Lynne Wood Block & Lawrence Block - The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke
Previously discussed in this post.
Augustus Muir - The Kestar Diamond Case
The strange Dr. Raphael investigates a case where a man has been killed in a jeweller's office. The door was guarded by a policeman, and yet no one was seen to enter.
This is all stupid and silly. The final twist is crap, the solution to the impossibility is crapola, and I feel like Captain Craptastic after reading it.
Kate Ellis - The Odour of Sanctity
Previously discussed in this post.
Edward D. Hoch - The Problem of the Old Oak Tree
Previously discussed in this post.
Nicholas Olde - The Invisible Weapon
Previously discussed in this post.
Ray Cummings - The Confession of Rosa Vitelli
A story set in the early 19th century slums of New York, where a young woman - the titular Rosa - has confessed to the murder of a woman who has died from gas poisoning. She was found in a locked room with the windows closed.
Another story which is all too easy to see through. And the impossibility isn't even an impossibility. Really bad stuff.
Stephen Barr - The Locked Room to End Locked Rooms
Previously discussed in this post (under the alternative title "The Locked House").
Clayton Rawson - Nothing Is Impossible
Previously discussed in this post.
Bill Pronzini - Where Have You Gone, Sam Spade?
The Nameless detective is hired to guard a warehouse during the night because the owner has some very valuable goods coming in. The second night, he finds a dead body even though the warehouse is locked and he is the only one inside.
A fine setup and a very good solution, if a bit technical and therefore hard to spot for the reader.
G. D. H. Cole & Margaret Cole - In a Telephone Cabinet
Superintendent Wilson and his friend Dr. Prendergast are out on a walk when they see someone enter a house through the window. As they approach the house, a man bursts out from the house, shouting about "murder". Inside they find a man dead inside a telephone cabinet - from all looks shot by a blunderbuss.
This is another one of those ubiquitous locked-room stories, and again its a bit surprising that it didn't turn up in any of the other anthologies we've taken a look at here before. It's a bit silly that it takes so long for most of the characters to realise the salient point here (but at least the Coles assure us that Wilson noticed immediately, so I guess that's all right). I'm not sure it lives up to its status as a classic, but it's still an all right read.
Stuart Towne - Death out of Thin Air
Previously discussed in this post.
Agatha Christie - The Dream
Previously discussed in this post.
Margery Allingham - The Border-Line Case
Albert Campion is told about a case where a career criminal has been killed. The police are convinced that they know who the culprit is. The suspect was inside a café at the time of the murder, which is corroborated by the girlfriend of the killed man, but the murdered man is found around the corner from the café - there's simply no line of sight for the suspect.
A very simple solution to an elegant little problem. My Swedish copy has a map, which improves the reading of the story infinitely.
Melville Davisson Post - The Bradmoor Murder
The old Duke of Bradmoor, a famous explorer, has been found inside a tower room which was locked and whose windows are several yards up from the ground, shot to death.
This story is much too long for as simple a problem as this. The solution is never particularly hard to guess at.
Leslie Charteris - The Man Who Liked Toys
The Saint and Chief Inspector Teal see a trio of men who have been enjoying dinner in a hotel. Two of them leave, and the third go to his room in the hotel. Just a few minutes later, he is found dead. It looks like suicide since he was found in his bedroom, and only his valet is on the premises.
Another one with a fairly easily seen through solution. There's really nothing that makes this stand out.
Hulbert Footner - The Ashcomb Poor Case
Mr. Ashcomb Poor has been killed in his library. Only the secretary and the cook were in the house, as mrs Poor was in a country club. As the secretary was a young lady, it is assumed that Mr. Poor made unwelcome advances to her and that she killed him. But psychologist Madame Storey isn't quite convinced of this theory.
This is another story that is hampered a bit by being called impossible, as it's only impossible because of the choice of murderer. And again it's a story much too long for what it contains - it's almost immediately clear who is the murderer, so it's a bit of a slog getting to the end.
Georges Simenon - The Little House at Croix-Rousse
Previously discussed in this post.
Erle Stanley Gardner - The Bird in the Hand
Shady Lester Leith gets wind of a diamond theft and murder in a hotel room. He decides to involve himself and takes the rooms himself and manages to steal the diamonds from the thief. But when the police come to search his rooms the jewels are nowhere to be found.
Again much too long for what it contains. I also got the impression that Gardner made things much too complicated during the course of the story. It's not bad, I just wish it had been condensed a bit.
