The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Reprints from Rue Morgue Press

 

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the permanent shuttering of our beloved, dearly departed Rue Morgue Press following a string of disasters from flood damage, health issues and financial problems to the death of Enid Schantz – severely reducing their output. Rue Morgue Press limped on until around 2015 and permanently closed down when their website went offline a year later. Tom Schantz followed Enid Schantz in 2023, aged 79, marking a definite end of an era.

It cannot be overstated how important Tom and Enid Schantz were to, what we have come to call, the Reprint Renaissance. And everything that followed in its wake.

Rue Morgue Press was not only one of the first independent mystery publishers setting up shop on the internet to cater directly to readers who simply love good, old-fashioned whodunits, but they also had consistent quality – because they wouldn't reprint just any old mystery novel. They concentrated, what they called at the time, "the second rank of mystery writers from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s," but who today would consider writers like Nicholas Blake, John Dickson Carr, Stuart Palmer or Craig Rice second rank? That had more to do with a lack of availability at the time than quality. Rue Morgue Press fixed that problem by simply reprinting their work over a nearly twenty year period from 1997 to 2016.

So there was a real sense of loss when they permanently closed down. Not that the end of the Rue Morgue Press ushered in a new dark age or an ink drought, because the avalanche known as the Reprint Renaissance had already started around 2014. It's just depressing the Reprint Renaissance was without the Rue Morgue Press, but at least Tom Schantz got to see that Reprint Renaissance blossom into a Golden Age revival. So, on this tenth anniversary, I wanted to commemorate their contributions to the revival of the traditional detective story by picking and highlighting my ten favorite Rue Morgue Press reprints.

If this list appears somewhat conventional, compared to previous lists, that speaks volumes of what Rue Morgue Press has done to resurrect the legacies of authors who were shrouded in near total obscurity only two decades ago. So here's to the Rue Morgue Press!

Thou Shell of Death (1936) by Nicholas Blake

Thou Shell of Death previously appeared on "The Naughty List: Top 12 Favorite Christmas Mystery Novels & Short Stories" and briefly considered a replacement (A Question of Proof, 1935), but Thou Shell of Death is the superior of those two Nigel Strangeways novels – appearing on that previous list as a contender for best Christmas mystery. The shooting of a World War I flying ace, on Boxing Day, shows Blake could as good as his Golden Age contemporaries delivering a perfect "blend of steely logic and pure moonshine."

Come Away, Death (1937) by Gladys Mitchell

Gladys Mitchell was one of those obscure, out-of-print mystery writers who had been all but forgotten at the start of this century. Only a few dedicated fans kept her memory alive, until the Rue Morgue Press started reprinting Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley series in 2005. Since then nearly all of her work has been reprinted in hardback, paperback and ebooks by numerous publishers, but it began with the Rue Morgue press. Come Away, Death is the most striking and memorable of their Mitchell reprints. A bright, exuberant and colorful tale steeped in Greek mythology, pseudo-archaeology and creeping madness as Mrs. Bradley joins Sir Rudri Hopkinson's tour of Greece to probe the Eleusinian Mysteries. A mystery novel only Gladys Mitchell could have written.

Postscript to Poison (1938) by Dorothy Bowers

I have read three of Dorothy Bower's five detective novels, but Shadows Before (1939) and the overpraised Fear and Miss Betony (1941) disappointed after the superb Postscript to Poison. Bowers seems to have been one of those mystery writers who nailed it on their first try and then fail to live up to it on their second, third and fourth try. A pity as Postscript to Poison is an Agatha Christie-esque poisoning mystery involving a diabolical matriarch miraculously recovering from near death, only to be poisoned when she was about to change her will. Not as cliché or trope-y as it sounds and still remember the wonderful solution. It's exactly the kind of mystery novel that gets it author labeled a Crime Queen.

The Man from Tibet (1938) by Clyde B. Clason

Clason has been somewhat overlooked during the Reprint Renaissance, but the Rue Morgue Press reprinted Clason's celebrated locked room mystery, The Man from Tibet, all the way back in 1998. Clason's The Death Angel (1936) was one of the last reprints Rue Morgue Press managed to get published. So you can call Clason one of their flagship authors and they reprinted many of his excellent detective fiction over the years like Blind Drifts (1937), Dragon's Cave (1939) and Poison Jasmine (1940), but The Man from Tibet remained Clason's flagship novel. A pure, Golden Age baroque mystery in which an antiquarian and collector dies under inexplicable circumstances inside the locked Tibetan Room of Chicago luxury apartment – solved by professor of Roman history, Theocritus Lucius Westborough. A highlight of the classic American detective novel from one of the brightest students of the Van Dine-Queen School.

The Judas Window (1938) by Carter Dickson

Rue Morgue Press was also among the first to attempt bringing John Dickson Carr back into print and was torn between picking The Crooked Hinge (1938) and The Judas Window (as by "Carter Dickson"). I decided to go with the classic. A vintage locked room mystery and courtroom drama rolled into one with H.M.'s only appearance in the role of barrister as he attempts to save a young man from the gallows.

The Frightened Stiff (1942) by Kelley Roos

Kelley Roos, a shared pseudonym of William and Audrey Roos, is my favorite discovery from the Rue Morgue Press as their Jeff and Haila Troy series has one of my all-time favorite comedic mystery novels. The Frightened Stiff is a genuinely funny mystery novel even after more than eighty years and begins with the Troys moving into their new basement apartment in Greenwich Village. Haila's first lines set the tone of the story, "jumping from a window would bring no release," but even worse is Jeff recognizing their apartment as his old speak easy. And the body of a naked man in their back garden doesn't help either. Normally, these comedic mysteries with bantering, wisecracking husband-and-wife detective teams take a light touch to the plot, but the Rooses were solid plotters. The Frightened Stiff is their masterpiece!

Home Sweet Homicide (1944) by Craig Rice

Where to even begin? Home Sweet Homicide centers on the three children of a widowed, mystery writing mother, Dinah, April and Archie, who grab the opportunity to get some much needed publicity for their mother when shots ring out in their otherwise quiet neighborhood. So they lay a trap for both the killer and bachelor homicide detective. This is a sickening sweet detective story as the children were based on Rice's own and it has been suggested she wrote Home Sweet Homicide as an apology to them. Whether that's true, or not, the result is a detective novel you wish was twice as long and glad it never got a sequel to spoil the magic.

