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Rim of the Pit (An American Mystery Classic) Hardcover – October 17, 2023

by Hake Talbot (Author), Rupert Holmes (Introduction)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 40 ratings
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The cult classic mystery that John Dickson Carr hailed as “a marvel of ingenuity.”

“I came here to make a dead man change his mind.”

So begins a creepy and unusual mystery celebrated to this day as one of the greatest “impossible crime” novels of all time. When a family’s promise to protect the beloved pine grove of their dead father creates a financial strain, a seance is suggested to summon the ghost of the late logger and ask its permission. A mixed group of skeptics and believers convene at a snow-bound lodge to call the spirit with a group that includes a gambler, a businessman, a clairvoyant, a professor, and a refugee, among others. With so many diverse interests at the table, the tensions run high ― but when one of the participants ends up dead, there is reason to suspect that a nefarious spirit is to blame. 

The body is discovered in a locked room, impenetrable from the outside ― just one of many bizarre and inexplicable circumstances surrounding the scene of the crime. There is also the trail of footprints in the snow, beginning and ending amid a field of untouched powder; another on the roof, with the tracks leading for a short distance before vanishing into nothingness; and, there are fingerprints on a gun suspended at an unreachable height…

Supernatural undertones and eerie atmosphere clear away in the third act to present a logical conclusion to the case, teasing out the clues and murder methods that unscrupulous readers may have missed. With its off-beat exposition, puzzling plot and exceptional prose, Rim of the Pit is a cult classic of the Golden Age era deserving of a wide audience today.

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  1. Part of series
    An American Mystery Classic
  2. Print length
    240 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    American Mystery Classics
  5. Publication date
    October 17, 2023
  6. Dimensions
    5.6 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1613164645
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1613164648
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hake Talbot is a pen name of the American writer Henning Nelms (1900-1986). Nelms reserved his real name for writing non-fiction about showmanship (his chief occupation was as a stage magician), but wrote several mysteries and stories under the Talbot moniker. He is best remembered today for his impossible crime novel, Rim of the Pit.

Rupert Holmes has received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, and multiple Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his Broadway mystery musicals, including the book of Curtains and his sole creation, the Tony Award–winning Best Musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He has adapted Agatha Christie, John Grisham, and R.L. Stine for the Broadway and international stage. His short stories have been anthologized in such collections as Best American Mystery Stories, Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop,and On a Raven’s Wing. Holmes’s earliest story-songs were published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and he is also the writer/vocalist of several Billboard Top 10 hits, including his Billboard #1 multi-platinum classic with a memorable twist-ending: “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).”

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ American Mystery Classics (October 17, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1613164645
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1613164648
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 40 ratings

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Hake Talbot

Hake Talbot

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
40 global ratings
Can ghosts commit murders? And can murderers fly?
5 Stars
Can ghosts commit murders? And can murderers fly?
A snowbound group of people in the north woods must deal with a supernatural killer unleashed by a seance they hold. Locked rooms and impossible murders seem to be explainable only by believing that the dead can come back to take revenge on the living. Footprints that begin and end in the middle of unbroken snowfields, the appearance of a Wendigo that can swoop down on its victims, someone killed by someone possessed by a dead man -- these are some of the puzzles adventurer Rogan Kinkaid is faced with in this classic whodunit/howwasitdun. (Also worth seeking is Talbot's first novel with Kinkaid, "The Hangman's Handyman." Not as atmospheric as "Rim," it features a nice puzzle concerning an ancient curse.)
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Top reviews from the United States

Robb Russon
5.0 out of 5 stars A "Closed Room" classic
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2014
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I've read this book many times since it came out in 1944. One of the classic "closed room" mysteries that has never died an early death. If you like something light and a bit scary, This is a good one for a cold winter night before the fireplace. This re-print even has the original map drawing that appeared in the first edition for putting things in proper order.
4 people found this helpful
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Patto
4.0 out of 5 stars Suspect number one is a malevolent ghost
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023
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It seems undeniable that the ghost of Irene Ogden’s first husband must have killed her. Only a ghost could have gotten into the locked bedroom and escaped into thin air — not even leaving a footprint in the snow.

