Locked-room mystery

Last updated May 08, 2024

The "locked-room" or "impossible crime" mystery is a type of crime seen in crime and detective fiction. The crime in question, typically murder ("locked-room murder"), is committed in circumstances under which it appeared impossible for the perpetrator to enter the crime scene, commit the crime, and leave undetected.^[1] The crime in question typically involves a situation whereby an intruder could not have left; for example the original literal "locked room": a murder victim found in a windowless room locked from the inside at the time of discovery. Following other conventions of classic detective fiction, the reader is normally presented with the puzzle and all of the clues, and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed in a dramatic climax.

The prima facie impression from a locked room crime is that the perpetrator is a dangerous, supernatural entity capable of defying the laws of nature by walking through walls or vanishing into thin air. The need for a rational explanation for the crime is what drives the protagonist to look beyond these appearances and solve the puzzle.

History

Early locked-room mysteries: 1830s—1930s

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is generally considered the first locked-room mystery.^[1]^[2] However, Robert Adey credits Sheridan Le Fanu for "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (1838), which was published three years before Poe's "Rue Morgue".^[1]

Other early locked-room mysteries include Israel Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery (1892);^[3] "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" (1892) and "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903), two Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Problem of Cell 13" (1905) by Jacques Futrelle, featuring "The Thinking Machine" Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen;^[3] and Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room), written in 1907 by French journalist and author Gaston Leroux.^[3] G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories, beginning in 1911,^[4] often featured locked-room mysteries.^[3]

Golden Age: 1920s—1950s

In the 1920s and 1930s, many authors wrote locked-room mysteries, such as S. S. Van Dine in The Canary Murder Case (1927),^[3] Ellery Queen in The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934),^[3] and Freeman Wills Crofts in such novels as Sudden Death and The End of Andrew Harrison (1938).^[3]

Pulp magazines in the 1930s often contained impossible crime tales, dubbed weird menace , in which a series of supernatural or science-fiction type events is eventually explained rationally. Notable practitioners of the period were Fredric Brown, Paul Chadwick and, to a certain extent, Cornell Woolrich, although these writers tended to rarely use the Private Eye protagonists that many associate with pulp fiction. Quite a few comic book impossible crimes seem to draw on the "weird menace" tradition of the pulps. However, celebrated writers such as G. K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Clayton Rawson, and Sax Rohmer have also had their works adapted to comic book form. In 1934, Dashiell Hammett created the comic strip Secret Agent X9, illustrated by Alex Raymond, which contained a locked-room episode. One American comic book series that made good use of locked-room mysteries is Mike W. Barr's Maze Agency .

John Dickson Carr, who also wrote as Carter Dickson, was known as "master of the locked-room mystery".^[5] His 1935 novel The Hollow Man (US title: The Three Coffins) was in 1981 voted the best locked-room mystery novel of all time by 17 authors and reviewers,^[6]^[7] although Carr himself names Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room as his favorite.^[6] (Leroux's novel was named third in that same poll; Hake Talbot's Rim of the Pit (1944) was named second.^[6]) Three other Carr/Dickson novels were in the top ten of the 1981 list: The Crooked Hinge (1938), The Judas Window (1938), and The Peacock Feather Murders (1937).^[6]

In French, Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Gaston Boca, Marcel Lanteaume, Pierre Véry, Noel Vindry, and the Belgian Stanislas-André Steeman were other important "impossible crime" writers, Vindry being the most prolific with 16 novels. Edgar Faure, who later to become Prime Minister of France, also wrote in the genre, but was a not particularly successful.

During the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, English-speaking writers dominated the genre, but after the 1940s there was a general waning of English-language output. French authors continued writing into the 1950s and early 1960s, notably Martin Meroy and Boileau-Narcejac, who joined forces to write several locked-room novels. They also co-authored the psychological thrillers which brought them international fame, two of which were adapted for the screen as Vertigo (1954 novel; 1958 film) and Diabolique (1955 film). The most prolific writer during the period immediately following the Golden Age was Japanese: Akimitsu Takagi wrote almost 30 locked-room mysteries, starting in 1949 and continuing to his death in 1995. A number have been translated into English. In Robert van Gulik's mystery novel The Chinese Maze Murders (1951), one of the cases solved by Judge Dee is an example of the locked-room subgenre.

Late twentieth century: 1970s—present

The genre continued into the 1970s and beyond. Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective novels feature locked-room puzzles. The most prolific creator of impossible crimes is Edward D. Hoch, whose short stories feature a detective, Dr. Sam Hawthorne, whose main role is as a country physician. The majority of Hoch stories feature impossible crimes; one appeared in EQMM every month from May 1973 through January 2008. Hoch's protagonist is a gifted amateur detective who uses pure brainpower to solve his cases.

