Customer Reviews

The Three Coffins

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

 

 

'Three Coffins' is certainly a class act. Complete with bizarre characters, a locked room murder, magic (!), and a sleuth who knowingly outwits everyone, this book is an over-the-top, hysterical example of detective stories (by the likes of Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, Earl Stanley Gardner) adored by generations. It also has a delightfully dated 1930s London feel (think cardigans, fireplaces, smoking jackets, etc).

So snuggle up on a winter's evening, place your brain in 'suspend disbelief' mode, and enjoy this very clever yet silly story by John Dickson Carr. If nothing else it will bring a smile to your face.

In all my long experience of reading this genre (and encompassing the great names to the lesser-knowns such as Bell, Beeding, Bruce, the Coles, Gilbert, King, Masterman, McCabe, Rhode, etc.), I have never encountered so grand and so masterful a novel as this - a sheer joyful celebration of the detective novel, bearing within its hallowed pages the most famous digression upon the greatest pursuit known to literary characters: the Locked-Room Lecture. The plot is extravagant and improbable, aye, but the solution is sheer ingenuity, surpassing all other attempts at writing a detective novel. The characterisations are masterful, especially the powerful figure of Professor Charles Vernet Grimaud. The writing is excellent, and the book is, to quote the greatest detective of all time, a certain Dr. Gideon 'Gargantua' Fell: "Whang in the gold!"

This author is known as the Master of the Locked Room Mystery, and he does not disappoint his aficionados in "The Three Coffins." In fact Carr's serial detective, Gideon Fell takes a chapter off from the plot to present his famous 'locked room' lecture to a handful of long-suffering friends.

I can just picture myself with his friends after a nice lunch in the pub, throwing myself about and moaning, "Not THAT lecture again. Let's get on with the plot." All I got out of the lecture were the many ways ice and frozen blood could be used to kill someone who is supposedly alone in a sealed room.

Plus if you ask me, the murders in this book were cheats done with smoke (actually snow) and mirrors, and a clock that only the lumbering Dr. Fell had the brains to notice was incorrectly set. However, I don't read this author for his intricate murder set-ups. I read his books for their wonderfully ominous atmosphere. Here Carr does not disappoint. In "The Three Coffins," three brothers, jailed in Transylvania for bank robbery fake their deaths during an outbreak of the plague and are buried alive. The one with the shovel in his coffin digs his way to freedom, then leaves his brothers in their graves and runs off alone with the hidden bank loot.

Let's just say that the two brothers who are left behind play important roles in the murder and counter-murder many years later in London. I don't want to give away the plot, gimmicky though it is. Read "The Three Coffins" for a few good shudders.

Note: this mystery is also published under the alternate title, "The Hollow Man" (1935).

`The Three Coffins' fully bears out what I've felt about John Dickson Carr's work - his murders are often so diabolical and inexplicable that any rational explanation of them has to be somewhat of a letdown. In this case he successfully keeps the reader so focussed on the chilling circumstances surrounding the deaths that the reader barely stops to question what he/she is reading. I'm not convinced that the clue that enabled Dr Fell to overturn the apparent ordering of the facts was entirely `fair' (in that it does not give the reader a fair chance to decipher it). This sticks out as a flaw in what is otherwise a riveting read. The chapter where Dr Fell expounds on locked room crimes can be adopted as a thesis on the subject.

John Dickson Carr is one of the greatest mystery writers of all time, and THE THREE COFFINS is his masterpiece. A brilliantly plotted piece of work with a cleverly worked out deduction by Dr. Gideon Fell, who unravels not one, but two bafflingly impossible crimes. The reader is given more than enough clues to solve the puzzle, but the hints are so subtle, the plot so complex, and the red herrings so numerous, that even the most astute reader will probably be at a loss. A classic.

Fans of locked room mysteries are sure to enjoy this atmospheric, well constructed story. The clues are all right there for you but the story is so subtly crafted that you may find yourself reading it a second time.

Every clue you need to solve this well written mystery is in the book in plain sight but written so that you will probably miss them. The story is well constructed and written and pulls you in to trying to solve the crimes. Well worth reading if you like locked room mysteries.

One of Carr's best -- atmospheric and complex. Murders take place in empty streets covered with snow, unmarked by footprints other than the victim's and in a "locked" room. Dr. Fell even gives an extended lesson in impossible murders during the investigation.

This author is known as the Master of the Locked Room Mystery, and he does not disappoint his aficionados in "The Three Coffins." In fact Carr's serial detective, Gideon Fell takes a chapter off from the plot to present his famous 'locked room' lecture to a handful of long-suffering friends.

I can just picture myself with his friends after a nice lunch in the pub, throwing myself about and moaning, "Not THAT lecture again. Let's get on with the plot." All I got out of the lecture were the many ways ice and frozen blood could be used to kill someone who is supposedly alone in a sealed room.

Plus if you ask me, the murders in this book were cheats done with smoke (actually snow) and mirrors, and a clock that only the lumbering Dr. Fell had the brains to notice was incorrectly set. However, I don't read this author for his intricate murder set-ups. I read his books for their wonderfully ominous atmosphere. Here Carr does not disappoint. In "The Three Coffins," three brothers, jailed in Transylvania for bank robbery fake their deaths during an outbreak of the plague and are buried alive. The one with the shovel in his coffin digs his way to freedom, then leaves his brothers in their graves and runs off alone with the hidden bank loot.

Let's just say that the two brothers who are left behind play important roles in the murder and counter-murder many years later in London. I don't want to give away the plot, gimmicky though it is. Read "The Three Coffins" for a few good shudders.

This is the book for mystery lovers who love a locked room mystery. John Dickson Carr is the king of the locked room mystery and this is his best work by far.