The Sealed Room - Vincent Starrett

Story: The Sealed Room

Author: Vincent Starrett

Book: The Casebook of Jimmy Lavender

Theme for the Month: Locked Room or Impossible Crime Stories

Vincent Starrett has written 6 detective novels and around 500 detective stories for the ‘pulps’, out of which around 50 of them feature Jimmy Lavender and his assistant Charles Gilruth. 12 of these cases were collected in 1944 in ‘The Casebook of Jimmy Lavender’. Recently, The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box has published 3 more volumes in addition to the original: The New Adventures, The Memoirs & The Return of Jimmy Lavender (which features 13 novelettes) and republished Casebook with 3 extra early stories.

The story Sealed Room opens with the door to a locked room being broken in by the patrolman. He is carrying out this task based on Miss Jane Howard’s request who suspects that there is something wrong with her rich politician employer Harper Wolgate when she comes in at 8.30 in the morning.  Sure enough, when the library door is broken down, Wolgate is found dead due to a bullet hole in his chest with no sign of the murder weapon. He is wearing his overcoat though it’s extremely warm inside the room and his silky hat is still perched on his sunken face. The two windows are securely fastened from the inside and there is no other possible entry into this room which is on the 8^th floor of the building. Fearing that she is the one who is gone be suspected, Jane calls her fiancé who in turn calls in Jimmy Lavender. A cursory glance at the library is all that is needed for the detective to remark that he knows the solution to the locked room conundrum (so did I and so will the reader familiar with the genre) – he says he knew the solution some twenty years back and he was just waiting for a case to present itself! Thus ends the first of the five chapters.

Rest of the story is devoted to finding the motive behind the murder (by the police) and to confirm the locked room solution that Lavender has in his mind. The motive becomes clear when it comes to light that the mysterious red diary is missing from the library safe. The other clue turns out to be a bloodied handkerchief (found in the overcoat) with initials ‘J.H’ which looks too big to belong to a woman. The scene shifts to a gambling den during the second half of the story and after two more deaths Lavender proposes his solution to the district attorney and the police investigator. Not a superlative locked room problem by any means but a worthy addition to the genre nonetheless.

The Mystery of The Child’s Toy - Leslie Charteris

Story: The Mystery of The Child’s Toy

Author: Leslie Charteris

Source: The Saint Intervenes, The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories.

Theme For The Month: Locked Room or Impossible Crime Stories

George Kestry, the Homicide Squad’s toughest case-breaker and Andy Herrick, the detective story writer are dining in one of the richest New York hotels. Their topic of discussion: how the police actually break the case by arresting someone and making him sweat the truth. The next topic of discussion happens to be about the strange behavior of the Wall Street brokers. And to drive home the point, Kestry points to Lewis Enstone, one of the richest men in New York enjoying his night with his two associate brokers Abe & Hammel. They notice the three men dispersing in a very jovial mood with Lewis looking especially animated. While Abe & Hammel leave the hotel, Enstone goes past the two dining men to his penthouse on the top floor of that hotel. A few minutes later, Lewis’s valet announces that his master has shot himself.

There is an empty paper bag (brought in by Abe & Hammel), there is a child’s toy on the desk and the gun is in Lewis’s hand with his thumb on the trigger with a bullet hole through his eye. There’s nobody in the house except Lewis, his secretary & his valet and the latter two were together when they heard the shot and they both entered the room simultaneously. So looks like a simple case of suicide and Kestry wants to wash his hands off the case as quickly as possible. But the writer detective thinks that it’s a very clever form of murder!

The secretary or the valet committing the murder: too easy for a good detective story. The business associates certainly had the motives but they were nowhere near the dead man. No mechanical devices inside the room, the gun was indeed close to the body when it was discharged. So Lewis must have shot himself? But then was it murder? Sure! The Child’s Toy provides all the clues required for Andy to solve this impossible crime.

The Tea Leaf - Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace

Story: The Tea Leaf

Author: Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace

Source: Tales of Detection edited by Dorothy L. Sayers. The story is available online here.

