"There are, however, many more novels and short stories of impossible crimes that were published in other languages and that have never been translated into English."- Robert Adey
Recently,
I discussed three Dutch locked
room mysteries, one novel and a pair of short stories, which
reminded me there was a particular filler-post patiently waiting on
the back-burner for my attention. There are a number of such posts
that need to be written or updated, such as my lists of favorite
locked room novels
and short
stories, but always wanted to redo the rundown
of Dutch-language impossible crime stories I posted, years ago, on
the GAD Wiki – which could now be augmented with additional
material. I know most of you will probably grumble and growl at a
catalog of mostly untranslated mysteries, but this blog-post is more
of a personal note to myself.
You
might have noticed my deep, burning and undying love for the
impossible crime story. So, naturally, I have always been on the
lookout for some homespun miracles of the criminal kind, but result
was discouraging to say the least. For years, I was stuck at five
titles, divided between two writers, which left me with practically
no hope of adding anything worthwhile to that small stack of books.
Until recently, that is, when they slowly began to accumulate in
front of me out of nowhere. And they seemed to come crawling out of
every nook and cranny of the genre: the Golden Decade (1930s), the
post-WWII period and even the 21st century!
So
now those five titles have grown into a modest stack of more than
twenty Dutch-language locked room tales, which makes me want to wave
the national driekleur (tricolor) and putting the band back
together. Yes, that last part is a euphemism for reassembling the
Dutch Empire and the recolonization of Southeast Asia. Who wants to
be the Governor-General of the New Dutch East Indies?
But
enough padding for one badly written filler-post. Let's take a crack
at this list!
The
Novels:
A.C.
Baantjer's Een strop voor Bobby (A Noose for Bobby,
1963)
Appie
Baantjer was a homicide detective with 40 years of service on the
Amsterdam police-force, but during the early 1960s he made his first,
tentative steps in becoming one of the most successful crime
novelists of the Netherlands – selling close to eight million
copies during his lifetime. A Noose for Bobby is where it all
began. The first three-quarters of the plot is a study of character,
pitting a police-inspector against a ruthless pimp, but the last
quarter turns into a technical impossible crime story when the
villain of the piece is found swinging from a rope in the proverbial
locked room. A very old and worn trick is used to lock the door from
the inside, but the clue of the electric wiring is something one
would expect from John
Rhode.
M.P.O.
Books' De blikvanger (The Eye-Catcher, 2010)
Marco
Books is a grossly underrated writer of police-detective and
thrillers, who occasionally takes a stab at the locked room problem,
which began with this 2010 novel. The plot is primarily concerned
with the murder of a doctor and the numerous attempts on the life of
a local alderman, but towards the end there's an impossible poisoning
behind multiple locked doors. A minor side-puzzle with a simplistic
answer, but good enough to complement the overall plot.
M.P.O.
Books' Een
afgesloten huis (A Sealed House, 2013)
A
figure head of the Dutch criminal underworld, Fred Duijster, is found
gutted in his tightly secured, fortress-like home. The windows were
covered with steel shutters and the ground around the house is
monitored with motion sensors that trigger over head lights, back and
front, and activate the CCTV cameras – which captured only one
person entering and leaving the premise at the time of the murder.
But is he guilty? It's a locked room conundrum in the same vein (and
quality) as Marcia Muller's The
Tree of Death (1983) and Herbert Resnicow's The
Gold Solution (1983), but with an even better explanation. As
a matter of fact, I believe this to be one of the best titles on this
list.
Willy
Corsari's De misdaad zonder fouten (The
Crime Without Mistakes or The Faultless Crime,
1927)
Once
upon a time, the Belgian-born Willy Corsari was the Grand Dame of the
Dutch-language detective story, but her work always struck me as
extremely uneven and her lowest point can be found in her debut novel
– which has a horribly misleading book-title. The impossibility
concerned a man with a broken neck found in a house completely locked
from the inside, but dissolved in an anti-detective story with twins
and sleepwalkers. The final "twist" was excruciatingly bad.
Luckily, Corsari would go on to write at least one decent impossible
crime novel.
Willy
Corsari's De
onbekende medespeler (The Unknown Co-Player, 1931)
An
early, standalone novel with a German movie-and television company as
a backdrop and the opening sequence of the story shows dashes of
imaginative writing – rewinding and fast-forwarding between scenes
like a movie. Unfortunately, the impossible stabbing of an actress in
front of a rolling camera is underplayed and has a dull, routine
solution. However, it's a mountainous improvement on her first
attempt at penning a locked room novel.
