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The John Dickson Carr Omnibus |
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| The John Dickson Carr Omnibus by John Dickson Carr Allison & Busby 728pages, March 2000 ISBN 0749004282 Reviewed by our UK Editor Rachel A Hyde In his day, John Dickson Carr was as well regarded as Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. Since then, his contemporaries have gone on to become household names while he remains largely forgotten. He wanted to write like his idol G. K. Chesterton, and even modelled two of his detectives on him. Yet he forged a style that was uniquely his own, and although it has been copied since (David Renwick in his Jonathan Creek stories admits to trying to emulate him), it has never been bettered. Carr's style is hard to categorize. It is a blend of intricate detective story (he invented the "locked room" type of mystery), uproarious slapstick humor that actually works, and a sinister ambience that is a small step away from the actual supernatural. His villains tend to be of the worst type, psychopathic and evil, in a casual manner that makes them difficult to guess and chilling when revealed. This is a heady mixture and the author has made it work in over eighty novels. The first story Hag’s Nook concerns an 18th century prison where members of the Starberth family are doomed to die of broken necks according to an old curse. Young Martin Starberth is about to come into his inheritance but is instead murdered after he has to spend time in the abandoned prison to fulfill the terms of the will. Enter Dr. Gideo Fell, most popular of Carr’s three sleuths, to solve a tangled puzzle of how it could have been accomplished and to prevent the body count from rising higher. This story introduces the delightfully flamboyant detective who crashes through the tale, entertaining the reader and putting it all together. For a taste of Carr’s famous creepy ambience and his genuine love for his adopted country, this is an excellent example of the writer at his spooky and baffling best. The Mad Hatter Mystery takes place at the Tower of London, where a mad hat thief makes headlines. Somebody is found murdered with an antique crossbow bolt shot through them and a top hat on their head. A stolen manuscript by Edgar Allan Poe complicates the case and Dr. Fell is on hand to solve it. As before it is interesting how Carr, an American by birth who came to live in Britain, sees the British and a unique institution like the Tower. The Eight of Swords is a tarot card and is one of the items found in the study of Septimus Depping when he has been murdered. Somebody had come to see him, had calmly eaten his dinner and now they too are dead. Nobody liked this man. Even his daughter has always lived abroad. But why was he thought to have been entertaining gangsters? Another baffling case for Dr. Fell to solve. This shows yet again how Carr can construct a tortuous labyrinth of a puzzle but still lead to a conclusion where everything dovetails into place and makes sense – a thing many less adept writers fall down on. The John Dickson Carr Omnibus comes with an introduction by Douglas G. Greene who is thought to be the leading authority on John Dickson Carr. This volume contains over 700 pages of sheer reading pleasure. |
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