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Marilyn Todd

The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes Paperback – October 30, 2000

by Mike Ashley (Editor), David Renwick (Foreword)

47 ratings

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A new anthology of twenty-nine short stories features an array of baffling locked-room mysteries by Michael Collins, Bill Pronzini, Susanna Gregory, H. R. F. Keating, Peter Lovesey, Kate Ellis, and Lawrence Block, among others. Original.

Print length

512 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Running Press
Publication date

October 30, 2000
Dimensions

5 x 1.5 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

0786707909
ISBN-13

978-0786707904
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Martin Edwards
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Mike Ashley
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Otto Penzler
153
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Martin Edwards
133
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Martin Edwards
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Mike Ashley
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Edward D. Hoch
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Edward D. Hoch
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, February 2001: The very thing that first hooked me on mysteries long ago is the element most on display in this fat and satisfying volume: amazement. Not whodunit or why, but how. And that really means wow, as in, "Wow, I can't believe what I just read!" Such cases were originally the province of Edgar Allan Poe's Inspector Dupin, whose unraveling of such sensational "impossible" crimes as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" gave the reading public of an earlier era its appetite for gasp-inducing solutions. Just a few decades later the mystery genre had progressed to a more rational approach, with which Arthur Conan Doyle equipped Sherlock Holmes, though the crimes demanding our greatest sleuth's attention were highly fanciful more often than not. Snakes in airshafts menacing gentlewomen! Clubs restricted to redheaded fellows! Wow!

Next appeared the exceedingly baroque whimsies of John Dickson Carr, who eventually grew to feel the strain of being regarded as the Houdini of mystery literature. But before he saw his powers of invention begin to flag, Carr, who also wrote as Carter Dickson, had defined the subgenre of locked-room crime for all time, producing over 50 novels and dozens of short stories featuring some startling variations on the theme. The Hollow Man, published in the U.S. as The Three Coffins, is considered by experts to be this author's greatest achievement. It offers in the course of the story a seminal lecture about the locked-room crime.

In this bargain tome, Carr is represented by "The Silver Curtain," in which a man standing alone in a cul-de-sac is fatally stabbed in the back. From a less well-known writer, Clayton Rawson (a real-life magician as well as an authorial one), comes a tale written in response to a challenge by Carr, his friend and rival: make a man vanish from a phone booth. (He succeeds, of course.) Also on hand are four clever contemporary tricksters: Peter Lovesey, H.R.F. Keating, Lawrence Block, and Edward D. Hoch. There's almost too much entertainment value in these 29 tales assembled by veteran editor and mystery scholar Mike Ashley. "I've endeavored to bring together a collection of stories," he says, "that seem utterly baffling and where the solution is equally amazing." That's OK. Ration them, and you'll only savor them more. --Otto Penzler

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Product information

Technical Details

Publisher

‎Running Press (October 30, 2000)

Language

‎English

Paperback

‎512 pages

ISBN-10

‎0786707909

ISBN-13

‎978-0786707904

Item Weight

‎13.6 ounces

Dimensions

‎5 x 1.5 x 7.5 inches

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Customer reviews

5 star		49%
4 star		37%
3 star		9%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		6%

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Top reviews from the United States

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A. Larson

Love it, very fun

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2015

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I really love this book. It's the most fun book I've read in a long time. These stories are tough! I keep going back and forth in each story, trying to piece them together and solve the crime. I haven't completely solved one yet, though I've figured out some of the pieces. If you like mysteries, you'll enjoy this book.

5 people found this helpful

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Jim Grinstead

A mixed bag

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2013

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Don't expect to be astonished. Seasoned mystery readers will see the solution in some of these stories coming early in the story. Others are surprising and others, as noted by the compiler, are possible, but unlikely. It's a good investment for those looking for decently written short stories, but it's more of a "browser" than a "reader."

2 people found this helpful

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LeylaTop Contributor: Cooking

So many and all wonderful

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2014

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Really enjoyed both the tales and the history of each writer and story. Many stories I have read before but that did not take away from the enjoyment of experiencing of reading a well write mystery without the gratuitous violence. There was only one story I did not like but maybe because I'm not much into maths. Well edited and easy to read.

One person found this helpful

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Elizabeth B.

Closed door mysteries and more...

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2017

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This is a collection of mysteries. And it was a gift, so I have not read it myself. But was well-received.

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David Malmberg

A very good collection of Locked-Room mysteries - although a little uneven

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2014

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Mike Ashley is the editor of a number of anthologies and this is one of the best for mystery fans. The stories are a little uneven, but the quality is still high.

One person found this helpful

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Dr. Michael A. Piccuirro

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2017

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A+++!!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2014

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some of these are nuts but vey fun to try and figure them out. i lov them.

One person found this helpful

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R. J. Karger

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2014

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Book delivered exactly as promised. Thank you.

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazonian

Entertaining read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2014

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If you enjoy crime puzzles (like the brain teasers Jonathan Creek gets involved in) then you'll almost certainly enjoy this collection of short stories, all featuring baffling crimes. They're very easy reading and I found myself hooked, reading one after another in rapid succession although I'm not usually a fan of short stories.

The only downside for me, and the reason it doesn't get five stars, is that all too often at the end of the story I felt let down by the "solution" to the puzzling crime for one of a variety of reasons:-

- the solution was so mundane I felt cheated (eg. Waiting for Godstow, The Crowded Cemetery, No Way Out, Murder Strips Off, Stag Night);

- the solution required an ingenious device which almost certainly wouldn't work in real life (eg. Death Rides The Elevator, The Pulp Collection):

- the solution was obvious quite early on (eg. The Doomdorf Mystery, Murder In The Air, Mr. Strang Accepts A Challenge; Blind Eyes);

- the solution seemed ingenious but there seemed to me to be a difficulty in its execution which the author had glossed over (eg. The Stolen Saint Simon - how did they set up the tightrope?);

- the author cheated (eg. Ice Elation - when the author tells us that a place has been searched we do not expect to find that the solution hinges on the culprit having hidden in that place)

Despite the above I enjoyed the book very much - there were very few stories that I felt weren't worth reading and most of them do exhibit a certain degree of ingenuity. Afterwards, I found myself searching Amazon for some of the works recommended by the compiler of this anthologgy wanting more of the same!

6 people found this helpful

Annie W

Good selection of old and new

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2013

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I'm not sure if the collection merits a Foreword, an Introduction, and an Afterword, but it is quite a good selection of tales. I bought the book because it contained offerings from several of my favourite authors, but it also introduced me to others whose works I might now consider trying. It did contain the odd story which made me wonder why it had been included, but each to his own.

There are 27 mysteries, with solutions ranging from the 'got it from the start' variety through the 'wow, that's clever!' to the 'oh, come off it!'. I just wish Mr Ashley has spent a little more time reading the proofs, because there are a significant number of errors in the text, largely either missing or duplicated words, sometimes incomplete text revisions, nothing major, but still fairly irritating.

Nevertheless, it's an entertaining read for its price.

7 people found this helpful

Zoony Lazoon

Brilliant anthology

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2013

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I'm generally rather averse to collections of stories by various random authors - but I have found the "Mammoth" series to be very well put together - and this one, in particular, is a great collection of this delightful sub-genre. Not all the stories are equally good, but they are mostly very ingenious and enjoyable. If you enjoy Jonathan Creek style logical / weird mysteries rather than blood and yuk then this is definitely recommended.

3 people found this helpful

Studfarm

Very good at suspense

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book always keeps you guessing. Even if something appears to be obvious it has you doubting it.

AEH

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

An excellent collection of mystery stories Many hours of enjoyable reading

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