I originally found this at my library and enjoyed it so much, I went out and bought my own copy.

The Black Lizard Big book of Locked-Room Mysteries claims, on its cover, to be “The most complete collection of impossible-crime stories ever assembled.” Whether this is true or not, clocking in at 939 pages of small, two-column print, it’s definitely a monster and one I’ve been chipping away at slowly for years. For this year’s Halloween Bingo, I needed Locked Room mysteries, so I turned to my Big Book and chose two from the same author: The Wrong Problem by John Dickson Carr, and Blind Man’s Hood by the same author writing as Carter Dickson. I’ve read two of this author’s full length novels so far, one as Dickson Carr (The Mad Hatter Mystery) and one as Carter Dickson (The Skeleton in the Clock), both of which I enjoyed. The short stories though, were a mixed bag:

The first, The Wrong Problem, was frankly, weird. I gave it 4 stars for the sheer ingeniousness of the murder method but the rest seemed pointless. To mention anything about the story, I think, would be to spoil it. It honestly doesn’t deserve 4 stars but that murder method was diabolical.

The second, Blind Man’s Hood, made up for the first in spades. This one turned out to be a perfect – absolutely perfect – short story for Halloween. Yes, it takes place at Christmas, but ignore that, it’s irrelevant. So. damn. creepy. I read it before I went to bed last night and when I realised what I was reading, I knew two things: no way I was going to stop, and that I’d have to stay away long enough to read something else before going to sleep. The locked room solution isn’t particularly clever or even surprising, but the rest of the story, for me, was. 5 stars.

2021
The Man Who Liked Toys by Leslie Charteris: four-stars

I liked this one about as much as I expected to – maybe a little less. And I probably should have given it 3.5 stars instead of 4 because at its core it’s more a snapshot of a story than an actual story. But the method of murder is ingenious. I have to say though, The Saint isn’t nearly as dashing on paper as he is when he looks like Val Kilmer.

The Two Bottles of Relish by Lord Dunsany: five-stars

Well, I can see why this is one of the most re-printed locked room stories. It has a Poe-esque quality to it, as it starts out a very normal, even vanilla, narration by someone who considers himself a Watson, and rapidly escalates towards the end into a mini-horror story. I saw where it was going but now quite, and the ending … ends perfectly. Any more would have diluted the effect completely, even with the superbly done writing. ( )

Otto Penzler, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop, created a wonderful anthology featuring locked-room mysteries from the advent of the genre to the present. Penzler introduces each story with comments about the author's work in the genre and mentions prominent writings. While the mystery selected may not be the one usually chosen for mystery anthologies, the selection always fits the "locked-room" subgenre. As with most anthologies, some stories provide more enjoyment than others. It is difficult to write mysteries in short-story form because of the lack of time for character development, red herrings, and other genre characteristics. A few entries seem to be great examples of how it can be done, but readers can find a fault or two in most included stories. In the grand scheme of anthologies featuring mystery short stories, this one outshines most. ( )

library copy ( )