--- product_id: 8034666 title: "The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original)" price: "522.97 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8034666-the-black-lizard-big-book-of-locked-room-mysteries-vintage store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original) **Price:** 522.97 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original) - **How much does it cost?** 522.97 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8034666-the-black-lizard-big-book-of-locked-room-mysteries-vintage) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Most Complete Collection of Impossible Crime Stories Ever Assembled, with puzzling mysteries by Stephen King, Dashiell Hammett, Lawrence Block, Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Dorothy L. Sayers, P. G. Wodehouse, Erle Stanley Gardner, and many, many more THE BLACK LIZARD BIG BOOK OF LOCKED-ROOM MYSTERIES: An empty desert, a lonely ski slope, a gentleman’s study, an elevator car—nowhere is a crime completely impossible. Edgar Award–winning editor Otto Penzler has collected sixty-eight of the all-time best impossible-crime stories from almost two hundred years of the genre. In addition to the many classic examples of the form—a case of murder in a locked room or otherwise inaccessible place, solved by a brilliant sleuth—this collection expands the definition of the locked room to include tales of unbelievable thefts and incredible disappearances. Among these pages you’ll find stories with evocative titles like “The Flying Death”, “The Man From Nowhere”, “A Terribly Strange Bed”, and “The Theft of the Bermuda Penny”, not to mention appearances by some of the cleverest characters in all of crime, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Georges Simenon’s Jules Maigret, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, and many more. Featuring • Unconventional means of murder • Pilfered jewels • Shocking solutions Includes • Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, the first detective story and the first locked-room mystery • Masters of the short story form: Edward D. Hoch, Ellery Queen, Carter Dickson, and Stanley Ellin A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL Review: One of the best collections ever - Promise me anything, give me an impossible crime. I've loved stories like that since discovering John Dickson Carr as a kid. And I've been seeking them out ever since. By now, I have several collections of "impossible crimes", so I was a little dubious about this one. After all, how many more can there be? Well, Otto Penzler surprised me. In this staggering collection of 68 (!) stories, I hadn't read almost half of them. Wow! Good ones, too. Most of them. A few I thought were a little weak, but overall this is a marvelous collection featuring "impossible crimes" of various types. How he managed to find some of these, I have no idea. The man's a detective in his own right. Anyone who enjoys such problems should have this book. It is a showcase for the "impossible crime". The overall quality is high, and you won't be disappointed. For those who may wonder, as I did, if the material is already familiar, below is the table of contents. In some cases, where I know it, I have added an alternate title. So this is what's inside (short captions from the contents page as well): Familiar as the rose in spring Edgar Allan Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Jacques Futrelle, "The Problem of Cell 13" Wilkie Collins, "A Terribly Strange Bed" Lord Dunsany, "The Two Bottle of Relish" G.K. Chesterton, "The Invisible Man" Melville Davisson Post, "The Doomdorf Mystery" Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Speckled Band" This was the most unkindest cut of all John Dickson Carr, "The Wrong Problem" William Hope Hodgson, "The Thing Invisible" James Yaffe, "Department of Impossible Crimes" R. Austin Freeman, "The Aluminum Dagger" Gerald Kersh, "The Crewel Needle" Stephen King, "The Doctor's Case" Manly Wade Wellman, "A Knife Between Brothers" Joseph Commings, "The Glass Gravestone" Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace, "The Tea Leaf" Peter Godfrey, "The Flung-Back Lid" (a.k.a "Out Of This World") John Lutz, "The Crooked Picture" Carter Dickson (a.k.a. John Dickson Carr), "Blind Man's Hood" Footprints in the sands of time Edward D. Hoch, "The Man from Nowhere" Fredric Brown, "The Laughing Butcher" Michael Innes, "The Sands of Thyme" Samuel Hopkins Adams, "The Flying Death" A.E. Martin, "The Flying Corpse" Vincent Cornier, "The Flying Hat" And we missed it, lost forever Hugh Pentecost, "The Day the Children Vanished" Stanley Ellin, "The Twelfth Statue" William Irish, "All at Once, No Alice" Edmund Crispin, "Beware of the Trains" H.R.F. Keating, "The Locked Bathroom" (from "The Five Senses of Mrs. Craggs", "Hearing") Dashiell Hammett, "Mike, Alec and Rufus" ("Tom, Dick, Or Harry") C. Daly King, "The Episode of the Torment IV" Julian Hawthorne, "Greaves' Disappearance" Ellery Queen, "The House of Haunts" (a.ka. "The Lamp Of God") J.E. Gurdon, "The Monkey Trick" E.C. Bentley, "The Ordinary Hairpins" Jacques