Irene Ogden is a medium, and her current husband wants her to conjure up the spirit of her dead first husband to clear up a business arrangement! She’s afraid to do this — for good reason!

Irene’s murder will not be the last in the isolated snowbound wilderness lodge. Nor will it be the end of the weird happenings that unnerve all the guests.

One of the guests is a Czechoslovakian conjurer who looks like a mummy. Another is a professional gambler, an attractive adventurer who’s determined to get the better of the ghost.

It’s easy to see why John Dickson Carr admired this spooky 1944 crime novel. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The author wrote books on stage craft magic, so the magical elements in the narrative feel very authentic.
3 people found this helpful
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Chris S.
3.0 out of 5 stars Not an Undiscovered Gem
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2024
Touted as an unheralded Golden Age classic with a ubiquitous favorable quote from John Dickson Carr, this mystery falls short of Carr’s best by quite a bit. With snowbound atmospherics on par with Carr’s typical windy-foggy-misty murder settings, the novel features a medium on thin ice with her second grumpy husband (the first being a potential malevolent ghost), a Bela Lugosi-like magician (from Transylvania with a cape as well) who happens to debunk mediums, a professor from the University of Virginia who waffles between belief and disbelief in ghosts so often that you begin to doubt his credentials as a professor, and several young, somewhat frisky protagonists who seem more at place in a 1960s’ novel than a 1944 novel with a fascination on getting past the “pink-silk-pantie stage.”

While the reveal of the panties has to wait, the reveal of the mystery is so far-fetched that it leaves the reader viewing the novel as a whole as a tongue-in-cheek exaggeration of the mystery tropes of the time and undoing itself in the process. Believability is at the core of any good solution to a mystery, and that’s where this book falters, along with character development, when compared to Carr. Much like the vacillating approach to the existence of ghosts or ghost murders by the professor, the mystery moves from firm to ghostly footing after the mid-point mark and then never recovers; I can only imagine some readers’ eye rolls or exasperation at the final explanation. So I would recommend this book more for those interested in tension created through atmospherics rather than a believable mystery with a rewarding ending.
One person found this helpful
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M. Ross
5.0 out of 5 stars More Hake Talbot available
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2005
There is at least one additional Hake Talbot Rogan Kincaid novel, Hangman's Handyman, which you might be able to find, and a Rogan Kincaid short story in the impossible crime short story collection Murder Impossible (1990), which is well worth hunting up for a number of "lost" mystery stories. Enjoy.
6 people found this helpful
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Gregory
4.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric, but a little confusing
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2022
"Hake Talbot" was the pen name of stage magician Henning Nelms. He wrote two mystery novels featuring the gambler Rogan Kincaid. This, the second, is often regarded as one of the greatest impossible crime novels of all time; in a 1981 poll conducted by Edward Hoch (himself a major name in the subgenre), it ranked second, after Carr's The Hollow Man. For whatever reason, having written his masterpiece, he could not get further work published, other than two short stories. At least some editions of Rim of the Pit include one of the short stories, "The Other Side."

The central premise of the novel is that a small group of people, in an isolated house in the wilderness, perform a seance; they are attempting to contact a dead man for very matter-of-fact reasons having to do with lumber rights. Although most of the seance is quickly shown to have been faked, it is capped off by a series of seemingly inexplicable supernatural phenomenon, ultimately leading to a seemingly impossible murder. The atmosphere is top notch, and the supporting cast is well-drawn; the conjurer Vok is so good that Talbot used him again in "The Other Side." I'm less sold on Kincaid himself; we're told how exceptional he is, but he doesn't really do anything special during the body of the novel, so the last chapter, where he explains everything, comes a bit out of the blue. I also confess that I couldn't follow the entire explanation; it's very intricate for my tastes.

