The Jury Box

by Elizabeth Foxwell

Through the ages, the impossible crime has been an irresistible lure to mystery fans, one with which inexplicable circumstances can stymie investigators, family members, suspects, and readers alike. The following works offer different takes on these tales.

***** Christianna Brand, Tour de Force, British Library Crime Classics, Poisoned Pen Press, $15.99. British author Christianna Brand might be best known for the wartime Green for Danger (1944) with the shrewd Inspector Cockrill, but this 1955 outing for the inspector offers many pleasures. Cockrill somewhat reluctantly joins a colorful group touring Italy—a vivacious author, a bitchy fashion designer, a sour pianist and his long-suffering wife, two women with mysterious pasts, and an enterprising tour operator. As the inspector lolls on the beach with his fellow travelers within eyeshot, a murder occurs—and the local police and potentate plan to pin it on a group member for expediency, with Cockrill spurred on by the fact that he is not exempt. The impossible crime, abundant motives, and sudden turns keep the reader guessing, showing Brand at the top of her game.

***** Celia Fremlin, By Horror Haunted, Faber, 2025, $15.60. First published in 1974, this collection of short stories showcases British writer Celia Fremlin’s matchless depictions of menace close to home, often involving unexpected turns and the uncanny. People trapped in their environment—frequently by loved ones—make fateful decisions, jumping from the frying pan into the fire. In “The Blood on the Innocents,” a jealous mother’s quest to humiliate a lodger with a casual parenting style embroils her in greater trouble. In “An Unexpected Talent,” a wife’s obsession with her spouse’s professional advancement leads to unforeseen consequences. In “The Sunday Outing,” a husband’s brief escape from his domineering wife spawns dark results. In the poignant “Her Number on It,” a repressed wife seeks to recapture her more adventurous youth.

***** Peter Lovesey, Best of Peter Lovesey Stories, Allison & Busby, 2025, £22.00. When British author Peter Lovesey died in April 2025, he had garnered nominations or wins for many of the major mystery awards over a fifty-plus-year career that encompassed historical mysteries, contemporary police procedurals, and other works. One of Lovesey’s strengths was short stories, and his skill and versatility are displayed to advantage in this collection. The impossible scenario receives a chilling treatment in the Kafkaesque “Youdunnit,” in which the narrator is questioned about a crime, but the narrator has no knowledge of it, no idea where he is, and no idea of the interrogator’s end game. In other stories, Lovesey’s fine sense of the ridiculous is evident in “Second Strings,” in which the henchman of an organized-crime figure experiences Keystone Kops–like complications when asked to steal a most valuable object; “A Parrot Is Forever,” in which an heir to a feathered companion encounters a dangerous criminal; and in “Agony Column,” in which a husband’s strange behavior puzzles his wife. “Say That Again” strikes a blow for marginalized older adults. A stunning twist occurs in “Popping Round to the Post” that examines a case of murder from a therapist’s point of view. “A Curious Computer” and “The Four Wise Men” are Sherlockian-inspired tales, and “Knox Vomica”—a tribute to Monsignor Ronald Knox and several other mystery writers and their detectives—is written in verse. Comments by the author offer background to the stories.

**** Mary Collins, Dead Center, Stark House, $15.95. Originally published in 1942, this sprightly mystery by the Missouri-born Collins, who ultimately produced six novels, features the levelheaded Janet Keith, who seeks to make her way as a writer after a life of privilege. She rents an office in a San Francisco building alongside artists and scribes. After a tumultuous party, Janet discovers the body of a writer, who had a predilection for blackmail, and the corpse of the writer’s unstable husband, who had caused a scene at the party. Assisted by her dog Hamish, dipsomaniac cousin Fitz, and amiable bodyguard Spike, Janet investigates the dead woman’s connections to the building’s tenants, uncovering multiple layers of misery. A building diagram assists the reader in understanding the movements of the suspects.

**** Elsa Barker, The Cobra Candlestick, Sterling Lake, $12.99. Paul Howard tries to sort out a murder while his boss, famed detective Dexter Drake, is occupied elsewhere. First published in 1928, this clever mystery by the Vermont-born theosophist Barker has an entire houseful—wife, mother-in-law, daughter, son, pianist, local doctor, and servants—that seems to have lacked opportunity to kill patriarch John Marshbitter. The opening of a library closet and a missing weapon suggest the presence of another individual, but suspicious activities by the women of the household muddy the waters. Although this sleuthing opportunity thrills Howard, he feels sympathy for the suspects and the police officer in charge, quickly realizes his limitations, and requires the dazzling intellect of the more seasoned Drake to put all the pieces together.

*** T.S. Stribling, The Clues of the Caribbees, Coachwhip, $18.95. Although Thomas Sigismund Stribling’s Southern novels, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Store (1932), tend to receive the most attention, he also wrote short stories with Ohio State psychologist and wannabe criminologist Henry Poggioli. The Clues of the Caribbees, first published in 1929, collects five short stories from 1925 and 1926 in which Poggioli travels the Caribbean. The casual racism of the white characters may be disconcerting to modern readers, but Stribling may be commenting on colonialism, as well as on the inability of science and self-satisfied whites to overcome the power of native culture. In “A Passage to Benares,” the murder of a young Hindi bride places the groom automatically under suspicion, but Poggioli thinks the puzzling facts do not add up. The whammo ending will stun readers.

** Charles Chadwick, The Moving House of Foscaldo, Sterling Lake, $12.99. After earning a law degree and serving as a deputy assistant district attorney in New York, Charles Chadwick competed in the 1904 Olympics in the fifty-six-pound weight throw, hammer throw, shot put, and tug of war, later becoming a sportswriter and short-story writer. The Moving House of Foscaldo, originally published in 1926, is one of two novels he produced. This howdunit portrays an artist caught up in the aftermath of the murders of a prostitute and a police officer, crossing paths with a beautiful young woman, a shrewd police inspector, a dicey nobleman, and a hardened criminal. An isolated island setting, a sinister windmill, and a mysterious key may attract those fond of gothic elements, but readers may find a somewhat awkward structure with past and present points of view makes the narrative uneven.