The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes & Impossible Mysteries

Editor Mike Ashley has assembled more than 500 pages' worth of short mystery fiction focusing on locked room murders, impossible crimes, and even perfect murders -- ranging from one story originally published as early as 1910 to several that were previously unpublished when the book came out in 2007. Included are 30 audacious murder scenarios: A man alone in a phone booth is somehow stabbed in the back with an icepick; a man alone in a room is shot by a bullet fired over 200 years ago; a man enters a cable-car alone and is dead when it reaches the bottom; a man receives mail in response to letters apparently written by him--after his death; a lion tamer is found strangled in a locked train car; an Indian rope trick performer vanishes at the end of the trick only to be found dead in a nearby lake; three women are found murdered, their bodies seemingly untouched yet with their internal organs removed. Sometimes the reader knows the killer, watching to see whether he can beat the investigators; sometimes the story is a whodunit, where everyone is a suspect; and sometimes the crime is such a head-scratcher that one can only turn the pages hoping to figure out what in the world happened. Along the way, the editor calls on such familiar authors as Edward D. Hoch, Bill Pronzini, and J.A. Konrath, while also digging up a healthy assortment of lost classics. (Ashley avoids any examples from John Dickson Carr and G.K. Chesterton, two masters of the form, because those authors' stories are often so readily available.) Some of the stories are great, some are okay, and one or two make you slap your forehead in amazement. Overall, a fine collection for any fan of puzzle mysteries.

I really enjoyed this book. One of the hazards of short story collections, particularly if you read as voraciously as I do, is that you end up getting a "new" collection full of lots of stories you've read before. I got a great deal of pleasure from this book because, while I recognized many of the authors, all of the stories were new to me. The authors came up with some very clever twists on the "locked room" theme--I highly recommend this book!

Publishers Carroll & Graf and its crack editor Mike Ashley serve up another wonderful collection of murder mysteries. In this case the stories collected are of a kind, seemingly impossible murders that defy explanation. As always, Ashley's instincts are impeccable with nary a clunker found in the 30 stories therein. The stories in this anthology span the years from 1910(!)to 2006 with authors ranging from Peter Crowther to Edward D. Hoch, Robert Randisi, Richard Lupoff, Peter Tremayne and Bill Pronzini. Among the 'perfect crimes' are the following: a man seemingly alone in an all-glass phone booth who dies from an ice pick in the back; a lion tamer found strangled in a locked train car; a man wounded, while sitting alone in a room, by a bullet fired 200 years ago; an Indian rope trick performer who vanishes at the end of the trick only to be found dead in a nearby lake; three Denver women found murdered, their bodies seemingly untouched yet with their internal organs removed; a dead man who continues to receive mail in response to letters apparently written by him after he died; and so on. My favorite tale in this volume is Bill Pronzini's "Proof of Guilt." Pronzini's clever, clever story concerns the murder of an attorney. A client who was with the attorney when he was murdered claims he's innocent and the police are stymied. The story has such a marvelous - and funny - denouement that it automatically earned the book a five-star rating! In any case, if you're an armchair detective, you'll want to pick up this book. It's a wonderfully entertaining collection of stories! *** I'd suggest you keep this book by your bed or favorite chair and sample the contents rather than reading it straight through - better to savor each unique, imaginative tale a story at a time.