Ten top locked-room mysteries

Adrian McKinty's novels include Dead I Well May Be, Fifty Grand, Falling Glass, and the Detective Sean Duffy novels:The Cold Cold Ground, I Hear the Sirens in the Street), and the newly released In the Morning I'll Be Gone. Born and raised in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, McKinty was called "the best of the new generation of Irish crime novelists" in the Glasgow Herald.

He named his top ten locked-room mysteries for the Guardian, including:

The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr (1935)

Someone breaks into Professor Grimaud's study, kills him and leaves, with the only door to the room locked from the inside, and with people present in the hall outside the room. The ground below the window is covered with unbroken snow. All the elements are balanced just right in this, the best of Dickson Carr's many locked-room problems.

Read about another entry on the list.

Visit Adrian McKinty's blog.

See McKinty's list of the 10 best lady detectives.

The Page 69 Test: Fifty Grand.

--Marshal Zeringue