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Origami · 08-25-2009, 05:54 PM

Yes, to me that's one of SH's charms too, that it's set in the victorian londen era. That's why I can't wait to play SH vs. Jack the Ripper.

But all golden age detective novels (which are written in the early 1900's)
take place late 80's to 1930.
Anyway....if you like the twists in SH stories, the recommended books' twists are much better.

The thing with Sherlock Holmes is that it's more story-driven with the focus...yeah on a good story instead of a well-constructed impossible crime.
Mystery novels started being considered as a sport some time after Sherlock Holmes and the authors were like competing and trying to outbest eachother coming up with the best impossible crime. Like I said, they became practically games.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did pull some attempts to create an impossible crime, the adventure of the speckled band for exampe(which contains quite some errors on a further inspection.)
Again, I love SH for providing great stories with one of the coolest comical characters, but a locked-room mystery getting solved "fairly" is quite another experience ^_^.

So yeah...if you like good constructed mysteries with baffling but logical twists check out this forgotten and underappreciated genre.

http://www.mysterylist.com/lockedrm.htm

Here is an interesting read about how "the game" works and its rules.
But SPOILER ALERT, it might partially reveal what kind of method was used in some books.

http://www.mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html

This is a ranklisting of some of the best titles of the genre, although they haven't covered all great ones.

Although the popularity and success of the genre has long been diminished, there is another more recent source that has succeeded of providing great titles; namely Japan.
In Japan locked room mysteries and impossible crimes are still very hot.
And even more recently they produced excellent mysteries.
Anyone interested should check out the works of Edogawa Rampo, the Detective Conan mangas, Kindaichi Casefiles mangas(with The House of Wax in particular!), and also the book I mentioned earlier "Tokyo Zodiac Murders".

English is not my primary language so excuse me of any errors I made.

On a side note: I mainly have focused on locked-room mysteries, but also detective novels outside this sub-genre that are played "fair" I want to adress.
Agatha Christie has written some great detective novels that fall outside this sub-genre but still play the game:
Murder on the Orient Express, Murder on the Nile etc...

So I am actually adressing all detective novels; locked-room, impossible crime, whodunnit, howdunnit, as long as they provide and encourage the reader to solve it.

08-25-2009, 05:54 PM	#3
Origami Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 492	Yes, to me that's one of SH's charms too, that it's set in the victorian londen era. That's why I can't wait to play SH vs. Jack the Ripper. But all golden age detective novels (which are written in the early 1900's) take place late 80's to 1930. Anyway....if you like the twists in SH stories, the recommended books' twists are much better. The thing with Sherlock Holmes is that it's more story-driven with the focus...yeah on a good story instead of a well-constructed impossible crime. Mystery novels started being considered as a sport some time after Sherlock Holmes and the authors were like competing and trying to outbest eachother coming up with the best impossible crime. Like I said, they became practically games. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did pull some attempts to create an impossible crime, the adventure of the speckled band for exampe(which contains quite some errors on a further inspection.) Again, I love SH for providing great stories with one of the coolest comical characters, but a locked-room mystery getting solved "fairly" is quite another experience ^_^. So yeah...if you like good constructed mysteries with baffling but logical twists check out this forgotten and underappreciated genre. http://www.mysterylist.com/lockedrm.htm Here is an interesting read about how "the game" works and its rules. But SPOILER ALERT, it might partially reveal what kind of method was used in some books. http://www.mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html This is a ranklisting of some of the best titles of the genre, although they haven't covered all great ones. Although the popularity and success of the genre has long been diminished, there is another more recent source that has succeeded of providing great titles; namely Japan. In Japan locked room mysteries and impossible crimes are still very hot. And even more recently they produced excellent mysteries. Anyone interested should check out the works of Edogawa Rampo, the Detective Conan mangas, Kindaichi Casefiles mangas(with The House of Wax in particular!), and also the book I mentioned earlier "Tokyo Zodiac Murders". English is not my primary language so excuse me of any errors I made. On a side note: I mainly have focused on locked-room mysteries, but also detective novels outside this sub-genre that are played "fair" I want to adress. Agatha Christie has written some great detective novels that fall outside this sub-genre but still play the game: Murder on the Orient Express, Murder on the Nile etc... So I am actually adressing all detective novels; locked-room, impossible crime, whodunnit, howdunnit, as long as they provide and encourage the reader to solve it. Last edited by Origami; 08-25-2009 at 06:02 PM.