Written originally in 1892, The Big Bow Mystery is supposedly the earliest example of a full-length locked-room mystery. The action begins as one The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill wasn't the first locked room mystery ever published. That accolade goes to Edgar Allen Poe's short story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841. However the 1892 book is widely regarded as the first full length novel to feature a murder in an enclosed space where it appears there could be no possible escape for the killer. It's a story type which reached its height during the Golden Age of crime fiction, but is still much loved by authors and readers today.

Israel Zangwill (21 January 1864 - 1 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland and became the prime thinker behind the territorial movement.