Classic Mysteries

"The Night of the Wolf"

If you enjoy "impossible crime" and "locked room" mysteries as much as I do, you really need to be aware of a modern French author named Paul Halter. He's still writing, with dozens of books and stories to his credit, and some of his best material is being translated into English for the pleasure of those like me, whose French language capabilities were at their best back when I was in high school and college. Don't ask when.

What kind of stories? 

What would you say to a murder committed by a snowman – a real snowman -  before witnesses?

Or evidence that skeletons inside a sealed mausoleum must have been dancing all by themselves – and were pretty noisy about it, too?

How about a touching tale featuring a visit from Father Christmas, sleigh tracks which begin and end in a field of unbroken snow…and sudden death?

Ten stories in all, stories which might leave you believing in miracles…or perhaps in the cleverness and ingenuity of an author who can take you inside those miracles and reveal their secrets. Ten of Halter's stories have been collected into a book called The Night of the Wolf. translated from the original French by John Pugmire and Robert Adey. The book is the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you are welcome to listen to the complete review by clicking here.

It has always seemed to me that there were two requirements for a really enjoyable mystery of the “impossible crime” variety. First, the “impossible” attribute must be carefully designed and set up by the author. There has to be a reason why sleigh tracks appear to start and end in an unbroken field of snow, for example, by which I mean a reason why the criminal HAD to set up the seeming impossibility. Paul Halter, a very prolific writer, has a knack for developing such plots. But plot alone isn’t enough: the second necessary attribute is the author’s ability to create an atmosphere of real terror. The reader should have the impression that supernatural forces may be at work – until, usually right at the last moment, the author explains the true, non-supernatural, way in which the supposed impossibility was worked.

It’s a gift that Paul Halter clearly has and uses. You’ll find both of those gifts on display in Night of the Wolf.

 

From the Vault: "Fatal Descent"

The book I've chosen to bring back from the Classic Mysteries vault today is an interesting mix of "twofers" - that is, two-for-the-price-of-one features. Consider: The book is called Fatal Descent, but it was first published in the U.K. as Drop to His Death. That's two titles. There are two authors for this 1939 locked-room classic: John Dickson Carr (writing as Carter Dickson) and Cecil Street (writing as John Rhode), so each of our two authors has at least two familiar pen names (Street also wrote as Miles Burton.). And the crimes in Fatal Descent are investigated by two investigators, Police Surgeon Dr. Horatio Glass and Chief Inspector David Hornbeam. And, unfortunately, in my opinion, Carr and Street wrote only this one novel as a collaboration by two first rate authors. John Dickson Carr was the acknowledged master of the locked room/impossible crime mystery. Cecil Street also wrote many impossible crime novels. I recorded this review of Fatal Descent for the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. As always, some minor tweaking has been done.

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The facts of the case were quite clear. Sir Ernest had gotten into his private elevator on the fifth floor. He was alone. The elevator went down to the first floor without stopping. When it reached the first floor, and the door was opened, Sir Ernest was sitting inside the private elevator car, having been shot through the heart. But there was no weapon in the car or in the elevator shaft. And there was no way anyone could have had access to the elevator as it descended. It was quite clearly impossible – but there was the body of Sir Ernest to prove that it had happened. It would be up to Chief Inspector David Hornbeam and Police Surgeon Dr. Horatio Glass to figure out not only whodunit but also why – and, to be sure, the overwhelming question appeared to be “how.” It happens in Fatal Descent, by John Rhode and Carter Dickson.

John Rhode was one of the pen names used by the amazingly prolific Cecil John Charles Street – an author whose name is virtually unknown to most readers today. Many of his books, especially those written as John Rhode, featured so-called impossible crime and locked room situations.

Carter Dickson was the pen name used by John Dickson Carr, still considered by many – myself included – to be the 20th-century master of the impossible crime mystery.

Carr and Street…(Dickson and Rhode)…were friends, but they only worked together on a single novel – Fatal Descent, first published in 1939 with the title Drop to His Death. It is fast, suspenseful, funny in places – and quite ingenious.

Sir Ernest Tallant is the head of a large publishing house that bears his name. It produces all kinds of fiction, several magazines, and – on the non-fiction side – Tallant’s Golden Keys to Religion and Tallant’s Golden Keys to Education. Tallant’s name – and personality – are emblazoned on the building which bears his company’s name in giant neon letters.

Sir Ernest, from what we can tell when we meet him, is an autocrat, quite used to having his own way in all things. His business practices may be somewhat questionable, but in his company his own passions and beliefs will always rule.

