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Dedication

Introduction by Otto Penzler


(The most popular and frequently reprinted impossible-crime stories of all time.)
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE Edgar Allan Poe
THE PROBLEM OF CELL 13 Jacques Futrelle
A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED Wilkie Collins
THE TWO BOTTLES OF RELISH Lord Dunsany
THE INVISIBLE MAN G. K. Chesterton
THE DOOMDORF MYSTERY Melville Davisson Post
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND Arthur Conan Doyle

(Stabbing in a completely sealed environment appears to be the most common murder method.)
THE WRONG PROBLEM John Dickson Carr
THE THING INVISIBLE William Hope Hodgson
DEPARTMENT OF IMPOSSIBLE CRIMES James Yaffe
THE ALUMINIUM DAGGER R. Austin Freeman
THE CREWEL NEEDLE Gerald Kersh
THE DOCTOR’S CASE Stephen King
A KNIFE BETWEEN BROTHERS Manly Wade Wellman
THE GLASS GRAVESTONE Joseph Commings
THE TEA LEAF Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace
THE FLUNG-BACK LID Peter Godfrey
THE CROOKED PICTURE John Lutz
BLIND MAN’S HOOD Carter Dickson

(Is there a more baffling scenario than to find a body in smooth sand or snow with no footprints leading to or from the victim?)
THE MAN FROM NOWHERE Edward D. Hoch
THE LAUGHING BUTCHER Fredric Brown
THE SANDS OF THYME Michael Innes
THE FLYING DEATH Samuel Hopkins Adams
THE FLYING CORPSE A. E. Martin
THE FLYING HAT Vincent Cornier

(It is a fantasy for many people to disappear from their present lives. Some people disappear because they want to; others disappear because someone else wants them to. And objects—large objects—sometimes disappear in the same manner.)
THE DAY THE CHILDREN VANISHED Hugh Pentecost
THE TWELFTH STATUE Stanley Ellin
ALL AT ONCE, NO ALICE William Irish
BEWARE OF THE TRAINS Edmund Crispin
THE LOCKED BATHROOM H. R. F. Keating
MIKE, ALEC, AND RUFUS Dashiell Hammett
THE EPISODE OF THE TORMENT IV C. Daly King
GREAVES’ DISAPPEARANCE Julian Hawthorne
THE HOUSE OF HAUNTS Ellery Queen
THE MONKEY TRICK J. E. Gurdon
THE ORDINARY HAIRPINS E. C. Bentley
THE PHANTOM MOTOR Jacques Futrelle
THE THEFT OF THE BERMUDA PENNY Edward D. Hoch
ROOM NUMBER 23 Judson Philips

(There are so many ways for the creative killer to accomplish the act.)
THE BURGLAR WHO SMELLED SMOKE Lynne Wood Block & Lawrence Block
THE KESTAR DIAMOND CASE Augustus Muir
THE ODOUR OF SANCTITY Kate Ellis
THE PROBLEM OF THE OLD OAK TREE Edward D. Hoch
THE INVISIBLE WEAPON Nicholas Olde
THE CONFESSION OF ROSA VITELLI Ray Cummings
THE LOCKED ROOM TO END LOCKED ROOMS Stephen Barr

(It may not be terribly original, but shooting someone tends to be pretty effective.)
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE Clayton Rawson
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, SAM SPADE? Bill Pronzini
IN A TELEPHONE CABINET G. D. H. Cole & M. I. Cole
DEATH OUT OF THIN AIR Stuart Towne
THE DREAM Agatha Christie
THE BORDER-LINE CASE Margery Allingham
THE BRADMOOR MURDER Melville Davisson Post
THE MAN WHO LIKED TOYS Leslie Charteris
THE ASHCOMB POOR CASE Hulbert Footner
THE LITTLE HOUSE AT CROIX-ROUSSE Georges Simenon

(How does a thief remove valuables from a closely guarded room? It seems impossible, but …)
THE BIRD IN THE HAND Erle Stanley Gardner
THE GULVERBURY DIAMONDS David Durham
THE FIFTH TUBE Frederick Irving Anderson
THE STRANGE CASE OF STEINKELWINTZ MacKinlay Kantor
ARSÈNE LUPIN IN PRISON Maurice Leblanc
THE MYSTERY OF THE STRONG ROOM L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace
NO WAY OUT Dennis Lynds
THE EPISODE OF THE CODEX’ CURSE C. Daly King

(Often described as a woman’s murder weapon, poison doesn’t really care who administers it.)
THE POISONED DOW ’08 Dorothy L. Sayers
A TRAVELLER’S TALE Margaret Frazer
DEATH AT THE EXCELSIOR P. G. Wodehouse

(Some stories simply can’t be categorized.)
WAITING FOR GODSTOW Martin Edwards

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