THINKING OUTSIDE THE LOCKED ROOM: BILL PRONZINI'S TALES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

I never saw myself as a fan of the locked room mystery. I thought of them as more about puzzle and plot, pushing character and style aside. As if laying a gauntlet down, one of my favorite writers, Bill Pronzini, releases Tales of the Impossible, a collection of many of those stories in the genre divided into sections of stand alones and with his series characters The Nameless Detective and Quincannon. He recently put out The Hangmen & Other Western Stories that proved the range in that genre, so I decided to step out of my comfort (or snobbery) zone.

He immediately grabbed me with the first story, "The Arrowmount Prison Riddle". Told from the point of view of the title location's warden in 1916, the man has to deal with an inmate who appears to have disappeared the second after he was hung for execution. He is assisted by his drinking buddy, a mysterious pulp writer. Rich atmosphere and characterization drapes over the sharp plot. Even though the problem is solved, Pronzini leaves us with a note of mystery.

The other standalones incorporate the police procedural. In "Proof of Guilt". two police detectives deal with business politics as well as a locked office murder. A patrolman shows up his superiors working on the case of "The Half Invisible Man". A housewife works her cop husband's case while preparing his dinner in "The Terrarium Principle". A nightclub incident puts an off duty detective into service to solve a "Vanishing Act". All of the heroes are relatable and well sketched, able to fit in at Ed McBain's 82nd Precinct.

Pronzini comfortably puts his hard boiled Nameless Detective in locked rooms. He solves an odd warehouse murder where he was apart of the plan in "Where Are You Sam Spade?". "Nice Easy Job" echoes Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op tale "The Gutting of Couffignal" with him being hired to guard a room of wedding presents where.a diamond ring gets stolen and the broken window galls is on the inside of the locked room. One of the best stories, "Booktaker" has him working undercover in a rare and used bookstore where rare maps have been taken from a secured room. It beautifully captures bookstore personalities. This style of mystery shows Nameless has a brain and using him as a main character gives the locked room story some working class pathos. Pronzini is even able to toss in a harrowing car chase in one.

Pronzini seems to have designed Quincannon ex secret serviceman John Quincannon and sharp widow Sabina Carpenter, operating a detective agency in turn of the last century's San Francisco. Some of the tales have a western flavor when Quincannon goes outside the city , like the logging camp setting for "The Horse Shoe Nail" that shows of his brawn as well as brain. One story has fun testing his sobriety when looking into a brewery murder in "The Devil's Brew". "Smoke Screen" has Sabina more than proves her worth when a case with a deadline plagues him. Pronzin utilizes historical detail for engaging world building, then places the colorful dou in it for fizzy, well told yarns.

With Tales of the Impossible, Bill Pronzini demonstrates you can tell a locked room story with well defined characters and styles. The complex whodunnits give insight into how his detectives, whether police or private, work. Thanks to this collection, I will no longer avoid locked rooms.