Theme for the Month: Locked Room & Impossible Crime Stories

The two friends Arthur Kelstern & Hugh Willoughton are known for their bad temper. Hugh gets engaged to Arthur’s daughter only to cancel it a year later. And from then on it’s a downhill ride for their friendship with especially Arthur tormenting Hugh at every opportunity that he gets. They are such bitter enemies now that everyone thinks that it’s only a matter of time before one would meet an untimely end. And that end comes in peculiar circumstances in the same Turkish bath where they had met for the first time.

In spite of throwing daggers at each other at every instance they meet, they still maintain their routine of visiting the Turkish bath on a bi-weekly basis – on the same day at the same time. On this last occasion, both are seen entering the hottest room, they are heard quarreling within two minutes, Hugh comes outs of the hottest room in a foul mood and enters the Shampoo room, a few minutes later when another patron enters the hottest room Arthur is found stabbed to death.  Hugh is kept under constant observation till the police arrive and arrest him. Nobody has entered the hottest room or the shampoo room and nobody has left the bath. Seems like an open & shut case against Willoughton but the police have just one problem: there is no sign of the murder weapon! They carry out the most rigorous search; it’s not on any person, it’s not in any of the baths (even when the water is completely drained out), it’s not hidden among the clothes and it’s not found anywhere outside the bath. The autopsy shows that the fatal wound was caused by a long circular weapon (like a pencil) which would need at least a 4 inch handle to inflict such a deep and ghastly wound. The only other anomaly being the tea leaf found deep inside the wound, split exactly in half by the tip of the weapon! Arthur was known to have been in the habit of having tea after his bath without fail and the same bottle is found in front of the body with spilt tea and tea leaves jutting out from the bottle.

They decide to try Hugh in court anyway requesting the jury to discard the fact that the murder weapon wasn’t found. On the witness stand, Arthur’s daughter provides the explanation for the missing weapon and how her Father must have met his death. Though the reader might have seen the same trick being used multiple times before, it still might come as a surprise and it makes for a fascinating reading nevertheless - with a detailed scientific explanation provided for the means and principles of the murder weapon.

Persons or Things Unknown - John Dickson Carr

Story: Persons or Things Unknown

Author: John Dickson Carr

Book: The Department of Queer Complaints, Fell and Foul Play.

Theme For The Month: Locked Room or Impossible Crime Stories

It has been a habit with me for quite some time to always begin the New Year by reading a novel written by my favorite author John Dickson Carr. This year, I decided to go with a short story collection which is like shooting three birds with one stone: I’m still beginning the New Year with Carr, I’m covering a Queen’s Quorum title and I get to read a few high quality locked room/impossible crime stories.

The original edition of ‘The Department OF Queer Complaints’ is supposed to have consisted of 11 stories; my 1940 paperback edition has 10 stories – 7 featuring Colonel March and 3 standalones. The Colonel March stories have already been reviewed by my fellow blogger Tomcat here  and hence I decided to pick one of the non-series stories.

This is a historical mystery in which an unnamed host, who is hosting a few families for Christmas in his newly acquired house recounts this chilly tale of impossible crime which took place in that house centuries ago. The story is recounted from the diary of a Squire who was a witness to the actual murder and corroborated by a few facts catalogued from the inquest held at that time.

Oakley & Mary are engaged and are to be married shortly but Gerard wants to marry Mary and the first step towards it has to be the murder of Oakley. One fine night, Gerard enters the house when the couple are sure to be found in the ‘little’ room, the servants know for sure that Gerard was without his sword on this occasion, Gerard requests a few servants to join him and keep vigil outside the door with plenty of candles lit when he goes inside the room to converse with the couple. After a few minutes, the candle lights are extinguished inside the room and the servants posted outside hear some strange cries which finally end with a big thud as though someone has fallen on the ground. When the servants barge in, they find that Mary has fainted and Oakley is dead with deep and multiple stabbings but there is no sign of a murder weapon in the vicinity. The door was locked from the inside, the room doesn’t have any windows through which the weapon could’ve been discarded and every nook and cranny in that room is searched but the police fail to find any sign of the knife that must caused the deep and brutal wounds. A man hacked to death, with thirteen stab-wounds in his body, from a hand that wasn’t there and a weapon that didn’t exist! The verdict at the inquest: “Death due to Persons or Things Unknown.”