Willy
Corsari's De
voetstappen op de trap (The Footsteps on the Stairs,
1937)
A
legitimate and not entirely unsuccessful treatment of the locked room
trope! The book concerns the complications surrounding the murder of
Sir John Judge, born as Jan Rechter, who left his native country to
amass a fortune on the British Isles, but the past has patiently
awaited his return home – ending with a deadly shooting inside a
locked study. One important piece of information is withheld from the
reader, but the policeman was unaware of it as well. So, at the time,
I was willing to show some leniency on that point, because I had
finally found a Dutch-language locked room mystery from the Golden
Age.
Cor
Docter's Koude
vrouw in Kralingen (Cold Woman in Kralingen, 1970)
Cor
Docter was a prolific pulp-writer, known as "The Prince of the
Lending Libraries," but during the early 1970s he wrote three
traditionally-styled detective novels and one of them was a
first-class locked room story. Cold Woman in Kralingen is a
topographical roman policier,
situated in a neighborhood of Rotterdam, where the stabbing of a
gardener leads Commissioner Daan Vissering to a shadowy society known
as Kostbaar Kralingen (Precious Kralingen). During one of their
regular meetings, one of their members is murdered inside a sealed
bedroom and the murderer appears to have been trapped inside. The key
was tossed, underneath the crack of the door, into the hallway where
everyone had gathered, but when they battered down the door all they
found was a murdered woman!
The
solution is proof of Docter's credentials as a writer of
pulp-fiction, but it's a good and original answer. One that makes
this book one of the better titles on this list.
Robert
van Gulik's Labyrint
in Lan-fang (translated as The Chinese Maze Murders,
1956)
Robert
van Gulik was a diplomat, sinologist and an author of a series of
detective novels, short stories and novellas about a Chinese
magistrate from the 7th century, Judge Dee – which played an vital
role in popularizing historical mysteries. This is one of the first
books in the series and dispatches Judge Dee to far-flung district on
the Northwestern border of the Chinese empire, Lan-fang, which is
plagued by barbarians, corruption and murder. One of the victims,
General Ding, was stabbed in the throat with a small, peculiar
looking dagger with a poisoned blade, but the General was holed up in
a hermetically sealed mansion when the murderer struck. The
impossible crime angle is not as strong as in other locked room
novels in this series, but the book, as a whole, is great!
Robert van Gulik's
Fantoom in Foe-lai (translated as The Chinese Gold Murders,
1959)
Chronologically,
The Chinese Gold Murders is the first book in the series and
tells the story of Judge Dee's first post as a magistrate of a
somber, mournful place, called Peng-lai, where tales are abound of
the restless dead. One of them is the previous magistrate of the
district who died under mysterious circumstances in his locked
library. This is easily one of the best entries in the series!
Robert
van Gulik's Het rode paviljoen (The Red Pavilion, 1961)
Judge
Dee and Ma Joong are on a return journey home, to the district of
Poo-yang, which brings them to Paradise Island. Upon their arrival,
the island is busy with the celebration surrounding the Festival of
the Dead and the only room is the cursed pavilion of the book-title.
A place where people have died under unsavory and inexplicable
circumstances, which Judge Dee get to witness first hand as he has to
explain three seemingly impossible deaths that has occurred in the
room – one of them discovered by the judge himself. I remember it
as one of the best and most solidly plotted Judge Dee novels, but
really should re-read the book to see if it holds up.
Ivans'
De
bosgeest (The Forest Spirit, 1926)
Under
the single-name pseudonym of "Ivans," Jakob van Schevichaven had
the honor of becoming the first commercially successful crime writer
of the Netherlands. The Forest Spirit is a strange, early
example of the serial killer novel: a number of forest rangers were
beaten to death in a dark, sprawling wood in Germany. Someone had
caved in the back of their heads and in one particular case the
murderer left no footprints in the soft soil surrounding the body.
However, this impossibility is mentioned only briefly and the
revelation of the murderer immediately tells you have the
no-footprints trick was done. Not the most impressive entry on this
list.
Edward
Multon's De
onzichtbare doder (The Invisible Slayer,
1963)
A
thoroughly bad "detective" story streaked with second-rate
thriller material and only a token locked room murder. I recommend
you read the review if you want to know more about the content of the
story.
Frans
and Tineke Steenmeijer's Moord
in het provinciehuis (Murder at Provincial
House, 1999)
Only
the first two chapters deal with the impossible murder of a
provincial politician, shot to death during a weekly round-table
meeting of the College of Deputies of the Province of Friesland,
which is too short to make this really a noteworthy as a locked room
mystery. However, the locked room angle, as short as it is, made for
one of the better parts of the book.
