch is the main reason I included a section on short works. He had an imagination to rival Carr, but he specialised almost exclusively in short stories, penning close to 1,000 works in numerous long-running series throughout his career. Choosing just one of his stories is nigh-on impossible, but perhaps his most famous series features the small-town doctor turned detective, Sam Hawthorne. Of all the Hawthorne stories, “The Problem of the Old Oak Tree” is especially notable for its originality and literary legerdemain.
“The Dream” by Agatha Christie (1937)
No golden age mystery-related article would be complete without a mention of Agatha Christie. She didn’t write many locked-room works, but her Poirot novels Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and Murder in Mesopotamia feature cleverly devised impossible problems. There’s also some debate as to whether her masterpiece And Then There Were None counts as a locked-room mystery. I’ve chosen not to include it here, but it is nonetheless an immense achievement. Instead I’ve opted for “The Dream,” a Poirot short story in which the Belgian’s little grey cells are taxed by a locked room murder foretold in a dream.
“The Red Locked Room” by Tetsuya Ayakawa (1954)
A highly influential (and gruesome) story which helped to establish the tenets of the locked-room mystery and the honkaku (“orthodox”) mystery in Japan.
“The Lure of the Green Door” by Rintaro Norizuki (1991)
A flawless puzzle mystery, and a gem of the shin-honkaku (“new orthodox”) genre.
“The Name on the Window” by Edmund Crispin (1953)
Crispin was a brilliantly witty writer, and like me a devotee of Carr. His series detective, Gervase Fen, is a distinctly Carrian academic and in this neat locked-room problem Crispin proved himself a worthy student of the maestro.
“The House in Goblin Wood” by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) (1947)
Sir Henry Merrivale pits his wits against an apparently impossible disappearance in this truly sensational piece of work.
“The Border-Line Case” by Margery Allingham (1936)
Like Christie, Allingham is another “Queen of Crime” who didn’t specialise in locked room or impossible crime stories, but nonetheless “The Border-Line Case” is a superb and perfectly constructed example of the genre.
“From Another World” by Clayton Rawson (1948)
A miniature masterpiece in which a seance yields unexpected and uncanny results.
“The Problem of Cell 13” by Jacques Futrelle (1905)
A cornerstone of the genre. Absolutely essential.
“The Oracle of the Dog” by G.K. Chesterton (1926)
Ditto: Chesterton’s Father Brown is a great detective to rank with Holmes and Poirot. Not to mention the fact that Chesterton himself was the model for John Dickson Carr’s Gideon Fell!
“The X Street Murders” by Joseph Commings (1957)
Joseph Commings is another sadly unsung hero, whose boisterous series character Senator Brooks U. Banner is a natural successor to Sir Henry Merrivale.
“The House of Haunts” by Ellery Queen (1935)
Ellery Queen is one of the greatest mystery writers ever (in fact, he’s two; the name was a pseudonym created by cousins Fredric Dannay and Manfred Lee). Unfortunately they didn’t write too many locked-room mysteries—but when they did, they were always worth reading. The Chinese Orange Mystery and The Door Between are both great novels which feature locked-room problems, but I’ve not included them in my list as in both instances the impossibility is overshadowed by other more dazzling and ingenious elements of the plot. They are best read as whodunits rather than howdunits.
“The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr” by William Brittain (1966)
I had to include this one—just look at the title! It’s a great, blackly comic story with a delightful sting at the end.
THE FUTURE OF LOCKED-ROOM MYSTERIES
So where do we go from here? Well, to my continued delight, the locked-room mystery genre seems to be experiencing a welcome renaissance. It’s such a pleasure to see that fresh titles by contemporary authors are being published every day, as well as reissues of the genre’s unjustly neglected classics. In terms of new work, just recently I have loved Gigi Pandian’s Under Lock and Skeleton Key, Jim Noy’s The Red Death Murders (a fascinating spin on Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death,” bringing the genre round full-circle!) and James Scott Byrnside’s The Case of the Barrington Hills Vampire. I’m also very excited about Martin Edwards’s Blackstone Fell, the third in his superb Rachel Savernake series, which I understand features a locked-room element, and Robert Thorogood’s Death Comes to Marlow, the second in his Marlow Murder Club cozy mystery series. Here’s hoping the locked-room mystery and impossible crime continue to thrive for many years to come.
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