Tue 1 Jun 2010
A Review by Curt Evans: JOHN DICKSON CARR – He Who Whispers.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
JOHN DICKSON CARR – He Who Whispers. Harper & Brothers, US, hardcover, 1946. Hamish Hamilton, UK, hardcover, 1946. Reprinted several times, in both hardcover and soft.
Sometimes you go back and reread an old classic that really impressed you first time out and find the magic is gone. Fortunately, that didn’t happen with He Who Whispers.
Carr’s eerie tale about the mysterious murder on top the ruined tower in prewar France that haunts a group of people in present-day, postwar England is considered by many fans today to be his single best work. I wouldn’t put it quite at the very top, but it’s certainly in the top ten.
As Doug Greene has pointed out, it effectively combines supernatural elements of his earlier work with the male-female emotional and sexual tension of his forties works. The tale is both thrilling and moving, with some greater character interest than usual.
Indeed, the character interest is arguably the strongest element of the book. I would think many readers could deduce the identity of the culprit of the book’s crimes (hey, I did), though the mechanism of the tower murder and its motive may well prove elusive. They are quite cleverly clued.
Character interest is so strong here, I felt like the presence of Dr. Fell was not really needed, though he is pretty restrained here. Still, he takes me a bit out of the story.
Other than that, there’s hard to find much to criticize. A grand work. The opening of the book, where the visiting Professor Rigaud tells the tale of the murder on the tower, and the closing section, which tales place in an evocatively portrayed blitzed London, in particular are spectacular set pieces.
Editorial Comments: This is the first of several reviews Curt has sent me following his recent (re)reading of the works of John Dickson Carr and Carter Dickson. Doug Greene, whom he mentions in this review, is the author of John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles, generally considered to be the definite biography of Mr Carr.
June 1st, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I could not agree more with this one. Carr at his considerable best, a dose of the supernatural, some deft characterizations (just enough to interest you in what happens to who and never enough to get in the way of the story), a clever plot, and Dr. Fell — for once a bit reserved.
Curt
Like you I wasn’t sure exactly why this was a Dr. Fell, other than the fact he likely owed one to the publisher, but it is a strong example of his best and shows his not inconsiderable skills. I reread THE MAN WHO COULD NOT SHUDDER last year and was pleased to see it held up well too, and if anything I enjoyed Fell’s rather high handed actions at the end more this time around than I did in my late teens when I first read it.
But this one is a good example of why Carr was a master, I don’t think anyone ever wrote the mystery novel as a game better and few half as well.
And someone has to mention Carr’s considerable skills at choosing titles. This being a perfect example. It’s really hard not to pick up a book called HE WHO WHISPERS just to see what it is about.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I fear I read this book far too long ago to have more than a few fleeting impressions of it. I’ve started my own re-reading of Carr, sort of. I finished off THE BLIND BARBER this past winter — and that’s as far as I got.
What’s unusual about BARBER is that Dr. Fell appears only at the beginning, middle and the end, with the remainder of the story being told to him by one of the participants about the sailing ship where all the action takes place, a farcial adventure that I wouldn’t consider one of Carr’s best, but Dr. Fell is in good form.
June 1st, 2010 at 3:38 pm
THE BLIND BARBER is from my least favorite Carr period, when he was writing the detective story at least partially as farce. The puzzles are still good, and Fell often brilliant, but over all the farcial period didn’t wear well with me.
Carr handles humor well, but my tolerance for this and THE ARABIAN NIGHTS MURDER is low — though in the middle of writing them he penned his classic locked room novel THE HOLLOW MAN.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
HE WHO WHISPERS is a magnificent book. The plot is clever, but what really sticks in my mind is the evocation of immediately post-war Britain; ragged and beaten, but with a strange sense of unreality. I also love the ending, which manages to be simultaneously upbeat and downbeat.
June 6th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
[…] of reviews he wrote as a result. He Who Whispers was the first to appear, and you can read it here. […]