The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original)

Promise me anything, give me an impossible crime. I've loved stories like that since discovering John Dickson Carr as a kid. And I've been seeking them out ever since. By now, I have several collections of "impossible crimes", so I was a little dubious about this one. After all, how many more can there be? Well, Otto Penzler surprised me. In this staggering collection of 68 (!) stories, I hadn't read almost half of them. Wow! Good ones, too. Most of them. A few I thought were a little weak, but overall this is a marvelous collection featuring "impossible crimes" of various types. How he managed to find some of these, I have no idea. The man's a detective in his own right. Anyone who enjoys such problems should have this book. It is a showcase for the "impossible crime". The overall quality is high, and you won't be disappointed. For those who may wonder, as I did, if the material is already familiar, below is the table of contents. In some cases, where I know it, I have added an alternate title. So this is what's inside (short captions from the contents page as well): Familiar as the rose in spring Edgar Allan Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Jacques Futrelle, "The Problem of Cell 13" Wilkie Collins, "A Terribly Strange Bed" Lord Dunsany, "The Two Bottle of Relish" G.K. Chesterton, "The Invisible Man" Melville Davisson Post, "The Doomdorf Mystery" Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Speckled Band" This was the most unkindest cut of all John Dickson Carr, "The Wrong Problem" William Hope Hodgson, "The Thing Invisible" James Yaffe, "Department of Impossible Crimes" R. Austin Freeman, "The Aluminum Dagger" Gerald Kersh, "The Crewel Needle" Stephen King, "The Doctor's Case" Manly Wade Wellman, "A Knife Between Brothers" Joseph Commings, "The Glass Gravestone" Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace, "The Tea Leaf" Peter Godfrey, "The Flung-Back Lid" (a.k.a "Out Of This World") John Lutz, "The Crooked Picture" Carter Dickson (a.k.a. John Dickson Carr), "Blind Man's Hood" Footprints in the sands of time Edward D. Hoch, "The Man from Nowhere" Fredric Brown, "The Laughing Butcher" Michael Innes, "The Sands of Thyme" Samuel Hopkins Adams, "The Flying Death" A.E. Martin, "The Flying Corpse" Vincent Cornier, "The Flying Hat" And we missed it, lost forever Hugh Pentecost, "The Day the Children Vanished" Stanley Ellin, "The Twelfth Statue" William Irish, "All at Once, No Alice" Edmund Crispin, "Beware of the Trains" H.R.F. Keating, "The Locked Bathroom" (from "The Five Senses of Mrs. Craggs", "Hearing") Dashiell Hammett, "Mike, Alec and Rufus" ("Tom, Dick, Or Harry") C. Daly King, "The Episode of the Torment IV" Julian Hawthorne, "Greaves' Disappearance" Ellery Queen, "The House of Haunts" (a.ka. "The Lamp Of God") J.E. Gurdon, "The Monkey Trick" E.C. Bentley, "The Ordinary Hairpins" Jacques Futrelle, "The Phantom Motor" Edward D. Hoch, "The Theft of the Bermuda Penny" Judson Philips, "Room Number Twenty-Three" How easily is murder discovered Lynn Wood Block & Lawrence Block, "The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke" Augustus Muir, "The Kestar Diamond Case" Kate Ellis, "The Odor of Sanctity" Edward D. Hoch, "The Problem of the Old Oak Tree" Nicholas Olde, "The Invisible Weapon" Ray Cummings, "The Confession of Rosa Vitelli" Stephen Barr, "The Locked Room to End Locked Rooms" Shoot if you must Clayton Rawson, "Nothing Is Impossible" Bill Pronzini, "Where Have You Gone, Sam Spade?" G.D.I. & M.I. Cole, "In a Telephone Cabinet" (a.k.a. "The Owl At The Window") Stuart Towne (a.k.a. Clayton Rawson), "Death Out of Thin Air" Agatha Christie, "The Dream" Margery Allingham, "The Border-Line Case" Melville Davisson Post, "The Bradmoor Murder" Leslie Charteris, "The Man Who Liked Toys" Hulbert Footner, "The Ashcomb Poor Case" Georges Simenon, "The Little House at Croix-Rousse" Stolen sweets are best Erle Stanley Gardner, "The Bird in the Hand" David Durham, "The Gulverbury Diamonds" Frederick Irving Anderson, "The Fifth Tube" MacKinlay Kantor, "The Strange Case of Steinkelwintz" Maurice Leblanc, "Arsène Lupin in Prison" L.T. Meade, "The Mystery of the Strong Room" Dennis Lynds, "No Way Out" C. Daly King, "The Episode of the Codex Curse" One man's poison, signor, is another's meat Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Poisoned Dow '08" Margaret Frazer, "A Traveller's Tale" P.G. Wodehouse, "Death at the Excelsior" Our final hope is flat despair Some stories simply can't be categorized Martin Edwards, "Waiting for Godstow" These should keep you busy for some time to come. And thank you, Otto Penzler, thank you very much!

