Customer Reviews

The Case of the Constant Suicides

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I read this book a few years ago.This book is one of my favorites of all his novels. This is a masterpiece of '40 mystery novel and it has its unique flavor.The scene in which a murder happens is a lony castle in Scotland.This murder also belongs to the so called "impossible"crime that no one dares to reason out why such unbelievable murder case could happen in our real world. And the main charcters are simply three person.The old man who occupies the old castle and his daughter and her lover. As there are few characters you would think it is easy to find who is the murderer.But not at all.That is the power of his craft. The scene is wildy like a description in a novel "Wuthering Hights".Carr's description of the scenery is always remarkbly outsupassing.He makes a scenery never forgettable. I think this book is one of his three greatest of Dr.Fell series with "the three coffin" and "the crooked hinge".

"The Case of the Constant Suicides" (1941) is a fun read and one of the author's more interesting mysteries--three men die and the reader must determine who committed suicide and who was murdered. This book is very much of a howdunit as well as a whodunit. Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell, galumphs into view about a third of the way through, after one man is already mysteriously deceased. Old Angus Campbell meets his end after plunging out of the window of his locked tower bedroom. The door has to be broken down in order for the deceased man's bedroom to be examined. The only unusual object in the tower room is an empty animal carrier, its wire-mesh door tightly shut.

Professor of history, Alan Campbell and his second cousin Kathryn Campbell meet on the train taking them to Scotland and immediately dislike each other. Too bad, because they are forced to share a sleeping compartment on the crowded, blacked-out train. They bicker all the way to the Castle of Shira at Inverary where Angus had jumped or was forced from his bedroom window the previous week.

Here they meet the insurance agent, the Castle's lawyer, and Angus's brother Colin arguing about whether Angus was murdered or done himself in. Carr's serial detective, Dr. Gideon Fell wheezes and chuffs through the castle like an off-the-track steam engine, dropping mysterious hints as he goes. Colin decides to spend a night in his brother's former bedroom, just to lay rumors of ghostly goings-on, and he too defenestrates himself.

When a third man is found hanging in a locked fishing cabin, Dr. Fell sorts out the murder and attempted murder from the suicide, rewards the innocent, and sets a murderer free if only he will sign a fake confession.

John Dickson Carr takes a turn to heavy-handed humor in "The Case of the Constant Suicides." Most of the roistering is caused by a malt whiskey called 'the Doom of the Campbells.' A pesky American newspaperman is drenched, shot at, and hunted from the castle grounds whenever the Doom is flowing through the inhabitants of the castle.

This isn't my favorite Gideon Fell mystery--for one thing, I'm not sure the murder weapon is really quite as effective as the author seems to assert--but it was fun to read. There were more smiles than shudders, which suits me fine.

There were airstrike warnings. Alan Campbell, professor, found his sleeping compartment on the train to Glasgow. Campbell was involved with another person of the same name in a dispute currently lining the letters pages of an historical journal. He met his adversary, a woman as it turned out, on the train. Unwillingly they had to share the compartment since there had evidently been a mistake in the booking of the train and no other seats were available. They were both going to the Castle Shira. A distant cousin, Angus Campbell, had been murdered. By accident they took a journalist named Swan with them to the castle, they had believed that he was also someone distantly related to Angus.

Angus would not have committed suicide, he had insurance policies with suicide clauses; nevertheless, it seemed that he could not have been murdered, either. Angus had had a common law wife, but she was so filled with the idea that she must be respectable that she had probably filched Angus's diary to prevent others from seeing his private musings and discovering his relationship with her.

Not finding the diary impeded the investigation of Dr. Fell and others called to the scene. Amusingly a journalist, a lawyer, and an insurance agent were all present to sort out the details of Angus's death. In the course of their highly interesting stay at the castle, the two Campbell cousins become interested in each other to a great degree. Two other men encounter danger and the death of one ensued and the near death of the other occurred prior to the ultimate unraveling of the mystery.

The story is clever and highly satisfying to the reader. The Scots atmosphere is delightful.

