What are your favourite books by John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson)? The topic came up while re-reading The Crooked Hinge, a title that regularly turns up in lists of the author’s best works, though few think it as ‘perfect’ a performance as say The Hollow Man or The Judas Window. Blessed with one of the most intriguing titles of any Golden Age detective story, the PuzzleDoctor and I have decided to jointly take a closer look at it. Our decidedly varying view(s) appear over at his blog, In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel while below I consider what my favorite Carr titles are … and would like you to participate by contributing a list of your top 10 book by the master of the impossible crime.
““I’ll tell you what it is, gentlemen,” said Elliott, “it’s an absolutely impossible crime” – from The Crooked Hinge
I have my own top 10, which I am listing right at the bottom of the this post – but first, here are some lists of ‘best of Carr’ prepared by some very famous people indeed, where Crooked Hinge features prominently. In a poll undertaken in 1981 by Edward D. Hoch on behalf of the Mystery Writers of America, 17 authors (including Jack Adrian, Barzun, Jon L. Breen, RE Briney, Jan Broberg, Ellery Queen, Douglas Greene, Howard Haycraft, Hoch himself, Marvin Lachman, Richard Levinson & William Link, Bill Pronzini, Julian Symons and Donald Yates) were asked to come up with a list of their favourite locked room mysteries: Crooked Hinge was voted as the fourth best locked room mystery of all time. Here is their top 10:
- The Hollow Man (US title: The Three Coffins) by Carr
- Rim of the Pit by Hake Talbot
- The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
- The Crooked Hinge by Carr
- The Judas Window by Carr (as ‘Carter Dickson’)
- The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill
- Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson
- The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen
- Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher
- The Ten Teacups (US title: The Peacock Feather Murders) by Carr (as ‘Carter Dickson’)
Otto Penzler recently wrote about his favourite locked room mysteries to coincide with his new anthology, The Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries (you can find it here), and gave a rundown of some of his favourite Carrs:
- Below Suspicion
- The Bride of Newgate
- The Burning Court
- Castle Skull
- The Crooked Hinge
- Death-Watch
- Fire, Burn!
- He Who Whispers
- The Lost Gallows
Do you have a favourite or three that you would like to share with us? There are lots and lots of great titles to choose from!
Carr wrote contemporary mysteries featuring Henri Bencolin, Gideon Fell and Henry Merrivale (when writing as ‘Carter Dickson) and most are locked room / impossible mysteries. However, he also wrote many historical mysteries. Indeed Carr was perhaps the first to really popularise the form with The Burning Court, The Devil in Velvet, The Bride of Newgate et al. He also wrote dozens of fantastic radio plays too. One can of course include novels as well as short story collections (including The Department of Queer Complains, The Men Who Explained Miracles and The Third Bullet and other stories) as well as Douglas Greene terrific posthumous anthologies The Door to Doom, The Dead Sleep Lightly, Fell & Foul Play and Merrivale, March & Murder.
I’d love to know what your top 10 Carr books are – I have all his books listed on my website under his two main publishing names, if you need to be reminded of some of the titles:
The books as by John Dickson Carr
The books as by Carter Dickson
The PuzzleDoctor has compiled his own top 10 and here it is, with the fabulous short story ‘The House In Goblin Wood’ added as the next item on the list if I weren’t focussing on books / collections rather than individual stories:
The PuzzleDoctor’s Top 10 books by John Dickson Carr
1. The Hollow Man
2. The Burning Court
3. The Judas Window
4. The Black Spectacles
5. The Case Of The Constant Suicides
6. She Died A Lady
7. Till Death Do Us Part
8. He Who Whispers
9. The Nine Wrong Answers
10. Murder in The Submarine Zone (aka Nine – And Death Makes Ten, aka Murder in the Atlantic)
But I have delayed, dallied and misdirected quite enough – drum roll please, here are my top 10 John Dickson Carr titles (for today). Wasn’t an easy choice and I might change my mind again after some feedback! Glad to see how many the PuzzleDoctor and myself agree upon – in chronological order (yes, I know, it’s a cheat …):
The Fedora’s Top 10 books by John Dickson Carr
- The Hollow Man (1935; aka The Three Coffins)
- The Burning Court (1937)
- The Ten Teacups (1937; aka The Peacock Feather Murders)
- The Judas Window (1938)
- The Emperor’s Snuffbox (1943)
- She Died A Lady (1943)
- He Wouldn’t Kill Patience (1944)
- Till Death Do Us Part (1944)
- Fire, Burn! (1957)
- The Door to Doom (1980) edited by Douglas G. Greene
Do you agree? I’d love to have your choices and create some sort of consolidated reader’s poll. So please let me know what your Carr favourites are and I promise to publish a full list of the results.
