Tue 14 Dec 2010
A Review by Tina Karelson: JOHN DICKSON CARR – He Who Whispers.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[11] Comments
JOHN DICKSON CARR – He Who Whispers. Harper & Brothers, US, hardcover, 1946. UK edition: Hamish Hamilton, hc, 1946. Reprinted many times, in both hardcover and paperback, including International Polygonics, 1986. (Cover art: Roger Roth.)
Gideon Fell is amusingly absent-minded in this eerily atmospheric novel set in London in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War:
This description of the iconic London railway station is the height of the book’s achievement. The solution to the murder, which took place in pre-war France, is also very clever, and there’s a well-made philosophical point to the story about how easily facts can be interpreted differently depending on how one wants — or has been influenced — to see them.
Unfortunately, melodrama and coincidence dominate these finer points. And the psychological point of view is so absurd it must have been ridiculed even when in vogue. A ladylike female character’s fate is tragic because she “had to have men.”
This continues on page 136 with, “In women so constituted — there are not a great number of them, but they do appear in consulting rooms —the result does not always end in actual disaster…” The murderer is neurotic and weak, dominated by his father, and at the same time terribly clever and cruel.
Whatever the clinical facts of nymphomania and neurosis, they’re overblown here to a degree that undermines the narrative.
December 14th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Steve, you might want to edit this one with a spoiler warning. Probably most regulars here have read the book, but others might not have!
That said, SPOILER WARNING!
On the point about the psychology of Fay’s nymphomania, Carr’s take is very similar to that offered by J.J. Connington in the 1938 detective novel “For Murder Will Speak.” The idea is that Fay’s fate is tragic because she is a “good” (or “straight” as Connington puts it, using a word apt to be misinterpreted today) “girl” driven by her compulsion to seek out numerous sexual partners. It’s not something she really wants to do. In modern parlance I suppose we would call her a sex addict or sexaholic. I suppose if one were driven against one’s true desire to have indiscriminate sex with people, it could be seen as tragic, or at least a personal inconvenience!
I do think it’s funny, though, in these books that you never have male nymphomaniacs, so the speak (I just looked this up: male nymphomania is called satyriasis! Who even knew that?). I think the view was that a man having indiscriminate sex with as many women as possible was a…man.
As I recall Carr doesn’t really explain why Fay’s like she is. A modern crime novel on the same subject would be three times as long and have her whole personal life history I suppose. Heck, I’ve probably just described most of the Ruth Rendell novels of the last 25 years!
On the plausibility of Carr’s choice of murderer, well, lack of plausibility is often a charge made against the Golden Age style mystery, the idea being that the given murderer would never have been so clever. That seems to me an inherent challenge in the mystery of ingenuity (rather than the modern, prosaic mystery of credibility).
December 14th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
As nearly as I can place it, I probably read this book when I was 12 or 13. I find it amusing to consider, from Tina’s review and your comments, Curt, how much of this book I might not have understood.
Your reference to Ruth Rendell I also found amusing. Perhaps because it’s true?
December 14th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
I hope Tina reviews The Big Sleep next. If there’s a detective novel with a supremely “quirky” nymphomaniac, it’s that one!
December 14th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Hmmm, The Big Sleep is my favorite novel, but I’ve never written about it in review form or any other form. I feel a reread coming on!
That’s an excellent point about how different a modern crime novel with a similar character would be. More analytical, less sensational, but perhaps a bit tiresome?
December 15th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Well, scratch that. I just realized that I actually did write a review of The Big Sleep in one of my first zines for DAPA-EM, about 6 years ago. Still, it’s time for another reading.
December 15th, 2010 at 2:26 am
Tina, who is the thumb-sucking nymphomaniac sister in that one (Carmen?). Wow, she was scarier than any vampire, or pseudo-vampire!
Have you read a lot of Carr? He definitely can be pretty melodramatic at times, but oh! so ingenious. Have you read The Burning Court (forgive me for asking all this, we haven’t been properly introduced!)? That’s the one with supposed witchcraft.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:46 am
I love HE WHO WHISPERS for all the reasons Tina seems to dislike it. I think it’s one of Carr’s best. I read these kind of books because as much as I want to be able to figure out the mystery and identify the killer I think I really I want to be stumped or fooled. And with this one Carr definitely tricked me.
There are certain elements of Golden Age era detective fiction I am willing to overlook, but definitely not forgive. With Carr I have always been interested in his bizarre plots and his sense of farce (moreso writing as Carter Dickson). He also said quite often that realism had no place in mystery fiction. He essentially wrote fantasies. I imagine that nowadays there could be a slew of feminist interpretations of Golden Age fiction that would condemn the entire genre for backward and naive portrayals of female characters.
While I was willing to excuse the histrionics and “psychology” in this book there are some aspects of the “overblown” in characterization that I am unwilling to let go by in other writers’ works. I am often infuriated by ignorant portrayals of gay men and lesbians in Golden Age fiction. Ellery Queen’s books are littered with insulting stereotypes. Sax Rohmer wrote three books where the villains are described in terms that insinuate they are lesser men and describe them as “repulsively effeminate.” Howard Brown as John Evans wrote a notorious book with a ludicrously stereotyped lesbian villain that he admits he is embarrassed by these days. There is also a book called THE SHADE OF TIME that has a laughable explanation of a transvestite’s “psychology” that reveals the author knows nothing about the difference between a man who dresses as a woman and a man who prefers men as sexual partners. I could probably write an entire book about that topic.
December 15th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
That latter description sounds like Queen’s silly The Last Woman in His Life (though I guess that was only plotted by Dannay).
It’s interesting how little interest academia has shown in Carr’s books, even though he was one of the best and most highly-regarded genre authors of the period and he has had a first-rate biography! But I can’t think of a single academic since Greene’s which is fifteen years old that has attempted to integrate him in a serious way into analyses of the period.
I agree that He Who Whispers is one of his best books. For me the biggest failing was the presence of Fell, a character I’m not too crazy about. I thought the atmosphere was so strong (like The Burning Court) that Fell was superfluous. At least he was pretty subdued here.
I spotted the murderer but certainly not the explanation of the tower death.
December 15th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Yes, Carmen is the thumb-sucker. (“‘You ought to wean her. She looks old enough.”‘)
I read a fair amount of Carr 20+ years ago, including The Burning Court, I think. 17th century? Time travel? I remember liking it. I love Golden Age mysteries, but I read more of them in my teens and 20s than in the past couple of decades.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
My only qualm about He Who Whispers is the whopping coincidence regarding the identity of the murderer. However this doesn’t keep if from being my very favorite Carr work (the second being the very underrated Till Death Do Us Part, which has far less implausibility).
September 12th, 2021 at 9:32 am
[…] Who Whispers has been reviewed, among others, by Curtis Evans at Mystery File, Tina Karelson at Mystery File, Curtis Evans at The Passing Tramp, Nick Fuller at The Grandest Game in the World, Mike at Only […]