Otto Penzler's Locked Room Library

A classic locked room mystery from the genre's Golden Age by the renowned Australian author of the Chief Inspector Luckraft series.   On the day of his wife's funeral, Robert Turold reveals that he has completed his lifelong quest to prove his family's noble blood and restore its barony title. His brother and nephew will be his heirs, skipping over his daughter who he believes is illegitimate due to a deathbed confession from his wife. With the granting of a peerage within his reach, Robert has no qualms involving the neglected girl in public scandal-a turn of events that has left the surviving members of his family reeling.   High on the Cornish cliffs, Robert's isolated and imposing Flint House proves the perfect backdrop for a mysterious crime, when he's found shot in a locked room. While first impressions point to suicide, Robert's sister is convinced he was murdered. Arriving from Scotland Yard, Detective Barrant suspects Robert's now-missing daughter, who has fled to London.   Mired in past secrets and sins, the case seems to go nowhere and everywhere at once. But the threads of obsession, greed, and revenge will lead to a devious killer, who is soon to be trapped in a web of their own design.

A ghostly Golden Age mystery from the English playwright of The Farmer's Wife, famously adapted into a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.   At a house party at Sir Walter Lennox's estate, the guests are spooked by stories of the manor's legendary Grey Room, in which two unexplained deaths happened years before. Eager to debunk the room's sinister reputation, Lennox's son-in-law decides to spend the night in the abandoned bedchamber, only to be found dead the next morning, the victim of no discernable cause.   But the Grey Room's hunger has yet to be appeased-and the body count rises. A renowned London detective is determined to unlock the room's secrets, convinced that the deaths have a very human cause, though not necessarily a sane one. What happens next will throw the estate into hysteria-and reveal the darkest magic from centuries past . . .

A Golden Age mystery featuring Scotland Yard's formidable detective duo: Chief Superintendent Winter and Inspector Furneaux.   A peaceful night in the small village of Sleaford is disturbed when a local constable is attacked by a mysterious assailant. Soon thereafter, an even worse disaster strikes. Financial magnate Charles Lanson is found dead, stabbed in the library of his nearby castle.   Luckily, Chief Superintendent Winter of Scotland's Yard Criminal Investigation Department is on the scene, visiting Sleaford on holiday. The shocking murder of the Anglo-Greek banker, who amassed a fortune during the Great War, seems to be an inside job. Calling in Inspector Furneaux for help, the two must root out motive and means from a suspect pool that includes three private secretaries, a daughter prone to trance-like states, and an enigmatic financier. A trail of clues leads Winter and Furneaux from the quaint English countryside into the heart of an international conspiracy that puts millions of dollars-and a kingdom-at stake.

A high-profile murder case falls into the lap of a former policeman in this Golden Age mystery from the groundbreaking author of At One-Thirty.   Though financially independent, Timothy McCarty still has second thoughts about resigning from the police force. But when the body of a woman falls from above and crashes into the sidewalk at his feet, he finds himself back in the game, haunted by the victim's last words: "The flying man."   The dead woman is the stepdaughter of a prominent New York City banker-and the chief inspector needs all hands on deck. Along with calling in a celebrated "scientific" detective, the victim's stepfather makes McCarty a special officer. Matching his street smarts against the latest technology, McCarty feels the old thrill of the hunt as he investigates an apartment building full of suspects, and the secrets they keep behind locked doors . . .

An actress stars in her own off-screen mystery in this Golden Age whodunit from the award-winning Jamaican novelist, poet, and historian.   Though originally a medical student specializing in chemistry, twenty-five-year-old Margot Anstruther decides to try her luck as an actress and gets cast in her first role for the Superfilm Company. With the studio's boorish director taking a personal interest in her, Margot finds herself caught in the middle of two men: her boss and her increasingly jealous suitor, Gene Varley.   One night, alone in her midtown Manhattan apartment after a party, Margot is shocked to find a hand reaching out from under her bed. Though Gene and the police find no sign of an intruder, Margot refuses to believe in a supernatural cause. She puts her scientific mind to work delving into her apartment's strange past-a recent tenants' disappearance-and walking a fine line between the complicated passions of friends and rivals . . .

A man finds himself trapped in a deadly love triangle in this haunting mystery from one of America's earliest detective fiction writers.   Acting on a suggestion that the perfect model for his sculpture of Antigone could be found at the Beech Grove estate, Mr. Ruxton, an artist, travels to Cooperstown, New York, to find her. There, he is overcome by passion at his first sight of Miss Hurd, a companion to the lady of the house. But Ruxton is not the only one to fall under her spell. A man of enormous wealth and influence makes himself known to Ruxton as a rival for Miss Hurd's affection.   But neither man is to find satisfaction. Miss Hurd flees. Her strange affectations and ethereal beauty continue to torment Ruxton. And when he sees her again-on a New York City streetcar-he will be drawn into a surreal mystery that will lead to revelations of torment, tragedy, and the darkest impulses of the human heart.

The business of death has given insurance investigator Miles Bredon a unique outlook on life in this witty Golden Age mystery.   Jephthah Mottram has been given some bad news from his doctor. The very rich man has only two years left to live. But he doesn't even make it that far. While on a fishing holiday in the Midlands of England, he's found dead of an apparent suicide by gas.   Sadly, that would be the best-case scenario for Indescribable Insurance, which wouldn't have to pay out the benefits. To that end, the company sends out its own private detective to investigate the matter. Arriving at the Load of Mischief Inn, Miles Bredon is met by a policeman with whom he served in the war, who has his own theory about the tragedy-and it is murderous. The two men make a friendly wager over who will prove their case, never expecting just how much greed and vanity can complicate a life-and a death . . .