As a book nerd AND lawyer, I really enjoy overcomplicating what words mean. I also struggle to think of a true LRM I’ve read. (All I can think of are riddles, most of which involve ice as the answer!) I definitely love CCMs.
I think that maybe the distinction matters more if you're *writing* than if you're reading. If you're wanting to write an LRM, then you have to stay in that lane. I read Foley's Guest List and it was perfectly enjoyable. I like the closed circle mode for the reasons Ware mentions: there's less room for that deus ex machina TA DA, which so often wrecks a perfectly good story. Ruth Ware's books are great -- I thought Zero Days was big fun & nicely twisty. The mytery set at Oxford -- The It Girl, I think-- was also really good. An LRM, but in a flashback form.
1. I really enjoyed Evelyn Hardcastle, and it's closed-circle, but certainly not locked! In fact, the whole crux lies in the many times the narrator relives the day and gets to visit other rooms and areas!
2. YOU LIVE ON AN ISLAND I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS I've always been FASCINATED by real people who live in more remote places and how that is on a day-to-day, regular life basis!
As a book nerd AND lawyer, I really enjoy overcomplicating what words mean. I also struggle to think of a true LRM I’ve read. (All I can think of are riddles, most of which involve ice as the answer!) I definitely love CCMs.
I think that maybe the distinction matters more if you're *writing* than if you're reading. If you're wanting to write an LRM, then you have to stay in that lane. I read Foley's Guest List and it was perfectly enjoyable. I like the closed circle mode for the reasons Ware mentions: there's less room for that deus ex machina TA DA, which so often wrecks a perfectly good story. Ruth Ware's books are great -- I thought Zero Days was big fun & nicely twisty. The mytery set at Oxford -- The It Girl, I think-- was also really good. An LRM, but in a flashback form.
1. I really enjoyed Evelyn Hardcastle, and it's closed-circle, but certainly not locked! In fact, the whole crux lies in the many times the narrator relives the day and gets to visit other rooms and areas!
2. YOU LIVE ON AN ISLAND I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS I've always been FASCINATED by real people who live in more remote places and how that is on a day-to-day, regular life basis!
Highly recommend checking out Gigi Pandian's work on Locked Room mysteries. She literally wrote the book on them.