The Hit List: Top 7 Most Murderable "Victims" in Detective Fiction

So over the past year, or two, the idea for a rogues' gallery of the classic detective fiction emerged from the comments left on some of my reviews by Scott, a regular in the comments, but not a comic-like gallery with the expected suspects – like Professor Moriarity, Arnold Zeck, Arsène Lupin and Renya Karasuma. A gallery of the most odious, morally reprehensible and murderable victims. The type that makes it entirely understandable someone went through the trouble of putting together a clockwork alibi or create a locked room illusion just to get a stab at them.

I started compiling a list half a year ago, but thought it too basic a list with too many recently reviewed titles on them reads on them. So it got shelved for the time being. It has been months since "The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohir Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 26-50" was posted and needed a filler-post. I really want to do "The Hit List: Top 10 Favorites from a Decade of (Shin) Honkaku Translations," but have to wait until everything published this year has been read and reviewed. Yukito Ayatsuji's Tokeikan no satsujin (The Clock Mansion Murders, 1991) sounds like it could become my favorite in the series and don't want to count out Seishi Yokomizo's Kuroneko tei jiken (The Murder at the Black Cat Cafe, 1947) or Yasuhiko Nishizawa's Nanakai shinda otoko (The Man Who Died Seven Times, 1995).

So probably won't get around to doing that list until January, February of next year. I didn't want to do a basic list with simple favorites from a specific author, publisher or go back to the locked room well again. Believe me, I could have easily done "The Hit List: Top 10 Locked Room Mystery Novels That Need to Be Reprinted" part two. That brought me back to this list of murder victims who made us either glance questionably at our moral compass or outright root for the killer to get away with it. Putting the list together was not as easy as thought.

I was dissatisfied with the original top 10 with too many entries feeling like filler-entries compared to the marque entries. So decided to trim the list down to seven and pair each entry to one of the seven deadly sins, but that proved to be too awkward and distracting. If you scroll down the list, you find a few characters who could be paired with gluttony and greed, but those sins would underplay the reason why they made the list in the first place. So ended up with just seven entries.

 

The malefactors are presented in order of appearance:

Charles Augustus Milverton from "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" (1904) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (collected in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 1905)

Why not start out with Charles Augustus Milverton, "the king of all the blackmailers," who has the distinction of not only being one of the OG of "murderable victims," but the poster boy of "murderable victims" of the pre-1930s detective story – before financiers and bankers took over the torch. I can't remember how many times an old-timely mystery referred to blackmailers as bugs or vermin who deserved to be exterminated. So their murder is often likened with community service. Not without reason. Milverton planned to publicly destroy a young woman to ensure future victims are more compliant to his demands. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a knights errant, a spot of burglary, but they end up witnessing Milverton getting shot and killed. They do absolutely nothing about it. Holmes even tells Lestrade "there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge." That remained prevailing opinion on blackmailers for decades.

Mary Gregor from The Silver Scale Mystery (1931) a.p.a. Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne

Another common victim of the early 20th century detective is the cruel, penny pinching family patriarch, or matriarch, who make their relatives dance like puppets from their purse strings. Mary Gregor is different for two reasons: she's not the family matriarch, but the sister of the patriarch and her hold over the family is a very disturbing, subtle kind of evil. Mary Gregor acted like a benevolent dictator who could wrap the most spiteful slander in the kindest words and always willing to forgive people for sins she invented. That alone hardly warrants murder, but her project to destroy the bonds between her nephew, his wife and two-year-old son in order to take the child comes a lot closer. Mary Gregor stands out as a subtle piece of evil not only in this early Golden Age detective novel, but among Wynne's own work that can be marred by Victorian-era melodrama and histrionic characterization.

Sandra, the Fat Lady from The Fair Murder (1933) by Nicholas Brady

I'm not easily shocked and have even gotten some funny looks for laughing at the blunt, edgy try-hard shit of Michael Slade, but Brady's The Fair Murder managed to do it. A detective novel deceptively presented as a weird, offbeat whodunit about the murder of the Sandra, the Fat Lady, who's found stabbed to death in her tent and it falls to Reverend Ebenezer Buckle to catch her killer – which doesn't sound too shocking or off the beaten path. However, what Reverend Buckle uncovers towards the ends makes The Fair Murder one of the darkest, grisly 1930s mysteries and Sandra the most deserving character to have a dagger shoved down her gullet. A monster without the excuse of being an actual monster.

Samuel Ratchett from The Murder on the Orient Express (1934) by Agatha Christie

I'm sure many feel about Samuel Ratchett, an alias of Cassetti, the way I feel about Sandra and holds a similar "vintage victim" position as Charles Augustus Milverton. Samuel Ratchett, an American businessman, traveling on the Orient Express asks fellow passenger and sleuth extraordinaire, Hercule Poirot, to be his bodyguard. Poirot turns him down and after a restless night on the Istanbul-Callais coach, Ratchett is found covered with stab wounds in his berth. Poirot quickly figures out Ratchett's real identity and the shocking crime he has been running away from. Leave it to Christie to exploit the "murderable victim" trope up to the hilt to create its most infamous example.

Quentin Trowte from The Case of the Missing Minutes (1936) by Christopher Bush

The reprint renaissance has, over the past ten years, unearthed several new names for this list and Quentin Trowte immediately stood out when I read The Case of the Missing Minutes back in 2018. An elderly, psychological sadist who has custody of his 10-year-old granddaughter and they live together in a dark, remote house – where she's home schooled and sleeps in a windowless bedroom. When the servants in their cottage hear screams comings from the house at night, Ludovic Travers goes out to investigate. Travers not only finds a dying Trowte, stabbed in the back, but a frightened, malnourished child with evidence something disturbing had been going on at night in that house. Quentin Trowte and Mary Gregor would be a match made in hell or a child's nightmare.

