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How to commit murder inside a locked room

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Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#31

Post by prosody »

jquery wrote: post #25

Umineko: When They Cry has a great deconstruction of the locked-room trope. It’s a very long story (5 gigabytes of voiced lines!), but a hugely entertaining deconstruction for any fan of the detective/mystery genre. One of the best mysteries I’ve ever read. https://umineko-project.org/en/ is the definitive version, but please support the author by also buying the game on steam or elsewhere.

An example from Umineko that might tickle an HN reader's fancy: six people are found murdered in six different locked rooms. In the room with each body is the sole key to the door of one of the other locked rooms. Together they form a circular linked list of closed room murders.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#32

Post by [deleted] »

Ma8ee wrote: post #12
hyper_reality wrote: post #2

See Vanity Fair's excellent long-form article "The Body in Room 348" for a real life example! https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/true-crime-elegan...

Without reading mode, that site is unusable. All those animated ads and banners are the blink tag all over again.

[deleted]

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#33

Post by foxfluff »

jquery wrote: post #25

Umineko: When They Cry has a great deconstruction of the locked-room trope. It’s a very long story (5 gigabytes of voiced lines!), but a hugely entertaining deconstruction for any fan of the detective/mystery genre. One of the best mysteries I’ve ever read. https://umineko-project.org/en/ is the definitive version, but please support the author by also buying the game on steam or elsewhere.

I really like Umineko, and that is the first thing that came to mind from this article.

I gotta say the first episode (or was it the first two?) was rather off-putting for me because -- after a slow start -- it pretty much drags you through the mud with apparent fantasy elements that don't really seem to make any sense. I almost stopped reading.

I'm still not entirely sure what to make out of the whole story, but I'm so glad I didn't stop at the first episode. Actually I feel like I should read it again now that I'm more accustomed to the logic.

And yes it's a very long read. Estimates put it at around a million words.

Right now the MG release is 40% off on GOG.

https://www.gog.com/game/umineko_when_they_cry_question_arcs

https://www.gog.com/game/umineko_when_they_cry_answer_arcs

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#34

Post by justinpombrio »

How to commit a murder inside a locked room, off the top of my head:

- Are the windows locked? Otherwise it's a rock climber who can climb the side of the building. Some buildings are not that difficult to climb for a good climber.

- The murderer was not in the room when the murder happened. Poison or a trap of some sort. (Kinda boring.)

- The murderer was in the room when the murder happened, but locked the door behind themselves. (This one doesn't really work because the door is presumably of a kind that can't be locked behind you, or else no one would be surprised. Good to double-check, though, that you're sure the door couldn't have been locked behind someone leaving.)

- The murderer was in the room when the attack happened. The murderer attacks, then the murderer leaves, then the victim locks the door, then the victim finishes dying. This isn't as far-fetched as it sounds: if someone nearly kills me and then leaves but it seems like there's a chance they might come back, hell yeah I'm going to lock the door, possibly even before calling for help.

- The murderer is a carpenter. They locked the door, pocketed the key, put the door back into the previously empty door frame, then left. (This is a bit far fetched if the victim was found soon after death; door frames are a lot of work.)

- The murderer is still inside the room, very well hidden. Say, inside the sofa where the stuffing should be, waiting very quietly until the investigation is over so they can leave.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#35

Post by whacim »

Ma8ee wrote: post #12
hyper_reality wrote: post #2

See Vanity Fair's excellent long-form article "The Body in Room 348" for a real life example! https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/true-crime-elegan...

Without reading mode, that site is unusable. All those animated ads and banners are the blink tag all over again.

Here is an alternate version of the story. https://icantbelieveitsnonfiction.com/2020/10/20/greg-flenik...

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#36

Post by bduerst »

Quikinterp wrote: post #16
Natsu wrote: post #3

That just gave me a crazy idea for a game, based on some similar books I've read online. Make a game where, say, you revive every time and your goal is to survive some set period of time but it's a mystery how to do so as many things are out to kill you. Say you have X hours before a large bomb will wipe out your city or whatever and several folks are waiting to kill you in the mean time or such and the goal is basic…

The plot of one of my favourite games, Outer Wilds (not to be confused with Outer Worlds), is about being stuck in a solar system where you die (avoiding spoilers intentionally) every 20 minutes and you have to figure out why. One of my favourite games, the sense of mystery and the high stakes of the plot made it very intriguing to me.

Yep, it's the basis of Outer Wilds, one of the best video games of the last decade, but also others like:

-Sexy Brutale

-Life is Strange

-The Forgotten City (still playing this one)

-Twelve Minutes

There's also Return of the Obra Djinn which is a reverse-mystery thriller, in which you piece together what happened to a ship in reverse murder order.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#37

Post by erik_seaberg »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #22
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #4

Saw this on Battlestar Galactica, killer vents the atmosphere from an external control box and escapes unseen. Later on its noticed that everyone in the room has died. ;) You think there would be alarms on an engineering station someplace that would fire off when the atmosphere gets thin.

Presumably the old BSG? In the new BSG, atmospheric sensors feature in at least two episodes...the one where terrorists take over a bar, and in the one where Callie and the Chief get trapped in a launch tube.

In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Measure_of_Salvation it was just the O2, but that really ought to have a sensor.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#38

Post by bduerst »

rzzzt wrote: post #10
Natsu wrote: post #3

That just gave me a crazy idea for a game, based on some similar books I've read online. Make a game where, say, you revive every time and your goal is to survive some set period of time but it's a mystery how to do so as many things are out to kill you. Say you have X hours before a large bomb will wipe out your city or whatever and several folks are waiting to kill you in the mean time or such and the goal is basic…

Edge of Tomorrow builds on a similar premise (Tom Cruise explores a decision tree): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1631867/

Which is based on the short novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Worth reading if you liked the movie.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#40

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

justinpombrio wrote: post #34

How to commit a murder inside a locked room, off the top of my head: - Are the windows locked? Otherwise it's a rock climber who can climb the side of the building. Some buildings are not that difficult to climb for a good climber. - The murderer was not in the room when the murder happened. Poison or a trap of some sort. (Kinda boring.) - The murderer was in the room when the murder happened, but locked the door beh…

> The murderer is still inside the room, very well hidden. Say, inside the sofa where the stuffing should be, waiting very quietly until the investigation is over so they can leave.

Not a murder, but this is essentially the resolution of a Spike Lee movie. (no name - no spoiler)

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