Nipped in the Bud (1951) by Stuart Palmer

Stuart Palmer is another once famous mystery writer who was reintroduced through the Rue Morgue Press after having falling into obscurity. I believe their reprint of Palmer's The Penguin Pool Murder (1931) had their most iconic and recognizable cover art, depicting Miss Withers and Oscar Piper among a colony of penguins, but Nipped in the Bud has always been a favorite. Palmer's best known novels were published in the 1930s and '40s, but wrote two of his best in the early 1950s. Nipped in the Bud has Miss Withers and her beloved poodle, Talleyrand, trailing a possible witness and chief suspect in a murder down to Tijuana. This comes with all of Palmer's customary humor, charm and ingenuity, but even better than the characterization, storytelling and plotting is the shape of the plot. Mike Grost summed it up perfectly: "if one were to construct a diagram of the book, the best approach would be a 3D model using a set of Tinkertoys" as "each colored stick would represent a different branch of the book's plot, which forks off in all directions making a three dimensional tree." So no idea why it's not better known.

The Youth Hostel Murders (1952) by Glyn Carr

When first learning of Glyn Carr and his unique output of detective fiction, it can feel like reading about an alternate universe John Dickson Carr. Glyn Carr was the penname of Showell Styles, an explorer and mountaineer, who wrote fifteen climbing mysteries taking place "among the crags and slopes of peaks scattered around the world" – solved by Shakespearean actor and mountaineer, Abercrombie Lewker. So this Carr became known for so-called open-air locked room mysteries ("...managed to find a way to lock the door of a room that had no walls and only the sky for a ceiling"). I wouldn't strictly call them locked room mysteries, more howdunits, but enjoyed their reprints and particularly The Youth Hostel Murders. Lewker goes undercover at a youth hostel following the suspicious death of a rock climber and there appears to be a link to an ancient stone circle where the Old Ones dwell. The Youth Hostel Murders is basically Scooby Doo for adults.

The Danger Within (1952) by Michael Gilbert

Just like Blake's Thou Shell of Death, Gilbert's The Danger Within previously appeared on "The Hit List: Top 10 Fascinating World War II Detective Novels," but it's too good and too much of a classic to be left off. The Danger Within, alternatively published as Death in Captivity, was inspired by Gilbert's experience as a prisoner-of-war and escapee in Italy producing an unforgettable, semi-autobiographical wartime mystery thriller taking place among British prisoners of an Italian POW camp. A daring escape is being planned and prepared, but an inexplicable murder in the partially collapsed escape tunnel threatens to put a stop to "The Great Crawl" of Campo 127. The Danger Within is not only one of my all-time favorite detective novels, but, in my opinion, one of the best detective novels from the second-half of the previous century.

The Hit List: 10 More Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated

In 2023, I posted "The Hit List: Top 10 Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated" going down a list of ten classic, or classically-styled, non-English detective novels from four different continents written in six different languages – not just French and Japanese titles. It would be very easy to compile a wishlist comprising of mostly Japanese and French mystery novels. All I need to do is link to Ho-Ling Wong's blog and John Pugmire's "A Locked Room Library." That would have been too easy. I think I scraped together a decently varied, alluring selection of potentially first-rate detective fiction waiting to be ferried across the language barrier.

That list was originally intended as a follow-up to the 2022 blog-post "Curiosity is Killing the Cat: Detective Novels That Need to Be Reprinted," but decided it worked better as an ordered top 10 list and wanted to do a part 2. I needed more than can be found online or in certain reference works and asked for suggestions to be left in the comments. My blog is visited by detective fanatics from across the world and figured if even my country produce writers like Cor Docter, Ton Vervoort, M.P.O. Books and P. Dieudonné, surely other countries must have some gems practically unknown outside their borders. The harvest was not great and gave up on the idea of doing a follow-up, until a minor miracle occurred.

Pushkin Vertigo is publishing a long-awaited translation of Pierre Boileau's Six crimes sans assassin (Six Crimes Without a Murderer, 1939), which was one of my two or three premium picks alongside Rafeal Bernal's Un muerto en la tumba (A Dead Man in the Tomb, 1946) and Hajime Tsukatou's John Dickson Carr no saishuu teiri (John Dickson Carr's Last Theorem, 2020). Boileau's Six Crimes Without a Murderer was also one of the least likely titles on the list to get translated, because that snooty French upstart of a locked room extravaganza has resisted getting translated since the 1940s – even producing a lost manuscript. At the end of Robert Adey's Locked Room Murders (1991), there's the often overlooked section "Foreign-Language Books." It has a lengthy note for Six Crimes Without a Murderer. A translation was advertised in 1949 by Sampson Low as forthcoming, however, "the publishers themselves disappeared about that time and all efforts to trace a proof" or "a draft of the translation, or the translator, one Eric Sutton, have proved entirely unrewarding." The late John Pugmire, of Locked Room International, tried to get a translation published, but the current copyright holder refused to work small, independent or print-on-demand publishers. Pushkin Vertigo came true and caught the one that kept getting away for nearly eighth years.

So decided to take another look at that follow-up, dug around a bit and finally managed to gather enough to do another list without leaning entirely on French and Japanese titles with a smattering of Dutch mysteries. I tried to have the list not entirely dominated by locked room mysteries and impossible crimes, but somehow, they tend to be easier to find. So they have, as usually, a strong presence, but marvel at my impartiality.

Le testament de Basil Crookes (The Testament of Basil Crookes, 1930) by Pierre Véry

The obvious pick here would have been Pierre Véry's vaunted impossible crime novel, Les quatre vipères (The Four Vipers, 1934), but, to keep up appearances, I went with The Testament of Basil Crookes – "a pastiche of the English detective novel." The Testament of Basil Crookes is Véry's debut and appears to be a madcap chase mystery in which an unpublished manuscript, tossed from one train onto another train, is the key to securing a large inheritance. A madcap race with a three year time limit during which genre conventions are turned upside down. Véry's first stab at the detective story not only sounds like a fun, tongue-in-cheek mystery, anticipating Leo Bruce and Edmund Crispin, but one of those early meta-fictional mysteries that started to appear around this time. And that type of mystery is now appreciated more than ever before.

