I'm taking a slight break from my reading pile of literature, horror and decadence and puttering around a bit in the depths of the "single author - one book" section on the ass-end of my reading list. In truth, some DeSade (and related theory) is up next and it doesn't fit the seasonal tone, so I'm reading some late 19th century stuff.

I'm not much of a mystery fan - I respect the genre very much but the formula seems too much of a straight-jacket to me - more a reason for some fun character detail and overly constructed logic puzzles. Just not really my thing. But my reading list contains a lot of oddball stuff and the reason THE BIG BOW MYSTERY (1892) is on there is because it's the first locked room mystery novel (I'd guess "The Murders In The Rue Morgue" might be considered the first locked room murder story, but I don't know). Don't worry, I won't ruin it for you. Now, if mystery stories in general are artificial, then locked room mysteries are doubly so, and here's one written by Israel Zangwill, famous as an early agitator for Zionist causes (although later falling out of favor when he decided it would be good for the Jews to have a homeland anywhere and not specifically in the middle east) and also the man who made the phrase "melting pot" (as applicable to American Immigration) popular through his play of the same name from 1908.

A landlady is worried because her famous Labor orator roomer seems to be oversleeping. She eventually gets the famous retired detective who lives down the street to burst the door (locked AND bolted from the inside) and they discover him dead on his bed with his throat cut - windows all bolted and the chimney too small to admit a human. So, he killed himself...except, there's no killing weapon anywhere in the room (and the coroner says he died instantly). So how'd it happen? Is there a murderer to be nabbed?

I imagine that a lot of locked room mysteries follow this pattern - exacting details leading up to the discovery of the body, then further detail setting the scene. Then, there's usually (and in this case as well) a section where possible theories are brought forth and discounted. In the case of THE BIG BOW MYSTERY (named, by the way, after the area of London where it takes place), what you then get is a lot of snappy, semi-humorous back& forth patter (which was probably a rib-tickler back in the day but seems pretty artificial - Zangwill being a playwright, this sounds reads stage banter, really) that sets up the characters and possible suspects (lots of details of political posturing of the times, and various people with various beliefs). The police (the chief detective doesn't like the retired detective mucking in his case) arrests the most likely suspect and builds a flimsy, circumstantial case - which bugs the retired detective no end. It builds up to a last minute reprieve wherein we learn THE TRUTH.

And "The Truth", well, is not really all that fair and betrays a distinct lack of understanding of the biological reality of the facts of death, but that's all I'll say. Interesting but not amazing, more of a museum piece. Mystery fans may be interested, but the general reader need not bother.