Crimson Fog by Paul Halter

A stranger has arrived in a quaint little English town, 'Blackfield', the stranger hides his identity from the townsfolk and is wearing an obvious disguise(at least for the reader). The stranger is in town to investigate a decade old locked room/impossible murder. Richard Morstan, while putting up a magic show for his kids and children of the town, preps up a room in such a way that it is divided into two parts via a curtain between the room. On one side of the curtain are the children eagerly waiting for the kind man to show them his tricks and on the other side is Morstan preparing his conjuring tricks. They waited...nothing happened...they went to have a look...Morstan was dead. Murdered. A murder no one, absolutely no one, could have committed. Any yet Morstan couldn't have committed suicide.

The room was inaccessible, the entry points of the room was watched by multiple eyes. Was there a phantom killer at work? and who is the stranger investigating this case after the police could not solve it for 10 years.

Whistle up the Devil by Derek Smith

I have been trying to get my covetous hands on this book for sometime now, it was not in print but then the good folks at Locked Room International(LRI), led by John Pugmire made it available for mystery lovers. The paperback is still pretty expensive around $20. I kept on procrastinating because of the cost and wanted to buy an old JDC, which was around $25. Also, for some reason LRI does not publish books by the grand master. Anyways, this Christmas I did muster up the courage and finally made the purchase. Totally worth it!

A man steeped in family tradition, wants to seal himself in the middle of the night, in an old dark room, at the back of his house to have an encounter with the family ghost. Mr. Querrin does not believe in ghosts, but wants to go ahead with the family tradition anyway.  His family is not of the same opinion, they are scared out of their minds and seek help from the police and an amateur detective to help protect Querrin. Here goes: 

The room is at the end of the house, has two entrances a french window watched by a cop, who is standing a few meters away constantly gazing at the french window doors, and on the other end a a door locked from inside by Querrin. This door leads to a hall which is watched by the detective and Querrin's brother. So before midnight Querrin enters the room, shuts both the doors from inside and the two doors are now being watched from the outside, on top of that heavy run has muddied the soil outside the french windows, anyone trying to gain entry will surely leave footprints.

Impossible to get murdered right?

Seven Wonders of Crime by Paul Halter

"Beauty following the sun's example, prevents us from seeing what's around it whenever it appears." - Philon.

A Serial Killer is on the loose, he is committing one miraculous murder after another. An old man is burnt on top of a lighthouse, he is locked inside alone with no one there for miles, the police are perplexed on how was the man set on fire? It reminds the Edwardian dilettante and amateur sleuth, Owen Burns, of the lighthouse of Alexandria. The killer has a peculiar idiosyncrasy, he sends a painting of the murder and clues to the name of the victim to the police before perpetrating a wonder of crime. The killer wants to emulate the seven wonders of the ancient world in his own twisted way. His next victim, is shot on the nape by an arrow that seems to be shot from heaven, the police and the detective are baffled on how can some make this impossible shot at the back of the neck. This reminds them of the temple of Artemis.

The murderer continues to kill with impunity and each murder is more impossible, more incredulous and more baffling than the last. The murderer not only kills by sending clues before hand to the police, he also murders in a fashion which leaves the police befuddled, on top of that each murder reminds one of the seven wonders of the world. Thus, our detective in the piece calls them the Seven Wonder of Crime.

The Riddle of Monte Verita by Jean-Paul Torok

"Her Face became the face of the pretty wife, and she ran out to meet her husband."

Jean-Paul wanted to write a book which ended with now the famous last lines of Carr's "The Burning Court." - perhaps the greatest mystery novel ever written? Thinking about the ending of the The burning court still makes the hair at the back of my neck stand up. Alas, we are not reviewing the master's work.

Jean-Paul, a self confessed Carr fan tries to write a novel in the fashion of those good old GAD days. That too an impossible locked room crime novel. Jean-Paul's Pastiche is remarkable work of detective fiction especially the last 30-40 pages.

