Some of the below stories are out and out classics, and some are quite innovative to boot. Others are just great stories that bring solid surprises to the reader. And yet others belong to both categories. Bolded titles are classics, titles in italics indicate truly great stories, a must-read for any mystery fan. If a story got neither bolded nor italicised, it's still a great story that I really think you should read. But you can wait till you've read the rest...
| Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace | The Tea Leaf | 1925 |
| G. D. H. Cole & Margaret Cole | In a Telephone Cabinet | 1928 |
| Nicholas Olde | Invisible Weapon | 1928 |
| Ronald Knox | Solved by Inspection | 1931 |
| Lord Dunsany | The Two Bottles of Relish | 1932 |
| Vincent Cornier | Duel of Shadows | 1934 |
| Ellery Queen | Lamp of God | 1935 |
| Agatha Christie | The Dream | 1937 |
| Agatha Christie | Dead Man's Mirror | 1937 |
| Cornell Woolrich | The Room with Something Wrong | 1938 |
| Ellery Queen | The Dauphin's Doll | 1948 |
| Fredric Brown | The Laughing Butcher | 1948 |
| Helen McCloy | Through a Glass, Darkly | 1948 |
| Peter Godfrey | Newtonian Egg | 1951 |
| Hugh Pentecost | The Day the Children Vanished | 1958 |
| John F. Suter | The Impossible Theft | 1964 |
| Stephen Barr | The Locked House | 1965 |
| William Krohn | The Impossible Murder of Dr Satanus | 1965 |
| Christianna Brand | The Gemminy Crickets Case | 1968 |
| Peter Godfrey | Flung-Back Lid | 1979 |
| H. Edward Hunsberger | Eternally Yours | 1985 |
| Peter Lovesey | Amorous Corpse | 2000 |
| J. A. Konrath | On the Rocks | 2004 |
| Soji Shimada | The Locked House of Pythagoras | 2013 |
| RintarÅ Norizuki | The Lure of the Green Door | 2014 |
| Szu-Yen Lin | The Miracle on Christmas Eve | 2016 |
The rest of the stories from my original list - those that haven't been featured in these last three posts - are just indications of what I think are enjoyable impossible mystery stories. They won't always be to everyone's taste - I mean, TomCat doesn't like John Basye Price's "Death and the Rope Trick", and he's still pretty well versed in impossible mysteries - but generally they're all worthwhile as mysteries.
I'm with you on finding the range of interpretations everyone brings to their own reading fascinating. That, for instance, you rate the Coles' thoroughly dull 'In a Telephone Cabinet' as better than Norizuki's 'The Lure of the Green Door', which I would probably put near the top of all the impossible short stories I've ever read.
ReplyDeleteI'll never get bored of seeing lists of what people rate, becaue it's such a fun exercise trying to figure out what I've loved that they'll hate and vice versa. Thanks for putting all these together over the last few months; I'm going to really enjoy picking through the ones you've rated in various places that I've not yet come across.
We might have different definitions of "classics".
DeleteI don't particularly find the Coles' offering better than Norizuki's (in fact, I'd rather read the latter again). It's just more classic. And if you consider yourself an expert, or at least an aficionado, you have to have read it.
Norizuki's you should just read because it's thoroughly enjoyable. :)
Otherwise, thanks for the kind words. Do let me know if you find something particularly loathsome among my recommendations (or vice versa!)...
First up, some Hoch!
DeleteActually, first up you've got me itching to reread Halter's Nght of the Wolf collection, because man do I remember loving some of those stories.