Mon 18 Jan 2016
Reviewed by Jeff Meyerson: JOHN DICKSON CARR – The Crooked Hinge.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
JOHN DICKSON CARR – The Crooked Hinge. The Mystery Library #2, University Extension: Univ. of California at San Diego, hardcover, 1976. Introduction, with notes and checklist, by Robert E. Briney. Illustrations by Dick Connor. Originally published by Harper, US, hardcover, 1938 (shown); H. Hamilton, UK, hardcover, 1938. Reprinted many times.
The second in The Mystery Library’s series of reprints is another quality job, and the book itself is a good one. Twenty-five years before the story begins John Farnleigh was packed off to America on the Titanic. He survived and stayed in America, as he was the black sheep of the family, returning only when he inherited the family estate and title.
Now, a year later, a man shows up claiming to be the real Sir John Farnleigh. On the night the confrontation takes place to determine the impostor, the first Farnleigh is murdered. Dr. Gideon Fell, somewhat less outrageous here than usual, must determine who killed him (or was it suicide?), and why.
There is also a possible tie-in with another murder that happened a year earlier, and a number of Carr’s usual strange elements. These include an automaton based on Maelzel’s famous Chess Player, a local coven (?), and a truly bizarre solution. An engrossing book.
January 19th, 2016 at 1:40 am
I’ve not read this one since I was a teenager, so the details are very vague in my mind. What I do recall was thinking that this was one of the strangest mysteries I had ever read. (I have no idea what Jeff was referring to when he called the solution bizarre, but I am willing to wager almost anything that he is correct and it is.)
January 19th, 2016 at 3:01 pm
I think I know what Jeff meant. I assigned this novel once in a course in the appreciation of detective fiction.
January 19th, 2016 at 3:38 pm
Carr was clearly having fun writing this one with elements he dearly loved. It actually helps that Dr. Fell is a bit toned down to fit the slightly darker goings on.
January 19th, 2016 at 3:51 pm
This is one of Carr’s best books.
The solution is downright “surreal”. The genuinely strange is an important part of classic mystery fictions. Authors eschewed the banal. They wanted to take their readers to new and different places.
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