Miss Octavia Osborne from Murder in the Family (1936) by James Ronald

I was tempted to drop Miss Octavia Osborne in favor of Paul A. Moxon and Sydney Deeping (Freeman Wills Crofts' The Mystery on the Channel, 1931) or Jesse Grimsby (Bruce Elliott's You'll Die Laughing, 1945), but they felt too like filler entries. Miss Octavia Osborne almost feels harmless compared to the previous entries, however, I noted in my review she establishes herself as top 10 material for most murderable victim in a detective story. Someone who's described by her youngest relatives as an acid-tongued, sniffy-nosed old megalomaniac who takes great pleasure in nurturing grudges over years and even decades. She takes even greater pleasure in turning down her brother, who married against her wishes, when he's let go from his job. So needs money to carry over his family, until he finds a new position. Now turning someone down is one thing, but Miss Octavia does it by inflicting as much damage as possible to point where you'd think she's baiting her family in taking a swing at her. Again, not the worst offender on the list, but thought at the time she deserved to make the cut.

Battery Sergeant-major William George Yule from Subject—Murder (1945) by Clifford Witting

You would assume the worst character in World War II detective novel would be found on the Axis side, but Battery Sergeant-major William George Yule, “Cruel Yule” to his enemies, abuses his position at a training camp to abuse and bully everyone below him – physically and mentally. Some of his victims were transferred or demoted while others have committed suicide. Not even animals were sparred his tortures. A sadistic bully of the first water whose end comes with “the harsh, brutal justice of the Dark Ages” executed with all the ingenuity of the Golden Age detective story. Brutal enough for a ping of pity even for character like Yule. Very much deserving of his spot in this rogues' gallery.

 

You know what, maybe I should have just done a top 10 favorite hybrid mysteries instead of holding a beauty pageant for corpses. This was a terrible idea, Scott. No idea why you bothered suggesting it. ;)

Notes for the curious: I didn't want to clutter up and derail this list with the first entry, but "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" feels like it could have been written by Doyle's brother-in-law, E.W. Hornung. If Hornung had written it, the story would have ended a little differently. Raffles and Bunny would have stepped over Milverton's body, pocketed the table silver and send a complimentary bouquet of flowers to a certain woman the next day.

The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 26-50

I reviewed the first volume, of fifty, in Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. series back in 2018, reached the halfway mark (vol. 25) in May 2023 and posted "The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. Vol. 1-25" a few months later – intending to have part two up by the end of 2024. You know how it goes with even the most vaguely stated, flexible of "deadlines" on this blog. I'm a traditionalist, if there ever was one. That being said, if my track through the first-half of this series was done at a snail's pace, the second-half was a sprint to the finish. Only a little a year and a half to get from vol. 26 to vol. 50. So not bad by my standards!

I reached vol. 50 last month and having reviewed every volume in addition to several specials, crossovers and sampling its sister series, C.M.B., Katou and his cast of regulars hardly need an introduction. Neither do I need to go over the points on why I started calling Q.E.D. the detective story for the 21st century. I have regurgitated all that over, and over, again in previous reviews. Just read the top 10 vol. 1-25 for a short introduction. I'll take a moment to go over the selection process.

This time, picking ten favorites was not as easy as the first time. I simply started compiling a list to whittle down to ten stories, but ended up with seventeen stories and kept moving them around between the candidate list and the final list – every story made the top 10 at one point. I wanted the list to reflect the scope of variety across this series. One thing I rarely mentioned is how Q.E.D. found a way to combine the advantages of a long-running series (familiarity) with the creative freedom afforded by standalones. So the stories and plots cover everything from traditionally-plotted whodunits, impossible crimes and alibi crackers to character explorations, slice-of-life mysteries and down right experimental fiction. And pretty much everything in between. You know me... there's always the risk I'll jump on my hobby horse and do a "Top 10 Favorite Locked Room Mysteries & Impossible Crimes from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D.," but managed to keep temptation at bay. I think I weeded out a fairly representative top 10 list from my original seventeen picks, which get an honorable mention at the end. Even if they didn't make the final cut, they're still technically top 10 material.

Before tumbling down the top 10, I want to assure those who don't care about Katou, Q.E.D. or manga mysteries in general, you'll be getting a break from them after this one. I don't think I'll get to Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed, vol. 94 until sometime next month. I'll pick something a little different as a palate cleanser, before returning to C.M.B. or starting with Q.E.D. iff. So with all that poorly done blog-padding out of the way, let's begin.

 

"Summer Time Capsule" (vol. 26)

The first entry on this list appears on first sight to be minor stuff, a slice-of-life mystery, centering on a time capsule unearthed by construction workers with Kana Mizuhara's name on the lid – buried during her primary school days. Mizuhara's memories of her primary school days have already become hazy and the contents of the capsule poses a big mystery to her. Such as a group photograph with a kid neither she nor her friends remember. Mizuhara begins to suspect she might have done something very bad. Not to mention a mini-puzzle hidden inside the narrative. Where the story sets itself apart is using a simple, innocent childhood mystery to show how time ravages the memory, because you can't recall every single second of your life. So you leave more of yourself in the past than you take into the future. As an anonymous comment on my review pointed out, "Summer Time Capsule" is one of the best human drama mysteries in this series.

"Motive and Alibi" (vol. 29)

This second entry represents Q.E.D. at its most traditional and conventional, but an absolutely first-rate, classically-style whodunit. Sou Touma becomes involved in the murder of a celebrated, award winning painter, Kuromame Fukuzo, who's murdered at his home surrounded by three potential suspects. Only problem is that they possess rock solid, unshakable alibis. The murderer has every reason to be confident in their alibi, but Touma spotted a contrived set of circumstances that created a "golden window of opportunity" for murder. Even better than the ingenious and original alibi trick is how Touma's explanation built on Inspector Mizuhara's evidence and bare-bones solution. I like it when the brainy amateur and experienced, casehardened professional actually compliment each other.