Apparently that would include his opposition to a proposed match between his daughter Patricia Tallant – the keeper of those “golden keys” – and Bill Lester, overseer of Tallant’s Death Circle of Detective Novels – aren’t those great names for the company divisions?

Sir Ernest has managed to create quite a web of hard feelings among his subordinates. So when the company is hit by a wave of rather peculiar small thefts – a desk clock, a model airplane, that sort of thing – oh yes, and a fully loaded 45-caliber revolver – Tallant sends for Chief Inspector Hornbeam and makes it quite clear and quite public that he knows who has been stealing things – and why.

Hornbeam initially sends his friend, police surgeon Dr. Horatio Glass, to talk to Tallant. Glass, however, arrives at the company’s headquarters just in time for the blow to fall. Sir Ernest gets in his own private elevator on the top floor of the building. It is a closed cage. There is no way to open any of the doors on any floor while the elevator is moving. And as the elevator moves down, Dr. Glass – and others – are able to see through the screened glass doors from their vantage point on the upper floors of the building that Sir Ernest is alone in the car.

The car descends all the way to the ground floor – with Dr. Glass among the witnesses ready to swear that it never stopped anywhere along the way. But before the elevator reaches the ground floor, everyone hears a gunshot. When the elevator stops at the ground floor, the lobby attendant walks over and opens the door and finds Sir Ernest sitting on the floor of the elevator, quite dead, having been shot through the heart, the bullet apparently crashing through the skylight of the elevator. There is no gun.

The doctor says Sir Ernest must have been shot from one of the doorways to the elevator shaft, after the elevator passed downward. But that proves to be impossible – there is no way anyone could have opened a door or had access to the shaft while the elevator was moving. Which it was. And there does not appear to be any way that a gun could have been rigged, say, in the elevator shaft – for there is no gun to be found anywhere.

That’s the situation confronting Chief Inspector Hornbeam and Dr. Glass. While there would seem to be a limited number of suspects, it appears impossible that any of them could have carried out the murder. For that matter, it appears as if the crime couldn’t possibly have happened.

But, of course, it did. And Dr. Glass and Inspector Hornbeam, two old friends who argue repeatedly over their theories, are going to have to unite their forces to get at the truth in this excellent variation on the locked-room mystery.

It’s a fine story, written with wit and good humor, quite fairly clued for the reader who can find the hints, and with some first-rate characters. It’s a pity that Rhode and Carr only wrote this one mystery together. Readers who enjoy a good impossible crime story really should read “Fatal Descent.” It’s been out of print for a while, but there is now an e-book edition available. I think you would enjoy it.

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You can listen to the recorded audio review by clicking here

Next: The Final Deduction, by Rex Stout

 

From the Vault: "No Coffin for the Corpse"

There's an old English music hall song by Will E. Haines, made popular (I think) by the late Gracie Fields, called "He's Dead but He Won't Lie Down!" I came across a YouTube video of her singing the song in a 1932 movie called Looking on the Bright Side. It came to my mind the other day when I was looking for something to bring you all from the Classic Mysteries vault this week. It reminded me, in fact, of a very fine example of an impossible murder story called No Coffin for the Corpse, a 1942 book by stage magician (and co-founder of the Mystery Writers of America) Clayton Rawson. It's about...well, I suppose, someone who's dead but won't lie down. I did an audio review of it several years back on the Classic Mysteries podcast. Here's a transcript of what I had to say about it - as usual, some light editing has been done:

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Regular visitors to this podcast know that I really love a good impossible crime mystery. Give me a locked room, a situation where a murder couldn’t possibly have happened – yet did – and I’m pretty well hooked. So let me present another example of the impossible crime. Here’s a man, a would-be blackmailer, killed before witnesses – but the man who did the killing won’t call police. And because he is very rich and very powerful, the witnesses help the man bury his victim in a nearby cemetery. And that’s when the real fun starts: for it appears that the victim isn’t going to lie peacefully in his grave. Ghosts appear and disappear and even turn up in photographs. Witnesses can swear that they saw a ghost toss valuable vases around when nobody is near enough to touch them. And there is, ultimately, a murder, which – by all appearances – must have been committed by the ghost, who then, again according to witnesses, must have managed to get out of a locked and bolted room, perhaps by walking through walls. It certainly didn’t make the police officer in charge, Lieutenant Flint, very happy. So it was up to a professional magician – the Great Merlini – to figure out the truth about what happened – and, most importantly, how. And there in a nutshell you have No Coffin for the Corpse, by Clayton Rawson.

