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Index
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Introduction by Otto Penzler
Familiar as the Rose in Spring: (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
This was the Unkindest Cut of All: (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
Footprints in the Sands of Time: (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
And we Missed It, Lost Forever: (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
How Easily is Murder Discovered: (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
Shoot if you Must: (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
Stolen Sweets Are Best: (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
One Man’s Poison, Signor, Is Another’s Meat: (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
Our Final Hope is Flat Despair: (Some stories simply can’t be categorized.)
Waiting for Godstow: Martin Edwards
Permissions Acknowledgments
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