"Magic & Magic" (vol. 32)

Similar to the first entry, "Magic & Magic" is one of the best character-piece this series has to offer and my personal favorite. Kurohoushi Manto, a magician, overhears Touma explaining his tricks to Mizuhara during a performance and proposes a challenge to the teenage know-it-all – wanting an opportunity to genuinely surprise Touma. A wonderful story full with magic tricks and the seemingly impossible disappearance of a book from a locked and guarded safe. However, the locked safe trick and magic trick is not the main draw of the story, but Manto's demonstrating there's a small, essential difference between fooling someone and surprising them. Bravo Katou!

"The Detective Novelist Murder Case" (vol. 33)

A return to the traditionally-styled detective story centering on a group of four published mystery writers discussing a plot idea for the perfect crime, a murder disguised as a domestic accident, but how's the murderer going to leave the scene locked from the inside? Someone obviously found an answer when one of them dies in exactly the same circumstances as they discussed and examined. Only difference is that all the doors and windows were found locked and securely fastened. What makes this story standout is the elegant, brilliant simplicity of the original locked room-trick and Touma not only revealing who, why and how, but also showing why the other suspects couldn't have done it. A detective story with a high purity plot!

"Christmas Present" (vol. 35)

Despite the story title, "Christmas Present" is not a seasonal mystery with the December festivities serving as background decoration for a clever piece of genre parody, playfully poking the shin honkaku mystery in the ribs – staged and presented as mock theatrical mystery. The notorious Detective Club of Sakisaka High School helps out making up the numbers of the Drama Club to prevent their Christmas Show from getting canceled, but under condition they stage a mystery play. Touma and Mizuhara naturally get put to work with the former having to write a script on the spot. Touma comes up with Murder at the Pentagon House about a murder in a small, pentagon-shaped house with the door and windows locked on the inside. While being tongue-and-cheek, the locked room-trick is actually quite clever and original. A trick that can actually be used in a comedy mystery play. So really fun and successful parody of the shin honkaku mystery.

"The Incident in Urban Hills Room 6" (vol. 39)

I constantly moved this story back and forth between the candidate list and the final list, before deciding to keep it in the final ten. This story takes place at a shabby, rundown lodging house where the landlady was found hanging in the titular room, dismissed by the police as a suicide. But left the place with a stigma as nobody wanted to apply for the job of housekeeping. One day, Mizuhara appears on their doorstep to take the position and immediately begins to asking questions, which she relies to Touma playing armchair detective in the background. However, this story is not nearly as conventional as it sounds and, like said in my original review, somewhat of an anti-detective story that's not really an anti-detective story at all. I really liked how Touma showed none of tenants have a motive only to turn around and show why one of those non-motives is a motive for murder.

"Secret Room No. 4" (vol. 40)

This entry undeniably is dictated by my personal obsession taste for locked room mysteries and every other kind of impossible crime fiction under the sun. Touma, Mizuhara and the members of the Sakisaka High School Detective Club partake in a test run for murder game, based on the works of a well-known mystery novelist, on behalf of the tour company – which brings them to the perfect setting for a murder, Sasakure Island. A game consisting of various locked room puzzles challenging the players to find out how the crime was carried out, not whodunit or why. Not unexpectedly, the test game is interrupted by an actual locked room murder. There are a total of four locked room mysteries in this story and an argument can be made Touma's solution revealed a fifth, neatly hidden, impossible crime. While not all the locked room-tricks carry that brand new car smell, they're brilliantly employed together to create a special treat for impossible crime fans like me.

"Tuba and Grave" (vol. 44)

The three disaster magnets of the Sakisaka High School Detective Club again get themselves into serious trouble when they foolishly mistook a sleeping drunk for a murder victim with their wildly incorrect, ludicrous deductions. So they find themselves in a boy-who-cried-wolf situation when witnessing an actual murder and the body being hidden inside an abandoned, rundown factory. They call in an anonymous tip to the police who search the place from top to bottom, which include a freshly dug, filled-in hole and a tuba case. No murder victim is discovered. So they turn to Touma and Mizuhara to help them out of another hole. A really fun story, but the plot is great as well with an even better conclusion. Touma basically turns what appears to be the problem of an impossibly disappearing body into an inverted, Columbo-style breakdown of the murderer's alibi and trapping the killer with incriminating knowledge.

"Pilgrimage" (vol. 46)

Q.E.D. is not exactly a cozy mystery series, but neither is it excessively dark or disturbing and tends to find a happy balance between the darker and lighter sights of life. Usually done in colors rather than shades of gray. Not this unsettling, pitch-black story centering on a long-forgotten incident dating back to World War II. A forgotten incident rediscovered inside an unpublished manuscript from a dead non-fiction author with some cryptic words scribbled on the cover. Why did the husband of a murder victim traveling to Hanoi, under wartime to conditions, to confront the murderer court decided halfway through the journey to continue on foot? Why did he, following a track of 1000 km on foot, arrive at the court two months later to asked the court to spare his wife's killer by commuting his death sentence to a prison sentence? Why did it fail to save the killer? A story deceptively starting out as a human interest story with a dash of Chestertonian wonder, but the ending revealed a nightmarish horror plucked from the pages of of an Edgar Allan Poe or Edogawa Rampo tale.

"Escape" (vol. 50)

I realize I should have swapped this entry with any of the honorable mentions listed below, but enjoyed vol. 50 too much to not include one of its two stories. I decided to go with "Escape" over the global spectacle that's “Observation,” because enjoyed the former slightly more. A fun combination of the locked room mystery with a mystery thriller. Touma and Mizuhare receive an anonymous request and money to organize a private escape room game for a small group of people, but the participants soon find themselves trapped inside as a bomb is ticking down the minutes. This situation is tied to an unsolved, sixteen year old locked room murder dismissed at the time as a suicide. Three things make this story standout: the reason for staging the escape game, the original locked room-trick for a padlocked door and a plot unfolding itself through the escape game. Touma and Mizuhara have little else to do other than being impartial observers. Leave it to Katou to find a way to be unconventional in a conventional locked room mystery.