Rawson was one of the four founding members of the Mystery Writers of America. He was also a professional magician, an illusionist, and he put a lot of his knowledge about the tricks of the magic trade into his four novels about a magician named The Great Merlini. The last of those four – and arguably the best of them– was No Coffin for the Corpse, which was published in 1942. It has a delicious plot, with plenty of apparent impossibilities for the reader to figure out.

The story is told primarily through the eyes of Ross Harte, a young journalist who has written a series of newspaper articles about the apparent wrongdoing of Dudley Wolff, the hot-tempered owner of a munitions factory. This was hardly likely to make Wolff harbor friendly feelings towards the journalist. And when Ross Harte proceeded to fall in love with Wolff’s daughter, predictable fireworks erupted, which ended with Harte being quite firmly made unwelcome at the Wolff estate.

What Harte doesn’t know – and the reader is given an advantage over the narrator here – is that on the same night the journalist was kicked off the estate, someone appeared at Wolff’s mansion and tried to blackmail the industrialist. Quite predictably, Wolff punched the would be blackmailer – who fell to the floor, hitting his head. A doctor on the scene pronounced him dead.

But rather than calling the police – which would have meant publicity that Wolff felt he could ill afford – the magnate insisted on forcing his aides and associates to take the body of the would-be blackmailer to a nearby disused cemetery – and bury it there.

In the meantime, Ross Harte has dropped in on his old friend, the magician known as the Great Merlini, who is putting together a new show. I won’t try to follow all the twists in the plot at this point, but suffice to say that Merlini and Harte wind up out at the Wolff estate – where they find the industrialist clearly upset and frightened. He, and members of his family, have been seeing a ghost – a ghost whom Wolff recognizes as the man he killed – who has apparently been materializing in spite of the sophisticated alarm system in the heavily secured house. Wolff’s daughter, one of the witnesses, remembers it this way:

“It stood there looking down at us, watching very quietly as if it had been there for a long time. I cried out, I think, and Father, who had been examining the torn pages, dropped them. He stood in front of me and I saw his face as he turned. It was as if something had struck him a violent physical blow…

“And then, quickly, the figure moved. The upper hall, even in the daytime, is shadowy and dark. It seemed to melt back into it. And, just as it vanished, the doorbell rang.”

A terrifying image, to be sure. And that ghost appears to have the power to cause unexplainable phenomena – such as a vase tipping and falling and breaking when nobody is near it (and, no, nobody has used a black thread to tip it over). The ghost even shows up in a photo = with the background behind the ghost clearly visible through the image of the ghost itself.

And just when things become extremely complicated…there is a murder. And, for that matter, our narrator Ross Harte is nearly murdered. And the circumstances are such that it certainly appears a ghost must have been responsible, because it somehow managed to shoot its victim in front of witnesses and then disappear out of a locked room.

Still with me? It will get more complicated. As Harte tells us,

“What we all needed at that moment more than anything else was a week or two in bed in a quiet secluded sanitarium with no visitors allowed.”

The police, of course, having finally been called in to deal with the murder, are not at all happy when they learn about that earlier death. Poor Lieutenant Flint winds up suspecting just about everyone in turn. It is only when Merlini is able to explain who the ghost really is…and how it got in and out of those locked rooms…that the nightmare is resolved. And be advised that there are so many twists, plots and counter-plots that the reader is likely to reach the ending feeling somewhat dazed.

A good impossible crime story relies heavily on misdirection, just as the stage act of a great illusionist uses the same techniques. That’s one reason why I enjoy the character of Merlini and the writing of Rawson. Happily, the Mysterious Press is now offering all of Rawson’s books in ebook formats [Ed.Note: Still available as of 3/27/2020], so they are once again available to mystery lovers. I was certainly aware that I was being led down the wrong path several times in this book – but I still wound up being surprised by some of the final twists of the story. Clayton Rawson’s No Coffin for the Corpse is a very good, solid impossible crime mystery which will provide readers with some assurance that, in the end, nothing is impossible.

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You can listen to my complete audio review by clicking here.

Next: Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers.

"Puzzle for Players"

People who work in the theater have a reputation for being a superstitious lot. From the stars of a long-running play down to the stagehands who work behind the scenes, it's easy to find people who live by a set of theatrical superstitions about good - and bad - luck. Some examples: never wish a performer "good luck" - instead, invite him or her to "break a leg." Never refer to Shakespeare's Macbeth by its title - call it "The Scottish Play" instead. Several Broadway theaters are said to be haunted; Wikipedia cites several people who claim to have seen ghosts in those theaters.