Summary:

Monte Verita, situated in beautiful Switzerland is holding a symposium, where the theme is detective fiction. Recently married, Pierre is accompanied by his young wife Solange. Pierre is an erudite on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Professor Lippi, another erudite attending the symposium, makes a speech and pokes fun of detective fiction, especially of impossible crimes, locked rooms and murders in hermetically sealed chambers. The German, Dr Hoenig and Lippi get into a raucous argument. Dr Hoenig claims that he will bring a locked room challenge in front of all present. Little did Hoenig knew that he will himself become the centre of a locked room murder. In view of two guards posted outside Hoenig's Villa, he is murdered by what appears to be a woman. The guards rush from their own villa to Hoenig's but found it locked, once they force themselves inside the killer has disappeared in thin air.

The Demon of Dartmoor by Paul Halter

At the turn of the Century in Dartmoor, a Woman was pushed down to her death from the stairs of her aesthetically beautiful home called Trerice Manor, by an Invisible hand. Fifty years later on Wish Tor peak in Dartmoor, a young beautiful woman is plunged from the peak to her death, the locals find playing cards scattered over her dead body. Next year, history repeats itself, another girl dies in the same way, witnesses claim that she was talking to an enigmatic stranger who they could not see, later two lovers reported that the poor girl was pushed in the abyss by an invisible man, again a few playing cards are splattered near the dead body. Same time next year, A third victim is claimed by the invisible man and this time the dead body of the poor girl disappears without leaving a vestige.

Few years later, Nigel Manson, a successful actor comes to Dartmoor with his wife and buys Trerice Manor, now lying in desolation. Nigel is smitten by the house and gets is restored. He invites his impresario, Frank, and his co-actor/mistress, Natalie, to spend the weekend with them. Nigel is sitting on the window ledge, of his splendid house getting photographed by his beautiful mistress who is standing at the ground below. Mrs Manson, Frank and the village doctor are in the same room as Nigel, suddenly Nigel is propelled out of the window and he cracks open his head on impact with the ground, Nigel immediately dies. Witnesses in the room, and Natalie claim that there was no one behind Nigel neither could he have slipped, so how did he fell? Witnesses claim that they felt that he was pushed from the ledge by an invisible man.

Dr Alan Twist, the famous criminologist and Inspector Archibald Hurst are called in to Dartmoor. The moors where legends of hell hounds, murderous invisible men and the red devil do the rounds in the local inn with rounds of beer, where legends and macabre tales are interwoven in the lives of the people. Twist and Hurst have to now lift the veil of superstition and catch the demon of Dartmoor before it strikes again.

Rim of the Pit by Hake Talbot

What happens when summoning a spirit goes wrong? Grimaud Desanat got lost in the snow a year ago and now his family, friends and business associates are gathered in a remote cabin in the wilds of Northern New England. They want to summon his spirit to ask for his approval for a business proposition. sounds strange? we are only getting started. Grimaud's Widow who has now remarried is the conjurer. She does a trance in complete darkness, during a snow storm, and Grimaud's ghost pays the group a scary visit. The ghost talks, makes gestures and seemed to be floating in thin air.

Later, Mrs Grimaud or now Mrs Ogden, is found murdered in her room. people in her group saw from outside of the cabin silhouette of an axe wielding murdering her. When they get inside the room the murderer has escaped. There are footprints on the roof but no footprints on the ground below, there are no foot prints for a very long distance and then the same footprints appear in the snow and under such fantastic circumstances the only conclusion  the group could come to is that the spirit of Grimaud took possession of someone from the group and committed murder and turned him/her into a Windigo.

The Fourth Door by Paul Halter

Henry has had the gift since he was a child. He could perform spectacular magic tricks and bedazzle his audience with his skills as an acrobat and a conjurer. Henry lived with his father and mother, in a little village outside Oxford. Tragedy struck and Henry's mother was killed in an accident. Henry's father, Arthur, turned to a medium for solace.

