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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Dialog, Interesting Characters,
By
This review is from: Death Watch (Paperback)
Another review posted here is in error. It is not a review of this book. I do not know what happened, but . . . .Death Watch by John Dickson Carr is one of the most intricately plotted who-done-its that I've read in a while. A policeman is murdered after midnight in a darkened house. The murder weapon is the hour hand of a large hall clock. The hands of the clock had been stolen from the same house two nights before. Carr assembles a good group of suspects. Some own the house, others are visitors or lodgers in the house. Carr challenges the reader by amassing detail that the reader is expected to remember, and also, by changing direction just when the reader is beginning to think a suspect is the likely killer. This novel is from the 1930's -- 1935, to be exact -- and thus comes to us from the golden age of detective fiction. The years of the "Black Mask" magazine, and the era of detective writers such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Carr was one of the masters. One senses considerable quality of writing here. Carr is a master of dialog, and uses this skill to bring his characters to life. One engine driving the book is the constant bickering and disagreement between Inspector Hadley and Dr. Gideon Fell, both of Scotland Yard. Hadley is something of a straight man, and a foil for Dr. Fell. Inspector Hadley is an experienced and reasonably intelligent policeman, but is somewhat plodding and not very imaginative. Dr. Fell, to the contrary, is highly intuitive and strikes deductions that at times rise to brilliance. What seems so obvious and clear to Inspector Hadley -- and to the reader most of the time -- is soon shot down and debunked by Fell's unerring analysis. The whole is great fun. Carr's mysteries often have a strong dash of the "gothic flavor." Spooky houses, secret passages, bizarre appearances and disappearances, sinister characters, the trappings of superstition -- the works! If you enjoy such effects, it's just one more source of enjoyment. I highly recommend the book. However, it is somewhat demanding. I would not try to read it while half asleep, nor would I begin the book and then lay it aside for several days. Without a real effort to concentrate, it is difficult to remember all the characters, clues, relevant details, or twists of plot. Many people must be willing to put forth the effort because the John Dickson Carr mysteries continue to be popular many years after the author's death. Patrick Callahan
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Golden Age mystery author doesn't cheat his readers,
By E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Death-Watch (A Dr. Gideon Fell Mystery) (Paperback)
"Death Watch" was first published in 1935, in the midst of a golden era for both John Dickson Carr and British mysteries in general. Dr. Gideon Fell, Carr's gargantuan serial detective, actually comes across as human in this novel, not just a creature of snorts, tics, and coy half-sentences.
The plot is extremely intricate and it took me a couple of plunges into the book to really get going. First I had to sort out the characters at Mrs. Steffins' boarding house. There were quite a few pairs among her boarders: two glamorous young women; two eligible young men; two middle-aged men plotting a perfect murder. Once I figured out who everyone was, it was possible to choose my suspect and read right along to the denouement. You can judge the complexity of the plot by the fact that it takes two long chapters at mystery's end to explain how the murder was committed and by whom. As usual in a Carr mystery, my suspect was not the murderer although I stuck faithfully to him through thick and thin. Hint: don't trust anyone, even (or most especially) a character with an iron-clad alibi or an eye-witness who could vouch for him or her at the time of the murder. A Scotland Yard detective is stabbed to death with the minute hand of a clock while snooping around Mrs. Steffins' boarding house at midnight, on the trail of shop-lifter who had stabbed a department store detective to death when she was caught stealing jewelry. The two middle-aged boarders were overheard plotting to murder Detective 'Busy' Ames by shooting him, but he was stabbed to death before he could enter the door to the apartment where they were lurking in wait. One of the young men happened to be on the roof of the boarding house, watching the two plotters through the skylight when the murder occurred. He tumbles off of the roof when he sees a horrible creature, hands dripping with gilt, emerge from behind a chimney stack. The other young man awakens from a drunken stupor the next morning, and finds a gilt-stained woman's glove in his bathrobe pocket, with a key to the roof stuffed into one of its fingers. Dr. Gideon Fell and his friend, Professor Melson happen to wander into Mrs. Steffins' boarding house shortly after Detective Ames was stabbed to death, and the humungous detective is soon off and running (well, stumping) on what his friend, Chief Inspector Hadley called 'The Case of the Flying Glove.' "Death-Watch" is stuffed with odd bits of lore about the history of watch-making, and the Spanish Inquisition. It has a very elaborate plot, and a lot of characters clamour for the reader's attention at the beginning of the book, but the author doesn't cheat on the clues, so it presents a fair challenge for mystery-lovers.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Among Carr's Best,
By
This review is from: Death Watch (Paperback)
Much of his work is now forgotten, but during his lifetime John Dickson Carr was regarded as among the finest of mystery novelists, a writer who counted both Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers among his many fans. Unfortunately, the 1935 DEATH-WATCH, featuring Carr's favorite sleuth Dr. Gideon Fell, is among the writer's less interesting works.
The story concerns the discovery of a presumably homeless man who appears to have stumbled into a respectable boarding house--only to be stabbed through the neck with the minute hand of a enormous clock. Carr was greatly celebrated for his wit, his skill at description, and his knack for ringing changes on the classic "locked room" format, but none of these three gifts are seen to any degree in this particular novel, which comes complete with everything from roof-top meetings to secret passages. The whole thing reads like a lesser effort by Mary Roberts Rhinehart. In spite of these flaws Carr does manage to finish up with a remarkable solution that will surprise most readers--assuming, of course, that they haven't been worn out by the book before they get to the end. Worth reading, but not one of Carr's best. GFT, Amazon Reviewer In memory of Cujo, 1992-2005 An Orange Cat and a Dear and Faithful Companion, Greatly Missed
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