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The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes |
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| The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries & Impossible Crimes Editor: Mike Ashley Constable & Robinson Ltd 543 pages, September 2000 ISBN 1841191299 Reviewed by our UK Editor Rachel A Hyde Scriptwriter David Renwick (who created BBC TV’s hugely successful One Foot in the Grave & Jonathan Creek who contributes the foreword) remarks that a lot of modern detective fiction provides plenty of gritty social document. But the stories in this anthology provide an antidote to the current taste for grimmer tales. The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries & Impossible Crimes is not merely a collection of whodunits, but rather whodunits as crimes committed in the most baffling ways. Most are modern, and many were written specially for this anthology. There are some 19th century tales as well, one from as early as 1862, and early 20th century contributions from the master of the locked room puzzle John Dickson Carr, Uncle Abner creator Melville Davidson Post and one of Titanic victim Jacques Futrelle’s Thinking Machine stories. There are historically-set crimes from Marilyn Todd (A Claudia story), and Margaret Frazer offers Thomas Chaucer of Ewelme from the 15th century. There are tales of strippers, SF writers, Nelson being replaced on his column by Napoleon, and death in aeroplanes and lifts. Several writers have departed from their usual series and tried something new - notably Edward Marston, Peter Tremayne and Kate Ellis to name just three. If I had to pick just one story as a personal favorite, it would be Susanna Gregory’s imaginative Ice Elation. The story, set in the wastes of the Antarctic, is where she works half the year, featuring disappearing scientists and a genuine new scientific discovery - a true departure from her usual mediaeval shenanigans and a good example of success achieved by "write what you know". The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries & Impossible Crimes is a highly entertaining volume of tales in the usual high standard of the Mammoth series. I applaud the descriptions of each writer heading the stories and the interesting afterword of the history of this type of story – many names to add to a library or bookstore list. A very complete anthology. |
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