The solution is pretty simple and pretty clever - the host provides the secret of the ‘invisible knife’ as he calls it – probably the atmosphere and the historical setting aid in the non discovery of the weapon which probably wouldn’t have been possible in the modern settings but that doesn’t take away anything from the puzzle plot aspect – the reader has all the clues fairly laid out in front of him to figure out the solution.

Last week, I went through Robert Adey’s bibliography of locked room mysteries and shortlisted all the stories that I could lay my hands on from the collections that I’ve. Hopefully, I should have enough stories to last for the complete month!

The Year Of The Short Story

It’s that time of the year when one reflects back on what has been achieved over the past one year and also to contemplate and plan for the coming year. Incidentally, it also happens to be the blog’s Anniversary! Last year, I decided that the year of 2012 for me was gone be the year of the Short Story. And so it has been. I sifted through some 300 collections of short stories putting a halt to the reading of novels though I’d to take a midyear break to tend to the latter when some very obscure titles were available for pick up.

In the last one year, the blog has featured 140 stories by 94 different authors from 80 different short story collections; 30 of those stories were from the Queen’s Quorum titles, 25 from Crippen & Landru titles and 51 stories from the post 70’s era.

In short, this is how the results look for the goals I’d set:

1. 20 Queen Quorum Titles – target achieved(22 completed)

2. 20 Crippen & Landru Collections – just made it (20 completed)

3. 60 stories from the new brand of authors – missed it by a long margin (51 short

    stories from a total of just 38 authors)

4. To read through some of the 150 odd short story collections that I’d with me - a total flop as I not only didn’t get through even 10 % of it but I managed to double the count of short story collections that I had.

Queen's Quorum Titles Read:

1. After Dinner Story by William Irish

Contains 6 high quality stories - 3 superlative ones: Rear Window, After Dinner Story & Murder Story.

2. The Department of Dead Ends by Roy Vickers

Inverted Crime Stories where some infinitesimally object in the Scotland Yard museum connects the murderer to the crime at hand in a very surprising way! 

3. Tutt & Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train

Involves some funny stories and some with legal legerdemain. Worthy enough to arouse interest to pursue other titles in the series. 

4. Out Of His Head by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Not a short story collection per say but a series of interconnected chapters. 

5. Stories from the Diary of a Doctor by L.T. Meade & Clifford Halifax

Supposed to be medical mysteries but this was the toughest book to get through. 

6. In The Fog by Richard Harding Davis

Three interconnected stories with a final twist to upset the applecart! 

7. Condensed Novels by Bret Harte

Contains nine burlesques but this title qualifies for the Queen’s Quorum list based solely on just one story – “The Stolen Cigar Case”, considered to be one of the best Holmes parodies and one of the anthologists’ favorite. 

8. The Achievements of Luther Trant by William Macharg & Edwin Balmer

One of the better collections and most certainly the first volume of short stories to make scientific use of psychology as a method of crime detection.

9. Average Jones by Samuel Hopkins Adams

Refreshingly original and a worthy successor to the great Sherlock Holmes. 

10. Call Mr. Fortune by H.C. Bailey

Probably this first collection of stories featuring Reggie Fortune has been picked to be a Quorum title more from the history point of view rather than the ingenuity of the stories. The later collections definitely have much more superior stories! 

11. A Jury Of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

Highly praised by the critics and included in The Best Short Stories of 1917, this is not a collection but a standalone story which can be found in many anthologies. Somehow, it didn’t impress me and seemed to be overrated.

12. Guys & Dolls by Damon Runyon

No detection involved but the author has fashioned a new way of telling the crime story from the point of view of the Times Square gangsters. 

13. Knight's Gambit by William Faulkner

An highly under appreciated collection of 6 detective stories.

14. Diagnosis: Homicide by Lawrence G Blochman

Eight stories where the murderer is apprehended based solely on the identification of the murder method which is solved by pure scientific/forensic methods.

