As if by Magic

Locked-Room Mysteries and Other Miraculous Crimes

By: Martin Edwards

Narrated by: John Telfer

Impossible crime stories have delighted people since the invention of detective fiction as puzzle-lovers sought more cerebral entertainment. Following on from Miraculous Mysteries, CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards brings together a whole new casebook of mystifying locked room mysteries and impossible crimes.

Featuring more great stories by John Dickson Carr, Julian Symons and Margery Allingham alongside newly rediscovered writers, this selection of stories will bring you more insight into one of the most celebrated and dazzling sub-genres of detective fiction.

©2025 Martin Edwards (P)2025 Soundings

Absolute corker of a collection!

Martin Edwards' latest British Library anthology delivers 16 vintage locked-room mysteries spanning 1898-1980, anchored by my favourite GAD author's John Dickson Carr, only short story featuring the cantankerous yet brilliant Henry Merivale, "The House in Goblin Wood", which was well worth the price alone of an Audible credit.

While half the stories are well-known (Carr, Brand, Allingham), Edwards unearthed genuine rarities like Will Scott's "The Vanishing House" and Geoffrey Bush's delightfully satirical "The Last Meeting of the Butlers Club", which skewers all the Golden Age conventions with butler-narrators recounting how Wimsey, Thorndyke, and Father Brown repeatedly saved them from arrest.

Of course, as usual with such short story collections, the quality varies, with some solutions relying on tired tricks, but standouts like Christianna Brand's "Murder Game" (with its dizzying number of false solutions) and Michael Gilbert's elegant "The Coulman Handicap" make this essential reading for locked-room devotees.

My Rating - 5/5
(PS - John Telfer did a great job in narrating it as well)