Favorite Locked Room Mysteries?

[Critteranne]

The publisher British Crime Library Classics reprints a lot of classic and Golden Age mysteries. They publish both novels and anthologies, including themed anthologies such as winter mysteries, country house mysteries, etc. They also have some locked room mysteries, including some by John Dickson Carr.

Seeing their locked room anthologies made me wonder about what the best classic locked room mysteries might be.

One of the first I read was "The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle (in a Scholastic reprint edition). And of course, there are "Murder on the Orient Express" and "And Then There Were None," among other Christies...

[Dr. Drib]

Here are three nice anthologies for those who like short stories, novelettes, and novellas:

1) The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries - Otto Penzler [Ed.] - available as an ebook.

2) The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes - Mike Ashley [Ed.] - available as an ebook.

3) The Locked Room Reader: Stories of Impossible Crimes and Escapes - Hans S. Santesson [Ed.] - NOT available as an ebook.

I've read a small sampling of stories from numbers 1 and 2. The one edited by Otto Penzler is huge.

[Critteranne]

Thanks!

[db105]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

And of course, there are "Murder on the Orient Express" and "And Then There Were None," among other Christies...

Hmm... I didn't think of these as locked room mysteries, unless we define it very loosely.

John Dickson Carr is a master of this subgenre, yes. I have a weakness for The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux.

If you are a hardcore fan of locked room mysteries, you should consider buying these terrific bibliographies:
Locked Room Murders (Second Edition, Revised), by Robert Adey
Locked Room Murders Supplement, by Brian Skupin

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by db105

I have a weakness for The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux.

The ending SUCKED - no one dismembered the damn doogie howser detective!

[db105]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The ending SUCKED

I don't know. I may not be objective here, because I read it as a kid, but I loved it.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by db105

I don't know. I may not be objective here, because I read it as a kid, but I loved it.

My post was in gest, my utter loathing of the juvenile genius was not. I probably would have enjoyed the story if I had not spent the entire time wishing and hoping for someone to murder HIM

[Fbone]

Edmund Crispin's The Moving Toyshop written in 1946. I wouldn't classify it as a strict locked room mystery, but it has seemingly impossible elements.

I enjoyed it. It was a hoot.