The Three Coffins

Professor Charles Grimaud is found dead in his study just moments after his housekeeper watched him greet a mysterious visitor and welcome him into the room. Yet no sign of the murderer or murder weapon can be found. The housekeeper saw no one leave through the door and the snow outside the only window remains unblemished.

An equally puzzling murder has occurred outside, in the middle of the street: The illusionist Pierre Fley was walking alone in a snow-covered cul-de-sac when witnesses heard someone shout “The second bullet is for you!” followed by a gunshot. He is found dead, with the revolver that killed both Grimaud and himself by his side and no footprints in the surrounding snow but his own. It appears that both murders must have been committed by a specter?someone not only invisible but lighter than air. But if anyone can find a rational explanation, it is brilliant amateur sleuth Dr. Gideon Fell. In a 1981 survey of mystery experts, The Three Coffins (called The Hollow Man in the UK) was voted the best locked room mystery of all time. It is also celebrated for a scene in which Carr’s iconic detective Gideon Fell delivers a speech expounding upon the dozens of methods and variations by which apparently impossible murders may be accomplished. Any fan of locked room mysteries and impossible crimes should consider this book required reading.

Author Biography

John Dickson Carr (1906–1977) was one of the greatest writers of the American Golden Age mystery, and one of the only American authors to be included in England’s legendary Detection Club. Though he was born and died in the United States, Carr began his writing career while living in England, where he remained for nearly twenty years. Under his own name and various pseudonyms, he wrote more than seventy novels and numerous short stories, and is best known today for his locked-room mysteries. His beloved series character, Dr. Gideon Fell, was based on author G. K. Chesterton and appeared in twenty-four novels. Otto Penzler, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975); MysteriousPress.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from NoirCon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.