by Isaac Asimov
First published 1982
This anthology spans the evolution of locked room mysteries across more than a century. Edgar Allan Poe's foundational "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" opens the collection, followed by Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" starring Sherlock Holmes. The settings shift from mountain log cabins to urban automats as twentieth century writers like MacKinlay Kantor and Erle Stanley Gardner contribute their expertise. Characters include telephone operators, scientists, and mystery writers confronting seemingly impossible situations. Jack Wodham's "Big Time Operator" introduces a time travel device that complicates the mystery. Bill Pronzini and Michael Kurland's "Vanishing Act" features a magician whose tricks might transcend mere performance. Each story presents a different approach to the central puzzle of how crimes occur in sealed spaces with no apparent means of entry or escape.
Genres: short-stories, 20th-century, mystery, detective, 21st-century
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: impossible-crime, locked-room
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
303 pages · Hardcover · Walker & Co BCE