These real-world superstitions and many others may be found as well in the world of mystery fiction set in theaters, where superstitions can have dangerous, even disastrous outcomes. Sometimes, they can even lead to murder. It certainly appears as if that's what's going on in Patrick Quentin's Puzzle for Players. That 1938 mystery is the subject of my audio review this week on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you are welcome to listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Puzzle for Players follows Peter Duluth, a New York City theater producer and recovering alcoholic, only recently discharged from the private psychiatric hospital where he was being treated for his addiction. He has gathered a cast of actors and actresses to prepare and open a new play called Troubled Waters, a production he is convinced will be the smash hit of the current Broadway season. Unfortunately for several members of the cast and crew – including Peter Duluth himself – he finds that the theater he thought was going to be home to the play is not, in fact, the theater he will be using. Instead, he finds himself stuck with a rundown New York theater named the Dagonet. Duluth and the cast are very reluctant to rehearse in, and eventually open in, the Dagonet. It’s an old theater, in pretty bad condition, with plenty of rats apparently living in the cellar under the stage. The cast have barely begun rehearsing there when someone is, quite literally, frightened to death. But it isn’t until there is another death (in what looks like a peculiar production accident) that Peter Duluth realizes that someone appears to be trying to block his show from opening. More unpleasant and unexplained events begin to happen; there are deaths which are quite clearly murders. And with each incident, Duluth finds it getting harder and harder to un-scramble the pieces of this Puzzle for Players.

“Patrick Quentin” was a pen name shared by several mystery writers, usually working in collaboration with one or more members of the same group. The mysteries featuring Peter Duluth were written by Hugh C. Wheeler and Richard Wilson Webb, using the name “Patrick Quentin.” I think you'll really enjoy Puzzle for Players.

From the Vault: "The Case of the Gilded Fly"

My selection from the vault this week is the mystery which marked the first appearance of Oxford University English Professor Gervase Fen. He's the creation of Edmund Crispin, the pen name for Robert Bruce Montgomery. If Fen is involved in a case, you may be reasonably sure that the plot will be clever and concise, with features that may turn it into an "impossible" crime situation. You may also be sure of witty and quite funny scenes, often juxtaposed with unexpected touches of grim, almost noir-ish detail. The book is The Case of the Gilded Fly, first published in 1944, and while it's not Crispin's best work (in my opinion, anyway), it's still awfully good. Here's the script of the audio review I did for this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago, suitably edited:

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It appeared pretty obvious to the police that the victim had committed suicide. The nature of the gunshot wound, evidently fired at pointblank range; the fact that there was no way a killer could possibly have gotten in or out of the room without being seen – these pretty well seemed to indicate suicide. But Gervase Fen, professor of English at Oxford University, certainly was not convinced. He declared that it was murder – and, what’s more, insisted that he could name the murderer. While this did not particularly endear him to the police, it certainly makes an interesting debut for one of my favorite detectives, Gervase Fen, in The Case of the Gilded Fly, by Edmund Crispin.

Writing as Edmund Crispin, Robert Bruce Montgomery wrote just nine novels and two short story collections – a very small output, most of it written between 1944 and 1953. Yet I find Crispin’s books to be memorable – more so than the more numerous contributions of other authors. Crispin’s sense of humor, his plots and – above all – the character of his detective, Oxford University Professor Gervase Fen, make Crispin’s books a treat.

The Case of the Gilded Fly, first published in 1944, is the book which introduced Fen – and Crispin – to the world. Crispin does quite a bit of showing off here; there’s a bit of an atmosphere of “I’m clever and I don’t care who knows it,” but I don’t think it’s intrusive.

The book begins with a prologue which looks at eleven individuals traveling to Oxford by train. We are introduced to each of these characters, all traveling, as Crispin notes, at different times and for different purposes and we probe a bit to learn who they are. Crispin, after introducing them to us, gets them all to Oxford and allows them to disperse to their various destinations. And, in the concluding sentence of this prologue, Crispin tells us – "within the week that followed, three of these eleven died by violence."

That is typical of Crispin. His writing disarms the reader, providing humor – sometimes gentle, sometimes not so; he creates excellent characters and sets his scenes. And then, when the reader may not be expecting it, he drops in a one-liner like that which makes us sit up and pay attention.

Having set the scene, Crispin gets the plot moving; most of the people we have met are involved in the production of a new play by the Oxford Repertory Theatre. We are given a variety of characters – the playwright; his long-time mistress, who is a well-known London actress; another actress, who is a particularly nasty individual detested by just about everyone; and one of the repertory theatre’s producers. There are other characters as well – not least among them Professor Fen, who has managed to get himself something of a reputation for solving complex mysteries. When we meet Fen on that train ride to Oxford, we are told:

"He wondered if he would be allowed to investigate another murder, supposing one occurred. Later he recalled this wish without satisfaction, since it was to be granted in that heavily ironic fashion which the gods appear to consider amusing."

