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First, the broadcast: On May 21, 2012, BBC Radio 4’s Miles Jupp presented a 30-minute programme on locked rooms, the third in a series of fairly light-hearted treatments of mystery themes. Interviewees were: Mike Ashley, Paul Doherty, Bob Adey, Christopher Fowler, Jasper Fforde, Paul Halter, John Pugmire, Soji Shimada, Denise Mina and a representative of a mainstream publishing house who, true to form, said nobody was interested in reading that kind of stuff (the promotional web post for the broadcast attracted 492,000 listeners). Here is a Transcript of Broadcast.  The MP3 of the broadcast is too long for this website, but if anyone interested in listening to it sends me an e-mail at pugmire1@yahoo.com I will make the file available through Dropbox.  There is also some preparatory material available, most of which was not used, but will hopefully be of interest:
Paul Halter’s Questions and Answers
Soji Shimada’s Questions and Answers .

Articles

Publishers Weekly Talks With John Pugmire – 1st September 2017
It was very gratifying for me, a mere one-man-band Print On Demand publisher, to get my own interview with the prestigious Publishers Weekly.  The occasion was a literary event: the first US publication of possibly the rarest book in detective fiction: Stacey Bishop’s Death in the Dark, first published in London in 1930 by Faber & Faber, where T. S. Eliot was senior editor.  The LRI edition contains an Introduction by Martin Edwards, a very successful author in his own right and President of The Detection Club, and a fascinating Afterword by Mauro Piccinini, an expert on George Antheil (Bishop’s real name). It turns out that the story behind the book is almost as incredible as the fictional work (although, in the interests of space, my references to Martin and Mauro — and LRI’s honkaku masterpieces — didn’t make the final cut).

Paul Halter, Master of Locked Rooms Mystery*File article – 5th February 2005
This article sparked a lot of interest and probably led to Wildside Press publishing the first Halter collection.

The Top 50 Locked Room Mysteries
A November 2009 article by Jonathan Scott in Book and Magazine Collector which included Paul Halter’s The Night of the Wolf.

As recommended in 1001 Chambres Closes:
List of Locked Room Novel Masterpieces (*****)
List of Locked Room Short Story Masterpieces (*****)
List of Locked Room Novels Not to Be Missed (****)
List of Locked Room Short Stories Not to Be Missed (****)

The Locked Room Scene
A July 2010 interview with John Pugmire and Brian Skupin by Jonathan Scott for Book and Magazine Collector

A Room with a Clue
An analysis of Dr. Fell’s Locked Room Lecture in CADS 59, published in December 2010. It tries to identify the stories that Fell alluded to, but which were not named. Anyone who can identify the missing links on the last page will receive a prize

Interview with Paul Halter
Patrick O’s interview with the master

Japanese Detective Fiction
Thesis by Satomi Saito.

Honkaku: Everything you ever needed to know
Well-researched and informative article by Carolyn Crampton (but for the omission of LRI).

Ten French Impossible Crime Stories Available in English
If you never took French and/or don’t need another struggle in your life, here are some novels and short stories

Wikipedia Locked Room Mystery
A useful overview

Ripping Yarns
Lenny Picker’s excellent article about Our Jack, pre-announcing the next LRI publication
Paul Halter on Jack the Ripper: Paul’s responses to Lenny’s questions

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Blog on Honkaku

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Blog on EQMM and the Locked Room Mystery

Financial Times Article on Shimada Soji – 20th November 2015

Did Conan Doyle Base Sherlock Holmes on a French detective who appeared 16 years earlier? Judge for yourself with this article from CADS 75 — then buy The Killing Needle to check your conclusions!

4 thoughts on “Articles”

  1. Hi John,

    Is there a place I can subscribe to see updates/newsletters or other information on upcoming releases?

    Also, I just saw a comment by Lee Sheldon (a mystery screenwriter/author) on Jim Noy’s Invisible Event Blog https://theinvisibleevent.com/2017/08/05/271-adventures-in-self-publishing-impossible-bliss-2004-by-lee-sheldon/comment-page-1/#comment-11994 It says LRI is only interested in French/Japanese/rare English book publications and not contemporary ones. Will this ever change? I just thought it was a potential opportunity for more modern, new gems to come out to the general public.

    Best regards,
    A Huge Fan of Golden Age Impossible Crimes

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