I going farther back in my "Locked Room Mystery" reading. The Mystery of the Yellow Room is referred to as a classic by Poirot in "The Clocks" and in "The Hollow Man" as the best detective novel ever.
The mystery is good. I'm not sure it's an honest mystery though. There is a a lot of reveal even after the murder is announced. That's cheating.
The problem with pure detective fiction is that the detective has to somehow always be in the right place, at the right time, to meet the right people, discover their secrets, put two and two together, and then get the guilty to spill the beans. In weaker mysteries, this can be very forced and mechanical. Sometimes the author writes like they are making shit up. I respect Christie here as she was fairly good at keeping her writing fresh, avoiding the problems, while still telling a mystery.
The Yellow Room-- did an OK job of avoiding the problems. I'll forgive it because it is so old.
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