Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1The hollow man (1935)The hollow man (1935) 9.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1935Carr gives Dr Gideon Fell two linked impossibilities: a visitor apparently vanishes from a locked room, and a shooting leaves no useful trail across a snowy street. The attraction is the sustained testing of what witnesses and boundaries actually establish. Expect a demanding, highly constructed…0
  2. 2The Judas window (1938)The Judas window (1938)Published 1 Jan 1938A man wakes beside an arrow-pierced body in a locked study and seems to have no possible defence. Carter Dickson, John Dickson Carr’s pseudonym, lets Sir Henry Merrivale argue the case in court, where the physical evidence must withstand competing explanations. A particularly good choice if you…0
  3. 3The Honjin Murders (2019)The Honjin Murders (2019) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2019A wedding-night killing, eerie music and undisturbed snow give Kosuke Kindaichi a compact but intricate problem. The room and its surroundings matter enough to reward slow, visual reading. This is an especially good fit for readers who enjoy an engineered explanation and do not mind considerable…0
  4. 4Death and the Conjuror (2022)Death and the Conjuror (2022) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2022Joseph Spector brings a stage magician’s attention to the death of a psychiatrist in a locked study in 1930s London. Mead makes the apparent impossibility an ongoing problem, with other puzzles woven into the investigation. Choose it for the pleasure of examining assumptions about a scene in a…0
  5. 5The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941)The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1941A death from a locked room in a Scottish tower raises an awkward question about suicide, murder and an insurance claim. Further events keep the physical problem alive while the relatives argue and drink around it. This is the lively, comic end of Carr, useful when you want serious puzzle-making…0
  6. 6The Problem of the Wire Cage (1939)The Problem of the Wire Cage (1939)Published 1 Jan 1939A rain-soaked tennis court replaces the conventional locked bedroom: a man has been strangled, yet the tracks seem to exclude a murderer’s approach. Read this impossible-crime variation for its sharply defined surface and spatial problem. The surrounding romantic entanglements take time, and the…0
  7. 7Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1939)Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1939) 8.2/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1939The violent death of a domineering father leaves Poirot with a disturbed room, family resentments and an apparently sealed crime scene. Christie integrates the physical puzzle with what people believe about one another, giving the eventual explanation more to resolve than a troublesome door. A good…0
  8. 8The Mystery of the Yellow Room (2005)The Mystery of the Yellow Room (2005)Published 1 Jan 2005A young woman is attacked in an inaccessible bedroom, and journalist Joseph Rouletabille insists the apparent facts can be reconciled. Leroux makes the room’s boundaries and competing accounts central, with enough old-fashioned argument to reward a patient reader. Pick it if you enjoy a detective…0
  9. 9The Big Bow Mystery (1892)The Big Bow Mystery (1892) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1892A lodger is discovered dead behind a secured door in London’s East End, and the public soon joins the argument over how it happened. Zangwill’s short novel combines a durable impossible-crime problem with satire of the surrounding people and institutions. Particularly appealing if you want economy…0
  10. 10Under Lock and Skeleton Key (2022)Under Lock and Skeleton Key (2022) 2.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 2022Tempest Raj returns to her family’s specialist construction business, then finds that a body has appeared inside a supposedly long-sealed wall. Architecture and stage illusion make this an appealing entry for readers who instinctively want to inspect the building. Pandian also gives substantial…0