Mord i slutna rum (ed. Jan Broberg)

This was Broberg's (and possibly the world's) first anthology of locked rooms and impossible mysteries. Published in 1967, it gathers twelve different stories from a number of masters of the genre - and some lesser known names.

Edgar Allan Poe - The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Previously discussed in this post.

Melville Davisson Post - The Doomdorf Mystery

Previously discussed in this post.

R. Austin Freeman - The Aluminium Dagger

Dr. Thorndyke and Jervis investigate a case where a man has been killed in a locked room, and the dagger is still in his back. Though the windows are open, the apartment is two flights up.

On the whole, I liked this. It's Freeman's only impossible crime story, so it turns up almost everywhere, but I think it deserves to be. The solution is quite clever.

G. K. Chesterton - The Wrong Shape

A poet is found stabbed in a room that was being watched. He's also left a note behind indicating that it was suicide.

I guess Chesterton had read "The Big Bow Mystery". The bit with the wrong shape of the note is quite clever though. So, an unoriginal impossibility with some extra bits that improve it somewhat.

Ellery Queen - Double Your Money

Previously discussed in this post.

John Dickson Carr - The Locked Room

Previously discussed in this post.

Carter Dickson - The Silver Curtain

Previously discussed in this post.

Leonard Thompson - Close Shave

Shady lawyer William Grey takes on a case defending a man who's accused of killing a man while the latter was shaving and they were the only ones present in the room.

This is probably the most exclusive story in this anthology, because I've never seen it collected elsewhere. Which is a shame, because this is a good story. The solution to the impossibility is elegant and works fine.

Edmund Crispin - The Name on the Window

Gervase Fen gets a winter visit from Inspector Humbleby who tells him about a case where a prominent architect has been murdered in summerhouse and written the name of one of the other houseguests on the window.

This is quite fun, a typical Crispin locked room with a solution that might get you to headdesk a little.

Stephen Barr - The Locked House

A number of members of a London club discuss a case where a man was found killed inside a locked house.

Now, this can be seen as a counterpart to Lord Dunsany's famous "Two Bottles of Relish". It's quite a clever solution, and it's understandable that this tale has been reprinted both here and there. A tour de force.

William Brittain - The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr

A young man is an avid reader of John Dickson Carr stories, and decides to kill his uncle, using all the lessons learned from all those Carr stories to create the greatest locked room ever.

A fun parody of all these locked room mysteries with a sting in its tail. I wonder whether the police would have seen through the impossibility otherwise.

Kelley Roos - The Great Locked Room Mystery

A playscript with a parody of a locked room mystery, once performed by the Mystery Writers of America with John Dickson Carr playing the main part as sleuth Wendell St John.

Conclusion

Like I said, many of the stories here are ubiquitous, and seeing that this was the earliest (or one of the earliest) anthology of impossible crimes, it's not surprising that they turn up here. However, there are a couple of stories that haven't really been published anywhere else, and so this is still a must-have for those of us who read Swedish.

I will be including "Aluminium Dagger", "Close Shave", "Name on the Window" and "The Locked House" in my impossible crime project.