Back in print alert: Clayton Rawson [Mystery]

[Iznogood]

I just recently discovered that the books by Clayton Rawson has been re-published, both as e-books and print books after too long time out of print.

Clayton Rawson was a successful mystery writer of the first part of the 20th century. He was also an amateur magician, just as his most famous sleuth, The Great Merlini; in most of his books, the Great Merlini is the only one capable of outwitting the murderer. Another of Rawsons creations are Don Diavolo. Most of his stories are of the classical type, where the reader is provided with all the clues needed to solve the crime and should try to do so before the sleuth reveals the truth at the end of the book.

He wrote stories of the "fantastic" kind, and was fond of the locked room mystery and of the impossible crime. He was also a friend of John Dickson Carr, and Rawson and Carr challenged each other several times on which one of them could solve an impossible problem in the most elegant way. This makes some of Rawsons stories very interesting for those who are great fans of John Dickson Carr, amongst them yours truly.

Some of these challenges:
How could a murderer strike his victim when the latter was inside a room that was sealed with tape?
Carr wrote the novel "He Wouldn't kill Patience", featuring H.M., and Rawson wrote "From another World", a short story featuring The Great Merlini

How can a man disappear without a trace from a phone booth
Rawson wrote "Off the Face of the Earth", in the same books as the previous challenge, while Carr wrote "Scotland Yard’s Christmas/Detective's Day Off" (which, from what I have read is not his finest work, although I cannot tell since this Carr short story is unavailable to me. Can someone confirm this?)

Of course, Rawsons stories are interesting in their own accord, and they are by no means reduced to curiosities in Carrs shadow. These challenges just illustrate that there are interesting stories behind Rowsons fascinating puzzles.

Books by Rowson:
Mystery novels

• Death from a Top Hat (1938)
• The Footprints on the Ceiling (1939)
• The Headless Lady (1940)
• No Coffin for the Corpse (1942)

Collections of short stories

• Death Out of Thin Air (1941) (as Stuart Towne)
• Death from Nowhere (1943) (as Stuart Towne)
• Pictures Don't Lie (1950)
• The Great Merlini (1979)

Other books

• Scarne on Dice (1945) (with John Scarne)
• Al Baker's Pet Secrets (1951) (with Albert Baker)
• How to Entertain Children with Magic You Can Do (1963), (as The Great Merlini)
• The Golden Book of Magic: Amazing Tricks for Young Magicians (1964) (as The Great Merlini)

Source

[Mike L]

This is good news.

I discovered Clayton Rawson in a collection called Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes (Robinson, 2000). His "Off the Face of the Earth" was the best of about 30 stories in that collection.

I'll definitely try some of his novels. Many thanks for the alert.

Mike

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by Mike L

I discovered Clayton Rawson in a collection called Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes (Robinson, 2000). His "Off the Face of the Earth" was the best of about 30 stories in that collection.

Is it This one? Except for the publisher (Amazon says Carrol and Graaf instead of Robinson) the other details fit this anthology. This sounds like an interesting anthology, I might try to track it down one day and hopefully read it

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by norway1456

Is it This one?

Yep, that's the one. I don't know about Carrol and Graaf. My copy has Mike Ashley as the editor, and Robinson as the publisher. Robinson is an imprint of Constable. But it's definitely the same book.

I see Amazon in the UK has a Kindle edition for only £2.74 - much cheaper than the paperback in the US.

Mike

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by Mike L

I see Amazon in the UK has a Kindle edition for only £2.74 - much cheaper than the paperback in the US.

Mike

In that case Amazon has some filtering on ip that prevents me from seeing it and buying it. I find The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes, but only as paperback.

But I also find The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes & Impossible Mysteries, which has no Rawson mysteries, but I can buy it as kindle to £2.74. My guess is that this is the one you found too?

Nevertheless, the UK version is much cheaper than the kindle version from US, plus I save shipping on buying kindle instead of a physical book. Thanks for the tip! Yesterday I pondered buying the US kindle edition ($9.65), but I'm very glad I didn't! But I have now bought the UK version for £2.74. It doesn't contain Rawson, but this mammoth book is also filled with interesting short stories with impossible crimes.

[DrNefario]

I was just looking at that, too. It seems the Perfect Crimes one is a follow-up to Locked-Room Mysteries. It's a shame the first one isn't available for Kindle.

Edit: Although, weirdly, it is showing up at Kobo for the somewhat-less-attractive £6.23.

[Mike L]

My mistake. The £2.74 book I mentioned is indeed Perfect Crimes, not Locked-Room Mysteries. It's a completely different collection.

Locked-Room Mysteries appears to be only available in paperback, and at a relatively high price. Pity.

Mike

[DrNefario]

the Locked-Room book is available in EPUB, as I mentioned above. I bought it (with a voucher) just to make sure it was the right one. Oddly, the Perfect Crimes one seems to be missing from Kobo. Good thing I have both kinds of Reader.

[Iznogood]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Edit: Although, weirdly, it is showing up at Kobo for the somewhat-less-attractive £6.23.

I just wanted to add that I checked out Kobo and found it there for about $8, which is a lot less (at least in Norwegian kroner) than £6. Combined with a discount coupon, the price isn't at all bad!