As you would expect, that murder is not long in happening. The victim apparently has been shot at point-blank range, with the gun conveniently lying next to the body. But it appears that nobody else could have been in the room at the time – there are independent witnesses to this – so it must have been suicide. Only Fen demonstrates quite clearly that it could NOT have been suicide…a fact which tends to displease the local police.

I don’t want to say much more about the plot, except to note that there will be more deaths (as we were promised in the prologue), and that it will be up to Fen to figure out what really happened.

All of this is leavened by Crispin’s writing style and humor – although there are some nicely bizarre touches. Fen has a tendency to refer to other fictional detectives as if they were real people. He also tends to quote freely, making references to literature, opera, even art, and he seems to take it for granted that his readers will be able to follow along. I confess freely that I can’t always do so; it’s a potential irritant, although a familiar one, if you have read Michael Innes or some of Dorothy L. Sayers. Overall, though, it’s mostly a great deal of fun. Crispin is showing off his writing style, and he does so very effectively.

In a foreword written for the edition of The Case of the Gilded Fly which sits on my bookshelves, crime fiction historian Douglas G. Greene writes of what he calls:

[Crispin’s] “'depth of frivolity' that sometimes produced scenes of gentle wit in his novels and sometimes broad farce, but always with a sharpness of observation of human foibles. His stories are filled with touches of fantastic imagination, eccentric but believable characters, and well-constructed detective plots with all the clues laid fairly before the reader.

I agree with Greene. If you haven’t met Gervase Fen – or Edmund Crispin – try The Case of the Gilded Fly. [Ed. note: the edition discussed above does not appear to be available, but the book IS still available both in paper and in e-book versions, according to Amazon. As always, please check first with your own preferred bookseller for help in finding it.

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You may listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.

Next: Average Jones, by Samuel Hopkins Adams.]

 

"Death in Captivity"

Death in Captivity (1952) is a fascinating book, set in an Italian Prisoner of War camp during World War II. The author, Michael Gilbert, deftly juggles two major interconnecting mystery types. It is a wartime-escape story, with the Allied officer-prisoners working feverishly on a tunnel that they hoped would allow them to escape from the camp, Campo 127, and begin a long, nightmarish trek across much of Italy in an effort to rejoin the Allied armies on their invasion of Italy. And it is also an impossible murder story. Death in Captivity is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.

The murdered man,  a Greek soldier named Cyriakos Coutoules, was widely suspected by the other Allied officers to have been a spy for the Italian guards at Campo 127. The body was discovered by the escape team digging out that tunnel. The tunnel, while under construction, was barely wide enough to allow one individual to dig his way through the sand and other obstacles he might encounter. Coutoules had been suffocated, but access to the tunnel where he died required four strong men to open and close the entrance way. There was no way someone could have gotten into the tunnel to kill Coutoules or to put the body there to be found. And yet it had happened. And when the Italian officer in charge of the camp decided to arrest one of the Allied officers and charge him with the murder ,it was quite evident that the officers would have to solve the murder themselves – and quickly – if they were to protect the wrongly-accused man and also preserve the secret of the tunnel on which they had based all their plans for escape.

It’s a harrowing story – and it’s worth noting that the author, Michael Gilbert, was himself a prisoner of war in just such a camp and took part in several escape attempts.  Despite the grim wartime background and the brutality inherent in war itself, Death in Captivity nevertheless is filled with flashes of wit and even humor that manage to ease the tension somewhat – only to have that tension ratcheted up again by a master storyteller.

Death in Captivity is a powerful and moving book. It will be republished early in May as another in the British Library Crime Classics series which are published in the U.S. by Poisoned Pen Press. (It's already available on Kindle.) This edition features an introduction by mystery historian Martin Edwards, who calls the book "one of the finest achievements of a crime writer of distinction." I’d have to agree, and I recommend it very strongly indeed.

"Murder en Route"

The passenger on the upper deck of the British double-decker bus was a bit peculiar: although the rain was coming down hard, drenching the open-air upper deck, the lone passenger that cold and foggy night insisted on riding up there. He certainly had no competition for seats. And both the bus conductor and the driver could swear that nobody - NOBODY - was riding up there with the passenger. But when the bus got to the end of the line, the passenger was still sitting there, quite dead - having, in fact, been strangled. Impossible? Of course. But it happened. And it was only the beginning of the mystery by Brian Flynn called Murder en Route, a fine example of a  traditional mystery that pretty much turns itself into a high-speed thriller. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you are welcome to listen to the complete review by clicking here.

