Any fans of the genre on here? It's something I've only discovered recently and have to say I rather enjoy it, so much so that my latest novel attempt even features one.
I don't know much about it, but I would think it's a derivative of chamber dramas (is that the right term?), where a group of people from very different walks of life are trapped in a high-pressure situation (often a locked room or stranded on an island together or in a lifeboat) and they get to fighting about what course of action they should take. And if any one of them wins that argument it means devastation for several others. I think this is largely how the locked room mysteries go, but with a detective ferreting out clues and discovering who dunnit. Maybe they're not called chamber dramas. There were several movies like this made in the 50's and 60's including at least 2 set in a lifeboat, one made by Hitchcock. I believe his was actually called Lifeboat, or maybe the other famous one was. They both were called Lifeboat apparently, and Hitch's was from 1944. Still looking for info on whatever that kind of story is called.
The locked room mystery and chamber drama might share some similarities. A locked room mystery usually, but not always, involves a murder. The murder or other dastardly crime is committed in circumstances which are seemingly impossible for a perpetrator to have committed and then evaded detection for.
I'm not finding anything about what I'm calling chamber dramas. It might have come from theatre, since it would be perfect for a small stage and not require many set changes (I'm sure locked room detective stories would also be excellent for theatre). I might have run across the idea originally in a playwriting book like Lajos Egri or On Filmmaking by Mackendrick. It bugs me that I can't find anything online, as if some of the older knowledge is disappearing. I'll see if I can find anything by flipping through those books. If not I'll either give up or go into one of my super-determined obsessive quests. Can't find it and I'm giving up. It isn't that important, and I think I said enough already about it
OP, I'd be interested to know some of your favorites since even the well-written ones have always come off as contrived and improbable to me. That being said, the stereotypical locked-room scenario plays a very important (and hilarious) role in Douglas Adams' Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
That's my worry in the piece I'm currently writing but I'd like to think the solution makes a degree of sense and is relatively grounded. As for locked room mysteries, the two I've read most recently are from the same author; Adrian McKinstry. In The Morning I'll Be Gone and Rain Dogs.
To follow up on this, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in hearing my locked room problem and giving me feedback and pointing out problems with the execution and solution.
I'm not the OP, but a classic is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. I do a pretty decent job of figuring out who dunnit, but this one floored me.
