Wynne, Anthony - The Room with the Iron Shutters (1929/30)

Review by Mike Grost

The Room with the Iron Shutters (1930) is a minor impossible crime novel. Its locked room idea derives directly from Israel Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery (1891), so it is hardly a landmark in the genre. More creative are some of the medical mystery ideas. Wynne seems to have invented new medical conditions, as well as new drugs to treat them, and woven this into his plot and solution. This concern with new, imaginary medical drugs with strange properties also pops up in other Bailey school writers, such as J.J. Connington. I am of two minds about all this. On the one hand, Wynne's plot has a certain satisfying symmetry and ingenuity, in dealing with these imaginary chemicals and their effects. On the other, it seems like a complete violation of fair play. There is no way that any reader could have predicted such new substances or their effect. So the solution of the mystery seems to be arbitrarily made up. A mystery writer could "explain" just about anything by making up some imaginary medical syndrome out of whole cloth. A tale like this in fact approaches science fiction. A better writer might have carefully explained the syndrome during the exposition, thus playing fairer with the reader. Readers can experience most of Wynne's plot by reading the opening, Chapters 1-5, and the solution, Chapters 25-29.

In response to Mike Grost's observations above I would say that Wynne elaborated on the medical condition which, in fact, does exist.  It's just that he exaggerated one of the side effects of the medical condition for the purposes of his story.  And the treatment is not invented either.  Research proved to me that both the condition and its early treament were completely valid.

So much is dismissed in the above review.  The novel as a whole is a lot more to offer for an assiduous reader. For a different take on this book - which I happen to think is the most successful, readable and entertaining of all the Wynne books I have read - visit the Pretty Sinister Books blog.  If most people enjoy the fanciful elements in Carr's books why be so disparaging of this one?

J F Norris

http://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2011/07/ffb-room-with-iron-shutters-anthony.html