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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Farfetched But Entertaining,
By
This review is from: To Wake the Dead (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. Although he wrote novels featuring various detective heroes, the most memorable by far is the rotund Dr. Gideon Fell, and the 1938 TO WAKE THE DEAD finds the erudite detective up to his constant quotations in the sort of "locked room" mystery for which Carr was so famous.
Wealthy young Christopher Kent has undertaken a bet: that he cannot work his way from South Africa to England without recourse to his own bank account. With less than twenty-four hours left before he can reveal himself and win the bet, Kent arrives at a London hotel he knows, hoping to scam a meal--only to find himself trapped in a room with a half open trunk and a dead woman's body. Already a bit farfetched, the novel's next twist will likely strike readers as very farfetched indeed, and the "real time" style in which the book is written is a form that Carr does not carry quite as well he might. Even so, Carr brings the entire thing up with a good solution, and the book is an enjoyable read. Not among the first rank of Carr's work, but reasonably entertaining just the same. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't worry about the man with "a hole or something where his eyes ought to be," standing in the shadows behind you.,
By E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: To Wake the Dead (Dr. Gideon Fell Mystery) (Paperback)
After arriving in England, a man and his wife on vacation from South Africa are murdered several days apart, and in separate locations. The husband goes first, and even though he is murdered in a country manor, a hotel attendant in a natty jacket with silver buttons is spotted leaving the crime scene.
The same hotel attendant appears near the wife's death scene in a ritzy London hotel. The fact that the hotel attendant had showed up at the first murder, where he didn't belong was what really baffled me about this mystery. If I had been the widow, I would have avoided hotels like the plague, especially those where the attendants wore navy jackets with silver buttons. But she didn't, and my favorite suspect was in jail at the time of her murder. Of course, nothing is quite as it seems in a John Dickson Carr mystery. He plays fair and if you assume that there is really no such thing as a 'locked room' you'll soon be hallooing merrily down the murderer's trail. I suspected everyone in turn, even the murder victims, since Carr made a point of saying that their faces had been smashed in. The narrator of "To Wake the Dead" (1938) is a young mystery writer, Christopher Kent, who works his way from South Africa to England after a friend bets him he couldn't travel a step without his rather hefty bank account. He arrives in London well after the murder of his cousin, Rodney and manages to blunder into the hotel room where Rodney's wife has just been killed. Christopher spends the rest of the novel arguing about the murders with Carr's serial detective, Gideon Fell (someone has to) and trying to figure out why his Communist girl friend seems to despise him (I think he deserves a much nicer fiancée). There is Carr's signature denouement where the real murderer is exposed, but not before Christopher is almost killed in a very creepy scene in the graveyard next to the manor house. This is an atmospheric between-the-wars English mystery, full of false suspects and almost-locked rooms. Draw the blinds, pull up a comfy chair in front of the fireplace and try not to spend a lot of time worrying about the hotel attendant with "a hole or something where his eyes ought to be," standing in the shadows behind you.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Red herrings and almost-locked rooms,
By E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) The same hotel attendant appears near the wife's death scene in a ritzy London hotel. The fact that the hotel attendant had showed up at the first murder, where he didn't belong was what really baffled me about this mystery. If I had been the widow, I would have avoided hotels like the plague, especially those where the attendants wore navy jackets with silver buttons. But she didn't, and my favorite suspect was in jail at the time of her murder. Of course, nothing is quite as it seems in a John Dickson Carr mystery. He plays fair and if you assume that there is really no such thing as a 'locked room' you'll soon be hallooing merrily down the murderer's trail. I suspected everyone in turn, even the murder victims, since Carr made a point of saying that their faces had been smashed in. The narrator of "To Wake the Dead" (1938) is a young mystery writer, Christopher Kent, who works his way from South Africa to England after a friend bets him he couldn't travel a step without his rather hefty bank account. He arrives in London well after the murder of his cousin, Rodney and manages to blunder into the hotel room where Rodney's wife has just been killed. Christopher spends the rest of the novel arguing about the murders with Carr's serial detective, Gideon Fell (someone has to) and trying to figure out why his Communist girl friend seems to despise him (I think he deserves a much nicer fiancée). There is Carr's signature denouement where the real murderer is exposed, but not before Christopher is almost killed in a very creepy scene in the graveyard next to the manor house. This is an atmospheric between-the-wars English mystery, full of false suspects and almost-locked rooms. Draw the blinds, pull up a comfy chair in front of the fireplace and try not to spend a lot of time worrying about the hotel attendant with "a hole or something where his eyes ought to be," standing in the shadows behind you.
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