Certainly not one of the more difficult JDC locked room mysteries. It's perfectly possible to solve how the crimes were committed... but putting your finger on the criminal may be more difficult than you realize at first. However, regardless of whether you're stumped from the get-go or whether you successfully navigated to the solution, The Case of the Constant Suicides is a fun, light read that does not overstay its welcome. Typically, I hate in-book romances. They always seem forced and hackneyed, but for whatever reason, I didn't mind the one in Suicides... maybe because JDC didn't take it seriously, made it obvious from the beginning how the relationship would end up, and made as much fun out of it as possible. Heck, just about everything in the book is incredibly fun, especially the interplay between the characters, who are, I have to say, flat as playing cards, but immensely amusing.

A charming and entertaining "puzzle" or "locked room" mystery. It is less dated than many of his other books.

"The Case of the Constant Suicides" (1941) is a fun read and one of the author's more interesting mysteries--three men die and the reader must determine who committed suicide and who was murdered.

This book is very much of a howdunit as well as a whodunit. Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell, galumphs into view about a third of the way through, after one man is already mysteriously deceased. Old Angus Campbell meets his end after plunging out of the window of his locked tower bedroom. The door has to be broken down in order for the deceased man's bedroom to be examined. The only unusual object in the tower room is an empty animal carrier, its wire-mesh door tightly shut.

Professor of history, Alan Campbell and his second cousin Kathryn Campbell meet on the train taking them to Scotland and immediately dislike each other. Too bad, because they are forced to share a sleeping compartment on the crowded, blacked-out train. They bicker all the way to the Castle of Shira at Inverary where Angus had jumped or was forced from his bedroom window the previous week.

Here they meet the insurance agent, the Castle's lawyer, and Angus's brother Colin arguing about whether Angus was murdered or done himself in. Carr's serial detective, Dr. Gideon Fell wheezes and chuffs through the castle like an off-the-track steam engine, dropping mysterious hints as he goes. Colin decides to spend a night in his brother's former bedroom, just to lay rumors of ghostly goings-on, and he too defenestrates himself.

When a third man is found hanging in a locked fishing cabin, Dr. Fell sorts out the murder and attempted murder from the suicide, rewards the innocent, and sets a murderer free if only he will sign a fake confession.

John Dickson Carr takes a turn to heavy-handed humor in "The Case of the Constant Suicides." Most of the roistering is caused by a malt whiskey called 'the Doom of the Campbells.' A pesky American newspaperman is drenched, shot at, and hunted from the castle grounds whenever the Doom is flowing through the inhabitants of the castle. This isn't my favorite Gideon Fell mystery, but it was fun to read--more smiles than frissons of terror.

Gideon Fell is the most brilliant detective of all time. I just want to say that first off. Second, this is the shortest, and most fun Dr. Fell novel. Gideon Fell heads off to Scottland, to slove why or if Angus Campbell jumped to his death. At first, it seems to be an open and shut case of suicide.

Then, his brother, Dr. Colin Campbell attempts to jump to his death. Then, long time Campbell enemy, Alec Forbes, kills him self by hanging. All of the people kill them selves behind locked doors, where no one could get to them. Dr. Fell, with Alan and Kathryn Campbell in tow, looks for an answer among the dead.

...in the sense that, like all of his mysteries, it is intricately, fairly, and most bafflingly plotted. What separates this Carr book from most of his fine mysteries, at least for me, was how amusing the more or less usual rowdy misbehavior of some of the characters was, and how well drawn the B-plot romance was. These elements are very often present in Carr mysteries, but are executed with particular excellence in this book, to the extent that they almost offer more pleasure than the central chilling and puzzling mystery, which is almost always far and away the great pleasure of reading Carr. The WW2 homefront context is nicely drawn too and adds quite a bit of tension, with blackout windows and the threat of bomber raids lurking in the background.

Carr's most popular (I suppose) detective, the historian Gideon Fell, is in good form in this book, convincingly brilliant and eccentric as well as amusing--though not in the over-the-top way that he (and his doppleganger Sir Henry Merrivale) sometimes descended into. Carr mysteries are usually experienced through the eyes of a less brilliant narrator/ assistant to the detective, clearly so that we as readers would share their awe at the superior insight and deductions of the great man, much as we had to experience Nero Wolfe through Archie's eyes, and Holmes through Watson's. If Holmes, Wolfe, or Fell narrated their own books, what mystery or suspense could there be--we would know all much too quickly! And fortunately in this book Fell's "Watson," a Canadian college professor, is lively and intelligent in his own right, and is thrown together with an at least equally lively and intelligent female professor and rival/ love interest. Carr's "Watsons" were at times ciphers who added nothing to the atmosphere or interest of the books in which they appeared, but that is decidely not the case in this typically, and more than typically, fine mystery.

