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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

#41

Post by jawns »

One way to think about the popularity of locked-room mysteries is to think about the popularity of knock-knock jokes, or any other joke with a similarly well-worn setup.

Precisely because it's well-worn territory, the low-hanging fruit has all been picked, and the art is in coming up with a punchline that feels new or original.

"The Mystery of the Yellow Room," published in 1908 and considered one of the best of its time, might seem downright formulaic more than a century later, because so many variations have been published since.

So the challenge for the writer of a locked-room mystery in the 21st century is to work within the boundaries of the premise but still make it feel, to the reader, that the climax is surprising or otherwise novel.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#42

Post by yamazakiwi »

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…

Not exactly the same but similar Zelda: Majora's Mask

You must complete your missions before the Moon collides with earth in 3 days or restart from the beginning.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#43

Post by anamexis »

nobody9999 wrote: post #27

I'd expect that committing a murder in a locked room doesn't really require much in the way of planning or knowledge. Put me in a locked room with someone and I don't need much (except the will and likely a weapon) to do the deed. However, Getting away with committing a murder in a locked room is the hard part -- how do you exit the room and re-lock it from the inside? How do you make sure to remove all traces of you…

The intended meaning is pretty obvious, and explicitly laid it in the second paragraph.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#44

Post by cheetor »

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…

one of my favorites:

- The room doesn't even need to be completely locked, people just need to think that it was

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#45

Post by Tyr42 »

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…

Try reading Mother of Learning.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#46

Post by gavanm »

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…

You might like the (very old) game Countdown. Although it's a bit broader than just a locked room at the start.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdown_(video_game)

You wake up with amnesia locked in a room in an asylum, and have to figure it out from there.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#47

Post by kerneloftruth »

There's even an old Dragnet episode with a locked room 'murder' mystery plot:

- Man with gun enters home to confront his mother-in-law, and shoots the Bible she's reading

- The mother-in-law shoots the man, but the wound is not immediately fatal.

- Man stumbles into an adjacent study and locks the door behind him, then dies.

- Initially suicide is assumed, but the ballistics don't match the gun in his hand.

- The bullet he fired is stuck in the Bible he shot, undetected by anyone.

Kind of lame and contrived by comparison to Poe and others, but for a 1967 TV show...

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#48

Post by JulianHC »

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.

Clearly those murders were done through magic.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#49

Post by version_five »

Lots of classics in the genre. Two I've read recently (no idea if they are widely known) are

  The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizu
  In the morning I'll be gone by Adrian McKinty
The latter is the third in a series (police procedural set in Northern Ireland) and I'd recommend reading the first two first.

Re: How to commit murder inside a locked room

#50

Post by divbzero »

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/

> Tom Cruise explores a decision tree

I want to see Netflix use that in their film description.

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