3.79 avg rating — 4,312 ratings

"#1 Hoch Poll - Carr's magnum opus gives both a mind-boggling locked room mystery and a no-footprints mystery, with a solution that is fairly-clued and stunningly elegant. Also contains the famous Locked-Room Lecture by Dr. Fell."

3.73 avg rating — 299 ratings

"#2 Hoch - One of only two mystery novels by magician Henning Nelms, this contains multiple impossible crimes and events mixed into a supernatural atmosphere, all of which are explained by the end logically."

3.65 avg rating — 13,954 ratings

"#3 Hoch - One of the original locked-room mysteries, containing a classic solution by the author of "Phantom of the Opera"."

3.80 avg rating — 1,162 ratings

"#4 Hoch - The second Carr on this list is not a locked-room mystery, but an impossible murder-in-open-air, featuring the Titanic, automatons, and a feud based on the Tichborne claimant. The solution, although not loved by all, is still revealed amazingly."

4.07 avg rating — 927 ratings

"#5 Hoch - Carter Dickson being a pseudonym of Carr, this is the most famous of the Sir Henry Merrivale books; containing a puzzling locked room, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and the unabashed humor of H.M. himself."

3.25 avg rating — 939 ratings

"#6 Hoch - Perhaps the original locked-room mystery novel, Zangwill's novella is perhaps responsible (alongside Poe's Dupin stories) for all the other books on this list."

3.65 avg rating — 370 ratings

"#7 Hoch - Magician and author Clayton Rawson's first mystery introduces The Great Merlini, the great retired-magician-turned-amateur-sleuth. Add two locked room murders and a reference to the Locked Room Lecture and you have a classic."

3.64 avg rating — 1,816 ratings

"#8 Hoch - The top Queen on the list, but its presence as a locked room mystery is actually a spoiler! Although not presented as a locked room mystery, the puzzling "backwards" death of an unknown man is solved by Ellery Queen in a dazzling denouement."

3.86 avg rating — 184 ratings

"#9 Hoch - Written under the pseudonym of HH Holmes, Boucher's first Sister Ursula mystery contains a strange man committing murder in a locked room - except he has a perfect alibi..."

3.71 avg rating — 436 ratings

"#10 Hoch - Another H.M. outing features a serial locked-room murderer and one of Carr's most hermetically sealed (and watched) rooms."

3.56 avg rating — 625 ratings

"#11 Hoch - My first non-Christie locked room mystery, so it holds a special place in my heart. Half puzzler and half political allegory, the murder attempt of King Bendigo should have a simple solution - except the gun is nowhere to be found..."

3.79 avg rating — 610 ratings

"#12 Hoch - not to be confused with the Ingmar Bergman film, this mystery contains a teacher with a mysterious secret."

3.84 avg rating — 165 ratings

"#13 Hoch - Yet another H.M. mystery, in which a man seemingly gasses himself to death in a room in which every crack has been sealed and the door locked. Unfortunately, he couldn't have done it because he wouldn't have killed his pet snake Patience in the room..."

3.95 avg rating — 1,098 ratings

"#14 Hoch - Perhaps the most interesting one of the Hoch titles, because this is a fair-play, logical locked-room mystery - taking place in a fantasy parallel universe where magic is commonplace (and takes a role, not in the solution to the locked room, but in making it more sealed than in the real world!)"

3.89 avg rating — 65 ratings

"#15 Hoch - John Sladek was mainly a sci-fi author but wrote two stellar mysteries ft. detective Thackeray Phin. In this one, a mysterious figure terrorizes 7 members of a disbanded detection club through several impossible crimes... I might consider this my personal favorite non-Carr impossible crime novel."

3.81 avg rating — 1,400 ratings

"Carr's best take on the "perfect alibi" mystery - Marcus Chesney puts on a short show for three people he knows to show the unreliability of witnesses - and to show how a local poisoning was accomplished. Of course, in the middle of it, part of the plan goes wrong as the man in a ridiculous costume meant to give Chesney a harmless green capsule actually poisons him. The problem is, the three witnesses swear that they all stayed put the whole time and saw one another the whole time, the man meant to play the strangely dressed man is found unconscious, and Chesney's brother was miles away. However, Dr. Fell eventually provides a logical, but surprising, solution."