L'antro dei filosofi (The Philosophers' Den, 1942) by Giorgio Scerbanenco

Giorgio Scerbanenco is one of the writers Igor Longo wrote about in his short essay "The Italian Detective Story" from the English translation of Franco Vailati's Il mistero dell'idrovolante (The Flying Boat Mystery, 1935). Scerbanenco belonged to the Van Dine-Queen School and even had an American series-detective, Arthur Jelling, who's "a Reeder-like archivist in the Boston Police Department." Longo highlighted The Philosophers' Den, "a very moody and bleak murder story in a very Queenesque eccentric family, possibly related to the Hatters of the Tragedy of Y," in which he praised Scerbanenco's effective use of "the Queenesque negative clue." The Philosophers' Den apparently is not the only notable Jelling case in addition to "a very famous Noir series with unfrocked and disbarred surgeon Duca Lamberti" written during the 1960s. And, of course, four of the Lamberti novels have been translated into English.

Diferentes razones tiene la muerte (Death Has Different Reasons, 1947) by María Elvira Bermúdez

María Elvira Bermúdez was according to Latin American Mystery Writers: An A to Z Guide (2004) "one of the founders of the Mexican detective story" and "one of the most innovative practitioners of the genre in Mexico," while also making a name as "one of its most perceptive critics." Death Has Different Reasons was "the most ambitious detective up to that time in Mexico" introducing her series-detective, Armando H. Zozaya, who's "modeled after the American sleuth Ellery Queen." Zozaya's solves his first case, a double murder, by sticking to conventions and traditions of the fair play, Golden Age-style detective novels. If that's not enticing enough for publishers, Bermúdez was "one of the most prolific female detective fiction author in the Spanish-speaking world" and "for 50 years a unique voice in Spanish-American detective fiction and criticism."

A morte no envelope (Death in an Envelope, 1957) by Lopes Coelho

This entry also comes from Latin American Mystery Writers. According to that insightful guide, Lopes Coelho was a driving force in the creation of "a uniquely Brazilian brand of detective fiction" by creating the first truly Brazilian detective character, Doctor Leite, whose cases filled three collections of short stories – published between 1957 and '68. The stories are classic whodunits and other type of puzzle stories, "solved by applying principles of logic and deductive reasoning," including two locked room mysteries, "A morte no envelope" ("Death in an Envelope") and "Só o crime estava na biblioteca" ("Only Crime Was in the Library"). So more than enough reasons to want a translation of at least the first collection.

Ălkistan (The Eel Cage, 1967) by Jan Ekström

When it comes to crime fiction, Sweden is known for their dark, dreary police procedural, psychological thrillers and cold, character-driven noir fiction. There's an exception to nearly everything and one of the exceptions here was Jan Ekström, "the Swedish John Dickson Carr," who wrote several locked room mysteries. Ekström's best known impossible crime novel, Ättestupan (Deadly Reunion, 1975), received an English translation decades ago, but nothing else outside of a short story in an obscure anthology. Adey's Locked Room Murders, under "Foreign-Language Books," lists several titles like The Eel Cage. From what I've been able to gather, The Eel Cage is Ekström's best regarded detective novel taking place in a small, rural fishing village where a body inexplicably turns up inside a jealously guarded eel chest, locked from the inside, but the key is found in the victim's pocket! Can you blame me for being intrigued?

Kyuukon no misshitsu (The Locked Room of the Suitors, 1978) by Sasazawa Saho

Like I said above, it would be really easy to fill out a list with just titles Ho-Ling has reviewed over the years. Just one list would not even scratch the surface of my honkaku and shin honkaku wishlist, but some titles stand out more than others. Sasazawa Saho's The Locked Room of the Suitors has for some reason always intrigued me. It was reportedly nearly forgotten about, until Alice Arisugawa included The Locked Room of the Suitors in An Illustrated Guide to the Locked Room 1891-1998 examining forty impossible crime novels from across the world. The plot concerns a double murder, plus dying message, behind the padlocked door of an old storage cellar. Ho-Ling says in his review, "the locked room mystery and the build-up towards the solution are quite good" with "both the fake murder theory and the final solution are built on clever clues." More importantly, "the locked room mystery itself is also quite memorable."

Mord & orkidéer (Murder & Orchids, 1996) by Bertil Falk

Back in February, I reviewed Bertil Falk's collection of short stories Mind-boggling Mysteries of a Missionary (2010) and mentioned he had authored two novel-length, untranslated detective novels beginning with Den maskerade ligachefen (The Masked Gangleader, 1954) – written and published when he was twenty years old. Murder & Orchids followed four decades later and appears to be a better, maturer novel combining the formal detective story with the travel thriller to create a tricky plot turning accepted cliches and conventions on its head. So very much a mystery in the spirit of the first entry on this list.

 

Jinrojo no kyofu (The Terror of Werewolf Castle, 1996/98) by Nikaido Reito

I mentioned Nikaido Reito's The Terror of Werewolf Castle in "Top 10 Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated" as not having very good odds at ever getting translated. The Terror of Werewolf Castle is, as Ho-Ling pointed out, "a monument in Japanese detective writing," comprising of four separate books averaging around 700 pages each. So it's not very realistic to expect a publisher today to translate a four volume, 2800 page behemoth, but on the other hand, we're paying customers with a The Terror of Werewolf Castle-shaped gap on our shelves. So, you know, chop, chop!

Le voyageur du passé (The Traveler from the Past, 2012) by Paul Halter

The death of John Pugmire in 2024 ended both Locked Room International and his regular Paul Halter translations, which consisted at his passing of nearly twenty novels, several short story collections and a few uncollected short stories. Tom Mead is currently doing fresh translations of previously published Halter translations, but nothing new so far. There are still quite a few untranslated Paul Halter titles on my wishlist like Le crime de Dédale (The Crime of Daedalus, 1997), Le douze crimes d'Hercule (The Twelve Crimes of Hercules, 2001) and Le tigre borgne (The One-Eyed Tiger, 2004), but The Traveler from the Past intrigued me ever since reading Patrick Ohl's 2012 review. A young man who went missing in 1905 turns up in 1955 without having aged a day, only to be tragically killed in a subway accident. But his identity appears to check out. What follows is no less impossible! Patrick described the book as "utterly fantastic" and "chillingly bizarre" with a plot that springs "a genuine surprise in the dénouement." Fingers crossed Mead eventually turns his hands to the Halter novels Pugmire didn't get to translate with The Traveler from the Past being at the top of that pile.