The French writer Paul Halter, who wrote over 30 novels, almost exclusively in the locked-room genre, has been described as the natural successor to John Dickson Carr.^[6] Although strongly influenced by Carr and Agatha Christie,^[7] he has a unique writing style featuring original plots and puzzles. A collection of ten of his short stories, entitled The Night of the Wolf, has been translated into English. The Japanese writer Soji Shimada has been writing impossible crime stories since 1981. The first, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (1981), and the second, Murder in the Crooked House (1982), are the only ones to have been translated into English. The themes of the Japanese novels are far more grisly and violent than those of the more genteel Anglo-Saxons. Dismemberment is a preferred murder method. Despite the gore, most norms of the classic detective fiction novel are strictly followed.

Umberto Eco, in his 2000 novel Baudolino , takes the locked-room theme into medieval times. The book's plot suggests that Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I had not drowned in a river, as history records, but died mysteriously at night while a guest at the castle of a sinister Armenian noble. The book features various suspects, each of whom had a clever means of killing the Emperor without entering the room where he slept – all these means having been available in medieval times.

The locked-room genre also appears in children's detective fiction, although the crime committed is usually less severe than murder. One notable author is Enid Blyton, who wrote several juvenile detective series, often featuring seemingly impossible crimes that her young amateur detectives set out to solve. The Hardy Boys novel While the Clock Ticked was (originally) about a locked and isolated room where a man seeks privacy, but receives mysterious threatening messages there. The messages are delivered by a mechanical device lowered into the room through a chimney. King Ottokar's Sceptre (1938–1939) is the only Tintin adventure that is a locked-room mystery. No homicide is involved; rather the crime is the disappearance of the royal sceptre, which is bound to have disastrous consequences for the king.

The British TV series Jonathan Creek has a particular 'speciality' for locked-room-murder style mysteries. The eponymous protagonist, Jonathan Creek, designs magic tricks for stage magicians, and is often called on to solve cases where the most important element of the mystery is clearly how the crime was committed, such as a man who allegedly shot himself in a sealed bunker when he had crippling arthritis in his hands, how a woman was shot in a sealed room with no gun and without the window being opened or broken, how a dead body could have vanished from a locked room when the only door was in full view of someone else, etc.

In the 21st century, examples of popular detective series novels that include locked-room type puzzles are The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) by Stieg Larssen, Bloodhounds (2004) by Peter Lovesey, and In the Morning I'll Be Gone (2014) by Adrian McKinty, while Locked-room puzzles are a major plot point and discussed at length in the visual novels Umineko When They Cry and Danganronpa.

Real-life examples

Professional bridge player and writer Joseph Bowne Elwell was shot in 1920 while inside his locked Manhattan home. The case inspired the 1926 mystery novel The Benson Murder Case .^[8]
According to a report in The New York Times , March 10 and 11, 1929, Isidore Fink, of 4 East 132nd Street, New York City, was in his Fifth Avenue laundry on the night of March 9, 1929, with the windows closed and door of the room bolted. A neighbor heard screams and the sound of blows, but not shots, and called the police, who were unable to get in. A young boy was lifted through the transom and was able to unbolt the door. The police found Fink dead with two bullet wounds in his chest and one in his left wrist. No money had been taken, and no weapon was found at the scene. It was theorised that the murderer may have climbed the outside of the building and fired through the transom, but a powder burn on Fink's wrist indicated that he had been shot at close range. Interviewed some years later, Police Commissioner Mulrooney called the Fink murder an "insoluble mystery".^[9]
On May 16, 1937, Laetitia Toureaux was found stabbed to death in an otherwise empty first-class compartment of the Paris Métro. The subway train had left the terminus, Porte de Charenton, at 6:27 p.m. and had arrived at the next station, Porte Dorée, at 6:28 p.m. Witnesses did not see anyone else enter or leave the compartment where Mlle. Toureaux's body was found. The murderer had one minute and twenty seconds at their disposal. Neither the murderer nor the method of their escape was ever discovered.^[10]
In 2010, the uninjured dead body of Gareth Williams, an employee of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), was found in a bag that had been zipped up and padlocked from the outside, with a key inside. There was no forensic evidence of anyone else's involvement. Two escapologists investigated whether he could somehow have locked himself inside the bag. After 400 unsuccessful attempts one of them would still not completely rule out the possibility.^[11]

Related Research Articles

Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whodunit</span> Type of detective story

A whodunit is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective.

Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has several subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dickson Carr</span> American mystery novelist and playwright (1906–1977)

John Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn.

Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective, who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism.

Crime fiction is a typically 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century genre, dominated by British and American writers. This article explores its historical development as a genre.

<i>Death from a Top Hat</i> 1938 novel by Clayton Rawson

Death from a Top Hat (1938) is a locked-room mystery novel written by Clayton Rawson. It is the first of four mysteries featuring The Great Merlini, a stage magician and Rawson's favorite protagonist.