15. The Short Cases of Inspector Maigret by Georges Simenon

Consists of 5 novelettes: 2 of them translated by Anthony Boucher and the remaining 3 by Lawrence G. Blochman.

16. The Lady, Or The Tiger by Frank R. Stockton

A stand alone story with an uncertain ending where the author poses a literary riddle and asks the reader to solve the puzzle.

17. The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow by Patrick Quentin

It is said that the author has handled the taboo theme of child murderers extremely well but I didn’t enjoy this book. The culprit (and sometimes the story itself) becomes too obvious.

18. The Nine Mile Walk by Harry Kemelman

Contains some of the best armchair detective stories ever written after the Golden Age of Detective fiction.

19. Game Without Rules by Michael Gilbert

Considered by critics as the second best volume of spy stories ever written (next only to Somerset Maugham's Ashenden), this collection contains 11 stories featuring the secret agents Samuel Behrens and Daniel Joseph Calder.

20. Dr. Sam Johnson, Detector by Lillian de la Torre

One of the earliest series of historical detective stories, the stories are more or less based on the actual crimes of the 18th century (solved or unsolved), with a new solution proposed by the author as befits the crime and the period in which it occurred.

21. Limehouse Nights by Thomas Burke

None of the 14 tales of Oriental passion and subtle murder are anywhere near to his masterpiece “The Hands of Mr. Ottermole”.

22. The Unique Hamlet – Vincent Starrett

A Holmes Pastiche, considered to be the best of its kind by many critics, can be found in many Sherlockian anthologies. 

Crippen and Landru Titles Read: 

1. Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Riddles by Stuart Palmer

2. The Sedgemoor Strangler & Other Stories of Crime by Peter Lovesey

3. The Couple Next Door: Collected Short Mysteries by Margaret Millar

4. Nine Sons by Wendy Hornsby

5. Suitable For Hanging by Margaret Maron
6. Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose by Peter Lovesey
7. The Sleuth of Baghdad: The Inspector Chafik Stories by Charles B Child
8. The Pleasant Assassin and Other Cases of Dr. Basil Willing by Helen Mccloy
9. Mom, The Detective - The Complete Mom Stories by James Yaffe
10. The Duel Of Shadows: The Extraordinary Cases of Barnabas Hildreth by Vincent Cornier

11. The Minerva Club, The Department of Patterns, and Others by Victor Canning

12. The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham's Casebook byAnthony Berkeley

13. The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from Inspector Cockrill's Casebook by Christianna Brand
14. Strangers in Town: Three Newly Discovered Mysteries by Ross Macdonald
15. Appleby Talks About Crime by Michael Innes
16. The Ripper of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Stories by Edward D Hoch
17. The Detections of Francis Quarles by Julian Symons
18. Who Killed Father christmas and Other Unreasonable Demises by Patricia Moyes
19. The Battles of Jericho by Hugh Pentecost
20. Murder Ancient & Modern by Edward Marston

And The Honors Go To:

Best Queen’s Quorum title from the modern era: The Nine Mile Walk

Best Queen’s Quorum title from the earlier times: The Achievements of Luther Trant

Queen’s Quorum Honorable Mention: Guys and Dolls

Best Crippen & Landru title read: The Detections of Francis Quarles

Find of the Year: Short Stories of Fredric Brown & Cornell Woolrich/William Irish

Authors with the maximum number of stories featured: Fredric Brown & Edward D. Hoch (5 stories each)

Best Anthology: Four and Twenty Bloodhounds (the 3rd MWA anthology edited by Anthony Boucher)

Best Single Author Collection: Homicide Sanitarium by Fredric Brown

Most Hard to Find Queen’s Quorum titles (still searching for them):

· Anthony Wynne’s Sinners Go Secretly

· G.D.H & Margaret Cole’s Superintendent Wilson’s Holiday

· Henry Wade’s Policeman’s Lot

· Stuart Palmer’s The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers

Plan for the Year 2013:

Pretty much the same as last year’s – 20 Queen Quorum titles, 20 Crippen & Landru titles and 60 stories from the modern or contemporary authors.

Wish You All A Very Happy New Year!