3.90 avg rating — 1,148 ratings

"Perhaps Carr's greatest novel, and one which has two seemingly impossible crimes which are explained wonderfully by Dr. Fell - the explanation of the second, present-day crime coupled with the final sentences make the book's ending especially haunting..."

3.81 avg rating — 1,148 ratings

"This has been reevaluated from a mid-tier Dr. Fell mystery to one of, if not Carr's one masterpiece, in the past few years. Featuring a suspenseful opening, taut plotting, memorable characters, and of course a tantalizing locked-room murder, this is indeed a highlight from the master of the locked room."

3.87 avg rating — 889 ratings

"Carr's most controversial book - although it has two mysteries of a poisoner walking through a long-non-existent door and a corpse vanishing from an airtight crypt which are explained logically, the very ending turns everything on its head."

3.75 avg rating — 958 ratings

3.67 avg rating — 911 ratings

"H.M.'s first outing, which features a locked room and no footprints in one crime. Both the method of the locked room and the killer's identity are positively shocking."

3.46 avg rating — 1,160 ratings

"Not included in the LRL 100, H.M.'s 2nd mystery may not contain the best plotting or characterization of all time, but the no-footprints mystery and the whodunit both have brilliant solutions - the impossibility's solution may be considered archetypal of the no-footprints crime."

3.58 avg rating — 578 ratings

"H.M. must figure out how a room has mysteriously killed people in the past century, and how it has now claimed another victim - with the door watched by five people, the window locked and rusted beyond opening, and the victim dead of curare but without any marks of injection. Some elements of the mystery have been reconsidered, but the solution to the impossible poisoning and locked room is ingenious, the motive unique, and the killer well-hidden. "

3.58 avg rating — 168 ratings

"The fourth H.M., seen as an underdog standout, features a spy-like plot with a master detective and a master criminal both stuck in a French chateau with H.M. and Ken Blake - of course, they are both disguised in other personas. H.M. must figure out who is who, and the impossible murder witnessed by multiple people - featuring an invisible killer and an invisible weapon that leaves a mark like a unicorn's horn - doesn't make things easier (it only makes it so much better.)"

3.73 avg rating — 212 ratings

"A self-proclaimed mind-reader claims that someone will die around a certain time - and that person dies indeed, without any discernible cause. Then it happens again. H.M. & Co. have to solve the mystery before the mystic Herman Pennik uses his power of Teleforce to scare all Britain into oblivion."

3.89 avg rating — 393 ratings

"Two lovers seem to have jumped off a cliff in a suicide pact. But then, their bodies are found, washed miles away by the Atlantic; they are both shot and the gun found could not have been fired by either of them. H.M. has to figure out the way the crime was committed while bounded to an electric wheelchair. Despite the slapstick humour throughout the book, the final chapter will suitably haunt the reader."

3.52 avg rating — 797 ratings

"Christianna Brand had two stabs at the no-footprints crime, but this is considered her (much) better one. On top of the mystery of who killed Sir Richard March the night after he threatened to disinherit his grandchildren (with a whopping 9 suspects), this contains not one but two phenomenally plotted no-footprints murders occurring in different parts of the same building. The second one is solved quickly and painlessly, but the first one is not solved until the final sentence gives the reader the information to realize the haunting truth in retrospect..."

3.55 avg rating — 702 ratings

"Interestingly enough, this book was left off of the poll because the French translation used a new solution to the locked room which was... subpar. A woman in a medieval pageant falls out of her tower, already strangled dead before she hits the ground. The tower was locked from the inside. Inspector Cockrill and Inspector Charlesworth go head-to-head as they sleuth out the solution."

3.79 avg rating — 461 ratings

"On a vacation to a foreign island nation, Inspector Cockrill gets wrapped up in the murder of one of his hotel-mates - except the only six people who could have done it were all in his view, on the beach, during the whole time the crime must have been committed. Contains a classic twist solution."

3.84 avg rating — 1,949 ratings

"In my opinion, Brand's masterpiece does count as an impossible crime, on top of being a brilliantly-plotted whodunit. The first murder - that of postman Joseph Higgins on the operating table - is mysterious enough as it is due to its lack of motivation, but becomes impossible when one considers that there was no obvious method to the murder. That "howdunit", of course, is revealed in an unforgettable scene."

