I'm a sucker for out-of-print, non-dust-jacket-having, old-timey mysteries. For all the masterpieces on my bookshelves, The Stingaree Murders and The Mystery at Chillery are my favorite objects. It is entirely possibly that I overrate such books because of their feel. I love when they have eighty-year-old notes written in the flyleaves. I love the discoloration… Continue reading Murder Mansion (aka House of Murder) 1934
It's time for me to take a break from John Dickson Carr. Fortunately, I can't imagine a better novel with which to pause than Death Turns the Tables. After the unfocused nonsense of The Punch and Judy Murders, here is a novel with nearly perfect construction. Every chapter builds on the previous one, adding only… Continue reading Death Turns the Tables
There's a moment late in John Dickson Carr's The Punch and Judy Murders when we are told that the earlier parts of the evening had been an adventure yarn, but now it was time for the psychological study. In other words, 2/3 of this novel was a North by Northwest/The 39 Steps hybrid, and the… Continue reading The Punch and Judy Murders
Tokuya Higashigawa's Lending the Key to the Locked Room is a humorous, rather gentle take on the impossible-crime murder mystery. It doesn't function well as a whodunnit (thanks to the paucity of suspects), but I feel as if it would be unfair to judge it on that basis. What it does exceedingly well is present… Continue reading Lending the Key to the Locked Room
Wow! John Dickson Carr's The Judas Window is a ripping impossible-crime whodunnit filled with bristling suspense and intelligence. It's the best Carr I've read since The Problem of the Green Capsule and my first unquestionable masterpiece of 2021. Believe me, I needed one! The Problem: It's the kind that's keeps you reading deep into the… Continue reading The Judas Window
