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Locked Room Mystery
The "locked-room" or "impossible crime" mystery is a type of crime seen in crime and detective fiction. The crime in question, typically murder ("locked-room murder"), is committed in circumstances under which it appeared impossible for the perpetrator to enter the crime scene, commit the crime, and leave undetected. The crime in question typically involves a situation whereby an intruder could not have left; for example the original literal "locked room": a murder victim found in a windowless room locked from the inside at the time of discovery. Following other conventions of classic detective fiction, the reader is normally presented with the puzzle and all of the clues, and is encouraged to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed in a dramatic climax. The ''prima facie'' impression from a locked room crime is that the perpetrator is a dangerous, supernatural entity capable of defying the laws of nature by walking through walls or vanishing into thin air. The need fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Adventure Of The Speckled Band By Martin Van Maële 4 (cropped)
''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the Most common words in English, most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Adventure Of The Speckled Band
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the eighth story of twelve in the collection ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. It was originally published in ''Strand Magazine'' in February 1892. "The Speckled Band" is a classic locked-room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story. The story, alongside the rest of the Sherlock Holmes canon, has become a defining part of detective fiction. It has been adapted for television, film, theatre, radio and a video game. It is part of the exhibit at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The theatrical adaptation was written and produced by Doyle himself, directed by and starring Lyn Harding as Grimesby Roylott. The role of Holmes was played by H. A. Saintsbury. Doyle famously clashed with Harding ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeman Wills Crofts
Freeman Wills Crofts FRSA (1 June 1879 – 11 April 1957) was an Irish engineer and mystery author, remembered best for the character of Inspector Joseph French. A railway engineer by training, Crofts introduced railway themes into many of his stories, which were notable for their intricate planning. Although Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, and authors of the so-called golden age of detective fiction are more famous, he was esteemed by those authors, and many of his books are still in print. Birth and education Crofts was born at 26 Waterloo Road, Dublin, Ireland. His father, also named Freeman Wills Crofts, was a surgeon-lieutenant in the Army Medical Service but he died of fever in Honduras before the young Freeman Wills Crofts was born. In 1883, Crofts' mother, née Celia Frances Wise, married the Venerable Jonathan Harding, Vicar of Gilford, County Down, later Archdeacon of Dromore, and Crofts was raised in the vicarage at Gilford. He attended Methodist College and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chinese Orange Mystery
''The Chinese Orange Mystery'' is a novel that was written in 1934 by Ellery Queen. It is the eighth of the Ellery Queen mysteries. In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, this novel was voted as the eighth best locked room mystery of all time. Plot summary A wealthy publisher and collector of precious stones and Chinese postage stamps has a luxurious suite in a hotel that serves to handle his non-publishing business and the comings and goings of his staff, his relatives, and his female friends. When an odd and anonymous little man arrives and refuses to state his business, no one is surprised; he is locked (from outside ''only'') in an anteroom with a bowl of fruit (including tangerines, also known as Chinese oranges) and left to await the publisher's arrival. When the door is unlocked, though, a truly bizarre scene is displayed. The little man's skull is crushed, his clothing is reversed, back to front, all the furnishings of the room have been turned back ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murder cases. From 1929 to 1971, Dannay and Lee wrote around forty novels and short story collections in which Ellery Queen appears as a character. Under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, they also edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime. Dannay founded, and for many years edited, the crime fiction magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961 onwards, Dannay and Lee commissioned other authors to write Thriller (genre), thrillers using the pseudonym Ellery Queen, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; some such novels were Young adult fiction, juvenile and were credited to Ellery Que ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Canary Murder Case
''The "Canary" Murder Case'' (1927) is a murder mystery novel which deals with the murders of an attractive nightclub singer known as "the Canary," and, eventually, her boyfriend, solved by Philo Vance. S. S. Van Dine's classic whodunnit, second in the Philo Vance series, is said by Howard Haycraft to have broken "all modern publishing records for detective fiction." The earliest editions give the title with quotation marks around the word "Canary", but most subsequent editions omit them. Plot summary The beautiful Margaret Odell, famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her apartment. She has a number of men in her life, ranging from high society to gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she dies. It is Philo Vance's characteristic erudition that leads him to a key clue that allows him to penetrate a very clever alibi and reveal the killer. "The strangeness, the daring, the seeming impenetrability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Father Brown
Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective. He is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton, published between 1910 and 1936. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuition and keen understanding of human nature. Chesterton loosely based him on The Right Reverend, the Rt Rev. Monsignor, Msgr John O'Connor (priest), John O'Connor (1870–1952), a Catholic priest, parish priest in Bradford, who was involved in Chesterton's Religious conversion, conversion to Roman Catholicism, Catholicism in 1922. Since 2013, the character has been portrayed by Mark Williams (actor), Mark Williams in the ongoing BBC television series Father Brown (2013 TV series), ''Father Brown''. Character Father Brown is a short, plain Roman Catholic priest, with shapeless clothes, a large umbrella, and an uncanny insight into human behaviour. His unremarkable, seemingly naïve appearance hides an unexpectedly sharp intelligence and keen powers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaston Leroux
Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (; 6 May 186815 April 1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (, 1909), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. His 1907 novel '' The Mystery of the Yellow Room'' is one of the most celebrated locked room mysteries. Life and career Leroux was born in Paris in 1868, the illegitimate child of Marie Bidaut and Dominique Leroux, who married a month after his birth. He claimed an illustrious pedigree, including descent from William II of England (in French, Guillaume le Roux), son of William the Conqueror, and social connections such as having been the official playmate of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris at the College d'Eu in Normandy. After schooling in Normandy and studying as a lawyer in Caen (graduating in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Mystère De La Chambre Jaune
''The Mystery of the Yellow Room'' (in French ''Le mystère de la chambre jaune'') is a mystery fiction, mystery novel written by French author Gaston Leroux. One of the first locked-room mystery novels, it was first published serially in France in the periodical ''L'Illustration'' from September 1907 to November 1907, then in its own right in 1908 in literature, 1908. It is the first novel starring fictional reporter Joseph Rouletabille and concerns a complex, and seemingly impossible, crime in which the criminal appears to disappear from a locked room. Leroux provides the reader with detailed, precise diagrams and floorplans illustrating the crime scene. The story provides an intellectual challenge to the reader. The novel finds its continuation in the 1908 novel ''The Perfume of the Lady in Black (novel), The Perfume of the Lady in Black'', wherein a number of the character (arts), characters familiar from this story reappear. Plot summary Reporter and amateur sleuth Joseph Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augustus S
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace (the or ) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century. Octavian was born into an equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavia. Following his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir, and inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques Futrelle
Jacques Heath Futrelle (April 9, 1875 – April 15, 1912) was an American journalist and mystery writer. He is best known for writing short detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, also known as "The Thinking Machine" for his use of logic. Futrelle died in the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''. Career Futrelle was born in Pike County, Georgia. He worked for the ''Atlanta Journal'', where he began their sports section, the ''New York Herald'', the ''Boston Post'' and the ''Boston American'', where, in 1905, his Thinking Machine character appeared in a serialized version of the short story, " The Problem of Cell 13". Futrelle left the ''Boston American'' in 1906 to write novels. He had a harbor-view house built in Scituate, Massachusetts, which he called "Stepping Stones", and spent most of his time there until his death in 1912. His last work, ''My Lady's Garter'', was published posthumously in 1912. His widow inscribed in the book, "To the hero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Problem Of Cell 13
__NOTOC__ "The Problem of Cell 13" is a short story by Jacques Futrelle. It was first published in 1905 and later collected in ''The Thinking Machine'' (1907), which was featured in crime writer H. R. F. Keating's list of the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. Science fiction and mystery author Harlan Ellison recalled that this story was his selection for "Lawrence Block's ''Best Mysteries of the Century''". Plot summary Like Futrelle's other short stories, "The Problem of Cell 13" features Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen as the main character, although most of the story is seen through the perspective of a prison warden. While in a scientific debate with two men, Dr. Charles Ransome and Alfred Fielding, Augustus, "The Thinking Machine", insists that nothing is impossible when the human mind is properly applied. To prove this, he agrees that he will take part in an experiment in which he will be incarcerated in a prison for one week and given the challenge of escaping. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
