The Fourth Door

After the suicide of Victor Darnley's wife in a locked attic room, the Darnley house and especially said room became to be known as haunted and none of its tenants stayed for long. But when mediumistic Alice Latimer and her husband Patrick move in, things take a sudden turn. Alice suspects that Victor's wife had actually been murdered in that locked room and that the footsteps and noises at night symbolize her spirit's manifestation and the wish to expose her murderer. Consequently an experiment is planned in the attic: Patrick will stay in the haunted room to confirm Mrs. Darnley's manifestation and the door will be sealed with wax and a rare coin while somebody knocks on the door every half an hour to see whether Patrick answers and everything is fine. When Patrick ceases to answer and the seal is removed, Patrick is not in the room and instead the corpse of another person lies on the floor!

The White Priory Murders

Hollywood star Marcia Tait wants to pay the British producers back who did not believe in her talent back then, so she plans on playing the lead in a play of the Bohun brothers. One night, while she stays in their 17th-century pavilion on their property, she is beaten to death and only the footprints of the man who discovered the corpse are found outside in unbroken snow. However Marcia clearly was murdered before it stopped snowing that night. James Bennett, another guest of the Bohuns, calls Inspector Masters and his uncle Sir Henry Merrivale to solve this impossible situation.

She Died A Lady

Dr. Luke Croxley, the narrator of this novel, gets a visit by one of his son's patients. Rita Wainwright's worries are not of medical nature though. She has an affair with a younger man called Barry Sullivan, a young American actor, while being married to her older husband Alec. The latter however is more interested in radio broadcasts about recent war developments than what his wife does behind his back. Rita is fond of Alec and does not want to hurt him, but at the same time she feels the urge to run away with Barry. One night when Croxley is over at the Wainwrights Rita and Barry vanish, leaving two sets of footprints leading to the end of a cliff and not coming back. Later the dead bodies are found, but they did not die from the fall or from drowning. They were shot at close range.

Carr so far

I used to think it would not be of much use to blog about English detective novels that are actually available via print on demand or Kindle, unlike many other classics. But then again, you could also see it the opposite way and think the mention of these novels is even more important considering efforts are made to make these available again. And since I knew I could not make a somewhat meaningful post on my recent reading of The Plague Court Murders without mentioning the other Carr novels I've read so far, I figured I might as well sum them up together.

青い密室 名探偵・星影竜三全集 (2)

Short story collection of 8 works by Ayukawa Tetsuya and compiling all his short stories featuring the detective character Hoshikage Ryuuzou together with the first volume 赤い密室.

赤い密室 名探偵・星影竜三全集 (1)

Collection by Ayukawa Tetsuya who set the standard for the orthodox renaissance movement. This is the first of two volumes which gather all of the short stories featuring classical detective Hoshikage Ryuuzou; works that made me realize Ayukawas huge influence on late 80s and early 90s writers once again and even more.

夏と冬の奏鳴曲(ソナタ)

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of their idol Mamiya Kazune, a group of people in their forties gather on Kazune Island where they once spend a year together worshipping her. Looking back on their young days they are accompanied by Kisaragi Uyuu and his assistant Maina Touri, who are supposed to interview them and write an article about their reunion. Eventually a decapitated corpse turns up... on a snowy morning in August.

『瑠璃城』殺人事件

1989, Japan: A corpse in a locked library. 1243, France: 6 knights suddenly vanishing from a castle. 1918, Battle of Verdun: 4 corpses vanishing from the front. And endless cycle of impossible crime situations and the predestined demise of 2 lovers.

笑わない数学者

Saikawa and Moe are invited to legendary mathematician Tennouji Shouzou's Christmas party in his mansion Mitsuboshikan. While the guests are in the mansion's planetarium, the huge Orion statue in front of the mansion vanishes and the professor challenges his guests to solve this mystery. When the statue appears again later, the corpse of a guest who was supposed to have been in her room is found in front of it, while another corpse turns up in her room...

吸血の家

The exorcism of a spirit whose grudge founded a whole family curse calls forth seemingly impossible crimes and forces Nikaidou Ranko to uncover the secrets of the Masamiya family and the fate that is about to befall the three sisters.

『クロック城』殺人事件

In 1994 a sunspot 30 times as huge as the earth was discovered and by its influence the planet has been in disorder since then. The world is said to meet its demise in 1999. It is in that year, that a certain request for detective Minami Miki drops in. He proceeds to Clock Castle, whose outer wall is furnished with 3 huge clocks which display past, present and future, and whose interior is divided into 3 separate mansions as well. The proprietor's daughter, Kurou Ruka, is said to be Midnight's Key, a crucial being in earth's final moment. She asks Miki to investigate the eerie face staring out of the cellar's wall. Ruka suspects a ghost called Skipman, which rumor has been passed on in the mansion for generations. This Skipman is supposed to be able to rip a hole into time and travel into the past and future. Soon after Miki begins his investigations, a seemingly impossible murder resembling the legend of Skipman ensues...

少女ノイズ

Takasuka Katsushi, a young man lacking certain memories and Itsukinomiya Mei, a girl that closed her heart, meet on a cram school's rooftop. He feels gravitated towards crime scenes and takes photos of those while she seems like a living corpse wearing huge disconnected headphones. They soon wind up in solving various mysteries happening among the students at the cram school.

武家屋敷の殺人

On their investigation of Shizunai Mizuki's birthplace, attorney Kawajima Koujirou and his friend Naka Kunihiko, with the only clues being the diary and a letter from her uncle, stumble upon a murder and the mystery of a resurrecting mummy from 20 years ago. Following their investigations, another murder occurs...