Oh, and I submit my Crooked Hinge review (published over here) for Bev’s 2014 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Challenge bingo in the (of course) ‘locked room’ category:
Tipping My Fedora 
I am sure I read some of Carr’s books in my early mystery reading, but don’t have memories of specific books. So I cannot participate with a list. But it is nice to see these favorites all together in one post, to use as a guideline when I give his books a try again. Great post, Sergio.
Thanks TracyK – I feel strongly that you should remedy this soon, however … 🙂
What an interesting undertaking, Sergio! Thanks to you both for doing this.
Thanks Margot – you’ve got to give us your top 10 though, you have to!
My list is as follows. For a proper representation, I include 3 Fell, 3 Merrivale, 1 Bencolin, 1 non-series, 1 historical and 1 short stories.
He who whispers (Fell)
The hollow man (Fell)
Till death do us part (Fell)
The Judas window (Merrivale)
She died a lady (Merrivale)
My late wives (Merrivale)\
The lost gallows (Bencolin)
The Emperor’s snuff-box (non-series)
Fire, burn ! (historical)
The door to doom (short stories )
Fantastic list Santosh, thanks very much and great to see that we agree on so many (and furthmore, I disagree with none).
The Man Who Could Not Shudder
NIne and Death Makes Ten
The Peacock Feather Murders
To Wake the Dead
He Who Whispers
The Men Who Explained Miracles
The Case of the Constant Suicides
Below Suspicion
The Three Coffins
The Lost Gallows
Thanks Bev – very glad to see Below Suspicion make the list as it is so often ignored (some peopel absolutely loathe Patrick Butler).
Not averse to him myself – might take another look at … For The Defence
There was a fair bit if emnity on a discussion forum that quite surprised me …
I should add that these are base entirely on my limited reading–I have yet to make it through all of Carr’s books….
Definitely something to look forward to Bev (I actually have a few unread ‘in reserve’ in fact) 🙂
Regarding The Crooked Hinge, I have given my comments in Puzzle Doctor’s blog.
Thanks Santosh – I shall return the favour there too!
I read all the books once upon a time, but since I can’t remember which were my faves, I can’t participate either, Sergio. But one thing I do know, I loved CASTLE SKULL. Your post makes me realize I’m going to have to reread lots of these – well, it will be as if I’m reading them for the first time, so I have that to look forward to.
Thanks Yvette – and I shall definitely put you down that one 🙂
Great! I love lists!
1 The Hollow Man (though I think I prefer Three Coffins as a title)
2 The Judas Window
3 The Plague Court Murders
4 The Nine Wrong Answers (the first Carr I ever read)
5 The Problem of the Green Capsule
6 The Burning Court
7 The Red Widow Murders
8 The Crooked Hinge
9 It Walks by Night (I like Castle Skull for atmosphere but the convoluted geography of the castle is mark against it for me)
10 Death in Five Boxes
That was tough actually.
Fantastic list Colin (and I know exactly what you mean about geography – sort of stuff that can really stump me in a book as I just don;t have that sort of brain). And marvellous to have The Nine Wrong Answers, (a title I almost included but want to re-read first), which incidentally started off as the terrific radio play ‘Will You make a Bet with Death?’, which you can download from here.