Het Delfts blauw mysterie (The Delft Blue Mystery, 2023) by “Anne van Doorn” (a.k.a. M.P.O. Books)

This is the first entry in the New York Cop series by "Anne van Doorn," open penname of M.P.O. Books, which follows Detectives Krell and Merrilee Hopper, of the 16th Precinct, whose first recorded case involves an impossible murder on the seventy-second floor of a high-rise tower on West 33rd Street – committed when the building was swaying in a storm. You can view this series as an homage to other New York detective writers and series like Van Dine, Queen and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct, but flavored like a Dutch politieroman (police novel). The sequel is titled Het legpuzzel mysterie (The Jigsaw Puzzle Mystery, 2026) and scheduled for release later this year. And here's the kicker... The Delft Blue Mystery has already been translated into English complete with blurbs from David Dean and Tom Mead, but holding up its publication is the search for a literary agent and publisher in the United States. No news on that front, yet, but you can at least look forward to my review of The Jigsaw Puzzle Mystery when it gets released.

The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Hybrid Mysteries

In 2021, John Pugmire's Locked Room International published Masahiro Imamura's Shijinso no satsujin (Death Among the Undead, 2017), translated by Ho-Ling Wong, which at the time made "enormous waves in the world of Japanese mystery fiction" not seen since the debuts of Soji Shimada and Yukito Ayatsuji – not without reason. Imamura's Death Among the Undead placed your typical, traditionally-plotted shin honkaku mystery in the middle of a zombie outbreak! Don't mistake it for a gimmick or novelty mystery. Imamura masterfully demonstrated fantastical elements can be inserted into the traditional, fair play detective story without ruining either. In fact, when handled correctly, it opens doors and unlocks new possibilities previously inaccessible to the normally grounded detective story.

Imamura's Death Among the Undead signaled a change and seems like the hybrid mystery's time has finally arrive, because it has been tried before. But never took root.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is not only the first (modern-ish) detective story and locked room mystery, but also the first mystery-horror hybrid on account of the solution. Another early example is Fitz-James O'Brien's "The Diamond Lens" (1858) blending mystery with fantasy. There are a few pre-Asimov attempts at science-fiction mysteries, but the only noteworthy example is Manly Wade Wellman's Devil's Planet (1942). David V. Reed's Murder in Space (1944) is irredeemably bad, while John Russell Fearn's The Master Must Die (1953) and The Lonely Astronomer (1954) are hampered by one of the most irritating detective characters ever created. They all offer an unimaginative, poverty stricken vision of the future with clunky robots and snail mail between planets. There is, of course, Randall Garrett's Too Many Magicians (1966), a fantasy mystery, but, as you probably know, I'm famously not a fan of it.

So beside a couple of noteworthy titles, even a few first-rate examples from Japan, the hybrid mystery didn't take off, until Imamura's Death Among the Undead. The translation also made the hybrid mystery a subject of interest around these parts of the mystery fandom and got bitten myself by the hybrid mystery bug, which could have been as serious as my locked room obsession saved only by a lack of material, not for a lack of trying! I have gone through enough hybrid mysteries now to compile a top 10 and there were enough good titles that some had to be left on the cutting room floor. I also left out a couple of titles, because I didn't want it seven or eight of the titles to be Japanese translations. For example, I left Imamura's Death Among the Undead off the list as it already made "Top 10 Best Translations & Reprints from Locked Room International" and have another zombie mystery to take its spot on this filler-post list. So along with future releases, there's more than enough left for a part two, if anyone's interested after this one. Let me know down below.

The Julius Caesar Murder Case (1935) by Wallace Irwin

In 1935, The Julius Caesar Murder Case was little more than an amusing curiosity, a cross between historical fiction and a pulp-style mystery, because historical mysteries didn't exist back then. Wallace Irwin is credited with writing one of the first "toga mysteries," but the book is essentially a parody of a genre that had yet to be born. The book is hilarious, written in the style of the pulps, following the star reporter of the Evening Tiber, Publius Manlius "Mannie" Scribo, who gets involved in the most notorious murder case of ancient Rome. If you love historical mysteries and have sense of humor, Irwin wrote The Julius Caesar Murder Case for you.

The Caves of Steel (1953/54) by Isaac Asimov

Considered by many to be the OG hybrid novel. At least, the first truly successful one as Asimov penned a triple masterpiece of detective fiction, science-fiction and dystopian rolled up into one classic – maybe one of the best post-Golden Age mysteries from the previous century. Most importantly, The Caves of Steel demolished the argument that advancements in science and technology made the traditional detective story obsolete before it was put forward. Asimov wrote a pure whodunit in a world full with AI robots, mind probes and space-faring breakaway civilizations. So its only shortcoming is not becoming a trendsetter that launched the hybrid mystery as a legitimate subgenre or off-shoot back in the '50s.

"The Closed Door" (1953) by Kendell Foster Crossen

The only short story on the list and a short story that should have been a novel-length mystery, because the premise and solution is brilliant. A story taking place on a space hotel constructed out of hundreds of different type of plastics to accommodate every life form in our galaxy. A murder of silicon-based alien is murdered inside a locked room during a galactic conference with the solution making almost perfect use of its future backdrop, which could have been the equal of Asimov's The Case of Steel had been a novella or novel-length. So had to include on the list.

Inherit the Stars (1977) by James P. Hogan

Technically, Hogan's Inherit the Stars is a pure science-fiction novel, not a hybrid mystery, but the book secured a high-ranking spot on Tozai Mystery Best 100 and Ho-Ling posted a fascinating review on his blog – which caught the attention of our corner of the genre. What we found was a detective story on a celestial scale, presented as pure science-fiction, but the answer how a skeleton in a space suit ended up being buried on the moon thousands of years ago is a tour de force. I expected time travel shenanigans or a cross between the Piltdown hoax and the stories of lost Soviet cosmonauts, but never imagined anything like that. We have since appropriated Hogan's Inherit the Stars from the science genre. It's ours now!