The medium called Alice Latimer lives with her husband in a haunted house close to Henry's. One day Arthur is badly attacked, and left to die. His son goes missing and is blamed for the attempt on his father's life. Henry's best friend and the Latimers claim to see him at the same time at two different railway stations, but how can one man be at two places at the same time, is someone mistaken or another clever trick by Henry.

A few years later Alice Latimer, wants to do a seance and drive out the malevolent spirit from the haunted house, her husband, Patrick Latimer, offers to lock himself up in the haunted room and face the wrath of the enigmatic spirit. In front of witnesses the room is locked and sealed from outside, there is no way to either get in or out, a classic locked room, and where there is a locked room, murder can't be far behind. Poor Patrick is found murdered, but on careful scrutiny it is determined that the murdered man is not really Patrick. As more and more mysteries keep piling, the dead bodies also start piling up.

Paul Halter has been crowned the king of locked room mysteries and a successor to John Dickosn Carr, but does such an opulent title really suit him and his work?

The Incredulity of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

Continuing my reading into the Father Brown Series, and having read The Innocence of Father Brown and then the Wisdom of Father Brown, I have now corollary moved to the The Incredulity of Father Brown, which is chronologically the third book in the Father Brown series. I'm going to do capsule reviews of the eight short parables which make up The Innocence of Father Brown.

The Resurrection of Father Brown - Father Brown is perambulating in a South American town, when he is struck by two men who come from nowhere and leave the inconspicuous priest lifeless, but wait is he really dead? or is at an elaborate scheme against Christianity and the Church. No mystery here, this is the worst opening story that a book could have. The characterization is so pathetic that it is difficult to remember and care about the characters, they just seem too fanatic for my taste, either a character is too religious or too atheist. The story serves as a reminder to everyone who have forgotten the virtues and nobleness of Catholicism and the ignobility and vices of the heathen religions and the depravity of Atheism.

The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr

 Mark Despard is disturbed. His uncle Miles Despard has died and he thinks somebody poisoned him. Mrs Henderson, the maid, claims that while the house was empty and Miles was in his room, she saw the silhouette of a woman standing over his bed, giving him a drink and then disappearing through a door which was not there. Mrs Henderson could not make out who this women was but she did describe the dress that she was wearing, she was wearing the dress worn by Madame de Brinvilliers, the french serial killer who poisoned tens of people and then was caught by an ancestor of the Despards. In 1676, she was guillotined and then burnt at the stake.

There was another detail about the enigmatic visitor that Mrs Henderson missed but later recited, she felt that  the neck of the woman wasn't properly "fastened"! The Despards now think that it was the ghost of Madame de Brinvilliers who came back to take revenge on the bloodline of her nemesis, and that is how the specter escaped from a door that was not there.

Mark Despard wants to now exhume the body of his dead uncle and check if he was poisoned or not. Mark enlists two old friends for this clandestine task. Together they open the crypt where the Despards keep their dead, then they open the wooden coffin and find that apparently Miles Despard has escaped from his grave. The Coffin is empty. The Crypt has remained unperturbed since the day Miles was buried with his ancestors. Furthermore, the crypt is made of granite which is impregnable and the question of hidden passages is ruled out. So where did the dead body of Miles go? and who was the women who entered Miles room on the night of his murder and where did she disappear? In this tale of the occult, witches, poisoners and murders nobody is what they seem.

Nine and Death makes Ten aka Murder in the Submarine Zone by Carter Dickson

When I first started reading mysteries, I was greatly influenced by "And then there were none" by Agatha Christie and so I started looking for books similar to it. My arduous search efforts led me to "Nine and Death makes Ten" and corollary the discovery of John Dickson Carr, but alas the book was out of print and me being a novice classic mystery hunter had no idea on how to get my covetous hands on it. So I searched some more titles from the then obscure author, and ordered The Judas Window from an online bookstore.