Excellent, I’ve never heard that – will have to give it a listen later.
Thanks for the tip off on the Penzler book too. I didn’t know about it and despite already owning a fair number of the stories included, I’m going to pick it up.
Definitely worth having I think even with some inevtable duplications.
And the cover looks so attractive too.
Yes, though of course it suggests more of an Ellery Queen-style dying message to me …
Not necessarily a bad thing though, even if it may be a little misleading.
Nope, not complaining, not even a teensy weensy bit!
Retro style covers get a big thumbs up from me – if I see one more crime/thriller novel whose cover consists of a doctored photo of a silhouetted figure walking off into the distance, I think I’ll scream!
I know, it is infuriating – one can overdo the pulpy feel sometimes (I was a bit embarrassed frankly by the fairly exploitative Gil Brewer cover I used a few months ago) but it is infinitely preferable – if you can;t tell once cover from another, why bother? I find it bewildering and incredibly annoying.
It strikes me as lazy marketing but its prevalence suggests it must be working. Sadly.
Yeah, and it’s probably quicker and cheaper – but I can’t imagine why it might be working, I really can’t. But then, one is perhaps not the target reader …
The radio play “Will You Make A Bet With Death ?” is available in the Door To Doom collection.
Yes, thanks Santosh, that is wehere I first read it (love that collection) – but it is even better when you can listen to it though, right? 🙂
Nine Wrong Answers was one of the first to make my top ten as well. Love it, although it’s full of nonsense and (almost) cheating on the part of Carr.
Yes, I know what you mean about the ‘almost cheating’ though he did defend that charge fairly successfully I think – it is a bit overlong but a very, very memorable book!
Possibly the first non-series Carr that I read. I’m always a bit rubbish at reading non-series books (there are still a couple of Christies that I’ve missed) but this one inspired me to look a bit further than Fell and Merrivale for JDC. Now I think of it, maybe I should have put Witch Of The Low-Tide on my list…
Actually, given how much you enjoy histirical mysteries, I was surprised – my favourite remains Fire, Burn or do you prefer without the fantastical element?
Fire, Burn is good (although the time travel bit is odd) but the solution’s “I bet you didn’t know that…” felt a bit like Carr showing off his research. I prefer Witch Of The Low-Tide despite recycling the trick from an earlier novel. I’m still to read Devil In Velvet or Captain Cut-Throat though.
I like Devil in Velvet a lot! It also involves a supernatural element but makes more of it – some hate it, but I love it.
It’s on the TBR pile. I think my Carr binge might extend beyond this month and I’ve got a few that are still unread years after buying them. That’s one of them.
Really curious to know what you make of it chum!
“Almost cheating.” I actually found it clever.
However, the cheating in Seeing Is Believing is abominable and can’t be defended. Here the author tells an outright lie.
I don’t remember that book at all Santish – I’ll have to read it again – mind you, I suspect it might bother me less because I just find Carr sp entertaining regardless of hos ‘fair’ he is being!
Yes, the geography of Castle Skull is convoluted. However, for the help of readers, the diagram and floor plans are available at https://nomasliteraturblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/die-schadelburg/
Marvellous – thanks chum, definitely not included in my old Italian translation 🙂
If I could remember anything about the JDC books I’ve read (and I read *many* about 30 years ago!) I would vote. But I can’t – age is a terrible thing! 🙂
Well Karen, thanks as I know what you mean – but tell you what, I believe I have the prefect remedy contained in this post … 🙂
That’s an odd list of books from Otto Penzler. Maybe those are the ones where it’s easiest to describe the puzzle, rather than his favourites, as Death-Watch rather than The Judas Window? Seriously?
And it’s always a shame to see that classic list that you opened with, Sergio. Notwithstanding the inclusion of The Crooked Hinge and The Ten Teacups (review – http://wp.me/p1fNuE-wK), one other book is spoiled by announcing it as a locked room, as it’s only an impossible crime in the sense that only one person could not have committed it. By announcing it as a locked room, it gives away the killer. Grrr.