The Detections of Francis Quarles - Julian Symons

This is the third collection of stories featuring the private detective Francis Quarles after ‘Murder! Murder!’ (21 stories) & ‘Francis Quarles Investigates’ (15 stories) and features 42 short-short stories which were all originally written for London’s Evening Standard newspaper. Nothing much is known or written about the detective himself and whatever is known is given by the author as a preface in the first collection. Quarles’s investigations usually involve murder in its various forms. To Quote him, “In every unsolved crime there is always a human error, a clue which, if we could understand its meaning, would point straight to the murderer.” And every single story in this volume adheres to this great maxim and the reader always has the clues right in front of him to solve it by himself. In fact, the whole book can be considered as a collection of ‘five-minute solve it yourself’ mysteries. And it is certainly one of the best short story collections that I’ve read this year!

1.   Red Rum Means Murder

The title of the story itself serves as the clue. Quarles investigates the murder of a blackmailer who also happens to be a bookseller. Means of collecting the money: send a few first editions and collect exorbitant prices on them! The book titles in some way points to the name of the victim. In this case, Quarles has a list of 5 first editions and he needs to figure out who among the 4 eligible buyers it was intended for to arrive at the murderer.

2.   Murder – But How Was It Done?

A locked room mystery in only 4 pages! Magerson has just returned from South America with new varieties of snakes & scorpions and is staying in a hotel. He is to address an international conference on his findings but with just 2 hours to go for the conference, he is found dead inside a locked bathroom. Cause of death: puncture mark on the chest from a poison dart which is found under the body. No windows, no other means of opening and the dart wasn’t fired through the keyhole. How was the dart fired inside the locked bathroom?

3.   Airborne With A Borgia

Murder during a flight to Rome. Mr. Cogan, who is the director of that airline, is always given his favorite seat whenever he flies. And he has made a last minute decision to take this flight and on board the flight are several of his enemies who would love to see him dead. Quarles’s has been keeping a close eye on him in the mirror but he is soon found dead after having his dinner(death due to poison) without anybody having approached him except for the staff and the staff know that the food wasn’t poisoned. Quarles unmasks a new device which could be used to kill a person effectively.

4.   The Pepoli Case

Death on board a ship and the disappearance of both the victim and the murderer. Robert Peopli is married to Clarissa and they have invited Aunt Agatha and Quarles for their party. The aunt doesn’t like Robert but there is even worse a character amidst them in the form of Edward Pepoli (Robert’s cousin), who has already served two prison sentences. Three weeks later, Robert & Clarissa are off on a three weeks cruise and Clarissa has invited the aunt to join her! The aunt suspects that Edward is also on the ship and suspects foul play. Sure enough, she is a witness to a fight in the night – the two men who look exactly like Robert & Edward. She sees Edward getting the better of Robert and pushing him overboard but when she brings in help, Edward is nowhere to be seen on the ship and there’s no sign of the dead body of Robert!

5.   The Impossible Theft

An impossible crime in front of numerous witnesses. Gregory is a private detective who has been hired to guard the very valuable rope of pearls which Raven is presenting to his daughter on the occasion of her engagement. On the eve of the function, Gregory receives a threat saying that the pearls will disappear at 10.15. He invites Quarles to lend him extra support. During the function, Gregory is standing guard in front of the jewel case, he opens the case and hands it over to the Jewel evaluator who confirms that it’s real, it’s passed from hand to hand (a dozen individuals) who are standing in a circle around the host and is given back to Gregory who again locks it in the case. Then there is a distraction and a few minutes later when the case is opened again, the pearl set is found to be made of paste. All the ones who handled the pearl set including the host and the detective is searched but they find no sign of the original!

A Lonely Profession - Patricia Moyes

Story: A Lonely Profession

Author: Patricia Moyes

Source: Who Killed Father Christmas and Other Unreasonable Demises

This Crippen & Landru collection features 20 short stories and 1 mini novel – the earlier stories written for the Evening News and the later ones written for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Only 2 stories has any detection involved in them – most of the others fall into the category where the characters are plotting the murder of their near and dear ones; sometimes successfully and at other times with unimaginable consequences – but all stories culminate with a twist; sometimes guessable and at other times genuinely surprising! The best story in the collection with one of those unusual and surprising twists happens to be ‘A Lonely Profession’.