Honorable Mentions from the Cutting Room Floor: "Pharaoh's Necklace" (vol. 28), "Promise" (vol. 31), "Paradox Room" (vol. 33), "Empty Dream" (vol. 38), "Escher Hotel" (vol. 42), "The Representative" (vol. 48) and "Observation" (vol. 50).

The Hit List: Top 10 Locked Room Mystery Novels That Need to Be Reprinted

In 2022, I posted an addendum to Nick Fuller's "Detective Stories to Reprint" entitled "Curiosity is Killing the Cat: Detective Novels That Need to Be Reprinted" going over a lengthy list of tantalizingly obscure, out-of-print mystery novels that remained out-of-reach – even in the midst of a reprint renaissance. Some writers and novels on the list have since returned to print. Such as Anthony Gilbert's The Tragedy at Freyne (1927), Mignon G. Eberhart's From This Dark Stairway (1931) and the complete works of Eunice Mays Boyd and James Ronald, but most remain annoyingly out-of-print today.

So wanted to do a shorter, trimmed down version focusing on out-of-print locked room mysteries and impossible crime novels (because, of course). Not simply as an excuse to climb on my favorite hobbyhorse, but because I really needed a filler-post to replenish the diminished backlog of blog-posts and reviews.

However, I always try to avoid doing a standard top 10 list of favorite characters or mysteries by picking somewhat unusual, sometimes niche, topics allowing for a surprising list. For example, "Top 10 Fascinating World War II Detective Novels" starts with a novel from 1934 and ends with one from 2008. "Top 10 Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated" lists ten mysteries from four continents, written in six different languages, peeking over the language-barrier at us. "Top 10 Works of Detective Fiction That Have Been Lost to History" goes over the list of unpublished manuscripts from some very well-known, celebrated mystery writers that were lost or destroyed – consigned to the phantom library in the sky. On a more positive note is the "Top 10 Beneficiaries of the Reprint Renaissance." So didn't simply want to go over my personal locked room mystery wishlist and pick ten titles.

This list is basically split in two, mashed together halves. There are five titles directly plucked from my wishlist, while the other five have been reviewed before on this blog. But they all deserve or need to be reprinted for one reason or another. So publishers take note! Hope everyone else finds it an entertaining and interesting list with hopefully a few picks that'll surprise you.

The Case of the Gold Coins (1933) by Anthony Wynne

Robert McNair Wilson, a Scottish-born physician, is the man behind the "Anthony Wynne" pseudonym and, before John Dickson Carr, was the first Golden Age writer to specialize in novel-length locked room mysteries – producing twenty-one impossible crime novels and some short stories. The quality of Wynne's Dr. Eustace Hailey series is uneven, but The Case of the Gold Coins is considered to be one of his most ingenious takes on the impossible crime problem: a body found on a beach without any footprints. John Norris called the solution "simple and rather brilliant" and Curt Evans thought the explanation "worthy of John Dickson Carr." The Case of the Gold Coins sounds like a perfect, long overdue follow up to the British Library reprint edition of Wynne's Murder of a Lady (1931; a.k.a. The Silver Scale Mystery).

Three Dead, One Hurt (1934) by Scobie Mackenzie

Robert Adey highlighted Mackenzie's Three Dead, One Hurt in his introduction of Locked Room Murders (1991) as "something a little different." Something he described as a Buchanesque tale about a group of people marooned on a Scottish island with "a clever locked room situation." In 2022, Martin Edwards reviewed Three Dead, One Hurt and thought it "a notch or two above many others that were being written at the time." But, as he pointed out, the book has never been reprinted since its original publication over 90 years (!) ago.

Terror at Compass Lake (1935) by Tech Davis

Brian Skupin highlighted Tech Davis' Terror at Compass Lake in Locked Room Murders: Supplement (2019) as an intriguing mystery in which Aubrey Nash investigates the deaths of a chauffeur and his employer in upstate New York. The death of the chauffeur apparently that was "neither murder, suicide nor natural death" and the murder of his boss offers "a new twist on the locked room mystery." You should know that a review from 1990 by the late William F. Deeck points out that the book is better plotted than written ("recommended for locked room fanciers, and other problem solvers").

The Whispering Ear (1938) by Clyde B. Clason

Clyde B. Clason wrote only ten detective novels, over a five year period, but they're among the most sophisticated, well-written and often soundly plotted the American detective story produced during the Golden Age – making his obscurity all the more baffling. Rue Morgue Press reprinted eight of Clason's Theocritus Lucius Westborough mysteries in the 2000s and 2010s. The second novel in that series, The Dark Angel (1936), was one of the last reprints they published before closing their doors. So we missed out on a complete set of reprints that would have included The Fifth Tumbler (1936) and The Whispering Ear. Recently, Chosho Publishing reprinted The Fifth Tumbler, The Purple Parrot (1937), The Man from Tibet (1938), Murder Gone Minoan (1939) and Green Shiver (1941). The Whispering Ear remains the only title in the series that has not been reprinted since the 1930s or '40s. It could very well be Clason's most substantial impossible crime novel concerning "an impersonation problem in which a bad twin, taking the place of his famous brother, gets the latter's money and is killed" – shot in a locked bathroom. A 1938 review called it a "fair enough puzzler."

The Longstreet Legacy (1951) by Douglas Ashe

So the first of the previously read and reviewed titles on this list. Ashe's The Longstreet Legacy, alternatively published as A Shroud for Grandmama, was discussed earlier this year by Martin Edwards, "a classic whodunit with macabre trimmings," who linked to my review. Not only is this a classic whodunit from the twilight years of the Golden Age, but an imaginative and original impossible crime novel. The elderly victim, Ella Longstreet, is found lying at the bottom of staircase dressed in a bikini and surrounded by a circle of dusty, waltzing footprints with the rest of the hallway inexplicably free of footprints. Regrettably, The Longstreet Legacy is likely to remain out-of-print for the foreseeable future. John Norris tried to get the books reprinted in 2014, but the author's son is "sort of contentious and is holding on tight to the rights."

