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… from two excellent bloggers:

#797: The Tiger’s Head (1991) by Paul Halter [trans. John Pugmire 2013]
The Phantom Passage – Paul Halter (2005)

Merci mille fois!

From the noted blogger Nick Fuller, a notably less effusive, but ultimately positive, view of Paul’s work:

http://www.mystericale.com/pre-2015/index.php?issue=072&body=file&file=fuller_column.htm

John P.

I had forgotten about this article, published in the admirable Mystery*File magazine and worth re-reading. I have added it to the Articles section.

http://www.mysteryfile.com/Halter/Locked_Rooms.html

LRI readers are already familiar with honkaku mysteries through the 6 novels and collections published so far.

Caroline Crampton, the author of the Shedunnit podcasts, published the well-researched and highly informative article, the best I have seen to date, attached below. It appeared in the UK’s The Guardian on April 27, 2021. (I have had to transcribe it, for technical reasons.)
Honkaku Article

Caroline was not to know that LRI published ‘The Decagon House Murders’ before Pushkin Press (who outbid us on the renewal)

The Grandest Game writes:

Crimes in foreign climes

Short but sweet!

Aidan Brack of Mysteries Ahoy writes:

The Forbidden House by Michel Herbert and Eugène Wyl, translated by John Pugmire

Very fair. Also, for completeness, here’s the full Publishers Weekly review:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/ASINB08ZQ9Y4Q8

John P.

“An intriguing and immensely enjoyable novel with a clever locked room puzzle. Highly recommended”

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3938242660

Also, in an unpublished review, due to an ISBN snafu, Publishers Weekly writes:
“Impossible murder novels don’t get much more ingenious than this one… Fans of subtle fair play will be enthralled by this golden age classic.”

I couldn’t agree more.

The Kindle version of this great French impossible crime classic is now available:

LRI is pleased to introduce one of the great French Golden Age classics:

Rated a masterpiece by 1000 Chambres Closes, the central puzzle is one of the most baffling in impossible crime fiction: a mysterious stranger, whose face cannot be seen by the several witnesses outside the house, is introduced inside, where he murders the owner and vanishes without trace.
The several witnesses inside cannot explain what happened. A search of the house fails to find him, and the witnesses watching the outside say he could not have left. The authorities—-examining magistrate, state prosecution, and police-—trying to make sense of the clues, cannot agree amongst themselves as to the identity of the murderer…

Enjoy

John P.

The latest in a series of thoughtful and comprehensive reviews of Japanese mystery novels by Mysteries Ahoy

The Red Locked Room by Tetsuya Ayukawa, translated by Ho-Ling Wong