This novel does include a malignant "half-breed" who has sexual designs on a White female character, and has dialog like "W'y for she be fright'? I tol' her me tak' care of her. Wit' me, anwan she's safe." Getting indignant at racism in 1944 genre fiction may be kind of quixotic, but it is a blemish.
6 people found this helpful
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the shadow
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2015
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cover art stinks. content ok
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Carlton Rahmani
2.0 out of 5 stars A Drawn Out Chore and Overall Disappointment
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2013
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Maybe I've watched too much Scooby Doo, or am bored by the obviousness of chapters written as serials, or have am too 'ADHD' to be enthralled by pages of dialogue devoted to sparse plot. . .or was never a big enough fan of Clue. But this book was a CHORE to plow through. More than a few times I was tempted to just skip to the end, just to get the point--kept fighting this until, finally, I did.
I really regret saying that I was disappointed, because I spent a long time--like years--trying to track down a what I had heard was a really great book. (Call me an 'esotericist', but my interest in a matter increases geometrically when I realize that it's hard to come by.)
If you like the kind of murder mystery where everyone sits around and guesses as to how something happened, and where everyone is revealed to be a suspect of some kind or another, all of whom having motives which are revealed, but then going at length to describe how it's still not possible they're the one, then you'll like this book. I found it dull.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mike Gorman
3.0 out of 5 stars A rural setting complete with snow prints
Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2022
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A rural setting, tightly bound by two snowbound cabins, enhances a closed-in backdrop to the atmosphere. A range of clues and dead ends flower following a death, perhaps by supernatural murder. Enjoying the ride to solutions is challenged by a parade of dialogue with mini-speeches, making for a difficult flow, adding to the thematic challenge as a good thing or not. The crime solver's pedestal is not much above that of other characters.
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Perceptive Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a locked-room mystery, but so much more!
Reviewed in India on August 14, 2016
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The Setting:
New England wilderness, where a séance is taking place to “change the mind of a dead man”, while wind howls and snow smothers everything around to death.
The Events:
First the medium, who is also the owner of the place that had become the zone of contention, dies, apparently at the hands of her long-dead husband, whose departed soul was being approached during the séance.
She is followed by her husband who, until his death, appeared to have been possessed by the said long-dead first husband of the woman.
The Others:
Two women and several men, all of whom may or may not possess deeply unsettling secrets.
The Mystery:
One murder takes place in a room from where there were no signs of escape, unless the murderer levitated.
Next one resulted in the murdered person lying at a place surrounded by virgin snow.
The Solution:
For that you have to read this book.

Yes, it’s a satisfying piece of neat writing, with striking characters, subtle mixing of sexual & romantic tension, bone-chilling horror, and stark landscape. Above all, the solutions(s) provided by the protagonist at the end ties up everything rather satisfactorily.
Also, it has a bonus story that deals with the solving of another seemingly impossible crime.

And you are still waiting for reasons to read this book??

Highly Recommended, obviously.
2 people found this helpful
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Adam August Zbyszewski
4.0 out of 5 stars The ending ruined it
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2022
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I was inclined, and happy, to give this book the full marks until the ending spoilt it all. Rim of the Pit by Hake Talbot is the number 1 locked-room mystery, higher on the list than any other work in the same vein. Ironically, that might be the problem here. It's possible that the people compiling that list were fascinated by how complex the mystery was here. That's the snag, though: it was too complex, too convoluted to be thoroughly satisfying in the end. Plus the way everything was explained was boring and "mathematical". I was so disappointed because until that time (the last chapter) it was a great read and I was actually thinking of a conclusion that would have been much more likeable and gratifying. What a shame. I'm even inclined to think that it would have been better in the end if everything had been explained by some supernatural elements and the novel had been a proper horror story.
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Tamal Ghosal
5.0 out of 5 stars second best locked room mystery of all time
Reviewed in India on June 17, 2014
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this novel was voted as the second best locked room mystery of all time in a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers. the first being the hollow man by john dickson carr.. this tells a lot about the book and its merit.
One person found this helpful
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J. W. D. Robinson
4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Barmy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2020
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While this is held up as one of the greatest "Locked Room" crimes novels ever written, and it is certainly one you should read, be aware that it is quite simply an insane read. There are "impossible" crimes and events in every chapter it seems, and some are explained quite quickly and simply while others require more complex unravelling. The characters are, for the most part, bonkers and I will not describe them. You have to read it: but do expect to every so often (and especially in the final explanation) be thinking... "that's ridiculous", "you would never really do that though" and "how could you not see that it is just a..." etc. This book is huge fun, but very difficult to take seriously.
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