<ul><li>Collected here are ten superb tales by today's master of the seemingly impossible crime, the Frenchman Paul Halter. Coffins dancing in a hermetically sealed crypt, a tunnel that murders people, a werewolf killer who leaves no trace on the snow, a victim killed by an invisible hand at the top of a guarded tower, a homicidal snowman that kills in front of witnesses... There cannot be a rational explanation for these and other hideous crimes; and yet there is. Each story is a glittering example of the brilliant plotting and atmosphere of foreboding that characterized the Golden Age of detective fiction. </li></ul>

The Night Of The Wolf

Literature & Fiction

Busiek, Kurt

McCLOUD, Scott

Gertler, Nat

Halter, Paul

DAVID,Peter

Short Stories & Anthologies

Wildside Press

We are in Victorian London, with its gaslight and fog, not long after the Jack the Ripper Murders. A mysterious cloaked figure wearing a hideous, leprous mask and sleigh-bells is stalking the countryside outside the capital, committing murder wherever it goes, yet leaving no footprints. This is the first Paul Halter novel featuring amateur detective and aesthete Owen Burns, who regards the impossible crime as an art form. The Lord of Misrule was the first book to be published by what was to become Locked Room International. It is being republished so that the cover layout is consistent with the other ten books published since. See:www.lockedroominternational.comPaul Halter is widely regarded as the successor to John Dickson Carr and has published over thirty locked room mysteries in his native France. The Crimson Fog was named one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Mysteries of 2013. Nine of his books have been translated into English. See:mylri.com

The Lord of Misrule

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Le Diable de Dartmoor (French Edition)

A man dies of thirst in an isolated shed with a full carafe of water beside him. Another is stabbed in a pergola surrounded by a sea of mud, but there are no other footprints. People are dying at an alarming rate, people with no apparent connection to one another save for a cryptic painting sent to the police before each murder. That, and the fact that each crime appears to have been impossible to execute. The paintings have a common theme: each contains a coded reference to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Enter Owen Burns, Edwardian dilettante and amateur sleuth, whose assistance is often sought by Scotland Yard to solve baffling crimes. Burns regards murder as an art form and is dazzled by the creativity of the mysterious killer, whose motive and methods are more baffling with each new murder. ‘The Seven Wonders of Crime’ is the second Burns novel to be published in English on Amazon, following ‘The Lord of Misrule’ in 2010. The author, best-selling French writer Paul Halter, is widely regarded as the successor to John Dickson Carr. His prize-winning novel ‘The Fourth Door, featuring his other series detective Dr. Twist, was published on Amazon earlier in 2011. In all, Paul Halter has written over 30 novels, almost all ‘locked room,’ or impossible crime. In 2006 his collection of short stories ‘The Night of the Wolf’ appeared, to critical acclaim.A fourth full-length novel, ‘The Demon of Dartmoor,’ is in preparation. Please contact: pugmire1@yahoo.com

The Seven Wonders of Crime

A famous actor is sent to his death from a high window; eye witnesses say he was pushed by an invisible hand, thus mimicking another murder committed in the same house more than fifty years earlier. Three local girls have also died in similar inexplicable fashion, propelled from the top of Wish Tor, a rocky outcrop. Is there an invisible creature roaming the sinister and forbidding landscape of Dartmoor? Or is there a human agency behind the murders and, if so, how is it done? The renowned criminologist Dr. Twist and the irascible Inspector Hurst of Scotland Yard are sent to investigate. ‘The Demon of Dartmoor’ is the fourth Paul Halter novel to be published in English, and the second featuring Twist and Hurst. In the BBC Radio 4 program ‘Miles Jupp in a Locked Room,’ broadcast on May 21, 2012, it was hailed as one of the most ingenious solutions ever written, and totally original. It has a plot line that writhes like a snake.The author, best-selling French writer Paul Halter, has written over thirty novels, almost all ‘locked room’ or ‘impossible crime,’ and is widely regarded as the successor to John Dickson Carr. His prize-winning novel ‘The Fourth Door,’ also featuring Dr. Twist, was published on Amazon in 2011. The two novels featuring the dilettante Owen Burns’ ‘The Lord of Misrule’ and ‘The Seven Wonders of Crime’ were published in 2010 and 2011 respectively. A fifth Halter novel ‘The Invisible Circle,’ is planned for late 2012. Locked Room International also published ‘The Riddle of Monte Verita’ in 2012 (“wonderfully captures and evokes the glory days of the detective story”,) and plans to publish Henri Cauvin’s ‘The Killing Needle,’ featuring the French precursor to Sherlock Holmes, also in 2012. For more information, contact pugmire1@yahoo.com