Having won numerous prizes for marksmanship in the army, the protagonist who narrates the story in the first person is in the profession of being available as a paid assassin. The assassin has set up an office under the alias of H. De Quincy and the clients are accepted only if they have a reference from one of the previous customers. The story goes on to show the various measures and the methods that the assassin uses to be on top of the profession without getting involved with the law enforcement agencies. Being a lonely profession, a young lady by the name of Lottie, who is not that intelligent to figure out Quincy’s real name or profession is brought into the household. Such a set up welcomes some of the high paying clients and one such client wants Quincy to take up a political assassination of the President of the Arab country Bashara.

The plan is set in motion by the Arab general(the client) and all Quincy has to do is to pull the trigger. The plan also includes another man taking a shot at the President standing next to Quincy – that man who is an awful shot would draw the attention of the security and police authorities and take responsibility for the murder allowing Quincy to escape. This would also give an impression to the general public that the assassination was not a politically inclined one. The general also requests Quincy to bring Lottie along, though he doesn’t say why she is required. Everything goes according to the plan except two things: the other man is not captured but is shot down and all the exits from the main square are blocked by the police.

Even then, Quincy and Lottie have no problem in escaping to their homeland and the reader is left wondering about two things: Lottie didn’t previously know Quincy’s profession and yet there is no objection from her and if all the exits were blocked, how did they escape without being questioned? Therein lies the twist of the tale!

 Other notable stories in this collection include:

1.  Who Killed Father Christmas?

One of the two stories which involves genuine detection. The toy department at the store of Barnum & Thrums has received a consignment of Teddy Bears from Hong Kong. The employees of the store, including the temporaries are allowed to buy gifts at discounted prices. All the 4 employees and 2 temps have their eyes set on the Teddy bears. The store also has the tradition of having Santa distributing gifts to children. And Santa also goes in for the teddy with a blue ribbon (the only one of that kind) as soon as he comes in to gather the gifts for distributing to the children.

They soon realize that the man in Santa’s costume is not the usual man that they hire, somebody has requested by phone to present a teddy to a child when she approaches Santa and pretty soon Father Christmas is found stabbed to death. It turns out that the person who came in as Santa was a policeman - the police having received a tip that one of the teddies contained drugs, who now have a murder on their hands with the staff of the store serving as the suspects.

2.  Hit and Run

Dr. Roger Ashburn’s wife has run away leaving a message that she can’t tolerate him, his place and his poor earnings. Police investigation fails to shed any clue on her whereabouts. The doctor must have done her in runs the rumor mill. Not able to withstand the pressure, Dr. Ashburn moves to a different location as a Pathologist. A few months down the line, a woman’s body from a hit & run accident turns up in his morgue. And the doctor is shocked to see that the body on the slab is none other than her wife – with their wedding ring intact! So was it just a case of the women not wanting to accept her failure and return back to her husband? Or was there a much sinister plot?

3.  The Faithful Cat

Herbert has only two options open to him: kill his wife or confess and ask her to pay off his debts. A third option opens up when his wife is operated and her uterus is removed. Being childless, her love is channeled to the faithful cat, Pakdee. Being emotionally week, Herbert decides to drive her insane by threatening to kill the cat and the story unfolds with some bitter complications and an ending which Herbert certainly wouldn’t have bargained for!

4.  Family Christmas

    Mr. Runfold and his wife have invited their 2 daughters and their husbands to stay with them for Christmas. Mr. Runfold strongly suspects that one of the menfolk would try to poison him (he already has a weak heart) during Christmas dinner and instructs his wife to not let anyone into the kitchen. He has even changed his will so that the money doesn’t pass on to his wife who would easily give in and part with the money. The money would go to their daughters on the death of both the parents or when the youngest daughter reaches 40(the youngest is only 20). Both the daughters have their own sob story and request for money from their Father which is duly rejected with contempt. After the Christmas meal, Mr. Runfold is found dead. The doctor brings in a verdict of natural death but Mrs. Runfold strongly believes that one of the four killed her husband.