Futrelle, "The Phantom Motor" Edward D. Hoch, "The Theft of the Bermuda Penny" Judson Philips, "Room Number Twenty-Three" How easily is murder discovered Lynn Wood Block & Lawrence Block, "The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke" Augustus Muir, "The Kestar Diamond Case" Kate Ellis, "The Odor of Sanctity" Edward D. Hoch, "The Problem of the Old Oak Tree" Nicholas Olde, "The Invisible Weapon" Ray Cummings, "The Confession of Rosa Vitelli" Stephen Barr, "The Locked Room to End Locked Rooms" Shoot if you must Clayton Rawson, "Nothing Is Impossible" Bill Pronzini, "Where Have You Gone, Sam Spade?" G.D.I. & M.I. Cole, "In a Telephone Cabinet" (a.k.a. "The Owl At The Window") Stuart Towne (a.k.a. Clayton Rawson), "Death Out of Thin Air" Agatha Christie, "The Dream" Margery Allingham, "The Border-Line Case" Melville Davisson Post, "The Bradmoor Murder" Leslie Charteris, "The Man Who Liked Toys" Hulbert Footner, "The Ashcomb Poor Case" Georges Simenon, "The Little House at Croix-Rousse" Stolen sweets are best Erle Stanley Gardner, "The Bird in the Hand" David Durham, "The Gulverbury Diamonds" Frederick Irving Anderson, "The Fifth Tube" MacKinlay Kantor, "The Strange Case of Steinkelwintz" Maurice Leblanc, "Arsène Lupin in Prison" L.T. Meade, "The Mystery of the Strong Room" Dennis Lynds, "No Way Out" C. Daly King, "The Episode of the Codex Curse" One man's poison, signor, is another's meat Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Poisoned Dow '08" Margaret Frazer, "A Traveller's Tale" P.G. Wodehouse, "Death at the Excelsior" Our final hope is flat despair Some stories simply can't be categorized Martin Edwards, "Waiting for Godstow" These should keep you busy for some time to come. And thank you, Otto Penzler, thank you very much! Review: Promises much, delivers more - This is quite possibly the best collection of stories I've ever read. Not only are they all well-written, but the collection is imaginatively arranged by Otto Penzler. Familiar as the Rose in Spring (popular and often reprinted stories) That Was the Unkindest Cut of All (stabbings) Footprints in the Sands of Time (Finding a body in snow or sand with no footprints leading to nor away...) And We Missed It, Lost Forever (Disappearances) How Easily is Murder Discovered (So many ways!) Shoot If You Must (shootings, not surprisingly) Stolen Sweets are Best (theft from a guarded room) One Man's Poison, Signor, Is Another's Meat (poisonings) ...and one uncategorized story at the very end. One of the things I truly love about this book is the way it is typeset. Each page is divided into two columns, like the old pulps; yet this is not only a nostalgic touch, but it greatly increases readability. I find myself breezing through stories that seemed much longer in other volumes. In fact, Murders in the Rue Morgue (Poe) remained unread because it just seemed too long for a short story and too short for a novella. When I saw it in this Black Lizard edition, it was as easily read as any other story. (Maybe my eye was made for pulp magazines.) 940 pages of fantastic story-writing from the last 170 years: you really can't go wrong with this book. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #233,746 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #443 in Mystery Anthologies (Books) #1,811 in Short Stories Anthologies #1,898 in Science Fiction Crime & Mystery | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 248 Reviews | ## Images ![The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71dloKUeuZL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the best collections ever *by P***R on November 12, 2014* Promise me anything, give me an impossible crime. I've loved stories like that since discovering John Dickson Carr as a kid. And I've been seeking them out ever since. By now, I have several collections of "impossible crimes", so I was a little dubious about this one. After all, how many more can there be? Well, Otto Penzler surprised me. In this staggering collection of 68 (!) stories, I hadn't read almost half of them. Wow! Good ones, too. Most of them. A few I thought were a little weak, but overall this is a marvelous collection featuring "impossible crimes" of various types. How he managed to find some of these, I have no idea. The man's a detective in his own right. Anyone who enjoys such problems should have this book. It is a showcase for the "impossible crime". The overall quality is high, and you won't be disappointed. For those who may wonder, as I did, if the material is already familiar, below is the table of contents. In some cases, where I know it, I have added an alternate title. So this is what's inside (short captions from the contents page as well): Familiar as the rose in spring Edgar Allan Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Jacques Futrelle, "The Problem of Cell 13" Wilkie Collins, "A Terribly Strange Bed" Lord Dunsany, "The Two Bottle of Relish" G.K. Chesterton, "The Invisible Man" Melville Davisson Post, "The Doomdorf Mystery" Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Speckled Band" This was the most unkindest cut of all John Dickson Carr, "The