"The Case of the Constant Suicides" (1941) is a fun read and one of the author's more interesting mysteries--three men die and the reader must determine who committed suicide and who was murdered. This book is very much of a howdunit as well as a whodunit. Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell, galumphs into view about a third of the way through, after one man is already mysteriously deceased. Old Angus Campbell meets his end after plunging out of the window of his locked tower bedroom. The door has to be broken down in order for the deceased man's bedroom to be examined. The only unusual object in the tower room is an empty animal carrier, its wire-mesh door tightly shut.

Professor of history, Alan Campbell and his second cousin Kathryn Campbell meet on the train taking them to Scotland and immediately dislike each other. Too bad, because they are forced to share a sleeping compartment on the crowded, blacked-out train. They bicker all the way to the Castle of Shira at Inverary where Angus had jumped or was forced from his bedroom window the previous week.

Here they meet the insurance agent, the Castle's lawyer, and Angus's brother Colin arguing about whether Angus was murdered or done himself in. Carr's serial detective, Dr. Gideon Fell wheezes and chuffs through the castle like an off-the-track steam engine, dropping mysterious hints as he goes. Colin decides to spend a night in his brother's former bedroom, just to lay rumors of ghostly goings-on, and he too defenestrates himself.

When a third man is found hanging in a locked fishing cabin, Dr. Fell sorts out the murder and attempted murder from the suicide, rewards the innocent, and sets a murderer free if only he will sign a fake confession.

John Dickson Carr takes a turn to heavy-handed humor in "The Case of the Constant Suicides." Most of the roistering is caused by a malt whiskey called 'the Doom of the Campbells.' A pesky American newspaperman is drenched, shot at, and hunted from the castle grounds whenever the Doom is flowing through the inhabitants of the castle. This isn't my favorite Gideon Fell mystery, but it was fun to read--more smiles than frissons of terror.

"The Case of the Constant Suicides" (1941) is a fun read and one of the author's more interesting mysteries--three men die and the reader must determine who committed suicide and who was murdered. This book is very much of a howdunit as well as a whodunit. Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell, galumphs into view about a third of the way through, after one man is already mysteriously deceased. Old Angus Campbell meets his end after plunging out of the window of his locked tower bedroom. The door has to be broken down in order for the deceased man's bedroom to be examined. The only unusual object in the tower room is an empty animal carrier, its wire-mesh door tightly shut.

Professor of history, Alan Campbell and his second cousin Kathryn Campbell meet on the train taking them to Scotland and immediately dislike each other. Too bad, because they are forced to share a sleeping compartment on the crowded, blacked-out train. They bicker all the way to the Castle of Shira at Inverary where Angus had jumped or was forced from his bedroom window the previous week.

Here they meet the insurance agent, the Castle's lawyer, and Angus's brother Colin arguing about whether Angus was murdered or done himself in. Carr's serial detective, Dr. Gideon Fell wheezes and chuffs through the castle like an off-the-track steam engine, dropping mysterious hints as he goes. Colin decides to spend a night in his brother's former bedroom, just to lay rumors of ghostly goings-on, and he too defenestrates himself.

When a third man is found hanging in a locked fishing cabin, Dr. Fell sorts out the murder and attempted murder from the suicide, rewards the innocent, and sets a murderer free if only he will sign a fake confession.

John Dickson Carr takes a turn to heavy-handed humor in "The Case of the Constant Suicides." Most of the roistering is caused by a malt whiskey called 'the Doom of the Campbells.' A pesky American newspaperman is drenched, shot at, and hunted from the castle grounds whenever the Doom is flowing through the inhabitants of the castle. This isn't my favorite Gideon Fell mystery, but it was fun to read--more smiles than frissons of terror.