The Demon of Dartmoor

Characters dressed in the garb of 17th century plague doctors roaming alleyways haunted by Jack the Ripper...A plague victim vanishing off a stretcher under the noses of witnesses a few feet away…The corpse of the same victim reappearing under the nose of a police officer half a mile away. How are such things possible in the London of 1938?  Are the events connected to a conversation overheard between a celebrated writer of mystery plays and his principal actor, where each accepts a challenge to commit a murder and pin it on the other? What is the connection to a replica of Maelzel’s chess-playing robot? The famous criminologist Dr. Twist and Inspector Hurst of Scotland Yard face one of the most diabolically clever criminals in their long collaboration.  “The Seventh Hypothesis” is the fifth Paul Halter novel to be translated in English. The author, a best selling novelist in his native France, has written over thirty novels, almost all "locked room" or "impossible crime," and is widely regarded as the successor to John Dickson Carr. He appeared on BBC Radio 4’s programme “Miles Jupp in a Locked Room,” broadcast on May 21, 2012. His prize-winning novel “The Fourth Door” and “The Demon of Dartmoor” both also featuring Dr Twist have been published by Locked Room International, as have two novels featuring the dilettante Owen Burns: “The Lord of Misrule” and “The Seven Wonders of Crime.” A sixth novel: “The Riddle of Monte Verita” by Jean-Paul Torok (“wonderfully captures and evokes the glory days of the detective story”) was published earlier in 2012.  For information about signed and lettered editions of all six novels, limited hardcover editions of Halter’s critically acclaimed “The Night of the Wolf” and future publication plans, please go to lockedroominternational.com or contact pugmire1@yahoo.com

The Seventh Hypothesis

10 heures du soir... Une étrange silhouette rôde dans les rues : long manteau noir, chapeau à large bord, visage blanc et, en guise de nez, une espèce d'appendice monstrueux qui dépasse de beaucoup le chapeau. Saperlipopette! On dirait le costume d'un médecin de la peste... Une demi-heure plus tard, un autre médecin est penché sur une poubelle, en habit XIXe cette fois : cape noire, haut de forme, canne à pommeau d'argent, petit sac de cuir... Et dans la poubelle, recroquevillé, un cadavre avec de gros boutons sur la figure. La peste à Londres, en 1938? Impossible! L'inspecteur Hurst va devoir se creuser la tête pour trouver une autre hypothèse... Disponibles dans la même collection : LA BALLE DE NAUSICAA, LA QUATRIEME PORTE, LE DIABLE DE DARTMOOR, LA MORT VOUS INVITE, LA NUIT DU LOUP, LA TOILE DE PENELOPE, LA TOMBE INDIENNE (inédit), LA MALEDICTION DE BARBEROUSSE, LA TETE DU TIGRE, LE BROUILLARD ROUGE, LE MASQUE VAMPIRE (inédit) et LE MYSTERE DU GONG INDIEN (Bande dessinée).

La Septième Hypothèse (French Edition)

The murderer known as the “Suitcase Killer,” who has been causing panic by leaving dismembered bodies in London’s railway stations, vanishes into thin air when cornered cutting up his latest victim. The detective team of Dr. Twist and Inspector Hurst receive a tip that he resides in Leadenham, a sleepy village twenty miles from the capital. Another resident, a retired major of the Indian Army, claims he can summon an evil genie by rubbing an artifact known as “The Head of the Tiger.” He and a doubter stay in a room where not only is every door and window locked from the inside, but each is guarded by a witness. Nevertheless, the major is found dead, and the doubter unconscious from wounds which could not have been self-inflicted, and there is nobody else in the room. Could the serial killer be an evil genie? Or is it possible that two murderers, each with the apparent ability to vanish at will, inhabit the same small village? ‘The Head of the Tiger’ is the sixth Paul Halter novel to be published in English. The author, a best-selling novelist in his native France, has written over thirty novels, almost all ‘locked room’ or ‘impossible crime,’ and is widely regarded as the successor to John Dickson Carr. He appeared on BBC Radio 4’s program ‘Miles Jupp in a Locked Room,’ broadcast on May 21, 2012. His prize-winning novel ‘The Fourth Door,’ ‘The Demon of Dartmoor,’ and ‘The Seventh Hypothesis,’ all featuring Dr. Twist, have been published by Locked Room International on Amazon and Kindle, as have two novels featuring the dilettante Owen Burns: ‘The Lord of Misrule’ and ‘The Seven Wonders of Crime.’ A seventh novel ‘The Riddle of Monte Verita’ by Jean-Paul Torok (“wonderfully captures and evokes the glory days of the detective story”) was published in 2012. For information about signed and lettered editions of all seven novels, limited edition hardcover editions of Paul Halter’s award-winning short story collection ‘The Night of the Wolf,’ and future publication plans, please contact pugmire1@yahoo.com or go to www.lockedroominternational.com.