I know what you mean, but ‘locked room’ means ‘impossible crime’ usually and it is a very bizarre murder scene so I’m not sure it is really a problem (but I remember how it bugged you).
It is immaterial whether it is called locked room or impossible crime. Both descriptions are spoilers. The reason is that it is locked room/impossible crime for only one person. Hence one can infer that that person is the murderer.
I take the point but that would only be apparent right at the end, right? After all, the reader doesn;t know if there is another murder in the last 15 pages and this is the locked room mystery all the critics were referring to, right? On the other hand the murder method so bizarre that I think most readers really enjoy this anyway. It was one of the first of the author’s books I read up to that point in my teens and I thoguht it was pretty nifty then – no idea what I’d make of it now.
Yes, the general reader would not think so deeply and would be least bothered. He will simply infer that there has been a misclassification. However, one has to be careful when dealing with people like the Puzzle Doctor !
It is definitely a fair point because the book is wrapped around the explanation of the bizarre murder and I got a huge kick out of it as a teen and would hate to see it spoiled, no question about it.
I enjoy John Dickson Carr’s work, mostly the early mysteries. Here’s my list of my favorites:
1 The Three Coffins
2 The Judas Window
3 The Plague Court Murders
4 The Nine Wrong Answers
5 The Problem of the Green Capsule
6 He Who Whispers
7 The Red Widow Murders
8 The Crooked Hinge
9 Castle Skull
10 Death in Five Boxes
Terrific choices George – all fo these are winners with me – thanks.
Here’s my list, in no particular order and with no justification of any kind:
HE WHO WHISPERS
TILL DEATH DO US PART
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS MURDER
THE CASE OF THE CONSTANT SUICIDES
NINE- AND DEATH MAKES TEN
THE JUDAS WINDOW
THE RED WIDOW MURDERS
THE EMPEROR’S SNUFF-BOX
THE BRIDE OF NEWGATE
THE MURDER OF SIR EDMUND GODFREY
I could probably justify my inclusions via blog post form, but that would take me time. I can try to do it, but for now, this hasty list will have to do.
Fantastic – thanks Patrick – and great to see Edmund Godfrey in there!
Interesting to see the recurring titles on these lists. He Who Whispers and The Three Coffins seem to be the most popular. Here’s mine in alphabetical order because although I find it easy to pick a Top Ten I cannot rank them best to worst within that list. You’ll note I tend to rate highly the more fantastic of his books. That’s the reason I keep returning to Carr. Master of not only the locked room/impossible crime mystery but of the surreal & bizarre detective novel.
The Burning Court
Death Turns the Tables
Department of Queer Complaints
The Emperor’s Snuff Box
He Who Whispers
The Judas Window
The Man Who Could Not Shudder
The Problem of the Green Capsule
The Reader Is Warned
She Died a Lady
Brill – great to have Queer Complaints in there as well as reader is Warned, which keeps recurring but which I dropped at the last minute but am now having second doubts! I agree, ranking them for me would be impossible – just love his stuff too much for that. Thanks very much John 🙂
Sergio, I can’t help you there as I have never read John Dickson Carr but yours and all the other lists should help me decide which ones to read first. Thanks for an eye-opening post.
Thanks Prashant – in about a week I hope to do a post with the final results – hope this inspires you to take the plunge!
Mine:
1) He Who Whispers
2) The Judas Window
3) The Emperor’s Snuff Box
4) The Reader Is Warned
5) The Burning Court
6) The Plague Court Murders
7) The Three Coffins
8) The Peacock Feather Murders
9) The Corpse in the Waxworks
10) The Third Bullet
Grazie Mille!
I should also mention other 20-25 books 🙂
Great lists!
I know – a top 10 is hopeless – a top 25, now that’s a bit more realistic 🙂 Really looking forward to bringing all the data together and seeing what comes out of it!
