When we think of “locked room mysteries” we think of John Dickson Carr and his imitators, but back in 1941 Britain’s Rupert Penny penned one of the best and most satisfying impossible crimes ever crafted—SEALED ROOM MURDER. In the coziness of The Firs, an ugly yet stately mansion of a family of several generations, the matron is brutally stabbed in the back by someone staying at the house. There are suspects aplenty and ordinarily Tony Purdon and his friend Inspector Beale—veterans of the other Rupert Penny mysteries published by Ramble House—would have no trouble finding the murderer, but the crochety old dowager was locked alone in her bedroom when she was attacked and killed.

Fans of the Policeman mysteries of Rupert Penny will find this classic whodunit every bit as puzzling the others. With diagrams, charts, maps and even a Dutton-like challenge to the reader page, this is a mystery you can’t pass up, published for the first time since its debut in 1941.