Berts
Wiersema's De ongeloofelijke ontsnapping van Tengere Tinus
(The Unbelievable Escape of Tengere Tinus, 2010)
I've
not read this book myself, but know of its existence and will pick it
up if I ever stumble across a copy. The story is geared to primary
school children and is about a couple of aspiring detectives, Iris
and Ko, who help the police figure out how a criminal pulled of an
escape from a warehouse – which he had barricaded from the inside
and was surrounded by the police on the outside.
Short
Stories:
Bertus
Aafjes' "De zaak van de bronzen waterreservoirs" ("The Case of
the Bronze Water Reservoirs," collected in De
vertrapte pioenroos, 1973; The Trampled
Peony)
Bertus
Aafjes was a world traveler, poet and writer whose oeuvre included
several volumes of short stories and a single novella-length mystery
about a venerable Japanese magistrate, Judge Ooka – an 18th century
judge who presided over the city of Edo (present-day Tokyo). The
impossibility in this story falls in the same category as the Egg of
Columbus and the Gordian knot. A dishonest bronze caster has been
overcharging the prize of the titular water reservoirs, claiming he
has used more bronze than he probably did, but, at the time, they had
no means to weigh the huge reservoirs. So how could they proof the
dishonesty of the bronze caster? Judge Ooka's scheme is as clever as
it's simple and is arguably the most original story on this list.
Willy
Corsari's "Sporen in de sneeuw" ("Tracks in the Snow,"
collected in De weddenschap van Inspecteur Lund, 1941;
Inspector Lund Makes a Bet)
A
broken leg and the story of a long-forgotten, unsolved and
impossible, murder turns Lund into an armchair detective, but the
solution was pedestrian and uninspired.
Anna
van Doorn's "De
dichter die zichzelf opsloot" ("The Poet Who Locked Himself
In," collected in De geliefde die in het veen verdween en andere
mysteries, 2017; The Lover Who Disappeared in the Bog and
Other Mysteries)
Corbijn
and De Jong are particuliere onderzoekers (private
investigators) who specialize in cold cases and their first recorded
investigation concerns the apparent suicide of an obscure and
reclusive poet in a log cabin in the woods – where he withdrew from
the world to slave over a line of poetry in solitude. There he was
found, shot in the face, with traces of gunshot residue on his hand
and a double-barreled shotgun next to the body. The door was latched
from the inside and the only window could not be opened. So if it's
not suicide than how could a murderer have entered and left the log
cabin?
One
of the better locked room tricks on this list!
Robert
van Gulik's "Moord en ambtelijke haarkloverij" ("The Red Tape
Murder," collected in Zes zaken voor Rechter Tie, 1961;
Judge
Dee at Work)
Judge
Dee investigates the murder of Commander Soo at a military fortress,
shot with an arrow loosened from a room on the other side of the
complex, where only one person was present who could have pulled the
bowstring. However, this person is proven innocent by Judge Dee and
the solution turned this straightforward murder case into a locked
room mystery.
Robert
van Gulik's "De twee bedelaars" ("The Two Beggars," collected
in Zes zaken voor Rechter Tie, 1961; Judge Dee at Work)
A
very minor locked room tale in which Judge Dee witnesses a ghostly
apparition escape from a watched, moonlit, garden with a gate that's
securely locked and barred from the inside.
Havank's
"De
gegrendelde kamer" ("The Bolted Room," collected De
Schaduw & Co, 1957; The Shadow & Co)
Charles
C.M. Carlier, a.k.a. De Schaduw (The Shadow), is called on to
investigate the alleged suicide of a company director, who apparently
shot himself inside his private office, which is nicely resolved in a
handful of pages.
Ashe
Stil's "De dode kamer" ("The Dead Room," collected in De
dode kamer, 1996; The Dead Room)
Ashe
Stil is a historian and the author of a series of historical mystery
novels and short stories about Willem Lootsman, a waterschout
(water bailiff) in the Amsterdam harbor of the Dutch Golden Age,
which may be the Dutch counterpart to the historical detective
stories by Paul
Doherty – as at least two short stories are locked room
mysteries. This story is about a greedy merchant found dead inside a
hermetically sealed vault.
Ashe
Stil's "Het zilveren pistool" ("The Silver Pistol," collected
in Het zilveren pistool, 2005; The Silver Pistol)
A
rich merchant is found murdered inside an upstairs room, locked from
the inside, but there was an open window. However, the
plot-description noted that the window offered no means of escape to
the murderer. So you can expect me to explore this series in the
hopefully not so distant future.
That's
the last one for now, but, surely, this blog-post will be updated in
the future and compiling this list gave me an idea for another post,
because most of the solutions have something in common – a
preferred technique, or approach, to the locked room problem.
Something that shows a clear difference in the mindset of Angelo and
Germanic mystery writers, but hey, that's subject for another time.
