"Sealed Room Murder"

If you were giving an award for "truth in advertising" or "truth in titling," you would need to look no further than the book "Sealed Room Murder," a Golden Age classic from 1937 by Rupert Penny. "Sealed Room Murder" gives the reader precisely what it promises: a victim is assaulted and stabbed in the back while inside a room whose only entrances and exits are both locked and sealed. It is the subject of this week's Classic Mysteries podcast, and you may listen to the full review by clicking here.

In "Sealed Room Murder," we are presented with the murder of a particularly unpleasant woman named Harriett Steele who, as I said, is murdered by being stabbed in the back while alone inside a locked and bolted room. It is one of those apparently impossible crimes - but, as Inspector Beale points out, it can't be impossible because it quite clearly did happen. The trick, then, is to figure out how it happened.

If you want to know why it happened that way, Beale is quite clear: "The essential quality of a miracle is that it can't be explained, and what can't be explained isn't punishable." Certainy, the circumstances of the crime make its investigation far more difficult. Yet Inspector Beale, to his credit, is able to see through the artifices which make the crime appear impossible.

That solution will be presented to the reader in its proper place - after he or she has been given all the necessary clues. And, just before the final section of the book, the reader is challenged, in the best traditions of, say, Ellery Queen:

"The problem is now complete, the previous chapters containing all the data necessary to a full solution. Accordingly, who murdered Mrs. Steele? Or, for those readers who like hard work, how was the murder committed?"

Be forewarned. While the solution is fairly given, it is quite complicated, involving a number of diagrams, thoughtfully included in the last section of the book to help explain the "miracle." As with all "impossible crime" stories, there is the risk of disappointment when the reader learns how the trick was done. I think that's unfair. This is the first book by Rupert Penny that I have read, and it is now available thanks to Ramble House publishers. It will not be my last.

Comments

[richmcd]

Great review! That was a really enjoyable listen. Of course now I'm going to have to work my way through your back catalogue. I may be a while!

I've not heard of Sealed Room Murder or Rupert Penny but I'd be interested to read it. I think it may be too expensive in the UK, though.

Is the motive for locking the room really just that "what can't be explained isn't punishable"? My gut instinct is that that's a cop-out, only one step short of "if it seems impossible, people will blame the local ghost/vampire/chupacabra", which is of course actually just shorthand for "I wanted to write a locked room mystery but couldn't work out how to plot it". Is it even legally sound? Could you really get off because the prosecution couldn't demonstrate your method? (I have a feeling the film Fracture is based on a similar idea, but I've not seen it and I don't know if it's realistic.)

I think it was probably John Dickson Carr who said something along the lines that the hardest part for an author wasn't locking the room, but working out why it had to be locked. As I read and write more and more impossible crimes, it's quickly becoming the part that I'm most interested in.

You're right that we locked room lovers are maybe too demanding of the solutions. People often compare mystery techniques to stage magic, but no-one demands that a stage illusion should be baffling to watch from the front AND simple and elegant to watch from the back. To ask the mystery author to pull off the equivalent of both sometimes seems too much.

Having said that, all those diagrams do sound a bit daunting!

[Les Blatt]

Hmm. I know that Ramble House has an inexpensive e-book version for the Kindle, but I don't know if Amazon U.K. has that available - and their price for the paperback is nearly 23 pounds. I'd bet that you can find a better deal.

As for the motive for locking the room, that's not the sole reason for the crime, of course - but it is mentioned as a major consideration; Carr does the same thing in some of his books (I won't list them here because that would be a spoiler).

In any case, I'm glad you enjoyed the review. As for the backlist...well, I've been posting a new review weekly for nearly five years now...enjoy working your way through it! And thank you.

[Monica]

Thanks for the review, Les - this book is near the top of my "To Be Read" pile. I enjoyed "Policeman in Armour" and "Cut and Run", although the latter is more of a "caper" than a mystery :) Four of Rupert Penny's books are available as e-books (in ePub format)for US$8.99 each from lulu.com.
Regards,
Monica

[Les Blatt]

Monica, this was my first Penny mystery. I see that Ramble House appears to have republished ALL of his mysteries - 8 under his own name, plus one as "Martin Tanner." And, as you say, some are also in e-book format from Lulu, which seems to handle Ramble House's sales. So I have some serious reading still to be done... ;-)