The Glass Spear (1950) by S.H. Courtier

This is going to be contentious entry! Wynne's The Case of the Gold Coins, Davis' Terror at Compass Lake and Clason's The Whispering Ear appear a little dubious when it comes to the overall quality (i.e. writing, characterization and plot), but they appear to be fully-fledged locked room mysteries. And two of them are reportedly excellent when it comes to the locked room-tricks. Courtier's The Glass Spear is, what John Norris called, an anthropological detective novel and a fine one at that. Simply as a regional detective novel it succeeded in what a regional detective novel is supposed to do: create a story, plot and crime that feels native to the setting. Something that feels like it could not have taken place anywhere else, except in the setting of the story. There's a locked room murder, but it's immediately solved and the locked room-trick routine. I decided to include it as a reminder Courtier is still waiting to be reprinted.

Note for the curious: John Norris (what, him again!?) reviewed Courtier's Let the Man Die (1961) earlier this year, describing it as "remarkable retro" and "truly feels like a love letter to the plot heavy books of the 1930s and 1940s." Something tells me the traditional, Australian detective story has been criminally overlooked by the rest of the world.

Withered Murder (1956) by A. & P. Shaffer

Many of the once extremely rare, prohibitively expensive and out-of-print (locked room) mystery novels returned to print in recent years. A notable example is Christianna Brand's Death of Jezebel (1948). It used to be one of the most wanted, next to impossible to obtain impossible crime novels in the genre as secondhand copies were scarce and often expensive. That list of ridiculous rare, out-of-print mysteries with the quality to match their legendary reputation has been thinned out considerably. I think the most famous title to top that list today is Shaffer's Withered Murder. Nick Fuller praised Withered Murder for being "as flamboyantly fantastical and fearsome as a Father Brown case" and "as brilliantly clued and surprising as a Carr." So you understand us locked room fanatics need a reprint of Withered Murder almost as much as oxygen.

Diving Death (1962) by Charles Forsyte

There were a few unsuccessful, short-lived attempts during the 1960s to continue and modernize the fair play, Golden Age-style detective novel. One of these short-lived attempts came from the husband-and-wife team of Gordon and Vicky Philo, writing as "Charles Forsyte," who penned a handful of classically-styled whodunits. Three of them feature their series-detective, Inspector Richard Left, who's confronted in Diving Death with a seemingly impossible murder during an archaeological expedition at sea. A reprint of this wonderful detective novel full with impossible murders, false-solutions, waterproof alibis and a fallible detective would be greatly appreciated by fellow mystery aficionados.

Black Aura (1974) by John Sladek

Sladek's wrote two famous and beloved, classically-styled detective novels featuring his equally popular detective, Thackeray Phin, whose specialty is solving locked room murders and other seemingly impossible crimes. Black Aura and Invisible Green (1977) are fan favorites often mentioned in same breath as John Dickson Carr and Hake Talbot. We've been arguing for years, some even decades, about which of the two Thackeray Phin novels is better. Fortunately, copies of Black Aura and Invisible Green are neither absurdly rare nor ridiculously expensive, but what's absurd and ridiculous is that neither have been reprinted since 1983.

Operazakan – aratanaru satsujin jiken (The New Kindaichi Files, 1994) by Seimaru Amagi

I wanted to include a translation, any translation, of a non-English locked room mystery in need of fresh printing-ink, but choices proved to be limited. I could pick between S.A. Steeman's Six hommes morts (Six Dead Men, 1930/31) or Chin Shunshin's Pekin yūyūkan (Murder in a Peking Studio, 1976). I then remembered there's another option, Seimaru Amagi, who in my opinion is the Soji Shimada of the anime-and manga detective story. Amagi co-created the anime/manga franchise The Kindaichi Case Files and penned a series of “light novels” about Hajime Kindaichi and his cohorts. A light novel is a relatively short-ish, illustrated novels and four of Amagi's Kindaichi light novels received English translations. However, Ho-Ling Wong pointed out the translations were intended for educational purposes and the reason why every edition has a long English-Japanese vocabulary list. So they were translated to help improve the English of Japanese readers.

That being said, they are generally excellent, shin honkaku-style detective stories with ready-made translations. Originally titled Opera House, the New Murder, the much more mundanely-titled The New Kindaichi Files is the best of the four. A theatrical mystery set on an island theater where an actress ends up underneath a crystal chandelier behind the locked doors of a theater. My second favorite is the fascinating Ikazuchi matsuri satsujin jiken (Deadly Thunder, 1998) with its strange setting and bizarre impossible murder. Dennō sansō satsujin jiken (Murder On-Line, 1996) is a solid detective story distinguished by incorporating early internet and internet culture into a classically-styled whodunit. Only Shanhai gyojin densetsu satsujin jiken (The Shanghai River Demon's Curse, 1997) failed to impress. Considering the current interest in Japanese detective fiction, these ready-made translations can be bundled together as an omnibus and all that needs to be added is an introduction to the characters and history of the series. Because it would a shame to have them waste away in obscurity when, now more than ever before, there's an actual audience for them.

Murder in Retrospect: The Best and Worst of 2024

 

Last year, I started "Murder in Retrospect: The Best and Worst of 2024" with remembering Rupert Heath, of Dean Street Press, who suddenly passed away earlier in the year and now have begin with acknowledging the passing of John Pugmire – who died in March of this year. John Pugmire and Locked Room International not only helped popularizing translations of non-English detective fiction, but instrumental in rejuvenating and reviving the locked room mystery novel. The locked room novel, not short stories, had been in a deep rut for over half a century, until Pugmire's 2006 translation of Paul Halter's La nuit du loup (The Night of the Wolf, 2000) was published.