3.72 avg rating — 46 ratings

"Before Sladek wrote his locked-room masterpiece with Invisible Green and promptly retired from the sub-genre, he wrote this work, featuring his "series" detective Thackeray Phin and several impossible crimes, like a man falling to his death from four stories after being seen levitating in astral projection by several witnesses, and a couple of impossible disappearances - one from a locked toilet stall, no less."

3.94 avg rating — 69,756 ratings

"One of Agatha Christie's first stabs at an impossible crime features a woman killed at a Middle Eastern archaeological site in a room very closely watched. Poirot susses out the solution here, which, although some think it is far-fetched, is nonetheless unique."

3.98 avg rating — 105,218 ratings

"One of Christie's few true locked-room mysteries, in which an unlikable, adulterous patriarch is killed during the holidays in his sealed study. The locked-room problem is solved quickly, but the answer to "whodunit" is one of the Queen of Crime's most startling."

4.27 avg rating — 1,599,068 ratings

"Christie's most famous book does count as an impossible crime - the ten characters getting picked off an isolated island the way they do doesn't have any obvious solution... they were isolated after all."

4.10 avg rating — 49,742 ratings

"Written in the 40s but not published till 1975, this last case of Poirot features what is probably Christie's most well-thought-out and cleverly clued locked rooms. Although it only occurs late in the story, the solution to this specific murder is at once shocking, logical, and emotional."

3.74 avg rating — 479 ratings

"One of Halter's most consistently lauded titles features impossible disappearances and crimes in a London full of plague doctors and plague victims - except it's 1938..."

3.46 avg rating — 72 ratings

"Halter's wildest book by far features several characters invited to a recluse's castle for a weekend. The host claims one specific person will kill them by a certain time (Murder by Death, anyone?) and seals himself into a room to prevent this crime very thoroughly. Of course, he is found stabbed in the locked room later on, with a "sword in the stone" being the murder weapon - which wasn't in the room when the victim went in. Many other plot points, considered good or bad by different people, make this a truly unforgettable book."

3.51 avg rating — 664 ratings

"Halter's first attempt at impossible crime is successful - a complex locked-room with several other mysteries and a dizzying pace, a bit more concentrated than it would be like in Halter's later works."

3.41 avg rating — 61 ratings

"Often seen as Halter's love letter to that classic, "The Hollow Man", this features similar mysteries and a much more extensive background legend, all while introducing Halter's second series detective, Owen Burns."

4.05 avg rating — 92 ratings

"The murder of an actor by a seemingly invisible hand in front of witnesses ties back to a decades-long series of similar crimes in this Dr. Twist novel."

3.95 avg rating — 59 ratings

"A murderous genie in a locked and watched room? A serial killer who leaves body parts in suitcases and is cornered but uncaught in a small town? Rampant theft of unimportant objects which, undoubtedly, will become important? All in less than 200 pages? Yep, it's peak Paul Halter."

3.94 avg rating — 102 ratings

"Could a wet patch found in a "room that kills" be the pivotal clue to the latest murder which Dr. Twist has to solve? Another much-loved Halter"

3.67 avg rating — 103 ratings

4.11 avg rating — 65 ratings

"One of Halter's best feats of originality, The Phantom Passage features Owen Burns and Achilles Stock puzzling out the mystery of an unmapped street in London which several witnesses have said appears and disappears at will, shows scenes from the past and future, - and also kills people."

3.35 avg rating — 40 ratings

3.38 avg rating — 32 ratings

3.77 avg rating — 2,539 ratings

3.74 avg rating — 118 ratings

3.82 avg rating — 73 ratings

3.67 avg rating — 418 ratings

"This novel, alongside Halfway House, marked the switch from Van Dine-esque puzzle plot to (usually) fair-play crime novel for the Queens. This, one of Queen's three bona fide locked-room novels, contains what could be called a "classic" solution (playing on a favorite trope of both Queen and myself.) However, some may find that solution underwhelming, especially after the not-so-great plotting and characterization on top of the uncomfortable racism."

3.77 avg rating — 82 ratings

3.88 avg rating — 523 ratings

3.72 avg rating — 97 ratings

"For decades this was one of, if not the most sought-after novel in impossible crime writing, as those who knew of it were aware that it had two impossible crimes with amazing solutions - and that there were very few copies of its only printing, most of them gifts to other from author Derek Smith himself. Thankfully, Locked Room International has reprinted this and all of Smith's limited oeuvre for all to enjoy."

