I’m a fan of Locked Room mysteries and Impossible Crimes so this volume of Tantalizing Locked Room Mysteries immediately appealed to me. My favorite stories in this anthology are Cornell Woolrich’s “Murder at the Automat,” “The Exact Opposite”–one of Erle Stanley Gardner’s clever Lester Leith stories–and Edward D. Hoch’s “The Leopold Locked Room” puzzle story where Captain Leopold is charged with the murder of his ex-wife.
I’m also fond of “Vanishing Act” by Bill Pronzini and Michael Kurland, which isn’t really a Locked Room mystery but an Impossible Crime. It involves the murder of a stage magician in front of an audience…and the murderer vanishes!
Are you a fan of Locked Room mysteries? GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: “No one done it” / Isaac Asimov — ix
The Murders in the Rue Morgue / Edgar Allan Poe — 1
The Adventure of the speckled band / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — 37
The Problem of Cell 13 / Jacques Futrell — 65
The Light at three o’clock / MacKinlay Kantor — 103
Murder at the automat / Cornell Woolrich — 119
The Exact opposite / Erle Stanley Gardner — 141
The Blind spot / Barry Perowne — 181
The 51st Sealed Room / Robert Arthur — 197
The Bird House / William March — 217
Big Time Operator / Jack Wodhams — 235
The Leopold locked room / Edward D. Hoch — 263
Vanishing act / Bill Pronzini and Michael Kurland — 285