I noted in "The Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Story in the 21st Century" it was the first tremor of a massive shift and a decade later the reprint renaissance, translation wave and an honest to god locked room revival were in full swing! Pugmire left an indelible mark on the genre and, more, importantly revived his beloved locked room mysteries by broadening its horizon and bringing in a score of new fans. So he'll be missed, but will be with us locked room fans in spirit for many decades to come.

While LRI closed down, Dean Street Press reopened its doors for business and has began reissuing the courtroom mysteries by Sara Woods. A mystery writer whom Curt Evans called "a major figure in what I call the Silver Age of detective fiction." I'll be sampling one, or two, of those reprints next year. There's more exciting reprints, translations and brand new detective novels coming next year.

This year, British Library Crime Classics is reprinting Carter Dickson's The Ten Teacups (1937), Anthony Berkeley's Not to Be Taken (1938), Christianna Brand's Cat and Mouse (1950), Carol Carnac's Murder as a Fine Art (1953), Fiona Sinclair's Scandalize My Name (1960) and publishing an anthology, "a jam-packed travel case of short mysteries," entitled Midsummer Mysteries (2025) – edited by Martin Edwards. Otto Penzler's American Mystery Classics is going to reprint the rare, long out-of-print Obelists en Route (1934) by C. Daly King. Rufus King's Murder by the Clock (1929) is also returning to print. There are, of course, the translations. Pushkin Vertigo is diversifying their output of Japanese mysteries with translations of Seishi Yokomizo's Kuroneko tei jiken (The Murder at the Black Cat Cafe, 1947), Yukito Ayatsuji's Tokeikan no satsujin (The Clock Mansion Murders, 1991), Yasuhiko Nishizawa's Nanakai shinda otoko (The Man Who Died Seven Times, 1995), Taku Ashibe's Oomarike satsujin jiken (Murders in the House of Omari, 2021) and two novels by horror Youtuber "Uketsu." The BBB is currently serializing MORI Hiroshi's Warawanai sugakusha (Mathematical Goodbye, 1996 and complete edition will likely be out before spring. On top of a ton new titles.

So enough to look forward to in 2025, but 2024 needs to be tidied up first. First of all, I compiled a couple of lists this year under the collective title "The Hit List." The most recent one is "Top 12 Favorite Christmas Mystery Novels & Short Stories," but also did "Top 10 Works of Detective Fiction That Have Been Lost to History," "Top 10 Beneficiaries of the Reprint Renaissance" and "Top 10 Best Translations & Reprints from Locked Room International." I also rambled about "The Locked Room Mystery & Impossible Crime Novel in the 1980s" as a prelude to the previously mentioned piece about the 21st century impossible crime novel. So with that out of the way, all that's left to do is wish you all a Merry Christmas and best wishes for next year! Now let's get to the best and worst detective fiction read in 2024.

THE BEST DETECTIVE NOVELS:

The Tragedy at Freyne (1927) by Anthony Gilbert

A promising debut and a better than average, 1920s manor house mystery novel concerning the mysterious poisoning of Sir Simon Chandon solved by a young, rising politician, Scott Egerton.

The Creeping Jenny Mystery (1929) by Brian Flynn

This is a lighthearted, lightly plotted and written 1920s romp that reads like a fond farewell to the Twenties with its country house setting, stolen jewels and cast of bantering Bright Young Things. Flynn's doing a bit of webwork plotting gave it a hint of what was in store for the detective story in the decade ahead.

Murder Yet to Come (1929/30) by Isabel Briggs Myers

A rival of Ellery Queen's The Roman Hat Mystery (1929) for the first prize in a writing competition and both, interestingly enough, pay homage to the doyen of the American detective story, S.S. van Dine. The Van Dinean treatment considerably freshened up the turn-of-the-century tropes Myers paraded out in this entertaining locked room mystery, which makes it a pity her second detective novel bombed so bad it torpedoed her mystery writing career.

The Red Widow Murders (1935) by Carter Dickson (a reread)

The third recorded case of Sir Henry Merrivale is a classic take on the room-that-kills scenario bringing to Old Man to Mantling House and the notorious Widow's Room, which had claimed a handful of victims over the century – before getting permanently sealed. Widow's Room remained sealed for more than half a century, but only a few hours passed between the unsealing and the room claiming a fresh victim. A vintage H.M. and a fantastic Golden Age detective novel.

Death of an Author (1935) by E.C.R. Lorac

My favorite Lorac reprint to date! An excellent detective novel and a perfect example how you turn an ultimately simple situation into a dark, maze-like structure simply by playing an elaborate game of Guess Who? I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for reprints of Murder in St. John's Wood (1934) and her "Carol Carnac" novels Murder As a Fine Art (1953) and The Double Turn (1956).

Murder in the Family (1936) by James Ronald

A surprising, unexpectedly good (superb even) and deeply human, character-driven crime novel from a writer better known for his thrillers, gangster stories and pulp-style (locked room) mysteries. It can even be read as criticism of the detective story treating murder as a parlor game, but it was all done so well, I couldn't help but enjoy it. Never let it be said I only care about plot-mechanics.

They Can't Hang Me (1938) by James Ronald

Arguably, the definitive pulp-style locked room mystery. The kind of pulp-style locked room mystery John Russell Fearn and Gerald Verner made their own, but Ronald nailed it to near perfection. Simply the best treatment of the house under siege by an apparently near omnipotent murderer who seems to have the run of the place. The best of the pulps!

The Footprints on the Ceiling (1939) by Clayton Rawson (a reread)

Rawson is remembered today for Death from a Top Hat (1938), but it's classic status has not aged very well and, upon rereading The Footprints on the Ceiling, found it to be a superior detective novel. A bizarre, tightly packed mystery novel taking place on a small river island with a helter-skelter plot that had no right to work, but it did, which makes it one of the best tricks Rawson played on his readers.

