Friday, June 9, 2017

Miraculous Mysteries: Locked Room Mysteries

book cover
Miraculous Mysteries
edited by Martin Edwards


ISBN-13: 9781464207440
Paperback: 358 pages
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Released: June 6, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from NetGalley:
Impossible crime stories have been relished by puzzle-lovers ever since the invention of detective fiction. Fiendishly intricate cases were particularly well suited to the cerebral type of detective story that became so popular during the ‘golden age of murder’ between the two world wars. But the tradition goes back to the days of Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins, and impossible crime stories have been written by such luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham.

This anthology celebrates their work, alongside long-hidden gems by less familiar writers. Together these stories demonstrate the range and high accomplishment of the classic British impossible crime story over more than half a century.


My Review:
Miraculous Mysteries is a short story collection of 16 locked room or impossible-seeming mysteries, though some were not as baffling as that sounds. These are clue-based puzzle mysteries. Many could be solved from the provided clues, but some withheld clues until the big reveal. There are only so many ways to do a locked room mystery, so I could guess at least the general method of murder in most of the stories. There was no sex. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable collection.

The included stories:

The Lost Special by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Thing Invisible by William Hope Hodgson
The Case of the Tragedies in the Greek Room by Sax Rohmer
The Aluminium Dagger by R. Austin Freeman
The Miracle of the Moon Crescent by G.K. Chestertom
The Invisible Weapon by Nicholas Olde
The Diary of Death by Marten Cumberland
The Broadcast Murder by Grenville Robbins
The Music-Room by Sapper
Death at 8.30 by Christopher St. John Sprigg
Too Clever by Half by G.D.H. and Margaret Cole
Locked In by E. Charles Vivian
The Haunted Policeman by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Sands of Thyme by Michael Innes
Beware of the Trains by Edmund Crispin
The Villa Marie Celeste by Margery Allingham


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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