Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is one of the great English detective mysteries., July 19, 1998
By A Customer
This book has been described by the English writer, Martin Amis a not only a classic of the English detective novels, but a book of great merit in its own right. It is set in the Thirties, in an English country house, and brings together the impossible murder, the sinking of the Titanic, and an eighteenth century automaton. The atmosphere was described by the New York Times as "A masterpiece of eerie skill." It is Gideon Fell at the height of his deductive powers, against the nostalgic background of a golden Kent summer. Amis wrote, "The explanation is simple and entirely plausible, but you would just not think of it."
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They thought they had a ship the water couldn't get through, February 13, 2005
This mystery stars John Dickson Carr's gargantuan, shovel-hatted detective, Dr. Gideon Fell and takes place in England between the world wars. All of the characters act suspiciously, including the true and false heir to the extensive Farnleigh estate (and the title that goes with it), their two lawyers, the butler, Lady Farnleigh, and assorted family friends. The reader has many reasons to suspect each character in turn after the murder (or was it suicide?) of one of the two competing heirs. The only person who might be able to tell whether the true John Farnleigh died or still lives is his tutor, Murray who happens to have taken a thumb-o-graph of young John before he was sent away to America to live with a distant relative.
John wasn't the heir, but the black sheep of the family when he was packed off to Colorado via the spanking, new ocean liner, 'Titanic.' He was thought to have died when his ship sank on her maiden voyage, but after his older brother dies without issue, not one but two John Farnleighs show up within a year of each other to claim the family estate and title. The first one to appear marries John's childhood sweetheart and settles down to manage Farnleigh.
Then up pops John Farnleigh #2, one of the competing heirs dies, and someone steals Murray's thumb-o-graph. The reader is beset with conflicting stories and clues, when Dr. Fell finally lumbers onto the scene with his shovel-hat, swirling cape, and crutch-headed cane. He figures out who killed whom right away, but the reader is left grasping at hints (some of them pretty darn subtle - I think Carr cheats a little on this mystery) until the final denouement, which involves that fateful night when the 'Titanic' went down.
As always with this author, the eerie, suffocating atmosphere surrounding a mysterious death is tinged with an aura of the supernatural. "The Crooked Hinge" features devil worship and a horrible old eighteenth-century automaton called, 'The Golden Hag.' Her sinister appearances alone make this a novel worth savoring, and Carr also provides a meticulously plotted mystery (although I could do without a few of his great detective's tics and his refusal to blab out the name of the murderer as soon as he figures out whodunit. And what the dickens is a shovel-hat?)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Leave The Lights On., May 29, 2007
John Dickson Carr's mysteries are fantastic. This one in particular.
In Farnleigh Close in England lived Sir. John Fairleigh and his
wife, Molly. But, wait a minute, was he the real Sir John Fairleigh?
A man who claims to be the true Farnleigh comes to see Sir John, with
his lawyer and wants to lay claim to the estate. Dr. Gideon Fell of
Scotland Yard is called in to try to determine who is who. then many bizarre events unfold and to put it mildly left me scared to death.
I read this at night and had to turn all the lights on. I know i oculd
have waited til the next day in the light of day but this book was
such a chiller I could not put it down.
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