What a fascinating read this is Sergio, great idea!
I’m going to do a list of eight, and they’re not really in order, except for number one. After I’d written down 8 I liked, deciding against another half-dozen for my list, I looked at my reading records (going back more than 20 years) and there were 20 more books that I have read, but I couldn’t remember a thing about them. So I didn’t feel justified in adding the final two – time for some re-reading I think! But I could make it up to 10 with the Devil in Velvet and the Demoniacs, which were memorable, and I loved reading them years ago, but I don’t really put them in the same category as these:
1) Crooked Hinge
2) Till Death us do Part
3) And so To Murder
4) Judas Window
5) Plague Court Murders
6) Curse of the Bronze Lamp
7) He wouldn’t Kill Patience
8) He who Whispers
Thanks very much Moira – and great, considering where this all started, that you put Crooked Hinge first! Great list, thanks. I loved Devil in Velvet, though it has also been a while since I read that one.
Blimey – a mention of And So To Murder. Wasn’t expecting that…
Yes, and Curtis over on Facebook has been mentioning his love for another great atumaton story, The Gilded Man – but i’m not surprised as he is such a Rhode scholar (sic) … 🙂
When I blogged on And So To Murder a while back, I was a bit snooty, and said ‘not one of his best’. But when I was thinking about this list, I thought of how much I loved the filmset atmosphere, and the good characterization, and the Waterloo jokes – it earned its place!
Precisely Moira – so often with Carr it’s the tang and atmosphere that you remember as well as the mind-blowing plots! Apparently that one it was inspired by Carr’s experience of working on a film script with JB Priestley on a Korda production!
Here’s my list, in no particular order :
Fire, Burn!
The Bourning Court
The Third Bullet
He Who Whispers
The Judas Window
The Hollow Man
The Plague Court Murders
It Walks by Night
The Lost Gallows
The Red Widow Murders
If the list had been more long (20 titles: perfect !), I would have inserted other titles :
The Case of the Constant Suicides
She Died a Lady
The Crooked Hinge
He wouldn’t Kill Patience
Department of Queer Complaints
The Emperor’s Snuff Box
The Peacock Feather Murders
To Wake the Dead
Arabian Nights Murder
The Problem of the Wire Cage
Best.
Pietro
Terrific list – I agree with all of these – and yes, I know exactly what you mean about a top 20! 🙂
More than an hour ago, I received an email regarding your new post An Easter Egg Hunt, but it does not show on your site.
That is what, in the trade, we call a 100%, solid gold, cock up on my part 🙂 I got the settings wrong as that review won’t be ready to post for about another week – sorry about that …
OK, Sergio, here’s my list – in no particular order and (to be honest) including only ones I’ve reread relatively recently (and try saying THAT five times fast!):
1. The Three Coffins/The Hollow Man
2. The Judas Window
3. The Case of the Constant Suicides
4. He Who Whispers
5. The Nine Wrong Answers
6. The Plague Court Murders
7. Hag’s Nook
8. A Graveyard to Let
9. The Blind Barber
10. The Peacock Feather Murders
Great stuff Les and good to see the farcical and much maligned Blind Barber get a little love 🙂
Just checking in (after your email alert) to see if that comment bug is still alive. Also wanted to say that it seems that there are definite “Best of Carr” titles as many are appearing repeatedly. I like seeing the occasional “white elephant” title like AND SO TO MURDER which I haven’t read and is rarely called one of his best. But even more interesting is the utter lack of some titles I thought would turn up at least once or twice in one of these lists. And so far not one mention of THE UNICORN MURDERS or THE WHITE PRIORY MURDERS each of which would make it to my Top 20 along with several books already mentioned.
My blogger incompatibility sadly continues – so far I am at a loss to understand what has happened as it was fine a few days ago. it doesn’t affect blogger sites that allow commenters to use the name / URL combination, but it didn’t used to matter – grrr! Yes, I was surprised especially by the absence of Unicorn but pleased to see Reader is Warned doing well. When ti comes to Carr, 10 is just not a big number (can;t imagine this happening with Sayers, can you? 🙂 )
I’m very much enjoying reading these lists as they come in. Some surprises and some titles that pop up time and again.
