What Are Locked-Room Mystery Books?

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“Maybe that was closer to the truth – we weren’t captor and captive, but two animals in different compartments of the same cage.”

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When I moved out to live on my own for the first time, my ears seemed to develop a hyper-sensitivity to the various noises being made in my building. Naturally, the noises weren’t being made by me, so they must have been coming from other occupants in the other apartments in the building. It was this thought that got me thinking about locked-room mystery books and their enduring popularity within the crime and thriller genres. Join us here at What We Reading as we put locked-room mystery books under the magnifying glass, exploring what makes them unique and some of the best works from this subgenre! 

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What Are Locked-Room Mysteries?

Locked-room mysteries are a part of the crime and thriller genres where something (usually quite sinister) has occurred, and there are a number of restrictions attached to the answers. A classic example of this is when a murder victim has been discovered in a room that was locked from the inside, with no other means of getting in or out. In this instance, those investigating need to work out how a killer could have gotten in and out whilst preserving the scene. These restrictions provide the excitement of these stories, providing a greater challenge for both the readers and characters to solve. Classic examples of these types of locked-room mystery books include Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson and The Fourth Door by Paul Halter. 

However, one of the most defining features of a locked-room mystery is that the explanations are rarely supernatural in nature – logic and reason have to be at the centre of how an event has been conspired. 

As the genre has evolved, locked-room mystery books have expanded into encompassing areas or environments rather than a literal locked room. With these types of thriller books, a group are usually left stranded in a remote setting such as an island or retreat, with one of their own being responsible for the crime being committed. These stories lean on a rising sense of tension across the group as trust begins to disintegrate, as well as the claustrophobic feeling that arises from being trapped in a dangerous situation. Examples of these locked-room thrillers include Shiver by Allie Reynolds and The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. 

Types Of Locked-Room Mystery Books

We gave you a broad overview of what the term ‘locked-room’ can mean in the literary world, however, there are plenty of smaller categories these stories can fit into. Here’s a quick overview of the types of locked-room books and their definitions: 

• Locked-room mysteries: The classic ‘dead body in a room that’s been locked from the inside’ story. The key to these types of stories is that the crime itself isn’t impossible on the surface – it’s the situation that appears baffling. An example of this could be a body being discovered from a gunshot in a locked room, but the windows haven’t been smashed and local residents haven’t heard anything being fired. In this case, the nature of the crime is explained, but how it has been committed is a mystery.
• Fair play puzzle plot: These stories are where authors present all the clues necessary to solve the mystery to readers before the characters. These books encourage readers to reach the solution before the author reveals all.
• Closed circle: This is our example above where a group of characters are brought together in a remote or secluded location. This select small group cannot be rescued or left. The mystery with these types of stories comes from the identity of the perpetrator and their motives, rather than the intricacies of how the crime was actually committed.
• Impossible crime: Also referred to as a ‘miracle problem’, impossible crimes is the umbrella description used for any scenario that appears to be impossible, but ultimately has a rational explanation in its resolution.
• Golden age of detective fiction: Locked-room stories hit their heyday in the inter-war years of the 1920s and 1930s with puzzle-plot crime stories.