Wrong Problem" William Hope Hodgson, "The Thing Invisible" James Yaffe, "Department of Impossible Crimes" R. Austin Freeman, "The Aluminum Dagger" Gerald Kersh, "The Crewel Needle" Stephen King, "The Doctor's Case" Manly Wade Wellman, "A Knife Between Brothers" Joseph Commings, "The Glass Gravestone" Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace, "The Tea Leaf" Peter Godfrey, "The Flung-Back Lid" (a.k.a "Out Of This World") John Lutz, "The Crooked Picture" Carter Dickson (a.k.a. John Dickson Carr), "Blind Man's Hood" Footprints in the sands of time Edward D. Hoch, "The Man from Nowhere" Fredric Brown, "The Laughing Butcher" Michael Innes, "The Sands of Thyme" Samuel Hopkins Adams, "The Flying Death" A.E. Martin, "The Flying Corpse" Vincent Cornier, "The Flying Hat" And we missed it, lost forever Hugh Pentecost, "The Day the Children Vanished" Stanley Ellin, "The Twelfth Statue" William Irish, "All at Once, No Alice" Edmund Crispin, "Beware of the Trains" H.R.F. Keating, "The Locked Bathroom" (from "The Five Senses of Mrs. Craggs", "Hearing") Dashiell Hammett, "Mike, Alec and Rufus" ("Tom, Dick, Or Harry") C. Daly King, "The Episode of the Torment IV" Julian Hawthorne, "Greaves' Disappearance" Ellery Queen, "The House of Haunts" (a.ka. "The Lamp Of God") J.E. Gurdon, "The Monkey Trick" E.C. Bentley, "The Ordinary Hairpins" Jacques Futrelle, "The Phantom Motor" Edward D. Hoch, "The Theft of the Bermuda Penny" Judson Philips, "Room Number Twenty-Three" How easily is murder discovered Lynn Wood Block & Lawrence Block, "The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke" Augustus Muir, "The Kestar Diamond Case" Kate Ellis, "The Odor of Sanctity" Edward D. Hoch, "The Problem of the Old Oak Tree" Nicholas Olde, "The Invisible Weapon" Ray Cummings, "The Confession of Rosa Vitelli" Stephen Barr, "The Locked Room to End Locked Rooms" Shoot if you must Clayton Rawson, "Nothing Is Impossible" Bill Pronzini, "Where Have You Gone, Sam Spade?" G.D.I. & M.I. Cole, "In a Telephone Cabinet" (a.k.a. "The Owl At The Window") Stuart Towne (a.k.a. Clayton Rawson), "Death Out of Thin Air" Agatha Christie, "The Dream" Margery Allingham, "The Border-Line Case" Melville Davisson Post, "The Bradmoor Murder" Leslie Charteris, "The Man Who Liked Toys" Hulbert Footner, "The Ashcomb Poor Case" Georges Simenon, "The Little House at Croix-Rousse" Stolen sweets are best Erle Stanley Gardner, "The Bird in the Hand" David Durham, "The Gulverbury Diamonds" Frederick Irving Anderson, "The Fifth Tube" MacKinlay Kantor, "The Strange Case of Steinkelwintz" Maurice Leblanc, "Arsène Lupin in Prison" L.T. Meade, "The Mystery of the Strong Room" Dennis Lynds, "No Way Out" C. Daly King, "The Episode of the Codex Curse" One man's poison, signor, is another's meat Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Poisoned Dow '08" Margaret Frazer, "A Traveller's Tale" P.G. Wodehouse, "Death at the Excelsior" Our final hope is flat despair Some stories simply can't be categorized Martin Edwards, "Waiting for Godstow" These should keep you busy for some time to come. And thank you, Otto Penzler, thank you very much! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Promises much, delivers more *by A***M on February 12, 2015* This is quite possibly the best collection of stories I've ever read. Not only are they all well-written, but the collection is imaginatively arranged by Otto Penzler. Familiar as the Rose in Spring (popular and often reprinted stories) That Was the Unkindest Cut of All (stabbings) Footprints in the Sands of Time (Finding a body in snow or sand with no footprints leading to nor away...) And We Missed It, Lost Forever (Disappearances) How Easily is Murder Discovered (So many ways!) Shoot If You Must (shootings, not surprisingly) Stolen Sweets are Best (theft from a guarded room) One Man's Poison, Signor, Is Another's Meat (poisonings) ...and one uncategorized story at the very end. One of the things I truly love about this book is the way it is typeset. Each page is divided into two columns, like the old pulps; yet this is not only a nostalgic touch, but it greatly increases readability. I find myself breezing through stories that seemed much longer in other volumes. In fact, Murders in the Rue Morgue (Poe) remained unread because it just seemed too long for a short story and too short for a novella. When I saw it in this Black Lizard edition, it was as easily read as any other story. (Maybe my eye was made for pulp magazines.) 940 pages of fantastic story-writing from the last 170 years: you really can't go wrong with this book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ some better than others *by D***X on January 19, 2017* It's a collection of stories from old pulp magazines...some better than others, but was entertaining to read and reminisce of the yesterdays... --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8034666-the-black-lizard-big-book-of-locked-room-mysteries-vintage](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/8034666-the-black-lizard-big-book-of-locked-room-mysteries-vintage) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-10-20*