I have a tradition that I always read a Carr at some point over the Christmas holidays (when I have time to just kick back and drink in all the fun) and I’ve been wondering which one to go for this year. I’ve been toying with the idea of maybe rereading Hag’s Nook or He Who Whispers as it’s been a while since I looked at either. I also have a fair number of titles (some mentioned here) I’ve yet to read and might go for one of those. Decisions, decisions…
Nice to be spoilt for choice, isn’t it? 🙂 I was thinking the same and am definitely leaning towards He Who Whispers, which so far is doing surprisingly well (I thought He Wouldn’t Kill Patience would get a lot more votes for instance) and none so far, as pointed out by John, for The Unicorn Murders.
I haven’t read The Unicorn Murders myself yet although it’s sitting on the shelf. I think I may just give He Who Whispers the nod for Xmas.
Conversely, Seeing is Believing is getting really trashed and I must re-read it to see if I concur …
Initially I thought of Including He Wouldn’t Kill Patience, but because I wanted to give a proper representation of his entire work, it got excluded.
I agree that a top 10 is hopeless and a top 20 would be the right thing considering that Carr has written so many excellent books.
Yes, I ended up cutting several myself (such as he Reader is Warned) for exactly the same reason, wanting to have some Fell, Merrivale, historicals and one collection with radio plays and short stories – so I stand by it but 10 is not enough … 🙂
I like your idea of a Carr over the Christmas season, but you know there’s no police like Holmes for the holidays 😉
Oh, I know, but I can very, very flexible! Which reminds me, not a single vote for The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes …
Carr is my favourite author but I find it almost impossible to choose favourite books. Nevertheless, in no particular order:
The Black Spectacles
Castle Skull
The Three Coffins
The Judas Window
Hag’s Nook
The Peacock Feather Murders
A Graveyard to Let
The Peacock Feather Murders
The Nine Wrong Answers
He Who Whispers
Thanks Ronald – going onto to main list right now – results later this week! Nice to see Fell’s debut get another mention!
PS Ronald – I agree that Ten teacups / peacock feather Mystery is one of the all time best, but you do seem to have it twice here – perhaps another choice to make up the ten? 🙂
Oops. Replace one of my erroneous duplicates with The Arabian Nights Murder please.
Will do – thanks chum 🙂
I hope Sergio and the ghost of John Dickson Carr can forgive my late response.
THE PLAGUE COURT MURDERS (1934)
THE HOLLOW MAN (1935)
THE JUDAS WINDOW (1938)
THE CROOKED HINGE (1938)
NINE-AND DEATH MAKES TEN (1940)
SHE DIED A LADY (1943)
TILL DEATH DO US PART (1944)
HE WHO WHISPERS (1946)
THE BRIDE OF NEWGATE (1950)
CAPTAIN CUT-THROAT (1955)
By the way, did I ever mention JDC is my favorite mystery writer?
Fantabulous – this would not have been possible without your contribution TC – thanks so much chum 🙂
SPOILER ALERT (The comments below are spoiler for The Nine Wrong Answers by Carr)
I have just read The Greene Murder Case by S.S. Van Dyne. An incident in it reminded me of the “almost cheating” mentioned by the Puzzle Doctor.
Vance tells Von Blon that –—— has been poisoned with morphine. Von Blon asks when was the murder discovered, assuming that the person is dead. Later, Vance clarifies that though ——- has been poisoned, ——–is alive and will survive.
Which I think means I need to re-read both really sopon – thanbks Santosh, but it’s been too long since I leafed through either – but I shall remedy this very soon!
Here’s my top ten by John Dickson Carr, under his own name and any of his pseudonyms. I think everyone finds my choices quite incomprehensible since I deliberately do not include Three Coffins; it simply is not one of my favourites. I should say that I am completely familiar with everything that Carr ever wrote so, no, it’s not that I haven’t read someone else’s favourite. These are in chronological order because so was the list I used to prepare this.