I kept reading others books and simultaneously kept looking for that elusive book with the cover of a black ship in the front and that green skull in the background. Finally after much efforts and properly utilizing a lot of money and time I have got hold of the 1940 Classic.

Plot:

Abroad an ocean liner called the Edwardic, are nine passengers who are travelling at the beginning of the second world war from New York to England. The ship has to go through the submarine zone where a Nazi torpedo could sink them to the bottom of the sea. The Edwardic's nine passengers who are risking their lives for this travel are faced with the additional problem of Murder!

One of the passengers among the nine is found murdered, throat slit and blood splattered in the cabin, but the   murderer has committed a grave mistake and left his/her fingerprints at the scene of the crime. The ship's Captain orders that everyone's fingerprints be taken and then matched with the murderer's to determine the perpetrator of this ghastly crime, next comes the impossible mystery which is that the murderer's fingerprints do not match with anyone on board the Edwardic, neither the passengers nor anyone from the ship's crew. The Ship's Captain orders the old man to take over the investigation but this time HM is up against a willy opponent who might just make it his last case.

The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin

Plot Summary : Richard Cadogan is a famous poet who reaches Oxford in the middle of the night on his holiday. While walking on Iffley road Cadogan notices a queer shop and when curiosity gets the better of him, he enters the shop to investigate. It turns out that the shop is a toy shop and above it are living compartments. Cadogan wants to check that nothing is amiss and ventures upstairs, to his horror he discovers the dead body of a woman lying on the floor. Cadogan tries to attempt a hasty retreat but is struck on the head and is rendered unconscious. When Cadogan wakes up he runs to the Police and narrates the peculiarities of last night. When Cadogan along with the Police arrive at the spot, they find that the shop is not a toy shop but a grocery shop and there is no dead body in the premises. The Police attribute Cadogan's fantastic story to the bump on his head and leave him to his fantasies.

Vexed and Confused Cadogan approaches the Oxford University Don Gervase Fen. Together the two of them get involved in a whirlwind murder mystery adventure.

Review: Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Bruce Montgomery who wrote nine crime fiction novels featuring the Oxford Don Gervase Fen, who is the professor of English at the St. Christopher's College(a fictional institute). The Moving Toyshop and other Fen Stories were often influenced by the master himself John Dickson Carr. So did Crispin do justice to Carr and the Impossible Crime Genre?

The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson

Plot:Sir Henry Merrivale’s favorite sex siren, Marcia Tait has been murdered. She is found bludgeoned to death in a room called the Queen’s mirror, which was the 17th Century trysting place for King Charles II. Queen’s mirror is surrounded by a frozen lake if anyone steps on it then the ice would crack and that person would die a freezing death. Entry and exit to the room is restricted by only a pavilion, which is covered by snow.

Now, what is baffling the police is that there is only one set of footprints which leads towards the room. So, how did the murderer managed to escape without leaving another set of footprints?

And like in all murder mysteries there is another murder and that too of the most likely suspect.

HM and the newly promoted Chief Inspector Master’s investigate the White Priory Murders.

The Problem of the Green Capsule aka The Black Spectacles by John Dickson Carr

 Plot: A mad man/woman poisons chocolates in a tobacco shop in the quaint village of Sodbury cross, which leaves a child dead and few others terribly sick. Marcus Chesney's niece is suspected of the crime but Chesney does not agree with these suspicions.

Marcus Chesney is a man with many idiosyncrasies. One of which is, he believes that eye witnesses are unreliable. Marcus postulates that people are poor observers and can seldom narrate simple incidents reliably. He wants to prove this to his family and friends, who often disagree with him.