Ikeru shikabane no shi (Death of the Living Dead, 1989) by Yamaguchi Masaya

This zombie mystery predates Imamura's Death Among the Undead by nearly three decades, however, Death of the Living Dead is an entirely different kind of zombie mystery. The zombies here aren't mindless ghouls hunting in packs, snack attacking everything that moves, because they're still in full possession of the personality and mental capacities. So they're literally the living dead and placing them in a traditional detective story places a completely new complexities on the Golden Age-style mystery with a great detective and cast of characters. Masaya's Death of the Living Dead probably is, conceptually, even better than Imamura's take on the zombie mystery and a genuine classic of the horror-mystery hybrid. It's a shame it's English debut was largely ignored to the point where the publisher gave up on future translations.

Nanakai shinda otoko (The Man Who Died Seven Times, 1995) by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

The most recent translation on this list merges the detective story with the time loop dodge involving a high school student, Kyutaro, who regularly finds himself stuck in eight day time loops. Great when you need to ace a school exam, but not so much when a murder crops up during a loop. Even less so when the murder involves members of his own family! Like I said in my original review, if The Man Who Died Seven Times is not perfect, it's close enough.

By the way, I think the time loop device works really well when paired with the detective story, because it's basically the dueling/multiple narrative device on steroids. Yukito Ayatsuji could probably write one hell of a time loop mystery!

The Ripper of Storyville and Other Ben Snow Tales (1997) by Edward D. Hoch

A western mystery is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of hybrid mysteries. Nothing more than a change of scenery and time period, historical mysteries than genre crossovers, but westerns are a genre with a Golden Age of its own – mixing westerns with mysteries counts in my book. Nobody did the western-mystery better than Edward D. Hoch in his long-running series of short stories about his gunslinging detective, Ben Snow, who has an uncanny resemblance to Billy the Kid. The Ripper of Storyville is a first-rate collection of short stories and probably the best Hoch collection published by Crippen & Landru without a single bad story. Maybe we'll finally get a second Ben Snow collection in 2027 to mark the 30th anniversary of the first collection. Fingers crossed!

Rurijou satsujin jiken (The "Lapis Lazuli" Castle Murders, 2002) by Takekuni Kitayama

Another early, Japanese experiment predating Imamura and not easily pigeonholed or briefly summarized. It can be described as an unadulterated flight of fancy in which cursed daggers bind the main characters together through a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth stretching from 13th century France and trenches of the First World War to a library in 1980s Japan. A hybrid mystery that has to be read to be believed and that goes double for the locked room mystery in the Library at the End of the World!

Jikuu ryokousha no sunadokai (The Time Traveler's Hourglass, 2019) by Kie Houjou

I could have picked any of the three novels in Houjou's "Ryuuzen Clan" series for this list, because they're modern masterpieces and future classics. So why not go with the first one in the series? Like the title suggests, The Time Traveler's Hourglass involves time travel as Kamo Touma, a magazine writer, gets an opportunity to go back to the 1960s to prevent a tragedy that destroyed his wife's family. The plot is as sound a piece of craftsmanship as we come to expect from the Japanese shin honkaku writers, but what sets The Time Traveler's Hourglass apart is the heart and humanity underneath it all. To quote Mitsuda Madoy, "Houjou may write with the laser focus of a true Kyoto U. Mystery Club graduate, but there's a heart to her characters that I rare see even in non-mystery writers." It's time this series gets an official translation/release.

Black Lake Manor (2022) by Guy Morpuss

So, as you can see, the Japanese have already terribly spoiled me with their third wave shin honkaku hybrid mysteries, as well as some of its precursors, which is why I approached Black Lake Manor with skepticism and lowered expectations – considering the stiff competition it was up against. Morpuss and Black Lake Manor proved to be worthy competition to their Japanese counterparts. A web-like plot casually toying around with various timelines, time resets and hard light technology without the plot or story getting muddled. It's therefore unfortunate Morpuss is only interested at the moment in writing standalones and unlikely to return to this fascinating world he created anytime soon.

Like I stated, there's more than enough left to compile another list, but should note that not every hybrid mystery reviewed has been a success story. On the contrary!

For example, Asimov's series of short stories featuring Wendell Urth has a fantastic premise: an earthbound extraterrologist and armchair detective who uses Earth as the biggest, most comfortable armchair in our Solar System to ponder the mysteries of the universe – criminal or otherwise. Regrettably, the stories betrayed Asimov had been unable to mine the series full potential. Only the second story, "The Talking Stone" (1955), is any good. Ross Rocklynne and Arthur Jean Cox's The Asteroid Murder Case (1970/2011) has a razor thin plot ruining a genuinely original motive. Lawrence Block's The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown (2022) is a very entertaining fan pleaser, but the parallel universe angle is only there to have some fun with the main characters. André Bjerke's De dødes tjern (The Lake of the Dead, 1942) and Natsuhiko Kyogoku's Ubume no natsu (The Summer of the Ubume, 1994) blending of mystery, horror, folklore and the occult failed to capture my imagination.

Nevertheless, after several years of rooting around for these once too often dismissed hybrid mysteries, especially the Japanese variant, gave me a vision of the detective story's potential future. The hybrid mystery, a good, well-done hybrid mystery, simply offers too many new possibilities to the write and plot new, fresh and original detective fiction to leave it at the wayside again. They're also an open invitation to new or even outside talent. So can see the hybrid mystery following a similar trajectory as the historical mystery and police procedural in becoming an off-shoot/subgenre of its own. At least in Japan. But, if it catches on over here, I can see the hybrid becoming one of two dominant forms in our traditionalist corner of the genre in the decades ahead. The other being historical mysteries with a Golden Age or 20th century setting.

