The Plague Court murders by Carter Dickson

Ken Blake the faithful assistant of HM(Henry Merrivale) is bored to death sitting in a bar drinking, Ken is approached by Halliday an old friend who asks Ken to spend a night with him in a haunted house. Ken readily takes up the challenge. On a rainy, dark and mysterious night Blake and Halliday reach a house like no other, the house is known to be haunted by no other then Louis Plague a malevolent soul always watchful, always cunning and always waiting to posses a living body and to exchange that body's weak brain with its own just had it done since it's first appearance in 1665.

The family of Halliday hires a Psychic Roger Darworth to exorcise the Plague court ghost, the exorcist was not an ordinary one. He was a first rate fraud and under police surveillance for months. Darworth wanting to Impress his Acolytes by exorcising the ghost of Plague court, locks himself in a small stone house which has solid stone walls on four sides, a wooden door locked from both inside and outside, its windows barred and with no secret weapon is found brutally murdered. And the murder weapon? no ordinary one. It was the ancient knife which was the property of the Plague Court ghost.

Review:

The Plague Court murders starts of as a haunted house story which gives you the chills on every page and then very soon it becomes a Locked room murder mystery. This was Carr's genre and he was the master at it. In many Carr books you will find the element of Supernatural. Carr will put forward an impossible crime and then have you believe that there could be no other explanation for it other then the supernatural and then HM or Dr. Gideon Fell would prove otherwise. This is the debut of the "Old Man" i.e. Henry Merrivale. This is a good debut not HM's best but still good enough. The locked room itself is pretty solid but how it was cracked was not very satisfactory also it won't be easy to guess the identity of the murderer because of a twist in the end which I was not content with. In conclusion this is a nice read with an impenetrable locked room murder, a ghost story and HM making his debut.

Ratings: 3 out of 5

Where can you get this: Unfortunately this is not easy to get as this book is out of print, I found a second hand book on Infibeam in a good condition worth Rs 580.

He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr

Miles Hammond is invited to the meeting of the mysterious "Murder Club", the murder club meets to discuss impossible and intriguing murders and on a very rainy and mysterious Friday night it's guest speaker is Professor Rigaud, but to the surprise of Miles Hammond all members of the murder club are absent except for the speaker and a young girl, so with the lights gone and three of them sitting in a lonely dark room Professor Rigaud starts to narrate his story about Fey Seton. The red hair beauty who when walks in a room leaves all the men gasping.

Professor:

Fey Seton comes to the little french city of Chartes where she works as a secretary to the Wealthy Industrialist Howard Brookes, but wherever Fey goes rumors follow. Inevitably the young son of Mr. Brookes falls for Fey but the Sr. Brookes would have none of it, having heard some very disturbing stories about Fey, Mr Brookes decides to bribe Fey out of love and arranges a meeting on top of an old stone tower, Fey is seen coming down from the tower when Mr Brookes is seen well and alive on top of the tower, soon Mr. Brookes is found dead on top of the tower with just one entrance door and nobody seen going inside and no one seen going outside, there is no explanation of his murder, who entered the tower? where did they go?

The villagers do have an explanation and it is that Fey Flew to the top of the 40 foot tower!! surprised?

they say she is a Nosferatu or a Vampire!

A telephone call ends the murder club meeting abruptly, Miles Hammond goes back to his life and his Library of antique and rare books, but soon he gets a message from a job applicant for the position of a Librarian who miles wanted desperately, on inquiring Miles founds out that the Applicant has come down from France and is a tall, red haired, beautiful woman called "Fey Seton"!

Review: You start reading the novel and you begin to realize what a master Carr is. Carr weaves the supernatural into the fabric of the book so well that you feel that you are reading a horror story where the explanation of the murder cannot be anything but Supernatural, the book is from the Gideon Fell Series.

Who is Gideon Fell? he is an amateur sleuth who is an expert on locked room crimes, he is the fictional hero of the greatest locked room mystery of all time "The hollow man" where in chapter 17 Fell gives a full lecture on the how locked room murders might be committed.

Where can you buy this: Flipkart or Infibeam will cost around 550 bucks

Ratings: 4.5 stars, do not miss this!

The Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie calls The Crooked house as one of her personal favorites and a book that she really enjoyed writing, first published in 1949 The Crooked House is part of the non series books by Agatha Christie which means there is no popular fictional detective like Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot in this one.

Plot:

Charles is the son of the AC of the Scotland yard and is in love with the beautiful Sophia Leonides, when Charles shares his feeling of Love with Sophia, she refuses Charles but not because she does not love Charles but because she might be one of the accused in the murder of her millionaire grandfather. Charles like a knight in shining armor comes to the rescue to help his Fiance and find the true identity of the murderer. But has he bitten off more then he can chew? will the truth save him or hurt him?

Review:

This is only the second non-series Agatha Christie book that I have read and without a doubt her non-series books have been the best, This is an absolute intriguing read. I read the whole book in one day! no doubt people refer to this one as one of her best novels. The Absence of Marple and Poirot in the book is perfect had any of the two of them been in this book then that would have ruined it for me, The amateur sleuth Charles proves to be a great narrator and detective and you can relate more to the Human errors of Charles then the sometimes Snobbish Poirot, the ending of the book is perfect the last 4 chapters are absolutely spell binding and working out the identity of the killer is not easy, I was not able to work this one out, why don't you give it a try too? A must read.

Where can you get it: I got this one from Landmark for Rs 150, I think you can get it cheaper from FlipKart.

A pocket full of Rye by Agatha Christie

This one was written in 1953 and is a typical cozy English mystery with lots of murders and even more suspects, the title and cover of the book are highly attractive.

Plot:

A Highly successful Banker after drinking a cup of tea falls seriously ill and dies within hours from poisoning, the banker's pockets are found to be full of rye!! no one knows why there was cereal in the dead man's pocket until his wife is also poisoned eating bread and honey and his maid is found strangled with a clothes pin on her nose, Miss Marple deduces that someone is arranging the murders along the nursery rhyme Sing a song of Sixpence, is someone extracting revenge on the family? or is there a madman on the loose or something even more sinister?

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

Review:

This is the third book that I have read in the Miss Marple series and my interest in the series has only increased, the difference between Miss Marple and other detectives I feel is that she is not all over the place she appears in parts briefly in her books and then comes in the end to provide an elegant solution, here in A Pocket full of rye I don't think she makes her appearance before the first 125 pages. The book in it self is a nice read, the characters are well written and interesting. The mystery is intriguing and the plot with victim having his pocket full of rye is quite enthralling, I would highly recommend this book to someone who is new to the genre but for me I was able to figure out the Identity of the murderer halfway through the book, once I'm able to figure out the Identity of the murderer and then it is corroborated, I feel a little disappointed that is because I love to be surprised by the twist endings. that said the book is still very interesting and Miss Marple books are supposed to be workable, light and easy mysteries. 

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5

Where can you find it: this is easily available in local bookstores and can also also be ordered online from Flipkart.

And So To Murder by Carter Dickson

And so to murder by John Dickson Carr was written in 1940 at the early stages of the second world war, this is NOT a locked room mystery and like many Carr books this also has a lot of Anti-Nazi themes (which is not surprising since Carr was a part of the English Governments propaganda for the Allies i.e. US, UK, France and the rest of the West), but the underlying theme of this book is not War but Movies and the Film Industry in merry old England, Carr takes us through movie sets and characters typical to the Film Industry.



Plot:

Monica Stanton, the pretty and rather naive daughter of a British clergyman, is the author of a surprisingly scandalous best-seller. As a result, she's been hired as a script writer for Albion Films, working with William Cartwright, a script writer from the world of detective novels.

However, she's not going to be working on her own novel—she's helping Cartwright adapt his latest detective novel, “And So To Murder”. Tilly Parson is a dumpy, bustling chain-smoking American woman in her early fifties who is the highest-paid scenario writer in the world, imported from Hollywood at great expense to adapt Monica's novel.

Glamorous movie star Frances Fleur, whose punctilious husband Kurt selects all her parts, will be the star. Against the backdrop of Pineham Studios and Fleur's current movie, a series of mysterious attempts on Monica's life begin—they are exceptionally nasty and completely inexplicable, involving sulfuric acid.

When someone poisons Tilly Parsons' cigarette and nearly kills her, Sir Henry Merrivale helps Chief Inspector Masters to bring home the crimes to their unlikely perpetrator.

