Customer Reviews

Captain Cut-Throat (Carr, John Dickson)

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Captain Cut-Throat is an enjoyable historical whodunit/adventure which has all the elements one expects from the novels of John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson): fast-paced narrative, delicious humour, playful sexyness and, of course, locked-room mysteries. Nevertheless, it is not among the most typical of Carr's works, as it is one of his few historical adventures (of which the best is probably The Devil in Velvet, set in the Victorian England and featuring early Scotland Yard). Swordplay and general swashbuckling and romancing actually seem take more importance than solving the murder puzzles. While Napoleon's armies are getting ready to cross Channel and invade England, a ghost-like murderer begins to stalk soldiers and guards of the invasion army. A young British spy is blackmailed by the French secret service to uncover the murderer.

An adventure / espionage thriller set during the Napoleonic Wars, and on the eve of the invasion of Britain. Plenty of tension and action, including a splendid scene at the Field of Balloons, and a lightning-fast and razor-sharp duel of wits between the hero and Joseph Fouché culminating in the staggering revelation of Captain Cut-Throat, but there is far more riding and rescuing than ratiocination, so the book does not really compare with the more detection-oriented historical novels.