Murder in Retrospect: The Best and Worst of 2025

 

So this has to be first "Murder in Retrospect" since 2019 not starting on somber or outright depressing note, because the first-half of the 2020s has been a ride, but now can delve right into the annual blog roundup – beginning with the lists and some filler stuff. This year, I cobbled together only three posts under "The Hit List" banner. The first of these lists was "Top 10 Locked Room Mystery Novels That Need to Be Reprinted" for obvious, self-explanatory reasons. "Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 26-50" is a follow up to "Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 1-25" and "Top 7 Most Murderable "Victims" in Detective Fiction" is most recent one. I probably could have picked a better topic for the last list, but a few ideas are knocking about for next year. I also made an ill-fated, largely ignored attempt to make headway in "The Unbreakable Discussion on Impossible Alibis."

Last year, I looked ahead at the reprints, translations and new detective fiction scheduled to be published in the coming year and 2026 already looks packed! Let's look what has been announced as forthcoming as of this writing.

British Library Crime Classics is going to publish reprints of Carter Dickson's The Unicorn Murder (1936), Joseph Shearing's Airing in a Close Carriage (1943), Carol Carnac's The Double Turn (1956) and Leo Bruce's Jack on the Gallows Tree (1960). Yes, I'm very pleased with the Carnac reprint! Galileo Publishers have reprints of Joan Coggin's Why Did She Die? (1946) and Clifford Wittings' Villainous Saltpetre (1962) in the pipeline, while Dean Street Press is likely going to continue reissuing Brian Flynn and Sara Woods. In the US, Otto Penzler's American Mystery Classics is reprinting Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay's The Baffle Book (1928), Mignon G. Eberhart's While the Patient Slept (1930), Ellery Queen's The Tragedy of Y (1932), Phoebe Atwood Taylor's Sandbar Sinister (1934), C. Daly King's Obelists Fly High (1935) and the anthology Golden Age Suspense Stories (2026). Pushkin Vertigo 2026 lineup doesn't disappoint either with translations of Seishi Yokomizo's Yoru aruku (It Walks by Night, 1948), Yukito Ayatsuji's Kuronekokan no satsujin (The Black Cat House Murders, 1992), Akane Araki's Konoyo no hate no satsujin (Murder at the End of the World, 2022) and Haruo Yuki's Hakobune (The Ark, 2022). While the BBB is going to publish the full translation of MORI Hiroshi's Shiteki shiteki Jack (Jack the Poetical Private, 1997), which they're currently serializing. When it comes to the translations, you can really feel John Pugmire's absence by the lack of Paul Halter and other French mysteries.

Before going down the yearly list of best and worst mysteries, a few comments about the list itself. Firstly, the Japanese honkaku and shin honkaku mysteries have had a strong present on this list ever since the translation wave began. And, usually, they delivered the best locked room mysteries and impossible crimes of the year. But most of the Japanese mysteries this year were either non-impossible crimes or the impossibilities were minor elements. Danro Kamosaki kindly filled that gap with his first two “Murder in the Golden Age of Locked Rooms” novels. Secondly, I was pleased to see a solid block of 2020s mysteries emerge when putting the list together, exactly like I envisioned it all those years ago. Lastly, I tried to bring more order to this years list, but it's still a mess. I'm probably just going to do a top 20 next year.

So let me all wish you a Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2026! Hope to see all back next year when I do what I usually do.

 

Another year, another list.

THE BEST DETECTIVE NOVELS:

Golden Age:

The Moving House of Foscaldo (1925/26) by Charles Chadwick

For me, this was one of the most surprising reprints of the year! The Moving House of Foscaldo is more a novel of adventure and romance with detective story elements than a detective novel with a dash of adventure and romance, but what it does it does very well. Not to mention a surprisingly good and even original impossibility centering on a string of disappearances from a old, creaking cliff side windmill.

The Garston Murder Case (1930) by H.C. Bailey

A serious satire of the turn-of-the-century Gothic novel and introduces Bailey's second series-character, the lawyer Joshua Clunk. A hall of fame hypocrite who sucks sweets, hums hymns, tut-tuts the authorities at every opportunity they hand him making Clunk a strangely compelling anti-hero.

Top Storey Murder (1931) by Anthony Berkeley

A pretty straightforward, regular whodunit by Berkeley's own standards, but, while not a masterpiece, it's a top-notch early 1930s mystery showcasing Berkeley's talent for fabricating false-solutions. A small scale version of Berkeley's The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929) and Leo Bruce's Case for Three Detectives (1936).

From This Dark Stairway (1931) by Mignon G. Eberhart

Set in Melady Memorial Hospital, during an oppressive July heatwave, where a frail, sickly patient scheduled for surgery disappears from a sealed elevator and locked building – leaving only the body of his surgeon behind. Nurse Sarah Keate and Policeman Lance O'Leary try to figure out what, exactly, happened while keeping the hospital routine running. A small gem of the 1930s American detective novel.

Fear Stalks the Village (1932) by Ethel Lina White

This is not your typical village mystery or countryside whodunit, but a nicely done, leisurely-paced and oddly effective village thriller. Rather than tossing a corpse on the hearth rug of a prominent villager's library, it shows the slow, corrosive effect of poison pen letters on a peaceful community of sun drenched flower gardens, cobbled streets and Tudor cottages. Something good off the beaten garden path.

Obelists en Route (1934) by C. Daly King

Considered at one point be one of the ten rarest, most sought after out-of-print Golden Age mysteries finally returned to print this year. This story of murder aboard a coast-to-coast luxury train from New York City to San Francisco was well worth the wait and an excellent addition to the list of classic railway mysteries.

The Sealed Room Murder (1934) by James Ronald

Unfortunately, the titular sealed room is only a small, fairly routine part of the plot tucked away near the end and not quite as good as Ronald's Murder in the Family (1936) or They Can't Hang Me (1938), but an excellent, twisty piece of pulp fiction you can breeze through in one sitting. Moonstone Press and Chris Verner deserve a ton of praise for succeeding, where past attempts had failed, in finally bringing James Ronald back to print.

The Burning Court (1937) by John Dickson Carr (a reread)

A favorite among Carr's fans for its daring, genre crossing epilogue, but personally didn't care for the supernatural twist and preferred the detective novel preceding the epilogue. A classic JDC mystery with vanishing corpses, disappearing doorways and the lingering presence long-dead poisoners.

