Locked-room mystery

A mystery in which a crime appears impossible because the scene seems inaccessible or sealed. Its solution explains how the apparent impossibility was created.

Impossible crime: A crime that appears impossible under the circumstances in which it was discovered. The locked-room mystery is a distinctive form of this broader puzzle.
Detective fiction: Fiction centered on investigating and solving a crime or other mystery. Locked-room stories developed as a specialized puzzle form within detective fiction.
The Hollow Man: A 1935 John Dickson Carr novel featuring a murder in a room apparently sealed against entry or escape. Its famous puzzle and discussion of impossible crimes make it a landmark example.
Whodunit: A mystery organized around discovering which person committed a crime. A locked-room mystery asks not only who did it but how the apparently sealed crime was possible.
Fair-play mystery: A detective story that gives the audience enough clues to solve the crime before the reveal. A satisfying locked-room solution makes its decisive clues available in advance.
Émile Gaboriau: A French novelist whose detective stories helped establish the genre’s conventions in the nineteenth century. His 1866 novel The Mystery of Orcival includes an early influential locked-room problem.
The Three Coffins: The American title of John Dickson Carr’s 1935 novel The Hollow Man. Its locked-room discussion became one of the genre’s best-known theoretical passages.
Howcatchem: A crime story that reveals the culprit early and follows the effort to prove or catch them. Its suspense comes from pursuit and proof, unlike the locked-room puzzle’s concealed method.
Alibi: Evidence or a claim that a person was elsewhere when a crime occurred. A sealed scene often makes timing and the culprit’s whereabouts central to the puzzle.
The Mystery of Orcival: An 1866 detective novel by Émile Gaboriau involving a murder discovered in a seemingly inaccessible room. Its sealed-room puzzle is a notable early example of the form.

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