Favorite Locked Room Mysteries?

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

A very clever pseudonym. No one would have ever guessed they were the same person. (I supposed that was the point...)

JDC even proposed to use Carr Dickson, but his publisher wouldn't have it...

My 2cts: try Clayton Rawson (The Great Merlini, Don Diavolo Mysteries). Rawson and Carr were acquainted and pushed each other into writing the best Locked Room mysteries.

[jackm8]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

It's strange how self-referential locked room mysteries can get.

I recently read The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, a Japanese novel first published in 1946, and that also references prior examples, including Carr and The Mystery of the Yellow Room.

It was good, but maybe a bit over-the-top, as locked rooms often are.

It felt odd to me as well. I particularly disliked all the teasing from the author that constantly mentioned that the reader was given every detail to solve the case, then at the end he went and pulled the most extraordinary solution possible. Map was a nice touch, though. I always love books with maps.

[WillAdams]

H. Beam Piper's _Murder in the Gunroom_ is quite good, and has a great version here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=122195

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by jackm8

It felt odd to me as well. I particularly disliked all the teasing from the author that constantly mentioned that the reader was given every detail to solve the case, then at the end he went and pulled the most extraordinary solution possible. Map was a nice touch, though. I always love books with maps.

Have you seen the old Dell Mapback Mysteries? They were just like what they sound -- there was a map on the back cover.

The Mystery Scene website has an article on them here.

They were from the 1940s and 1950s, but you can find reasonably priced copies of at least some of them. I had one of them (it might still be hiding in the basement), and the covers were fairly sturdy.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by jackm8

I particularly disliked all the teasing from the author that constantly mentioned that the reader was given every detail to solve the case

Something that J D Carr did in every single one of his that I read, if I recall correctly.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by jackm8

It felt odd to me as well. I particularly disliked all the teasing from the author that constantly mentioned that the reader was given every detail to solve the case, then at the end he went and pulled the most extraordinary solution possible. Map was a nice touch, though. I always love books with maps.

I suspect that was part of his homage to earlier golden era books, especially the first Ellery Queens, where there'd be an explicit stop to say that the reader had all the evidence and was in a position to solve the mystery before the reveal.