Dance of Death (1938) by Helen McCloy

A debutante, who disappeared from her coming out party, is found dead from heat stroke in a snowdrift on a New York sidewalk. A suitably baffling first case for McCloy's psychiatrist sleuth, Dr. Basil Willing, but even more remarkable than the unusual murder is its background of medicine and cosmetic endorsements with the victim being a 1930s analog version of a social media influencer. So, ironically, it's a vintage mystery barely showing its age.

Nine Times Nine (1940) by Anthony Boucher (a reread)

So much better and more fun than I remembered! Boucher, a Californian, had a front row seat when cults, pseudo-religious and fringe sects flocked to California during the 1930s and '40s – which likely provided the idea for this novel. A locked room mystery about the impossible murder of a debunker, apparently done by a cult leader, who miraculously disappeared from the locked and watched crime scene. Nine Times Nine earned a lot of pasts glory for being a good locked room mystery not written by Carr, but even without the unfair comparison it remains a treat for impossible crime fanatics.

Such Bright Disguises (1941) by Brian Flynn

A brilliantly staged, but soul-crushingly grim, inverted mystery in which Dorothy Grant and her secret lover, Laurence Weston, dispose of Dorothy's husband in order to build a new life together. And they get away with it. But even a perfect murder can demand a toll. A superb psychological crime novel full of domestic suspense, heart-wrenching tragedy and a very cruel twist.

Reunion with Murder (1941) by Timothy Fuller

I returned Timothy Fuller's Jupiter Jones series this year when picking Keep Cool, Mr. Jones (1950) from the big pile, but it's the two (reverse) follow ups that earned a spot on the list. Reunion with Murder counts as one of the better American college mysteries in which Jupiter's dragged away from his wedding preparations to engage on some prenuptial sleuthing when a Harvard reunion produces a body. Fuller's best and most subtle detective novel with a brilliant solution and memorable denouement.

Murder, M.D. (1943) by Miles Burton

This one came recommended, likely from Curt Evans, as an excellent and noteworthy WWII village mystery. He was not wrong! The story deals with a village that had its population drained by the war machine and their unpopular locum killed under suspicious circumstances. A mystery not only marked by good, solid detective work, but a better hidden murderer and motive than is usually the case with Rhode/Burton.

Wilders Walk Away (1948) by Herbert Brean (a reread)

I came away more than a little disappointed when first reading Wilders Walk Away, because it was supposed to be one of those great, nearly legendary, impossible crime novels not written by John Dickson Carr or Hake Talbot – which is not what it is at all. Wilders Walk Away is good, old-fashioned and fun whodunit compellingly presented as a prototype of the small town thriller. The string of inexplicably disappearances stretching across the centuries is just a bonus.

An English Murder (1951) by Cyril Hare (a reread)

A Christmas mystery with all the apparent trappings of a good, old-fashioned country house whodunit, but one taking place under post-war austerities and the strain of politics at the dinner table. And it's a whydunit with an original, cleverly-hidden motive.

Murder as a Fine Art (1953) by E.C.R. Lorac (writing as "Carol Carnac")

A vintage mystery from the Golden Age's twilight years skewering and satirizing both politics and modern art when a brutal, seemingly impossible murder disrupts the bureaucratic routine at the Ministry of Fine Arts. Lorac takes a surprisingly routine and procedural approach to a non-routine murder case, but the loony solution to the how is grand. Brutalism applied to the fine art of murder!

Moderns:

Reckoning at the Riviera Royale (2022) by P.J. Fitzsimmons

Fitzsimmons is unquestionable angling to be become the Leo Bruce or Edmund Crispin of the Golden Age revival. When it comes to the comedy, Fitzsimmons is succeeding with flying colors, but where the plots are concerned, the quality is uneven. The best, so far, are The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning (2021) and Reckoning at the Riviera Royale. In this fifth novel, Anty travels to the Riviera to discuss with his mother the possibility of her having killed his father and has to clear an elephant from a charge of murder. Great fun!

Black Lake Manor (2022) by Guy Morpuss

A mind bending, genre crossing hybrid mystery, stretching across three centuries, that impossible to encapsulate in a short synopsis, but Morpuss delivered on the promise of a mystery with a twist on reality and playing with the consequences. Only downside is Morpuss writes standalones, not series, which means he's unlikely to ever return to this Hard Light universe.

Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone (2022) by Benjamin Stevenson

The first, of currently three, novels in the Ernest Cunningham series is not merely a superbly plotted, funny meta-mystery, but a genuine, character-driven continuation of the plot-oriented Golden Age detective novel. Stevenson understands how to lie through his teeth without uttering a single untrue word, technically speaking. A sign the revival is slowly turning into a Second Golden Age.

Last One to Leave (2022) by Benjamin Stevenson

Before the success of the Ernest Cunningham series, Stevenson published two detective novels starring a disgraced TV producer and a couple of non-series e-novellas. Last One to Leave stages an impossible crime in the middle of an endurance contest organized by a YouTube content mill. A truly traditional mystery for the modern era!

Everyone on this Train is a Suspect (2023) by Benjamin Stevenson

A sort of sequel-within-a-sequel. Ernest wrote a moderately successful book based on his experiences from Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone and finds himself aboard a train hosting a crime writers festival filled with bickering authors and fans. Even better than the first! Not to mention a great example of how to blend the modern world with a good, old-fashioned whodunit.

The Riddle of the Ravens (2024) by J.S. Savage

The second novel in the Inspector Graves & Constable Carver series of 1920s locked room mysteries. This time, they're called to the Tower of London when the ravens begin to come down with a touch of death. And then the murders begin. A pretty solid, pleasingly tricky historical mystery. Savage hasn't published anything this year. So, hopefully, we'll get the third one next year.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (2024) by Benjamin Stevenson

You can say this series is my favorite discovery of the year and the series “Christmas Special” doesn't disappoint. How can you not like a Christmas mystery structured and clued like an advent calendar about a seemingly impossible, onstage decapitation and magicians, hypnotists and even a dead guy as potential suspects.

Hangings at Hempel's Green (2025) by A. Carver

Practically a standalone mystery as both Alex Corby and Cornelia Crow fulfill the role of background characters, in favor of a poor stand-in character, but the plot is a return to the first two novels – especially the numerous impossible hangings. Simply a great village mystery, but hope Alex and Cornelia take the center stage again in their fifth outing.

