The original whodunits were the locked room mysteries, a sub-genre of the detective mystery in which a crime is committed-almost always murder- in a location that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room. There have been many ingenious twists on the motif since it first flourished in the late 1890s and early 1900s, as can be seen in the classic collection that makes up British Mystery Multipacks Volume 8 - Locked Room Mysteries: The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill
Regarded as the first full-length locked room mystery, the novel focuses on a murder that has occurred inside a locked room, with no clear indication as to the weapon used, the perpetrator of the horrendous crime, or a possible escape route.
The Four Just Men by Edgar Wallace
The dead body of a politician is discovered in a room, locked from within and protected from without. The room is empty of all but the murdered man and even upon finding the corpse, it cannot be determined what the man died of.
The Invisible Man and The Wrong Shape by G. K. Chesterton
From Chesterton's first Father Brown collection, The Innocence of Father Brown, comes two whodunits best described as locked-room detective cozy mysteries!
The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
The fourth and final Sherlock Holmes mystery is one of Doyle's finest. A man is shot with a sawed-off shotgun and disfigured beyond recognition in an impregnable castle, to which the only entrance is sealed. There is a trail of bewildering clues-raincoats, dumbbells, a missing wedding ring-and a gripping backstory of a cult that terrorized a valley in the American West.
The Doomdorf Mystery by Melville Davisson Post
Guest American author Melville Post's best-known character is the mystery-solving, justice dispensing West Virginian backwoodsman, Uncle Abner. The 22 Uncle Abner tales, written between 1911 and 1928, have been called some of "the finest mysteries ever written." The Doomdorf Mystery is one of the best.
About the Author: Israel Zangwill (21 January 1864 - 1 August 1926) was a British humorist and writer. The Big Bow Mystery was the first locked room mystery novel. It has been almost continuously in print since 1891 and has been used as the basis for three commercial films. His play The Lens Grinder, based on the life of Spinoza, was widely produced.
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer. Born into poverty, Wallace left school at 12. Joining the army at 21, he was a war correspondent during the Second Boer War for Reuters and The Daily Mail. Struggling with debt, he left South Africa, returned to London and began writing thrillers to raise income, publishing books such as The Four Just Men (1905). Drawing on time as a reporter in the Congo, covering the Belgian atrocities, Wallace serialized short stories in magazines, later publishing collections such as Sanders of the River (1911).
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, lay theologian, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox." Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories-first carefully turning them inside out." Time, said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius."
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British physician and writer who is most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularizing the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.
Melville Davisson Post (1869 - 1930) was an American author, born in Harrison County, West Virginia. His family settled in the Clarksburg, West Virginia area in the late 18th century. In addition to Uncle Abner, Post also created two other recurring characters, Sir Henry Marquis and Randolph Mason.
