The Big Bow Mystery [Paperback]

Israel Zangwill (Author), Justin Weber (Illustrator), Thien Tran (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2007

On a foggy day in the Big Bow District of London, Mrs. Drabdump becomes fearful for her lodger. She knocks several times at his door but no answer. She runs to Inspector Grodman and together they break down his door to find the pooor man lying in his bed with his throat cut. The door was locked from the inside. Thus begins Israel Zangwill's classic mystery. Written in 1891, Big Bow Mystery still retains its power to amuse and entertain, both as a clever mystery and a satire of Victorian London.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Whodunit fans who prefer their murders mysteriously committed behind locked doors will appreciate this reissue of the first impossible crime novel, penned by the unlikely Zangwill (1864-1926)-better known during his lifetime as an ardent British Zionist-in the late 1890s. Widowed landlady Mrs. Drabdump and retired Scotland Yarder Grodman batter down a secured and bolted bedroom door to find Arthur Constant, a hero of the working classes, dead from a cut throat. After suicide is quickly ruled out, the puzzle captures the city's imagination, with theory after theory (some poking fun at Poe's solution to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue") floated in the press, until Grodman himself returns to the lists to try to clear the man condemned to death for the crime. The plot device has been used many times since, but Zangwill deserves credit for inventing it and enlisting it in an entertaining and timeless plot. With a sardonic style and vivid, Dickensian characterizations of Victoria-era London, Zangwill still appeals to contemporary readers.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Dybbuk Press, LLC (August 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976654636
• ISBN-13: 978-0976654636
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,169,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One of the earliest locked-room mysteries, March 8, 1998

By 

P. Mann (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Bow Mystery (Audio Cassette)

Author Israel Zangwill wrote one of the earliest locked-room mysteries in "The Big Bow Mystery." A woman becomes discouraged when she cannot wake her new lodger. He is in his room, which has been locked from the inside. Despite her fervent knocks, she simply cannot wake him, and she hears no sounds from within. Convinced that her lodger has been murdered, she enlists the help of a celebrated ex-detective neighbor. He breaks down the door, and the lodger is found dead in his bed, his throat slit. The door was indeed locked from the inside, and the windows were similarly secured. Thus is the puzzle at the heart of one of the earliest (circa 1891) locked-room mysteries.

Zangwill has indeed included a masterful puzzle, though the story itself is somewhat problematic. The middle of the story is unnecessarily complex and confusing, and there is a bit too much devotion to politics. Still, the book is very accessible, and anyone with a fondness for the sort of "impossible" crime that John Dickson Carr (a.k.a. Carter Dickson, a.k.a. Carr Dickson) later made famous should read this early entry to the genre.

Note: I read the paperback book for this review and have not listened to the tapes.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Semi-decent mystery, August 28, 2007

By 

James Ryan Mehaffey "Master of the Impossible" (Mooresville, N.C. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Big Bow Mystery (Paperback)

Israel Zangwill did not write this novel to write a mystery, he wrote it to be a satire of Victorian England. The charecters are on dimesional at best, and completely unlikeable, even the detective. The solution for the mystery is belivable, but the reason for the impossible nature of the crime is completely unbelivable. Like the other reviewers have said, and I agree, the middle of the story is completely pointless, as are several of the charecters. But, it was the first locked room mystery novel, so I must give it some credit.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots to like, December 23, 2010

By 

Paul Roberge (Exeter NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Bow Mystery (Kindle Edition)

One of the main points of this novel is that people see what they expect to see, and do so at the expense of what's really there. So, caveat lector. Don't start this early locked-room mystery (the first?) expecting a purist's detective tale of the later (Golden Age) type. That's not to say that it isn't a decent locked-room mystery with a couple of last-page surprises, but Zangwill also uses the genre as a vehicle for his ideas and observations, and for poking fun at late Victorian London. The novel offers a good representation of the period--especially with regards to the labor movement--Dickensian characters (almost caricatures, not necessarily likeable but still entertaining), and quite a bit of sardonic humor.

In that regard it struck me as more "modern" than many later and more pristine detective novels of the twenties and thirties.