The House at Devil's Neck (2025) by Tom Mead

The fourth and most inspired of the ongoing Joseph Spector series of retro-Golden Age locked room mysteries. Mead employed the dual narrative split between a haunted military hospital from the First World War and London with a handful of impossible crimes between them. The ending strongly suggests the next few novels will be taking place under the cover of the blackouts and Blitz of World War II.

Translations:

Kuronekotei jiken (Murder at the Black Cat Cafe, 1946/47) by Seishi Yokomizo

This latest translation is a twofer offering two shorter Kosuke Kindaichi novels. The title novel is the best of the two and very different, offbeat and somewhat noir-ish compared to to the previous Yokomizo translations. A grim story concerning a faceless corpse, buried in a shallow grave, behind the Black Cat Cafe in a dark, tucked away in a seedy maze of backstreets, alleyways and passages – dotted with cafes and brothels. What held this crime story up as a detective story are the prologue and epilogue.

Kuroi hakuchou (The Black Swan Mystery, 1960) by Tetsuya Ayukawa

Written decades before the shin honkaku boom, when the Japanese crime story was dominated by the social school of Seicho Matsumoto of Ten to sen (Points and Lines, 1958) fame, but this railway mystery has the heart, soul and plot of a classic, fairly detective novel – like a juiced up Christopher Bush or Freeman Wills Crofts. So even during their genre's “dark era,” the Japanese continued to produce first-rate detective fiction.

Meirokan no satsujin (The Labyrinth House Murders, 1988) by Yukito Ayatsuji

The third translation in the "Bizarre House Mysteries" series and difficult to encapsulate with its dueling narratives, story-within-a-story structure and the maze-like backdrop. A first-rate, ghoulish fun meta-mystery that's not to be missed!

Tokeikan no satsujin (The Clock Mansion Murders, 1991) by Yukito Ayatsuji

A 400-page gold brick of a detective novel and my favorite entry Yukito Ayatsuji's "Bizarre House Mysteries" series, but, since I very recently reviewed it, I recommend taking a look at the review.

Nanakai shinda otoko (The Man Who Died Seven Times, 1995) by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

From all the Japanese titles on this years list, Nishizawa's The Man Who Died Seven Times could very well be my personal favorite. Kyutaro, a high school student, frequently experiences time loops in which the same day resets, not replays, nine times. Very handy when you need to ace a school exam, but horrifying when you try to prevent your grandfather's murder. Like I said in my review, if it's not perfect, it comes close enough.

Katou no raihousha (Visitors to the Isolated Island, 2020) by Kie Houjou

The second title in the "Ryuuzen Clan" series of genre bending, hybrid mysteries tackling the truly unknown this time. Not time travel or immersive technology, but an otherworldly entities, the Visitors, wreaking havoc on a small, remote island – while remaining a classically-styled, fair play mystery. As good and impressive as the first and third novel.

Oomarike satsujin jiken (Murder in the House of Omari, 2021) by Taku Ashibe

A historical detective novel intricately weaving a tale of murder and old sins casting large shadows presented as a family epoch covering the first half of the previous century. Finally coming ahead as the first American bombers begin to appear on the distant horizon. A masterly done homage to honkaku legends like Akimitsu Takagi and Seishi Yokomizo.

Misshitsu ougon jidai no satsujin – Yuko no yakata to muttsu no trick (Murder in the Golden Age of Locked Rooms – The House of Snow and the Six Tricks, 2022) by Danro Kamosaki

Yes, these Japanese detective novel can be difficult to sum up in a few short, snappy sentences and that's especially true of Danro Kamosaki's "Murder in the Golden Age of Locked Rooms" series. A series taking place in an alternate version of Japan where a successful locked room murder caused an epidemic of impossible crimes. A high school student, Kasumi Kuzushiro, is dragged into the most complicated case of all with no less than six impossible crimes. A love letter to the impossible crime story and locked room trickery! The second novel in the series follows a similar track, but now with seven original, ingeniously-contrived and completely insane impossible crimes on a remote island. So you may take this one as a double entry.

Henna e (Strange Pictures, 2022) by Uketsu

A series of strange, apparently unconnected stories told and linked together through pictures and drawings. I liked it perhaps more than most around these parts and certainly liked it more than Henna le (Strange Houses, 2021), but both should be regarded as more than novelties or gimmick mysteries.

Rechercheur De Klerck en de dode weldoener (Inspector De Klerck and the Dead Philanthropist, 2025) by P. Dieudonné

A very late, practically last minute entry on the list and another timely Christmas mystery, but more importantly, it can stand with the best in the series. Since I recently reviewed it, I suggests taking a look at the review.

THE BEST SHORT STORIES AND SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:

Golden Age:

"John Archer's Nose" (1935) by Rudolph Fisher

"The Devil in the Summerhouse" (1942) by John Dickson Carr

"The Man Who Talked with Spirits" (1943) by Herbert Brean

Moderns:

"Captain Leopold and the Ghost-Killer" (1974) by Edward D. Hoch

"The Problem of the Pink Post Office" (1981) by Edward D. Hoch (a reread)

"Over the Edge" (2007) by James H. Cobb

Short Story Collections:

The Men Who Explained Miracles (1963) by John Dickson Carr (a reread)

The Will o' the Wisp Mystery (2024) by Edward D. Hoch

The Indian Rope Trick and Other Violent Entertainments (2024) by Tom Mead

It's About Impossible Crime (2025) by James Scott Byrnside

THE WORST DETECTIVE NOVELS:

Novels:

Give Me Death (1934) by Isabel Briggs Myers

Well, I was warned before hand it would be terrible. The premise begins with a fascinating premise: members of a family driven to suicide upon learning a terrible secret. A hazardous piece of information that made death preferable, but the execution went from unintentional self parody to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Belt of Suspicion (1936) by H. Russell Wakefield

Better written than plotted with barely anything to recommend, except the writing and occasional modern, realistic touches to the characterization. But an unremarkable bland as a detective novel.

The Laughing Buddha Murders (1944) by Richard Foster

A pulp-style locked room mystery lacking a substantial plot to prop up the story, while wasting an interesting character, Chin Kwang Kham, who could have been the Charlie Chan of the Pulps.