Green for Danger (1944) by Christianna Brand (a reread)

The most well-known, widely celebrated British World War II mystery novels taking place in a military hospital during the Blitz with the death of a patient on the operating table bringing Inspector Cockrill to the scene. Even though Death of Jezebel (1948) has toppled it as the definitive Brand novel, Green for Danger still lives up to its reputation. One of the best pure whodunits of the 1940s!

Shadowed Sunlight (1945) by Christianna Brand

A short-ish novel, originally serialized in Woman, but never reprinted in book form and the story was, sort of, forgotten about – until it appeared in Bodies from the Library 4 (2021). An admittedly minor, but solid, mystery novel about an impossible poisoning aboard a pleasure yacht deserving of its own edition.

Nomen satsujin jiken (The Noh Mask Murder, 1949) by Akimitsu Takagi

The translation wave has brought us not only some gems of today's premiere Japanese mystery writers, but also previously inaccessible, Golden Age detective fiction. This classic Japanese locked room mystery involves the impossible murder of the family patriarch involving the titular mask with a 200-year-old curse attached to it.

The Footprints of Satan (1950) by Norman Berrow (a reread)

Berrow's most impressive contribution to the locked room mystery and impossible crime story partially based on the reported 1855 incident of the Devon hoof-marks. Berrow used the story of the devil's hoof-marks to turn the already tricky problem of impossible-footprints-in-the-snow into an Olympic winter sport!

The Case of the Burnt Bohemian (1953) by Christopher Bush

An excellent mystery concerning the murder of a reclusive, completely unknown artist and a fine example of Bush finding his footing again in the 1950s with one the last appearances of the great Superintendent George Wharton, before Bush decided to phase him out of the series.

Riddle of a Lady (1956) by Anthony Gilbert

This is a late-period Golden Age mystery novel and all the more interesting for it as it offers a glimpse of what the plot-driven detective story could have been like in the age of the character-driven crime and thriller novels. Gilbert basically polished, what's ultimately, a sordid crime story into a detective story by presenting it as an ambiguous inverted mystery. Arthur Crook being Arthur Crook always helps. Not to the police. Certainly not them, but his clients and readers are always happy to see him make an appearance.

Akuma no temari uta (The Little Sparrow Murders, 1957/59) by Seishi Yokomizo

A solidly-plotted, lavishly-spun whodunit bringing Japan's most iconic detective figure, Kosuke Kindaichi, to the small, remote mountain village of Onikobe. A two-decade old, unsolved murder hangs like a dark cloud over its inhabitants and fresh murders are committed not long after Kindaichi's arrival – bizarrely patterned after the lyrics of temari song. So an Agatha Christie-style nursery rhyme mystery and perhaps the most accessible translations for readers who find the usual honkaku-style mysteries a bit strong with its chopped up bodies, eccentric architecture and multiple impossible crimes, unbreakable alibis and dying messages.

Tsumetai nisshitsu to hakase tachi (Doctors in the Isolated Room, 1996) by MORI Hiroshi

Maybe a little too technical and specialized for some, especially since the characterization is not great, but found this story about a double murder in the low-temperature laboratory of a Polar research facility to be better than Hiroshi's famous and celebrated Subete ga F ni naru (Everything Turns to F: The Perfect Insider, 1996). Yes, I can be an annoying contrarian at times.

Hoshifuri sansou no satsujin (Murders in the Mountain Lodges Beneath the Shooting Stars, 1996) by Jun Kurachi

Contrary to what most readers have come to expect from shin honkaku mysteries, Murders in the Mountain Lodges Beneath the Shooting Stars is a non-impossible crime without the usual trappings – like strange architecture, corpse-puzzles and locked room murders. I called it a no-gimmicks-needed, simon-pure jigsaw detective novel in the classical mold that's a must-read for fans of Ellery Queen and Alice Arisugawa.

 

Rurijou satsujin jiken (The "Lapis Lazuli Castle" Murders, 2002) by Takekuni Kitayama

Masahiro Imamura's Shijinso no satsujin (Death Among the Undead, 2017), a locked room mystery infested with zombies, has popularized the hybrid mystery among Japanese writers, but the form has been explored and experimented before. The "Lapis Lazuli Castle" Murders is a particular fine example in which reincarnation ties the main characters together over a 700 year period. So a novel structured like an interconnected short story collections stretching from 13th century France to 1980s Japan. The locked room murder at the Library at the End of the World is the impossible crime story on steroids!

Jikuu ryokousha no sunadokei (The Time Traveler's Hourglass, 2019) by Kie Houjou

Kie Houjou can now be counted among my favorite mystery writers on the strength of her first and third hybrid mystery in the Ryuuzen Clan series. The Time Traveler's Hourglass, first in the series, is a brilliantly plotted time travel mystery, but even more distinguishing is that the characters have heart and the story a soul. It allowed for an ending that would have died a death in the hands of a less talented writer.

 

Mortmain Hall (2020) by Martin Edwards

Another intricate, webwork-plotted and classically-styled detective novel masquarading as retro-pulp from the Nestor of the Golden Age Renaissance. So the nature of the plot doesn't allow much room for discussion or being described, but the next two titles in the series, Sepulchre Street (2023) and Hemlock Bay (2024), are on the big pile for next year.

Meitantei ni kanbi naru shi wo (Delicious Death for Detectives, 2022) by Kie Houjou

Arguably, my favorite detective novel read this year and the third novel in the Ryuuzen Clan series, which brings Kamo Touma to closed circle event to test a new virtual reality mystery game. And to say he gets an immersive gaming experience would be an understatement. I believe Delicious Death for Detective could very well end up becoming the iconic detective novel of the 21st century like Christie's And Then There Were None (1939).

 

Bunraku Noir (2023) by K.O. Enigma

A self-published "murder mystery for the modern, online age" from "the Ellery Queen of the Vtuber Era" and is a clever, genre-savvy genre parody and better than most would expect from a fan written web release.