Between his first mystery, written in 1927, and his last, in 1958, the author, Brian Flynn, wrote more than fifty mysteries. And yet, his name has slipped into complete and, in my opinion, undeserved oblivion. Dean Street Press has begun republishing some of Flynn’s work, including Murder en Route, and there is a great deal there to enjoy.

When that impossibly murdered man's body is discovered, Inspector Curgenven of the local police takes charge of the case, but he is soon assisted by that brilliant amateur detective – aren’t most fictional amateurs brilliant? – Anthony Bathurst, who is the central figure in most of Flynn’s mysteries. Bathurst is intrigued by the possibilities. But before we get too deeply involved, we are given some background on another mystery which has been unfolding in another distant corner of England. It involves a substantial legacy – and the man who may or may not be the legitimate heir of that inheritance who is returning home to claim it – and who promptly disappears. And it isn’t very long before Anthony Bathurst finds a curious connection between the disappearance of an heir on the one hand and, on the other, a seemingly impossible murder of an anonymous victim.

So what starts out as an impossible crime quickly takes on the identity of a fast-paced thriller, complete with a cross-country chase. Flynn rather impressively juggles his plot lines, and there were a number of surprising developments that – to be honest – I didn’t see coming, mostly because I had been well and truly misguided into chasing some fine red herrings. The new edition from Dean Street Press of Brian Flynn’s Murder en Route includes a very informative and useful introduction, both to this book in particular and to Flynn’s work in general, from mystery historian Steve Barge. If you don’t know Brian Flynn’s work – and I certainly didn’t – I would recommend Murder en Route as a good place to start.

From the Vault: "Hercule Poirot's Christmas"

Given the approach of the Christmas season, I've been making a list and checking it twice, trying to find a suggestion for a gift that you might enjoy, whatever holiday you prefer. Back in the prime of Agatha Christie's career, her publisher used to advertise, with some pride, the availability each year of "a Christie for Christmas." So for my gift to you, let me reprint a couple of my reviews of two of Dame Agatha's mysteries - one each for Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. We'll begin today with Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Since I first wrote this review a decade ago, the book's title has undergone some changes - when I reviewed it, it was better known as Murder for Christmas, but the title under which it is currently being sold is Hercule Poirot's Christmas, and the text of my review, below, has been updated to correct the title wherever it appears. In any case, Merry and Happy to all:

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Well here we are at the Christmas season – traditionally a time of good will. Let’s see, what do we have in the library that will add to our holiday cheer? How about the warmth of an English Christmas house party, in the late 1930s? Plenty of relatives on hand. A blazing fire. Good port wine. A couple of mysterious strangers. Oh yes – and a murder, with lots of blood. Everything Hercule Poirot needs for a satisfying holiday in Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie.

A good place to begin our discussion of the book  is with her dedication. Most of Christie’s novels might belong in the broad category of books that we would define as “cozies” – that is, the violence is usually discreet and well off-stage. Not so with Hercule Poirot's Christmas – and, in fact, that’s perhaps the most noteworthy feature about the murder in this book. When it was published in 1938, Christie dedicated it to her brother-in-law. She wrote:

“You complained that my murders were getting too refined – anaemic, in fact! You yearned for a ‘good violent murder with lots of blood.’ A murder where there was no doubt about its being murder! So this is your special story – written for you. I hope it may please.”

Beyond pointing out that Agatha Christie’s words should rarely be taken at their face value, I will say only that this particular murder is quite violent indeed. It is that wonderful, clichéd, setting, the English country house party. Old Simeon Lee, a very rich, but particularly unpleasant and tyrannical man, has invited his family to a reunion at the family home. His aim, apparently, is to stir up as much animosity among his sons as possible – and, to that end, he has also invited his black-sheep son to return home, as well as a Spanish granddaughter, largely unknown to the other family members. In addition, a stranger turns up at the house and introduces himself as the son of Simeon’s old business partner in South Africa.

It’s a volatile mix, and Simeon knows which buttons to push to get everyone at everyone else’s throat. So it’s not a huge surprise when he is murdered – rather spectacularly. Everyone hears what sounds like a huge fight inside his locked study, followed by a terrible scream. When they break down the study door, they find Simeon with his throat cut, blood everywhere – lots of blood – and nobody else in the room. That’s right, a locked room impossible crime, much to the dismay of the police. Oh, and I almost forgot – thousands of dollars worth of uncut diamonds seem to have disappeared from a safe in the study.

