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jenn

Murder by Death

I read cozy and historical mysteries, a bit of Paranormal/UF, and to mix it up, I read science and gardening books on occasion.

The Locked-Room Mysteries

The Locked-room Mysteries - Lawrence Block, G.K. Chesterton, P.G. Wodehouse, John Dickson Carr, Otto Penzler, Dorothy L. Sayers, Dashiell Hammett, Ellery Queen, Georges Simenon, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh,  Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen King, Erle Stanley Gardner, Raymond Chandler, Edgar Allan Poe

There were so many promising selections and recommendations from everyone for locked-room mysteries, I found it a little overwhelming:  what to choose?  

 

Then I stumbled across this book at my library and it seemed the perfect answer; at 900+ pages I was certain to find a few good stories and all of them locked room mysteries.

 

I was not disappointed.  In fact, I think I'll probably buy a copy of this book for my personal shelves; if half the stories are as good as the ones I've read, I can't go wrong.  

 

For the Halloween Bingo challenge, I read the following stories; none of them less than 4.5-5 star reads:

 

A Terribly Strange Bed - Wilkie Collins

What do Disney's Haunted Mansion and the movie Murder by Death have in common?  This story!  It was so much fun; I admit I wasn't sure how much I'd like Collins' writing style after listening to Mrs. Zant and the Ghost, but I found this story so entertaining, I'm feeling much more confident about picking up his longer classics.

 

The House of Haunts - Ellery Queen

A new author for me - I know, Queen is a legend! - but I'd never picked him up, thinking his work might be more noir or graphic than I'd like.  HA!  It was great!  This is the longest of the stories I read, and it had all the elements:  dark, forbidding atmosphere, gothic houses, mentally disturbed residents, an unending snow storm, a question of paranormal influences, and of course a locked room setup.  The ending is nothing short of fantastical and cunning, with Queen coming across as a blend of Whimsey and Holmes.

 

The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke - Lawrence Block & Lynn Wood Block

Years ago I had a first date that took me to a bookstore and bought me a Bernie Rhodenbarr mystery.  Despite such auspicious beginnings, the boyfriend didn't last, but I'd read a few of the Burglar Who... books, so I pounced on this story as a guarantee of something light.  After reading it, I sort of think Block would have been better off keeping Rhondenbarr confined to the short story format:  this was a much better mystery than I remember the full-length books being.  This is a true locked-room mystery, and while most relatively savvy readers will recognise the method of death, the details were really fiendishly clever, while still being a light, entertaining read.

 

The Poisoned Dow '08 - Dorothy L. Sayers

My first Montague Egg mystery, and probably the 'weakest' of the stories I chose at 4.5 stars.  Egg reminds me too much of Poirot, only a little bit... smarmy.  This was also the most conventional of the locked room scenarios offered in the stories I read.  Still, Sayers is a master and given a choice, I might choose Egg over Poirot in short story format.  Maybe.

 

Death at the Excelsior - P.G. Wodehouse

Did you know Wodehouse wrote crime stories before he brought Wooster and Jeeves into the world?  I didn't, and when I saw him in the TOC there was no way I skipping it.  It's a classic mystery, and there are hints of the wry, dry humour Wodehouse would become famous for here and there.  Another truly locked room mystery, with shades of The Adventure of the Speckled Band, but ultimately very different.  This short could also be used for the Black Cat Square.  

 

I'm looking forward to owning my own copy of this; I highly recommend it for classic mystery lovers.

 

This fills my Locked Room Mystery square in 2016 Halloween Book Bingo.  It also ends up being my final book for my 2016 Reading Challenge of 175 books.  :)