All But Impossible - An Anthology of Locked Rooms & Impossible Crimes Stories

 

 (從 blog.Yam 備份過來）

One of my favorite books!

Firstly, the book was selected by Edward D Hoch. He is the GAD style writer – story full with detection and fair-play clues. Naturally the taste of his selection is towarding that criteria.

Secondly, this book provides a list of impossible crime stories selected by the well known writers, editors, and etc.

Thirdly, this book contains the inscription of 3 writers: Edward D Hoch, William Brittain and Peter Godfrey.

(Well, it’s not to me. I bought this book from ebay. )

 

 

The stories︰

 

author	SS title	Impossible Crime	Comment
John Dickson Carr	The Shadow of the Goat	- A man walked into a room. The room was being locked by the witness. Yet the man disappeared when the door reopened.	Surprisingly good. The story was Carr’s earlier work. Initially I thought it would be dull. Just the opposite. The impossible crime was beautifully presented and explained.
Georges Simenon	The Little House at Croix-Rouse	A man was shot in a guarded house.	The solution was quite easily guessed if you have read many impossible crime stories.
James Yaffe	The Problem of the Emperor's Mushroom	An emperor died of poison even though the only food he has taken, the mushroom soup, was proven harmless.	So-so. Probably the mom’s series from the author will be more interesting.
Clayton Rawson	From Another World	A man died in a totally sealed room – a room in which even the edges of the doors and windows had been sealed with paper tape from the inside.	A challenge from Carr to Clayton Rawson. (Carr presented his own solution in He wouldn’t kill patience.) The solution from Rawson is not that impressive.
Helen McCloy	Through a Glass, Darkly	A girl was being seen at 2 different spot at the same time.	Good description of the impossible crime. Waiting eagerly to read the longer version of this story.
Ellery Queen	The Snowball in July	A disappear train.	You call this an impossible crime?
Peter Godfrey	The Newtonian Egg	A man died after eating a fresh peeled egg.	A fair play how-dun-it.
Lilian De La Torre	The Triple-Lock'd Room	-	I have to skip this story. The story was written in classical English, tried to read a few times and yet cannot understand it.
Issac Asimov	The Brazan Lokced Room	How can one escape from a locked room that setup by an evil?	Quite a good story.
Poul Anderson	The Martian Crown Jewels	A valuable Jewel was transported from Earth to Mars in a automated space ship.   As you can guess, the jewel is lost during the transport.	Wonderful story. The detective is a memorable one.
Hugh Pentecost	The Day the Children Vanished	A school bus vanished on the road.	You can see the solution of this impossible crime very commonly. However this story is really impressive not because of the crime but the effect of it.
Julian Symons	As If By Magic	A disappear killer	Only 3 pages long, short and sweet.
John f. Suter	The Impossible Theft	The theft from a locked room.	A bit difficult to believe on the solution.
William Brittain	Mr. Strang Takes a Filed Trip	Disappearance of an antique from a guarded room in a museum.	Wonderful story. It’s a pity that Mr. Strang’s stories are not collected in book yet…
Micheal Collins	No One Likes to Be Played for a Sucker	The victim died OUTSIDE a locked room whereas the suspect inside the locked room.	As contradict to the traditional locked room – the victim is outside and the survival is inside.
Bill Pronzini	The Arrowmont Prison Riddle	A prisoner disappeared in front of the witness when being executed (hanged)	Very very interesting problem. However I almost wanted to laugh at the solution.
Jack Ritchie	Box in a Box	A shooting in the locked room.	Like Edward D Hoch pointed out, this is not a typical locked room story but a Jack-Ritchie type of locked room story.
John L. Breen	The Number 12 Jinx	Disappearance of a baseball player in a baseball game.	A good story but probably not Breen’s best story.
J. F. Pierce	The Magician's Wife	Disappearance of a magician’s wife during an act.	Again, the solution is quite easily guessed if you have read many impossible crime stories.
Edward D. Hoch	The Problem of the Covered Bridge	The disappearance of a buggy, leave no trace in the snow	The first case of Dr. Sam. Nicely done with fair clue. However it is a bit hard to visualize.