David Durham - The Gulverbury Diamonds
Thief Fidelity Dove learns that the son of a man she admires - Lord Gulverbury - has given the family diamonds to his mistress before killing himself. She decides to get them back to him, and by sleight of hand takes them from the mistress. The police arrive just then, but the jewels cannot be found anywhere on her or in the room.
I liked the explanation for the disappearance of the jewels, but otherwise this tale felt a bit slight. An all right read, nothing more.
Frederick Irving Anderson - The Fifth Tube
The Infallible Godahl decides to steal gold from the assay office. The gold is held suspended inside a solution of acid, but somehow Godahl manages to make the precious metal evaporate.
I had a very tough time reading this story - the prose and writing style was very tough going. It didn't help that this is another one of those stories where we follow all the events in real time, as it were. There's no detection - things are just revealed as the story moves along. So this was a real low point for me.
MacKinlay Kantor - The Strange Case of Steinkelwintz
Private detective Maxwell Grame is asked to investigate how his friends' grand piano could have been stolen from their flat - the door to the apartment was locked, no one used the elevators and the windows are much too small.
I liked this, especially after a number of less involving stories. And I think the solution to the impossible theft is quite good, actually. The story's a bit on the silly side, but a bit of levity was sorely needed by now.
Maurice Leblanc - Arsène Lupin in Prison
Gentleman thief Arsène Lupin is in prison, and yet somehow manages to steal a painting from a baron who's known for being a recluse and doesn't allow anyone inside his manor.
Again, I thought this was easily seen through, and the solution relies on one of my least liked features of impossible mysteries. Though I guess for Leblanc the impossibility itself isn't the main point, it's Lupin's cleverness that is the focus.
L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace - The Mystery of the Strong Room
A diamond has been switched for an imitation even though it was kept in a strong room which was impossible to penetrate.
Meade & Eustace wrote several different impossible tales, as we've seen over the course of these anthologies. It's a pity they're all fairly dull. In this case the solution is a bit of a cheat as it's completely impossible for the reader to figure out any part of it.
Dennis Lynds - No Way Out
Previously discussed in this post.
C. Daly King - The Episode of the Codex' Curse
Previously discussed in this post.
Dorothy L. Sayers - The Poisoned Dow '08
Montague Egg, travelling wine salesman, has come to visit one of his customers when he finds policemen at the premises and learns that the customer has died from a poisoned port he sold the night before. But the bottle had not been opened before...
Montague Egg is a fun acquaintance, though he does have some whimsy in him. This is rather a clever murder method, and I liked this whole thing quite a bit.
Margaret Frazer - A Traveller's Tale
Previously discussed in this post.
P. G. Wodehouse - Death at the Excelsior
One of the inhabitants of a boarding house has been found killed by snake venom in a room with a locked door. The windows were admittedly open, but the room was situated on the second floor.
A straight up mystery story from the king of comedic writing. This is actually not all that bad, though quite silly. The murder method would never work in reality, but I like Wodehouse's chutzpah in using it.
Martin Edwards - Waiting for Godstow
Previously discussed in this post.
Conclusion
If you're at all interested in locked rooms and impossible mysteries, obviously you need this anthology. In fact, I'd go so far as saying that this is the first one you should get. It has all the classics, it has several stories by the later masters (Carr, Hoch, Rawson, Pronzini et al), it has several more unknown stories, and so on. The only drawback is for a reader who hasn't committed himself to impossibilities - there are so many stories here!
As you've noticed, I wasn't particularly taken with all the stories here - there's quite a few low points among all the great stuff. But that doesn't matter, there's still a lot to enjoy here. I simply couldn't do without this collection of stories.
So, what stories to include then? Well, it's a bunch, of course. Some because of their classic status ("The Problem of Cell 13", "The Two Bottles of Relish", "The Tea Leaf" and "In a Telephone Cabinet"), and some because I like them enough that I think they should be included: "Department of Impossible Crimes", "The Doctor's Case", "A Knife Between Brothers", "The Glass Gravestone", "The Crooked Picture", "The Man from Nowhere", "The Twelfth Statue", "The Theft of the Bermuda Penny", "Room Number 23", "Where Have You Gone, Sam Spade?", "The Border-Line Case", "The Strange Case of Steinkelwintz" and "The Poisoned Dow '08".
On Beneath the Stains of Time, TomCat was even more thorough than I was when reviewing this volume, dedicating a whopping seven posts to it. The following link leads to the final instalment, which includes links to all the six preceding ones: http://moonlight-detective.blogspot.se/2015/03/uncage-black-lizard-part-vii-closing.html
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