title: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original)
author:  Otto Penzler 
description: The best gift ever for the fan of mysteries impossible to solve. . . . Penzler, an acclaimed mystery writer, has a gift for bringing back talented writers from historical obscurity.<br />  <i>The Seattle Times</i><br /><br />"This collection delivers more than 900 pages of wonderful reading. . . . Every fan of old-time detection will want this book."<br />  --<i>The Washington Post</i><br /><br />Unparalleled. . . . This is the ideal bedside book for mystery fans: packed with short, challenging tales of murder and deduction, easily consumed before the eyes flicker. . . . Many of the stories are classics (and worth reading again), but there are a number of writers here whose stories aren't well known, so there's much to discover.<br />  <i>Shelf Awareness</i><br /><br />"Awide-ranging collection of the impossible. . . .This intelligently assembled anthology of 68 short stories will be catnip for fair play fans. . . . The real treat is in the revelations of the gifts at misdirection from undeservedly obscure authors such as Julian Hawthorne (Nathaniels son), J.E. Gurdon, Augustus Muir, and Vincent Cornier, whose ingenious work is less likely to be encountered in other anthologies." <br />  --<i>Publishers Weekly</i> (starred review)<br /><br />"Connoisseurs of this eccentric, demanding form will find this an indispensable resource, a pearl beyond price."<br />  --<i>Kirkus Reviews</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Also edited by Otto Penzler
  
  The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories
  
  The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries
  
  The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
  
  The Big Book of Ghost Stories
  
  Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!
  
  The Big Book of Adventure Stories
  
  The Vampire Archives
  
  Agents of Treachery
  
  Bloodsuckers
  
  Fangs
  
  Coffins
  
  The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories
  
  The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL, OCTOBER 2016
  
  Introduction and compilation copyright © 2016 by Otto Penzler
  
  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a
  division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by
  Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited,
  Toronto.
  
  Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Crime/Black Lizard and colophon
  are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
  the pr