Fortunately, Hercule Poirot, who has been visiting the local chief constable, is on hand to help the police sort everything out.

In terms of plot, this has to be one of Christie’s absolute best. She takes the clichés of the situation and turns them upside down, using them to lure readers into a number of traps along the way – traps which, of course, Poirot is able to avoid. The reader is likely to suspect one person, then another, and another, as secrets are uncovered and revealed. Even after Poirot explains how and why the locked room puzzle was worked, the reader is still unprepared for the ultimate revelation of the murderer. But the clues are there – and have been given to us quite fairly along the way. It’s a dazzling performance.

So, at this season of good will, if you’re in the mood for an impossible murder, let me recommend – strongly – Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I should note that it has also been published as Murder for Christmas, and it has also been published as “A Holiday for Murder,” but I think that currently it’s most easily found in the United States as Hercule Poirot's Christmas. It’s in print, and should be readily available. Savor it over the holiday.

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If you'd like to listen to the original audio version of the review, please click here.

Next week, we'll be joined by Miss Marple as she tackles tne problem of Murder at the Vicarage.

From the Vault: "Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries"

I suspect that there may be a goodly number of fans who read short crime stories by American authors who are not yet acquainted with Uncle Abner. This character, created by Melville Davisson Post, appears in 18 short stories, first published more than a century ago, in 1918. But these short stories are uniquely powerful, powerful in the stories they tell, powerful in the writing. And if the stories sometimes reflect the realities and prejudices of American frontier society (and they do), Uncle Abner is generally to be found on the side of the angels. I reviewed the collection of Uncle Abner stories, called Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries, several years ago, in an audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. Here's a transcript, somewhat edited, of that review:

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Among the many wonderful characters who appear in American detective stories, one of the most memorable among them is a man known as Uncle Abner. In a series of stories set along the American frontier in the mountainous regions of western Virginia – the area which later became West Virginia – Uncle Abner represents the voice of morality in a rugged nation that sometimes had difficulty determining good from evil. Uncle Abner was the creation of Melville Davisson Post – and his 1918 collection is called Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries.

The back-cover blurb to my own copy of the book nails these stories pretty well, I think, saying,

“If you look at any critical list of the ten most important books of detective stories published in the United States, the chances are great that you will find in it Uncle Abner.

Let me tell you a little more about the character of Uncle Abner. The stories are seen through the eyes of his nephew, Martin, who tells us this about his uncle:

He was one of those austere, deeply religious men who were the product of the Reformation. He always carried a Bible in his pocket and he read it where he pleased. Once the crowd at Roy’s Tavern tried to make sport of him when he got his book out by the fire; but they never tried it again. When the fight was over Abner paid Roy eighteen silver dollars for the broken chairs and the table – and he was the only man in the tavern who could ride a horse. Abner belonged to the church militant, and his God was a war lord.

I think that pretty well sums up Uncle Abner and his outlook on the world. In these eighteen short stories, Uncle Abner represents the moral power of good which has been lost by some of the others in the stories. Most of these stories about crime – mostly murder – are not really “fair-play” stories. Instead, we observe Abner as he talks to people and examines facts and frequently reveals a crime where none had been suspected – and solves it as well.

Some of the stories ARE closer to the conventions of the detective story.  The first story in the book, called “The Doomdorf Mystery,” is a marvelous locked-room puzzle: a man is shot to death inside a locked room. Two people confess to the murder, but it becomes clear on talking to them that neither could have done it and escaped from that locked room. It is Uncle Abner whose observations will explain the seemingly impossible crime.

Uncle Abner is not always concerned with the letter of the law. He is more concerned with what, to him, is divinely inspired justice. And by his focus on that, prompted by his own deeply religious beliefs, he acts as a champion of the wrongfully accused and explains mysteries as he uncovers them.

There are so many gems among the eighteen stories here that it is impossible to do them all justice. There is “Naboth’s Vineyard,” in which – again – two people confess to a murder, but Uncle Abner finds a deeper truth. In “The Concealed Path,” he delays a forced wedding long enough to uncover a grisly crime. In “A Twilight Adventure” he manages to stop the lynching of a couple of suspected cattle thieves. In all the stories, it is Uncle Abner’s vision, guided by his beliefs, that smooth some of the edges of rough frontier justice.

I should insert a short warning here to the politically correct: the stories were published in 1918, and they are set in a time and place where slavery was practiced. What we now politely refer to as the “n” word comes up occasionally – particularly in one story, “The Devil’s Tools,” where it is used frequently by a Black servant referring to others. If that sort of thing makes the entire book unpalatable to you – well, it’s your choice.