To prove his theory he sets up an elaborate charade where he sets up everything as series of traps to confuse and vex the audience. During his Pantomime, an insect like man wearing dark glasses enters the stage and makes Marcus swallow a green pill. The audience think that this part of a preconceived plan. The only problem is that Marcus ends up dead after a few minutes and the person who was supposed to play the part of the Phantom or the man who looked like a "giant insect" is also found critically injured.

Chesney's theory becomes fact. There are witnesses but all have conflicting stories to tell and even the camera which caught the whole thing seems unreliable. Dr Fell is called in to solve the problem of the green capsule.

Review: Children getting poisoned, really? is this something that you would want to read. I mean this isn't something that happens only in fiction. Crimes against children are very common and in a recent TV program called "Satyamev Jayate" perhaps the eyes of a whole nation of hypocrites were opened. But we are not here to talk about real crimes we are here to talk about fiction. 

The Curse of the Bronze Lamp aka Lord of the Sorcerers by Carter Dickson

It is said that a Curse will fall on those who disturb the undead of Egypt.

Lady Helen and her Father Lord Severn excavate a tomb in Egypt, very soon one of their party dies from a Scorpion Bite. Then Lord Severn falls ill and induces his daughter to go back to London.

Among other things found out of their excavations in Egypt there is a  Bronze Lamp. Lady Helen now intends to take this lamp back to England and place it on the mantelpiece of her bedroom to prove that the curse is a farce. On her way a Seer declares that anyone who takes the bronze lamp outside Egypt will be blown to dust.

Lady Helen reaches London and then with a couple of friends proceeds to Severn Hall where she has planned to dispel the myth of the curse. On reaching Severn Hall, Lady Helen jumps out of the car, turns the knob of the door and goes inside.
After a brief moment her two friends follow her inside and see no one in the hall except two old and faithful servants approaching them. The Butler eager to meet his mistress enquirers about her, but he is told that she has already entered. then where did she go? she could not have gone outside as all the windows were watched by gardeners, she could not have gone upstairs as there was a plumber working there. A search of the whole house is ordered immediately but it is in vain, apparently Lady Helen has vanished, she opened the door went inside but was then blown to dust just as the Seer predicted.

Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr

Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr

Dick Markham is one lucky fellow. He is a local celebrity and a successful play writer, he is also engaged to the beautiful, rich, 28 year old girl(who does not look a day over twenty) called Lesley Grant. Life could not get better for Dick. The two of them attend a local fair and Lesley insists on seeing the fortune teller alone. She is apparently unaware that the fortune teller is being played by Sir Harvey Gilman, the Home Office pathologist and expert on crime. After her conspicuous meeting with the fortune teller Lesley looks visibly perturbed. Dick confronts the fortune teller about the same and just as the fortune teller is about to make Dick Privy to a secret about Lesley Bang!  There is a shot fired and Sir Harvey Gilman is shot through the back accidentally by Lesley.

Later, Dick gets a call from the local GP's home. There he meets the convalescing Sir Harvey Gilman. Sir Harvey has dark deep secrets about Lesley. Sir Harvey tells Dick Diabolical tales about Lesley's Antecedence, he tells him that she has been married twice and engaged once and all three suitors were found dead in a locked room. All three of them committed suicide by injecting themselves with Prussic Acid. Woha! also the sweet innocent looking Lesley is actually 41 years old!

The Peacock Feather Murders by Carter Dickson

The Peacock Feather Murders aka The Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson

Mr Vance Keating a prodigal adventurer is on the lookout for his next kick, and it comes in the form of a secret society called the "Ten Teacups". Keating receives a note inviting him to the meeting of the teacups. Chief Inspector Masters also gets a note telling him about the meeting of the Ten Teacups. This makes Masters very nervous, why? because the last time there was a meeting of the ten teacups someone had been murdered under enigmatic circumstances.

Keating visits an abandoned house for the meeting, the police follow Keating and watch the empty house clandestinely. Very soon shots are fired from inside the house and the police found Mr Keating dead, lying next to a table which has ten teacups arranged in a circular manner. Keating has been shot through the back of his head and spine. The Police search the whole house and not a living soul is found. No one came inside the house, no one went out. How did Mr Keating managed to get shot?

