I haven’t read anything by John Dickson Carr in many years, but I remember reading his famous “impossible crime” novel THE THREE COFFINS when I was in high school. I was sick at the time, and this book did a great job of distracting me. I read several more of Carr’s novels after that but then drifted away from his work, as I did with most of the Golden Age of Detection authors.But I’ve become more interested in that sort of mystery novel again recently, so I picked up several of Carr’s books. THE EIGHT OF SWORDS is the first one I’ve read in this go-round. It’s an early novel of his, originally published in 1934, and features his best-known series character, Dr. Gideon Fell, who was the detective in THE THREE COFFINS and the other Carr novels I read long ago.
This one features Fell investigating a murder at the guest house of an English country estate. I don’t recall Carr as being a particularly humorous writer, but this one is full of comedy, so much so that it seems in places more like a satire of a Golden Age detective novel. It’s full of eccentric characters like a booze-guzzling mystery novelist and his wife, who banter like a British Nick and Nora Charles; a bishop who fancies himself a criminologist; a sleazy lawyer; and an American gangster. The title refers to a Tarot card found with the body, one of what turns out to be a veritable slew of clues. I like the fact that the book is pretty fast-paced. All the action takes place in a single day – and I use the term “action” loosely, because for most of the book that consists of people sitting around talking. Carr’s skill with words makes the pages flip pretty quickly, though, and toward the end of the book there’s some genuine action and suspense. I don’t mind admitting that I didn’t have the killer spotted at all. The plot is very complicated, but Carr plays fair and all the clues are there. Dr. Fell is a fine detective and a colorful character.
I gather that Carr aficionados aren’t very fond of this book and consider it a minor work. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though, and plan to read more of his novels soon, so I guess I’ll see for myself how it fits in.
2 comments:
Among the boxes in my basement is one full of books by John Dickson Carr. They are very cerebral in appeal and I don't think much of an audience for them exists any more, or indeed for many of the Golden Age of Detection writers beyond Agatha Christie.
As you mention in your account of this one, they consist very largely of people talking. They have little physical action of the kind demanded in hardboiled PI thrillers and westerns.
By the sound of it, THE EIGHT OF SWORDS has more in common with the books Carr wrote as "Carter Dickson", and which always appealed to me more as a youngster since comedy and eccentricity were the keynotes. They featured Carr's other detective -- the great Sir Henry Merrivale, or "H.M."
I flip open the top book in my box at random and the first para that hits me is this:
"What d'ye mean, I can't keep my temper?" bellowed H.M., with his eyes bulging behind the spectacles and a rich purple colour suffusing his face. "I'm known for the utter imperturbality of my temper on any and all occasions. . . "
From your comments on satire and skill with words, it sounds to me as though EIGHT OF SWORDS might be more in this vein.
As well as his acclaimed "locked room" stories, Carr also wrote some good historical mysteries, e.g. SCANDAL AT HIGH CHIMNEYS: "In Victorian London's squalid backstreets, a nightmare hunt for a murderer."
Incidentally, Dr Fell was said to be based on G. K. Chesterton; H.M. on Churchill!
I've been reading more "Golden Age" type stuff lately, including THE MURDER AT THE WAXWORKS, featuring Carr's first detective, Parisian policeman Henri Bencolin. It was pretty good, too.
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