Personally, I think the stories in Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries, by Melville Davisson Post, are remarkable examples of the storyteller’s art. Uncle Abner is a unique character, brilliantly drawn, standing out in the rough frontier atmosphere of these stories. Once again, let me quote the narrator, young Martin:

“for all his iron ways, Abner was a man who saw justice in its large and human aspect, and he stood for the spirit, above the letter, of the truth.”

I see that, on Amazon.com, one reader writes, in a review of the book,

“If you are a fan of mystery stories and you have not read Uncle Abner, your education is incomplete.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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You can listen to the complete audio review by clicking here.

Next: Murder for Christmas, by Agatha Christie.

From the Vault: "Death from a Top Hat"

Publisher/author/Mysterious Bookshop maven Otto Penzler's line of American Mystery Classics has been re-printing a growing number of fine classic crime stories over the past year or so. A check back into the Classic Mysteries vault has yielded another excellent example, long out-of-print but now available again: Death from a Top Hat, a 1938 "impossible crime" novel, featuring Clayton Rawson's primary puzzle-solver, The Great Merlini. Here's what I said about it in my audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago - updated with the latest information about the book's availability:

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Look closely at any mystery which has a so-called “impossible crime” at its heart…a murder inside a locked room, for example…and you will almost certainly come up against what is essentially a stage magic trick: someone, usually the murderer – and, of course, the author – finds a way to manipulate what you see in order to create an illusion. This kind of misdirection is a staple of stage magic – in fact, in many ways, it is at the heart of virtually every stage magician’s act. So imagine, if you will, a couple of murders in which not only the victims but most of the suspects, too, are almost all stage magicians. Think it could cause a headache? We’ll find out as we examine Death from a Top Hat, by Clayton Rawson.

By all rights, Clayton Rawson’s name should be much more familiar than it is to today’s mystery readers. A writer, editor and a first-rate amateur magician, Rawson was one of the four founding authors who created the Mystery Writers of America, the professional organization responsible for the annual Edgar awards. Rawson’s four novels date from the late 1930s and early 1940s and feature, as their primary detective, The Great Merlini, a stage magician who owns and runs a store that provides equipment and tricks to other magicians. In the first Merlini novel, Death From a Top Hat, Merlini is called in to help Inspector Homer Gavigan, of the New York City police department. Gavigan has a problem. A man known as a student of demonology – and, apparently, a pretty good magician – is found murdered in his locked apartment. The keyholes have been blocked up from the inside, the door is bolted, and so forth. The problem, however, goes beyond the locked-room nature of the crime. The problem is that just about everyone who might have had the means, motive and opportunity to murder the victim is, in fact, a stage magician.

Don’t misunderstand me – stage magicians, as such, are hardly a murderous lot. However, as Inspector Gavigan realizes – and the reason why he sends for Merlini to help him – most stage magicians understand very well the art of creating illusions. If anyone knows how to set up a murder so that it looks like an impossible crime…it might very well be a professional magician.

And, in fact, Merlini is able to explain at least a half dozen ways that the murder could have been committed. When a second murder is committed – this time in a place completely isolated by an unbroken coating of newly-fallen snow – the problem is further compounded.

Now readers who have read John Dickson Carr’s The Three Coffins will remember the famous “locked room lecture” in that novel, which lays out the many different ways that such impossible crimes may be solved. Well, Death from a Top Hat goes beyond Carr’s lecture; in fact, to some degree, the whole book may be thought of as an expanded lecture on how to kill someone inside a locked and guarded room. While no secrets are revealed – the secrets of professional magicians, that is – readers will come away with a heightened appreciation of the TYPE of trickery necessary to deceive audiences – whether at a séance with a false psychic, a professional magic show, or – in this case – a couple of murders.

All of this is handled with a healthy respect for the traditions of fair play, and if the reader is deceived, it is done fairly. There’s a lot of humor here as well. Merlini is extremely likeable…even if he does have the habit – I consider it a bad habit – of doing coin tricks while he speaks, absent-mindedly making coins appear and disappear through sleight of hand.

[The following has been updated as of November, 2019]

Clayton Rawson’s books were out of print for a long time, but – happily – Otto Penzler's American Mystery Classics series  has recently released new editions of Rawson’s novels. If you enjoy being mystified, if you want to figure out how a killer could have escaped through those locked doors and windows, if you want to find out how a murderer got out of a house surrounded by freshly-fallen snow without leaving any footprints…then you will most certainly enjoy Death from a Top Hat.

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You can listen to the original review on the Classic Mysteries podcast by clicking here.

Next: The Castleford Conundrum, by J. J. Connington.