"Worthless Little Articles"

"The Locked Room."

By Peter Lovesey (1936-2025; Wikipedia HERE; the SFE HERE; the ISFDB HERE; and the IMDB HERE, 6 credits).

First appearance: Winter’s Crimes 10, 1978.

Other reprints:

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March 1979, as "Behind the Locked Door."

  Ellery Queen’s Crime Cruise Round the World, 1981, as "Behind the Locked Door."

  Top Crime, 1983.

  The Best of Ellery Queen, 1983, as "Behind the Locked Door."

  Butchers and Other Stories of Crime, 1985 (today's text).

  Murder British Style, 1993, as "Behind the Locked Door."

Short story (15 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 193).

   "They want to believe it. That's the secret of all the best confidence tricks."

THE possibility of getting rich quick seems to be a universal aspiration, penetrating even into a small shop on Leadenhall Street . . .

Principal characters:

~ Frank Braid, Detective Inspector Gent, Norman Messiter, and Miss E. D. (in absentia).

References:

(Note: All links are to Wikipedia.)

- "Chubb mortice" (HERE).

- "a glover's" (HERE).

- "displays of Marlboro country" (HERE) "and the pure gold of Benson and Hedges" (HERE).

- "took out a torch" (HERE).

- "old boys' tie" (HERE).

- "at Scotland Yard" (HERE).

- "I’m a philatelist" (HERE).

- "Rowland Hill" (HERE).

- "the Penny Black" (HERE) "and the Twopence Blue" (HERE).

- "the Personal Column" (HERE).

- "in the Blitz" (HERE).

- "this side of Lloyd's" (HERE).

- "Blue chip investments" (HERE).

- "they want to believe it" (HERE); "confidence tricks" (HERE).

Resources:

- We've highlighted Peter Lovesey's work a couple of times: A review of Bloodhounds (HERE) and a tribute anthology in his honor (HERE). 

- ONTOS has noted how philately and criminality sometimes intersect: "Stamping Out Crime" (HERE), Nelson S. Bond's "Shall Stay These Couriers . . .'" (HERE), and H. Bedford-Jones's "Clancy, Detective" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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