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When The Invisible Event hit 1,000 posts — ahh, back in the day — I put up a list of 100 recommended impossible crime novels and short story collections for those of you wishing to be a little more discerning when reading the best subgenre in the world. TomCat was disgruntled with my inclusion of Too Many Magicians (1967) by Randall Garrett, but I stood by it as an interesting take on both the crossover mystery and the impossible crime, with a neat little, expectation-subverting idea at is core, and I vowed to reread it in due course to reinforce these impressions. Well, I’ve reread it now, and while I stand by the locked room murder as clever and fun, the book itself is frankly so tedious that I wonder how I ever saw anything in it in the first place.
Historical Mystery
#1399: Minor Felonies – Peril on the Atlantic (2023) by A.M. Howell
Following the conclusion of the excellent Adventures on Trains series by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman, I — no doubt along, one suspects, with children’s publishers — was keen for another dose of transport-based juvenile mystery-making. And so at the start of the Mysteries at Sea series by A.M. Howell do we find ourselves.
Continue reading#1395: A Little Help for My Friends – Finding a Modern Locked Room Mystery for TomCat Attempt #30: The Murder at World’s End (2025) by Ross Montgomery
Okay, no, The Murder at World’s End (2025) by Ross Montgomery doesn’t really qualify for this ongoing feature of my blog, in which I pick books purely because they’re modern impossible crime novels. This, I was going to read anyway, and I only knew it happened to feature an impossible crime because Puzzle Doctor told me. But, well, here we are.
Continue reading#1387: “I shall be the one who decides what I must do!” – Murder at Christmas (2025) by G.B. Rubin
Another Choose Your Own Adventure-style mystery from an established novelist, Murder at Christmas (2025) by G.B. Rubin being the work of Gareth Rubin, who recently published Sherlock Holmes novel Holmes and Moriarty (2024). And this one’s Christmas-themed! So let’s dive in…
Continue reading#1382: No Police Like Holmes – The Return of Moriarty (2025) by Jack Anderson
Donning my waders to enter the fetid waters of Sherlock Holmes pastichery, I was prepared to kiss a lot of frogs on the way to a prince or two. But with The Return of Moriarty (2025) by Jack Anderson I’ve stumbled over a very handsome prince indeed far sooner than I’d ever hope — put simply, it’s wonderful, and if you’re a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes universe then you need a copy of this book in your life.
Continue reading#1379: No Police Like Holmes – Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot [ss] (2018) ed. Michael A. Ventrella & Jonathan Maberry
I stumbled over the Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot [ss] (2018) collection, in which thirteen authors offer wildly varying alternative versions of Sherlock Holmes, when searching for more criminous tales by Jonathan Maberry, one of the highlights of the C. Auguste Dupin-extending collection Beyond Rue Morgue [ss] (2013).
Continue reading#1372: “I’ll play along!” – You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder (2025) by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper
Having previously poked their tongue into their cheeks with Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village (2021), Maureen Johnson and illustrator Jay Cooper turn their minds to committing crimes rather than evading them with The Creeping Hand Murder (2025). I have Brad to thank for bringing this to my attention, and, having recently held forth on the hiding of clues, it seemed the perfect opportunity to look at the inevitable use of the visual to communicate that which would be far more obvious, or difficult to convey subtly, in prose.
Continue reading#1352: Little Fictions – ‘A Matter of Gravity’ (1974) by Randall Garrett
Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy stories, where murder and magic mingle in an alternate-history Europe, being a closed set, I had never really thought to consider the gaps between them before now.
Continue reading#1349: Little Fictions – ‘A Stretch of the Imagination’ (1973) by Randall Garrett
A gap of six years followed Randall Garrett’s sole Lord Darcy novel Too Many Magicians (1967) before he returned to the universe. Was that time well-spent in creating another strong fusion of mystery, magic, and murder?
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