Review:

To begin with I have a complaint with Carr, I think Carr broke a rule of the Fair play detection which is rule number 8 "The Detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover", I think Carr cheated on this one by giving the murderer a very strong alibi and then falsifying the alibi, I can't reveal the exact details cause this is a spoiler free blog, besides that I thought the writing was poor and since there was no murder committed it can't be termed as a murder mystery and with all the talk about movies, Nazis and poisons this seems more like a James Bond novel then a John Dickson Carr, Carr should stick to Locked room mysteries, this is Carr at his weakest only good thing is the humor in the book especially between the idiotic Director and his Assistant.

Ratings: 2 out of 5

Where can you buy it: it's in print and you can get it from any online book selling website like Flipkart or Infibeam.

She Died a Lady by Carter Dickson

Carter Dickson is the Pseudonym of John Dickson Carr, Carr wrote this in 1943 at the height of the second world war and the overtones of the second world war cannot be missed in the book. There are constant references to the fuhrer of Germany in the story and the impending doom of the arrival of the Nazis on sleepy English villages acts as a tension builder in the novel.

Plot:

Rita Wainwright is having an affair with a man fifteen years younger then her, she and her lover decide to commit suicide by throwing themselves over the edge of a cliff but when there dead bodies are found it is concluded that they have been shot at close range through the heart, there are only two set of footprints on the spot of the alleged suicide and no way of anyone climbing behind them from a 70 foot cliff, did they commit suicide? or were they murdered by someone who floats in the air?

Henry Merrivale is at hand to Investigate.

Review:

Another baffling mystery by Carr, this one has loads of humor as HM is confined to a motorized wheel chair after hurting his big toe and has many jocular incidents where he is cursing and bumbling in his invalid state. The mystery is intriguing and very well written, certainly one of Carr's most loved works and less gimmicky.

The solution in the end is satisfactory and well explained, also guessing the murderer is not easy, if someone has read "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie then the identity of the murderer might come to them like it did to me(this is not a spoiler). You have to be vary careful with Carr he leaves clues in the story line and he leaves them in a such way that you are sure to miss them and then it turns out that those clues lead to the murderer, it will be a very careful reader who will guess Whodunit

Ratings:

Where can you buy it - This is in print and you can get it for Rs 550 from flipkart or infibeam

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930 (she was 40, he was only 26 -- Go Agatha!) and thereafter spent months at a time every year (with the exception of some years during WWII) in the Middle East on digs. She wrote many of her novels in a small mud closet with only a card table to hold her typewriter and a wooden chair to sit on. The locals actually considered her very extravagant for this. She also helped clean, sketch and photograph the artifacts they uncovered.




she now used her experience in Iraq to write a character study of the interplay of personalities on an archaeological dig. The characters of Dr. Eric Leidner and his wife Louise were based on people Christie knew in real life, famous archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his wife Katherine.

Plot:

Louise Leidner--"Lovely Louise," as she is known in Iraq--is a compelling woman. She is beautiful, intelligent, and confident--but she's also a bundle of nerves. She hears tapping on her window, sees ghostly faces hovering outside, and receives threatening letters which may or may not be written by her supposedly dead former husband. Nurse Amy Leatheran--sensible, experienced, kind but tough, has been hired to be her companion, and acts as our narrator as well.

It's really no surprise when Louise is murdered early one afternoon. After all, this charismatic woman has been adored and reviled in equal measure--often by the same person!--by everyone on her husband's archaeological dig. All have a motive, all have the opportunity...and most have an alibi.

What's the local constabulary to do but call in Hercule Poirot, passing through on his way to Baghdad. Poirot, always up for an intriguing case, enlists Nurse as his assistant, and together lead to a most surprising conclusion.

Reviews:

Christie attempts a locked room mystery with this one, and to me her solution leaves a lot to be desired, this is not Christie's strongest work. I for one could not believe when the murderer is revealed not only is the hidden identity of the murderer improbable but also illogical, I mean Louise would have to be blind to not have noticed who the person behind her grievances is and also the book talks about tension among the group in the dig but the tension is never felt in the book by the reader, although I liked the characters in the book and pace of the novel but the revelation in the end is absurd.

Ratings: 2.5 0ut of 5