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🔎 What makes a crime seem truly impossible, and why can't mystery readers get enough of these types of stories? Join me as we unlock the irresistible appeal of locked room mysteries that have delighted readers for over 150 years.

🧐 I’ll break down the difference between a locked room mystery and a closed circle — and why readers get genuinely cranky when authors mix them up.

🗝️ Then I’ll give you some classic locked room stories starting with Edgar Allan Poe, running through the Golden Age, and finishing up with some modern takes on the genre in both books and television.

Links:

Trope Thesaurus: Mystery and Thriller by Sara Rosett and Jennifer Hilt: https://books2read.com/mysteryandthriller/

Related MBP Episodes:

Bonus: Murder on the S.S. Cleopatra by Sara Rosett

S6E1 Agatha Christie

S4E5 Crime TV Shows for Cozy Mystery Readers

S3 E5 Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

Support the show

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

Suggest a book for the podcast or say hello!

🧶 What’s an amateur sleuth mystery? One of the most beloved subgenres in mystery fiction! They're stories of an ordinary person, not a professional detective, who solves a crime.

📚 If you love cozy mysteries, classic whodunits, or Golden Age detective fiction, this episode is your guide to the amateur sleuth.

🕵️ The amateur sleuth has a long, rich history that spans from Agatha Christie's Miss Marple to Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey to modern cozy mystery series.

⚡️ I also tackle what I call the "special problems" of writing amateur sleuth mysteries, and I break down how the Polish mystery film In for a Murder solves each of the challenges.

🔗 For a twice-a-month update on newly released historical mystery books, sign up HERE.

Podcasts Mentioned:

• S1E6 Her Royal Spyness
• Bonus: Murder on the S.S. Cleopatra by Sara Rosett
• S6E1 Agatha Christie
• S6E6 Dorothy L. Sayers
• S2 E5 - The Mimosa Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
• S4E5 Crime TV Shows for Cozy Mystery Readers
• S2E4 Mystery in Translation
• S2 E1 - Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• S2 E3 A Peculiar Combination

Books on Writing Fiction:

• Trope Thesaurus: Mystery and Thriller by Sara Rosett and Jennifer Hilt: https://books2read.com/mysteryandthriller/
• How to Outline a Cozy Mystery by Sara Roset: https://books2read.com/howtocozy

Support the show

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.

Suggest a book for the podcast or say hello!

🔎 Ready for your next whodunit? Let’s talk about mysteries arriving in early 2026.

Join me as I dive into the most exciting upcoming classic-style whodunits releasing from January to March 2026—think locked rooms, closed circles, clever clues, and satisfying reveals that echo the Golden Age greats.

Get a curated preview of fresh releases and rediscovered gems, including debuts like The Murder at World’s End and A Field Guide to Murder, British Library Crime Classics reprints, a meta-Holmes homage in The Final Problem, and my own Murder on the S.S. Cleopatra, which is perfect historical if you want a Golden Age travel whodunit.

Support the show

📚 Buy Sara's books: SaraRosettBooks.com

🔎 Get more mystery in your life when you sign up for Sara's updates.