Customer Reviews

Hag's Nook

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of John Dickson Carr's best books, this novel introduces Chestertonian detective Dr Gideon Fell. Although it does not have an "impossible crime", like many of his other titles, this is more than made up for by the magnificently cold and creepy atmosphere, the loving description of rural England and the shock revelation of the murderer's identity. Anyone who loves either mystery novels, or ghost stories, or both, should enjoy this one.

The corpulent lexicographer, Dr. Gideon Fell, first appears in Hag's Nook (1933), one of John Dickson Carr's earliest novels. Residing in the small village of Chatterham, Dr. Fell has apparently already developed a reputation for his eccentricities as well as for his remarkable deductive skills. Supposedly, Carr patterned Dr. Gideon Fell after the oversized, exuberant author, G. K. Chesterton, famed creator of the Father Brown mysteries.

The story centers around a local aristocratic family, the Starberths, notorious for having in centuries past carried out the executions at Chatterham Prison, now a ruined structure perched on an overhanging ridge known as Hag's Nook. The eldest son in each generation must spend a night alone in the Governor's Room in the prison to inherit the family estate. This time, however, tradition ends in death.

The best of Carr's novels come later, but Hag's Nook is nonetheless a good tale that helped establish his early career. It is typical John Dickson Carr in that the setting has haunted overtones, the mystery involves a "locked room", and Dr. Fell utilizes intuition, logic, and deductive skills, rather than forensic science.

As with many Golden Age mysteries (roughly 1920-1945), the focus in Hag's Nook is the puzzle and its solution. The solution is explained in detail in the final chapter, not unlike an Ellery Queen mystery. I found the solution to Hag's Nook to be unexpected (always the case with John Dickson Carr), but even more surprising I found the solution to be plausible.

I like Carr's mysteries. They move along at a good pace, are always intriguing, and are difficult to set aside even for few moments. The problem with John Dickson Carr is that his solutions are often overly complicated and even implausible to the extreme. On occasion Carr's solutions even rely on clues only partially revealed earlier. Carr does play by the rules in Hag's Nook and the solution is indeed fair. Hag's Nook makes a good introduction to John Dickson Carr, undoubtedly the foremost writer of locked room mysteries.

Although he is little known today, in the 1930s John Dickson Carr was consider the greatest of mystery writers, and he counted both Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers among his many fans. Although Carr published a few earlier novels, in 1933 he struck gold with HAG'S NOOK, in which he introduced Dr. Gideon Fell--a character who would rival both Hercule Poroit and Lord Peter Wimsey in popularity for more than a decade.

Like many Carr novels, HAG'S NOOK is tinged with elements of the supernatural. The novel presents us with the Starberth family, whose family fortune was built several centuries earlier on ownership of a English prison--a prison so brutally managed that the family is said to be cursed. And inheritance of the fortune is dependent upon a strange requirement: on the night of his twenty-fifth birthday, the heir must spend a full hour alone in the office of the now abandoned prison, which is widely rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of the many who died there. The prospect daunts Martin Starberth, the current heir--and his anxiety fuels the anxiety of his sister Dorothy, the young American visitor Tad Rampole, and Rampole's host Dr. Gideon Fell. And indeed, they have good reason to be anxious, for the hour's vigil brings unexpected death.

In reading HAG'S NOOK, I understand why Carr is considerably less well known today than many of his contemporaries. The plot is pure slight-of-hand, a variation on the "locked room" mystery that attracted so many writers in the 1920s and 1930s. It reads as "tricksy" in an old-fashioned sort of way, and I found myself unable to work up much enthusiasm for it. On the other hand, Carr proves himself an extremely atmospheric writer, able to capture both setting and character in remarkably graceful prose, and he leaves you feeling that if indeed such an unlikely series of events could really happen... they would happen precisely like this.

I would not really recommend HAG'S NOOK to readers who are only casually interested in the mystery genre, for they are likely to be more than a little dissatisfied. But if you enjoy tracing the roots of the modern mystery, reading Carr is a must--and I give HAG'S NOOK four stars on style alone.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

'Hag's Nook' marks the first appearance of John Dickson Carr's iconic detective Dr. Gideon Fell. Here he solves the mysterious death of Marin Starberth. The Starberth family has traditionally been the wardens of Chatterham prison, where inmates were frequently hanged at Hag's Nook. The prison has long since been abandoned, but it is still the tradition that the male heir spends the night of his 25th birthday in the governor's office overlooking Hag's Nook. It is also 'tradition' that Starberth's die of broken necks. It is up to Dr Fell to separate fact from superstition in solving the circumstances behind Martin Starberth's death.

Although John Dickson Carr is famous for so-called 'locked room mysteries', he is also noted for the seemingly supernatural circumstances of his mysteries. 'Hag's Nook' is a good example of the latter.

This book is set in a small town, and features a very unorthodox detective. The fact that there is a curse on the family, and the dark story of the place where the murders are comitted, make a perfect atmosphere for this mystery/horror book. Carr's best book is "The Three Coffins"