* The Mad Hatter Mystery (1933)
* The Plague Court Murders (1934)
* The White Priory Murders (1934)
* The Red Widow Murders (1935)
* The Burning Court (1937)
* Death in Five Boxes (1938)
* The Black Spectacles (1939)
* She Died a Lady (1943)
* The Sleeping Sphinx (1947)
* The Skeleton in the Clock (1948)
I haven’t even posted this yet and I’m already thinking I might change my mind about a couple of these, but … I’ve delayed enough already.
Thanks Noah – 10 is most definitely too few for Carr and I will be including a lot of honoyrable mentiuons in the final list – thanks again chum!
I didn’t realize it was a weighted list!! Here’s my reranking, most favourite to least favourite:
* The Red Widow Murders (1935)
* The Plague Court Murders (1934)
* The White Priory Murders (1934)
* Death in Five Boxes (1938)
* She Died a Lady (1943)
* The Black Spectacles (1939)
* The Sleeping Sphinx (1947)
* The Skeleton in the Clock (1948)
* The Burning Court (1937)
* The Mad Hatter Mystery (1933)
Well done Noah – you added three new titles!!!
Sorry for this late response, Sergio but for some reason I was unable to access your blog since this was posted.
I haven’t read much of Carr, so cannot give you his top 10 (haven’t even read these many:), but here are the ones I like:
1- 8: THE BURNING COURT (For the time-being it has replaced AND THEN THERE WERE NONE as my favourite mystery of all-time)
9: THE THIRD BULLET AND OTHER STORIES (The title story is not too impressive but the other stories are fairly good)
10: THE EIGHT OF SWORDS
Sorry, but unlike the others I have no great affection for THE THREE COFFINS, BLACK SPECTACLES, and HE WHO WHISPERS.
Looking forward to the final list.
Thanks very much Neeru – actually, I have been having a terrible time posting on Bliogger accounts for the last week (and have resorted to creating a blogger account just to leave comments) – this warfare with WordPress must end! 🙂
The Burning Court
The Judas Window
The Crooked Hinge
He Who Whispers
The Reader Is Warned
She Died a Lady
The Case of the Constant Suicides
The Man Who Could Not Shudder
Nine–and Death Makes Ten
The Emperor’s Snuff-box
Excellent stuff Curt – thanks chum!
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Maybe little late, and choosing among Carrs under either attribution is like nominating your favourite child, here’s my list:
Undoubtedly no.1: The Crooked Hinge
2 – 10 in no particular order:
The Judas Window
The Hollow Man
A Graveyard to Let
He Wouldn’t Kill Patience
Hag’s Nook
The Case of the Constant Suicides
The Skeleton in the Clock
He Who Whispers
She Died a Lady
Thnaks Anne H – well, I donlt think many would argue with you here – all great titles and a very even spread between Fell and Merrivle – not a fan of the historicals then?
The Devil in Velvet in particular and Fire, Burn! are both high on my personal list, but the later historicals are not in the same class as these and probably Fear is the Same. I don’t recall seeing any of them on other lists, where some popular choices are inspiring me to do some more re-reading to see what I may have missed.
Well, I think you picked the best three there, Anne! There is some truth in the received wisdom that Carr was at his bext until about 1950, whoch coincides with his turning to historical subjects – there were plenty of terrific novels ahead of him of course, but inevotably the titles from the 30s and 40s are the best remembered and I think with cause.
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Here is my list:
1. The Three Coffins aka The Hollow Man
2. He Who Whispers
3. The Arabian Nights Murder
4. She Died a Lady
5. The Problem of the Green Capsule aka The Black Spectacles
6. The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey
7. The Judas Window
8. Poison in Jest
9. The Mad Hatter Mystery
10. Till Death us do Part
Great choices – thanks very much.
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