3.84 avg rating — 80 ratings

"James Scott Byrnside is one of the most exciting voices in today's world of impossible crime writing. His three novels, starting with this one, blend the elements of fair-play and noir to create a unique experience. His fourth mystery, a stand-alone, is due in October 2021."

3.86 avg rating — 83 ratings

4.16 avg rating — 75 ratings

3.98 avg rating — 42 ratings

3.62 avg rating — 37 ratings

3.73 avg rating — 421 ratings

"Van Dine's locked-room mystery may not be too well remembered today, but the film version with William Powell as Philo Vance is considered a classic."

3.79 avg rating — 180 ratings

"H.M.'s 11th mystery has no locked rooms but an intriguing impossibility where the first murder scene is covered in fingerprints that match none of the 9 passengers or the crew. Of course, one of 7 passengers (barring H.M. and the victim) had to have done it..."

3.88 avg rating — 11,485 ratings

"One of the novels credited with launching the shin honkaku mystery-fiction movement in Japan, Shimada's classic features several gory but fair-play impossible crimes throughout the country."

3.56 avg rating — 4,514 ratings

3.78 avg rating — 20,574 ratings

"This is one of the books that launched the "shin honkaku" mystery era in Japan, and its reputation is worthwhile. The impossibility here is the same kind as in And Then There Were None, but doubled up - two massacres (one from the past and one unfolding throughout the book) on a secluded island with no available suspects. Contains one of the most successfully audacious gambits in fair-play mystery writing."

3.63 avg rating — 366 ratings

3.74 avg rating — 7,730 ratings

3.43 avg rating — 1,989 ratings

3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings

"A man is stabbed while riding his horse in front of several witnesses - none of whom seemed to have been able to do it. Unfortunately out-of-print."

3.40 avg rating — 624 ratings

"The 6th Nationality Mystery, in which a faded Western film-star is shot in the middle of a rodeo performance watched by 20,000 people. Except, the gun is nowhere to be found on anyone. Unfortunately, the answer to this impossibility (amongst other faults) makes this commonly ranked as the weakest of the 1st Period Queens."

3.94 avg rating — 36 ratings

""Penelope's Web", written based on a suggestion made to Halter by a friend, features a locked-room murder with two blocked openings: a locked and barred door (of course,) and a window which is open but has a spider's web covered across it, not tampered with, before and after the crime."

3.23 avg rating — 206 ratings

3.91 avg rating — 39,683 ratings

3.79 avg rating — 114 ratings

3.76 avg rating — 168 ratings

"This novella by Ellery Queen, which concerns a house that disappears and then eventually reappears (with several people in the house next door) was one of the 10 mysteries Carr thought was the best. The solution, while not groundbreaking, is told elegantly and with a couple of impressive twists."

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 52 ratings

3.68 avg rating — 92 ratings

"Halter takes on a plot which, surprisingly, had not been done yet to my knowledge: A locked-room mystery author is killed in a locked room - in the same exact way the victim of the book he has left unfinished died. The solution to the novel, and of the novel in the novel, are inextricably tied."

2.87 avg rating — 23 ratings

"More a past-paces horror-esque crime novel than a ne plus ultra of impossible crime , Roscoe's thriller contains several murders (at least one impossible) of a line of successive heirs on Haiti. The possibility of zombies and, of course, some uncomfortable racial sentiments, make this a read like no other."

3.84 avg rating — 3,623 ratings

"One of Ngaio Marsh's few impossible crime novels, "Death at the Bar" sees Alleyn solve an impossible poisoning after an unfortunate darts game in a country bar."

3.75 avg rating — 76 ratings

"It may be only 20 pages, but Carr's "House in Goblin Wood" must be recognized as the masterpiece of short impossible crime fiction. Focusing not on a locked room murder but a locked-house disappearance, this one has H.M. at a perfect equilibrium between humor and intelligence, and of course a memorably Carrian ending."

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 42 ratings

3.86 avg rating — 894 ratings

"Not unlike Murder on the Way!, Imamura's 2016 bestselling mystery novel contains not classic Haitian zombies, but zombified victims of a bioterrorism attack on a concert. Nearby, several students are staying in a house - shaped like a gun - known to be cursed - to do some amateur filming. Chaos ensues..."

3.91 avg rating — 55 ratings

3.88 avg rating — 83 ratings

3.93 avg rating — 2,394 ratings

3.52 avg rating — 3,585 ratings