The Tiger's Head

#2 in Publisher's Weekly Top Mysteries of 2013http://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2013/mystery.In this fascinating novel, one of the masters of impossible crime fiction takes on one of the greatest criminals of all time. Sticking scrupulously to the facts, Paul Halter explores the Jack the Ripper murders and offers his own theories about the identity of the monster, what drove him, and how he was able to vanish under the noses of the police during the spree of escalating horror which sent the citizens of fog-ridden London into paroxysms of fear in the autumn of 1888..But the year before “Saucy Jacky” began his reign of terror, someone started to investigate an astonishing impossible murder committed in the country village of Blackfield nine years earlier. That, too, involved a monstrous murderer who slaughtered witnesses and vanished under the noses of his pursuers. Is there a connection with the Ripper cases which followed?Publisher’s Weekly named The Crimson Fog as one of the Top Mysteries of 2013, awarding it a starred review on October 4, 2013: ‘First published in France in 1988, this brilliant fair-play mystery from impossible crime master Halter (The Seventh Hypothesis) showcases his ingenuity at misdirecting the reader and his unique approach to the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888. In the first part, set in 1887, an openly unreliable narrator, Sidney Miles, returns to his hometown of Blackfield in disguise to solve a murder that “no one, absolutely no one, could have committed.” The stabbing death of Richard Morstan as he was preparing a magic trick behind a curtain has spawned legends of a phantom killer. Miles’s inquiries stir the pot, and other baffling murders follow. This section sets the stage for a suspenseful and historically accurate retelling of the Whitechapel slayings that focuses on the killer’s seemingly supernatural ability to disappear after committing his butcheries. As in the best whodunits, the solution is both logical and surprising. Golden Age fans encountering Halter for the first time will want to seek out his other, equally artful puzzles.’Paul Halter, who has been fascinated by Jack the Ripper from a tender age, won the coveted French Prix du Roman d’Aventures in 1988 and the prestigious Japanese Hunkaku Mystery Award 2005 for Le Brouillard Rouge (The Crimson Fog).For further information about Paul Halter books, other locked room mysteries and signed- and- lettered copies, please visit our website and blog at:www.lockedroominternational.com

The Crimson Fog

Paul Halter, whose “The Crimson Fog” was named #2 in Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Mysteries of 2013 presents ten superb tales of locked rooms and impossible crimes. Coffins dancing in a hermetically sealed crypt; a tunnel that murders people; a werewolf killer who leaves no trace on the snow; a victim killed by an invisible hand at the top of a guarded tower; a homicidal snowman that kills in front of witnesses...there cannot be a rational explanation for these and other hideous crimes; and yet there is. Each story is a glittering example of the brilliant plotting and atmosphere of foreboding that characterized the Golden Age of detective fiction, of which Paul Halter is the current master. This is a republication of the original “The Night of the Wolf,” which garnered critical acclaim when it first came out in 2006: Publisher’s Weekly (*starred review): "Most of the 10 outstanding stories in this collection from French author Halter, the first English-language edition of his work, center on an impossible crime, a still potent subgenre that was once a fixture of last century's golden age of detective fiction.” Mystery Scene: “This is the most important collection of locked room stories in years, and fans of brilliant puzzles….will love it.” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine: “For the devotee of locked rooms, impossible crimes, and other features of classical detective fiction, reading these stories is like discovering a hitherto unknown cache of tales by G.K. Chesterton or John Dickson Carr." Ed Hoch, himself a prolific contributor to EQMM: “As Paul Halter's stories begin reaching American readers in EQMM and elsewhere, I think they'll discover a combination of baffling mystery and eerie atmosphere not encountered since the glory days of John Dickson Carr.” One of the stories “The Flower Girl” was short-listed for the Barry award for best short story of the year 2006 “The Night of the Wolf” collection, not to be confused with the short story of the same name, is also available in e-book form via Kindle. Signed and Lettered editions and Limited Edition hardcovers are available by contacting pugmire1@yahoo.com For more information and articles, please visit www.lockedroominternational.com

The Night of the Wolf: Collection

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