<i>The Mystery of the Yellow Room</i> Novel by Gaston Leroux

The Mystery of the Yellow Room is a mystery novel written by French author Gaston Leroux. One of the first locked-room mystery novels, it was first published serially in France in the periodical L'Illustration from September 1907 to November 1907, then in its own right in 1908.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gideon Fell</span> Fictional English amateur detective

Dr Gideon Fell is a fictional character created by John Dickson Carr. He is the protagonist of 23 mystery novels from 1933 through 1967, as well as a few short stories. Carr was an American who lived most of his adult life in England; Dr. Fell is an Englishman who lives in the London suburbs.

Edward Dentinger Hoch was an American writer of detective fiction. Although he wrote several novels, he was primarily known for his vast output of over 950 short stories. He was one of the few America fiction writers of his generation who supported himself financially through short story publication, rather than novels or screenplays.

Sir Henry Merrivale is a fictional amateur detective created by "Carter Dickson", a pen name of John Dickson Carr (1906–1977). Also known as "the Old Man," by his initials "H. M.", or "the Maestro", Merrivale appears in 22 of Carr's locked-room mysteries and "impossible crime" novels of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, as well as in two short stories.

<i>He Who Whispers</i> 1946 novel by John Dickson Carr

He Who Whispers is a mystery novel (1946) by John Dickson Carr. Like many of the works by Carr, the book features a so-called "impossible crime". For the most part, such crimes fall into the category of locked room mysteries. In this case, the novel falls into a smaller sub-category of Carr's work in that it is suggested that the "impossible" crime is the work of a supernatural being. Dr. Gideon Fell is featured as the detective. Carr considered this one of his best novels.

<i>The Crooked Hinge</i> 1938 novel by John Dickson Carr

The Crooked Hinge is a mystery novel (1938) by detective novelist John Dickson Carr. It combines a seemingly impossible throat-slashing with elements of witchcraft, an automaton modelled on Maelzel's Chess Player, and the story of the Tichborne Claimant. It was dedicated to fellow author Dorothy Sayers "in friendship and esteem".

<i>Rim of the Pit</i> 1944 novel by Hake Talbot

Rim of the Pit (1944) is a locked-room mystery novel written by Hake Talbot, a pen name of Henning Nelms. Nelms, as Talbot, published one other mystery novel as well as two short stories.

The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is in practice usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was predominant in the 1920s and 1930s but had been written since at least 1911 and is still being written today. In his history of the detective story, Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel, the author Julian Symons heads two chapters devoted to the Golden Age as "the Twenties" and "the Thirties". Symons notes that Philip Van Doren Stern's article, "The Case of the Corpse in the Blind Alley" (1941), "could serve ... as an obituary for the Golden Age." Authors Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh have been collectively called the Queens of Crime.

Joseph Commings was an American writer of locked room mysteries. He wrote a series of soft-core sex novels, but is best known for his locked-room mystery/impossible crime short stories featuring Senator Brooks U. Banner."

<i>The Curse of the Bronze Lamp</i> Mystery novel by John Dickson Carr

The Curse of the Bronze Lamp is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr, who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a locked room mystery or, more properly, a subset of that category known as an "impossible crime", and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale. Carr considered this one of his best impossible crime novels.

<i>The Nine Wrong Answers</i> 1952 novel by John Dickson Carr

The Nine Wrong Answers, first published in 1952, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr which does not feature any of his series detectives. It is an expansion of Carr's 1942 radio play "Will You Make A Bet With Death".

<i>The Witch of the Low Tide</i> 1961 mystery novel by John Dickson Carr

The Witch of the Low Tide, first published in 1961, is a detective story/historical novel by John Dickson Carr set in the England of 1907. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a locked room mystery as well as being a historical novel.

References

1 2 3 Penzler, Otto (28 December 2014). "The Locked Room Mysteries: As a new collection of the genre's best is published, its editor Otto Penzler explains the rules of engagement". The Independent . Retrieved 22 January 2019.
↑ Eschner, Kat (20 April 2017). "Without Edgar Allan Poe, We Wouldn't Have Sherlock Holmes". Smithsonian . Retrieved 22 January 2019.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ousby, Ian (1997). Guilty Parties. Thames & Hudson. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0-500-27978-0.
↑ Chesterton, G.K. (1911). The Innocence of Father Brown. Cassell and Company, LTD.
↑ McKinty, Adrian (29 January 2014). "The top 10 locked-room mysteries". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 January 2019.
1 2 3 4 5 Pugmire, John. "A Locked Room Library". Mysteryfile.com. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
1 2 "Why are locked room mysteries so popular?". BBC . 21 May 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
↑ Irwin, John T. (25 October 2006). Unless the Threat of Death is Behind Them: Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8938-7.
↑ Fort, Charles (1975), The Complete Books of Charles Fort, p. 916
↑ Finley-Croswhite, Annette; Brunelle, Gayle K. (2006), Murder in the Metro, Old Dominion University, retrieved 2008-03-03
↑ "Gareth Williams: the key unanswered questions". The Guardian . 2 May 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2019.