This is quite possibly the best collection of stories I've ever read. Not only are they all well-written, but the collection is imaginatively arranged by Otto Penzler. Familiar as the Rose in Spring (popular and often reprinted stories) That Was the Unkindest Cut of All (stabbings) Footprints in the Sands of Time (Finding a body in snow or sand with no footprints leading to nor away...) And We Missed It, Lost Forever (Disappearances) How Easily is Murder Discovered (So many ways!) Shoot If You Must (shootings, not surprisingly) Stolen Sweets are Best (theft from a guarded room) One Man's Poison, Signor, Is Another's Meat (poisonings) ...and one uncategorized story at the very end. One of the things I truly love about this book is the way it is typeset. Each page is divided into two columns, like the old pulps; yet this is not only a nostalgic touch, but it greatly increases readability. I find myself breezing through stories that seemed much longer in other volumes. In fact, Murders in the Rue Morgue (Poe) remained unread because it just seemed too long for a short story and too short for a novella. When I saw it in this Black Lizard edition, it was as easily read as any other story. (Maybe my eye was made for pulp magazines.) 940 pages of fantastic story-writing from the last 170 years: you really can't go wrong with this book.

It's a collection of stories from old pulp magazines...some better than others, but was entertaining to read and reminisce of the yesterdays...

Book was in excellent condition and shipped quickly. I can't comment on the contents, as I haven't read it (it's for a gift). But it appears to be a wonderfully comprehensive collection of baffling mysteries.

The art of the short story is not as appreciated as it once once. A well-told story that can engage and satisfy the reader in a dozen or two pages is difficult to write. This book is filled with some of the best. Who doesn't love a good locked-room mystery - a murder or other crime that is unexplainable because it shouldn't have been able to occur. This book has been laying on the floor next to the chair in my living room for a couple weeks. I'm enjoying these stories at a steady pace, reading four or five a week. Just fast enough to get me through a cold winter. thanks to Editor Penzler to this wonderful collection.

This is like a history of the locked room mystery short story. I was looking forward to some great How Done Its. One gets the impression that in the past when many of them were written that doors could not be locked by the murderer by pushing a button on the lock when he left the house, or that nobody ever made a second key, or that once the door was locked, one could not even get out without having a key, which is frankly very unsafe. Some solutions had me scratching my head as they made no sense. The longer stories had one anxious for the solution only to be let down with a mundane answer or a confusing answer. Not only were some of the problems improbable, but so were some of the solutions. But if you are a fan of this mystery type, this is a very large collection of them.

This book is astounding. In amazing condition and arrived quickly. Amazing price as well. Thanks guys

I have not finished it yet. But it is such a nice collection of locked door puzzles. I know and love many of the authors already.. And have read most if the stories at least once. If uou love locked door mysteries like I do, GET THE BOOK. I pre- ordered it and have not been disappointed.

Um prato cheio para quem gosta de ler sobre crimes que acontecem em locais hermeticamente fechados, sem chande do assassino entrar ou sair do lugar.

Every piece of literature in the book will leave you wanting to read it again and again. A perfect addition to any crime fiction book collection.

This is a great book of short locked-room mysteries. I'm a fan of the genre - and a few i had read before, but most were new to me. A fine, wide-ranging selection and an enjoyable read over a couple of weeks.

Nice Mixture of Locked Room Mysteries. Not Even half way through the book, Not all of them very good but some are. Nice Read

This book seems to be all that I asked for, and more, though the size of it, will make it a book that I will savor at home throughout the course of the summer. I love the fact that there is an introduction to each story that gives a bit of information about the author and the story that you are about to read, and the delivery time was fasten than expected. Can't wait to crack this baby open.