The Case of the Constant Suicides by John Dickson Carr

Dr Alan Campbell a Scot, who has never been to Scotland gets a letter inviting him to meet others members of his Clan following the death of a family member. The departed soul is of Angus Campbell, a man who has plunged to his death from the window of a  locked bedroom chamber atop a tower. The insurance agent calls it a suicide but Angus's relatives call it murder. The perplexing question to be asked is how can someone murder a man who is alone in a locked room bolted from inside, and the only window to the room is inaccessible from both below and top. The relatives come up with their own conundrum which is the discovery of a dog carrier bag under the bed of Angus, the relatives contemplate that something could have escaped from the bag that would have led Angus to jump in sheer fright from the soaring high tower.

Meanwhile these questions linger on, there is another suicide attempt off the tower and a third locked room suicide, making this a Case of Constant Suicides for Dr. Gideon Fell.

Review:

The Master of the locked room Returns! For me reading Carr books releases the same endorphins as sex or chocolates. His books have everything which a being like me wants to pass over time in this world full of  otherwise mundane and monotonous sources of leisure. An Impossible Crime, eccentric and aged detectives, hint of the supernatural, mystery and magic. Enough with the Carr encomiums, lets do the book review.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux

Le mystère de la chambre jaune by Gaston Leroux.


Professor Stangerson a famous scientist on the cusp of success in his ongoing experiments is living in a Chateau outside Paris. One unholy night the professor's daughter who is also assisting the professor in his work is found grievously injured in the yellow room. When the door to the room is opened which is the only entry and exit to the room it is found that there is no one inside the room.

The Yellow room is the locked room in this book. and if you are a jd carr fan like me then you know that the locked room is the most interesting thing on God's green earth. In this book : The room has one exit which is the door and the other exit is a steel barred window, there is a bed in the room and few other furniture, and no hidden or secret passages. The solitaire door to the room is watched by the professor and his faithful servant, they were working outside the yellow room in there lab when the incident happened. after hearing the cries of the daughter, professor and the servant somehow manage to get inside the room but find no one there. how can someone hurt Miss Stangerson if no one was found inside the room? no one was seen coming and escaping from the room. The Windows were not tampered with and so was the door. The Baffling case becomes an enigma for the police and a Monica Lewinsky scandal for the media.

Enter Joseph Rouletabille, the journalist cum sleuth, with Rouletabille's advent in the book comes another mystery which is also mind boggling. Rouletabille along with some help trap the killer in a corner but he somehow manages to escape their clutches by vanishing into thin air!

Can the 18 yr old solve this case and prove the great french detective Larsan wrong? or will the yellow room always remain an enigma.

Review:

The Yellow room is written by Gaston Leroux also known worldwide for The Phantom of the Opera, you read the first 20 pages and you understand why JD carr called it the "best detective tale ever written" but that is where the best part ends the book becomes a drag after that, It feels like the author just wants to procrastinate the end, honestly I would have want to cut the novel short because although there is a lot happening in the book, the characters feels very far you do not relate them. I can say in criticism that they are not well drawn and are not seamless.

About the detective, Rouletabille: he is a journalist, but he in no Tintin. Rouletabille to me as a wannabe Sherlock Holmes who fails to create the same aura as that of the Baker Street resident. He says curious phrases to people in the novel and they react even more curiously and these phrases make no sense or reason and also Rouletabille discloses or discusses the case very little.

The Mystery and the murderer are the saving grace of the book it is no doubt an unbreakable locked room and the murderer reminds you of another ending of a famous Agatha Christie(I won't say which because this is a spoiler free blog). The explanation of the assassination attempt is satisfactory but like all locked room endings you have to be a little credulous to buy into it.


Ratings: 2 out of 5