 

Gospel of V (2023) by H.M. Faust

A thoroughly bizarre, but pleasing, highlight from the budding independent scene and locked room revival. The book is a challenge to describe or properly summarize. For example, the story has a disconnected, but thematically consistent intermission, "The Jesus Christ Murder Case," retelling the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as unexpectedly good locked room mystery. There's logic to all the madness. Sure, the logic of a mad dream, but still... I loved it!

77 North (2023) by D.L. Marshall

The third and apparently final entry in John Tyler series of action packed mystery thrillers packed with locked room murders and impossible crimes. This time, Tyler is dropped in the Arctic circle to retrieve a bioweapons expert from a Cold War era facility, a "hotel," where the KGB with ESP, astral projections and telekinesis – someone died under impossible circumstances in the nuclear bunker. Hopefully, 77 North is not the last we have seen of Tyler and the impossible crimes he encounters in all those remote, dangerous places.

The Mystery of Treefall Manor (2023) by J.S. Savage

A genuine retro-GAD locked room mystery, introducing Inspector Graves and Constable Carver, hitting all the familiar notes, but there's nothing stock or time-worn about the excellent solution. A homage to the Golden Age mystery novel that would have actually been quite at home in the 1920s or '30s. I was less enamored with Savage's second, modern-set locked room mystery, Sun, Sea and Murder (2024), but look forward to the second Graves and Carver novel, The Riddle of the Ravens (2024).

Rechercheur De Klerck en de status in moord (Inspector De Klerck and the Status in Murder, 2024) by P. Dieudonné

A good, old school detective novel presented as a typical, Dutch police novel in which the combination of old world problems and solutions result in complicated murder case with multiple victims. Better than the previous, double-sized Rechercheur De Klerck en de sluier van de dood (Inspector De Klerck and the Veil of Death, 2024)!

The Dry Diver Drownings (2024) by A. Carver

A detective's coming-of-age, of sorts, in which Alex Corby is invited to the shoot of a crossover episode for two horror web series at an abandoned building, but without her great-aunt Cornelia. Alex is pretty much on her own when the subject of the two web series, Dry Diver, apparently stirs to live and begins picking people off in locked and watched room. Not the locked room spectacle of novels, but still an excellent, classically-styled contemporary whodunit. And love the idea of a creepypasta character coming to live who can dive through locked doors and solid walls as though they're made of water.

Cabaret Macabre (2024) by Tom Mead

A locked room mystery with a pair of skillfully-handled impossible murder, notably the body on the lake providing the story with an original two-pronged impossibility, but they're only one part of web work plot of "byzantine complexity." The best of the Joseph Spector novels, so far!

THE BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS AND SHORT STORIES

Short Story Collections:

The Communicating Door and Other Stories (1923) by Wadsworth Camp

Les veillées de la Tour Pointue (The Secret of the Pointed Tower, 1937) by Pierre Véry

13 to the Gallows (2008) by John Dickson Carr and Val Gielgud (a reread)

The Casebook of Jonas P. Jonas and Other Mysteries (2012) by E.X. Ferrars

The Killer Everyone Knew and Other Captain Leopold Stories (2023) by Edward D. Hoch

Golden Age Whodunits (2024) edited by Otto Penzler

Short Stories:

"The Talking Stone" (1955) by Isaac Asimov (a reread)

"Greenshaw Folly" (1956) by Agatha Christie

"Murder Behind Schedule" (1963) by Lawrence G. Blochman

"Cardula and the Locked Rooms" (1982) by Jack Ritchie

"The Sweating Statue" (1985) by Edward D. Hoch

"The Murder in Room 1010" (1987) by Edward D. Hoch

"Murder in the Urth Degree" (1989) by Edward Wellen

"The Theft of Leopold's Badge" (1991) by Edward D. Hoch (reviewed together with "The Murder in Room 1010")

"The Adventure of the Glass Room" (2002) by Philip J. Carraher

"Kanojo ga Patience wo korosu hazu ga nai" ("She Wouldn't Kill Patience," 2002) by Ooyama Seiichiro

"Knockin' On Locked Door" (2014) by Aosaki Yugo

"De schilder die de waarheid liefhad" ("The Painter Who Loved the Truth," 2019) by M.P.O. Books" (reviewed together with "Murder Behind Schedule")

"Jack Magg's Jaw" (2022) by Tom Mead (reviewed together with "Murder Behind Schedule")

"Eggnog and the Cylinder" (2023) by Miogacu (reviewed together with "Cardula")

“The Silent Steps of Murder" (2023) by James Scott Byrnside (reviewed together with "Murder Behind Schedule")

THE WORST OF DETECTIVE NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES:

The Girl in the Fog (1923) by Joseph Gollomb

A badly written, poorly plotted, unforgivably dull and ludicrous pulp-style mystery with a villain named Pete Ennis. Sometimes it's not difficult to understand how some writers completely disappeared into obscurity, because that's where they belong.

Who Goes Hang? (1958) by Stanley Hyland

Started out strong and promising, hobbled along to a splendid, midway twist before going to pieces, but enjoyed putting together my own solution.

The Crossword Mystery (1979) by Robert G. Gillespie

One of those attempts to incorporate classical tropes, locked rooms, dying messages and secret codes, into a modern crime novel, but not a very successful one. Phillips Lore made a much more valiant effort a year later with Murder Behind Closed Doors (1980). 

 

Ubume no natsu (The Summer of the Ubume, 1994) by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

Nobody is a bigger fan and supporter of the shin honkaku mystery than I am, please ignore Ho-Ling and everyone else around here who can read Japanese, but even I can admit they produce a stinker every now and then. This is one of them. A historically important work for the second wave of shin honkaku mystery writers and a fascinating contrast with other seminal, second wave novel, Hiroshi's The Perfect Insider – which is blend of scientific mystery and futurism. The Summer of the Ubume, on the other hand, blends folklore with the supernatural, but it was a boring drag to read. And the ending was simply infuriating!