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    The Perfect Crime: The Big Bow Mystery
    The Perfect Crime: The Big Bow Mystery
    The Perfect Crime: The Big Bow Mystery
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Perfect Crime: The Big Bow Mystery

    Written by Israel Zangwill

    Narrated by Colin Mace

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The first in a new series of classic detective stories from the vaults of HarperCollins is the world’s first locked-room mystery, a seemingly impossible crime story as powerful as any that have copied the scenario since.

    “The Detective Story Club”, launched by Collins in 1929, was a clearing house for the best and most ingenious crime stories of the age, chosen by a select committee of experts. Now, almost 90 years later, these books are the classics of the Golden Age, republished at last with the same popular cover designs that appealed to their original readers.

    Originally published as The Big Bow Mystery in 1891, and re-published by the Detective Club to coincide with a new film version called ‘The Perfect Crime’, Israel Zangwill’s novel invented the concept of the ‘locked room mystery’ and influenced almost every crime writer thereafter.

    ‘A man is murdered for no apparent reason. He has no enemies and there seemed to be no motive for anyone murdering him. No clues remained and the instrument with which the murder was committed could not be traced. The door of the room in which the body was discovered was locked and bolted on the inside, both windows were latched, and there was no trace of any intruder. The greatest detectives in the land were puzzled. Here indeed was the perfect crime, the work of a master mind. Can you solve the problem which baffled Scotland Yard for so long, until at last the missing link in the chain of evidence was revealed?’

    This new edition includes a brand new introduction by the Golden Age crime expert, Dr John Curran, author of ‘Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks’.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 13, 2015
    ISBN9780008137304
    Author

    Israel Zangwill

    Zangwill, the son of Latvian and Polish immigrants, was born in London’s East End and showed literary promise as early as eighteen. A teacher for some years after he graduated from London University, he eventually left the profession to write full-time, publishing hundreds of essays, as well as novels, short stories and plays produced in London and New York. His work concentrated on political, social and Jewish issues but The Big Bow Mystery was his only venture into detective fiction.

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    Reviews for The Perfect Crime

    4.5/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Locked room who-done-it with a psychological take on societal biases. Cleverly done for its time.
    • 5/5
      As much humorous social commentary as mystery; excellent narration makes it even more fun!