John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles [Hardcover]

Douglas G. Greene (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1995

Going behind the scenes of the theatrical, ingenious productions of the master of "impossible crime" and "locked room" mysteries, a look at the world and adventures of John Dickson Carr shows how the man and his work were one.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Readers of Golden Age mysteries will recognize John Dickson Carr as the preeminent writer of "locked room" mysteries and other ingenious puzzle mysteries. Carr's writing career began with suspense stories published in his high school newspaper and continued for more than 50 years, until just prior to his death in 1977. In addition to mystery novels-written under the pseudonym Carter Dickson and featuring series detectives Henri Barcolin, Dr. Gideon Fell, and Sir Henry Merrivale-Carr wrote radio plays, stage plays, short fiction, reviews, articles, and historical novels. Carr preferred the fantastic and the romantic to the realistic, and his preferences are reflected in his works. Greene has clearly spent many years immersed in Carr's works and here provides the reader with an insightful, critical guide to Carr's writings. Appendixes include a checklist of Carr's works. Recommended where crime fiction or biographies are collected.
Denise Johnson, Bradley Univ. Lib., Peoria, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

John Dickson Carr was one of the most prolific and popular mystery authors from the 1930s through the 1960s, writing more than 80 novels and collections of short stories, at least 200 book-review columns for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and numerous radio scripts for the BBC and CBS. Carr's specialty was the locked-room mystery, in which a crime, usually a murder, is committed under circumstances that seem utterly impossible. He believed in treating the reader fairly, within the terms of the genre: the reader is supposed to be given all the clues needed for the solution, and no supernatural or other devices are to be used. He despised the hard-boiled urban mystery, but in outlook and temperament, he greatly resembles an author whose work he hated, Raymond Chandler. Greene spends much more time in describing Carr's stories than in describing his life; Carr's alcoholism is dismissed in a few pages, and the supposition that he worked for British intelligence before and during World War II is relegated to an appendix. Despite this focus, Greene has created a solid introduction to a key figure in the history of the genre. George Needham

Product Details

• Hardcover: 537 pages
• Publisher: Otto Penzler Books; First Edition edition (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883402476
• ISBN-13: 978-1883402471
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Biography of John Dickson Carr (Carter Dickson), July 19, 2008

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This review is from: John Dickson Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles (Hardcover)

John Dickson Carr excelled at creating "impossible" crimes and then explaining how they occurred. To enjoy Carr's mysteries, you must like puzzles that have intricate solutions, and not mind that a few aspects may be difficult to follow. While Carr's solutions are clever, these mysteries were written in the 1930s to 1950s, so there may be an occasional clue that doesn't hold up in today's CSI era. Though some will disagree, Carr's most entertaining mysteries are those that feature Sir Henry Merrivale (written under the name Carter Dickson).

JOHN DICKSON CARR: THE MAN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES is the definitive biography of Carr. Fans of Sir Henry Merrivale and Dr. Gideon Fell will enjoy the excellent analyses of Carr's works, including weaknesses as well as strengths. These analyses can help you decide which of Carr's works to buy and which to avoid, though you may disagree with a few of them. (He loved "The Three Coffins" and "The Burning Court;" I disliked the former and hated the latter.) On the infrequent occasions when Greene has to reveal a surprise ending in order to make his point, he warns you with four asterisks and the next sentence in boldface, so you can skip that paragraph if you haven't read the book.

It is interesting to observe how some of what Carr wrote paralleled events in his life. Greene's biography has been criticized for treading lightly on some aspects (e.g., Carr's alcoholism). But many personal details are included, so this is at worst a minor flaw. Greene's scholarship about Carr's works is outstanding, and includes one fact I was pleased to learn: Although the bittersweet ending to "He Who Whispers" predicts the imminent death of a (single) character I really liked, Carr gave her a reprieve by mentioning her as happily married in a mystery he wrote 20 years later. Highly recommended.