Current reading: The Mad Hatter Mystery by John Dickson Carr.
Carr was originally from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, which I guess would be considered a suburb or exurb of Pittsburgh. He moved to England, though, because he believed it to be the best place to write detective stories. Moved back and forth between countries a couple of times.
The Mad Hatter Mystery is one of Carr's novels featuring Dr. Gideon Fell. Fell is based on G. K. Chesterton, right down to physical appearance, i.e. heavyset with mustache and eyeglasses on a ribbon. The plot is quite entertaining. And it's a success for Carr as a mystery writer and tourist, as he gets to use the Tower of London as a crime scene.
2 comments:
Thanks for the introduction to yet another writer whose work I seem to have missed. I'd heard his name before but had never read any of what sound to be pretty entertaining books. I couldn't help but notice the resemblance of John Dickson Carr to Simon Brimmer of Ellery Queen on his wikipedia page.
I see the book you read is one of the earliest of his Dr. Gideon Fell novels. It sounds as though he was working on expanding his repertoire at that point - Henri Bencolin apparently specialized in locked room mysteries. It's funny that the last Martin Beck book I read was called 'The Locked Room' using what's come to be a trope of the genre.
Carr was a very prolific and very successful author. I'm sure I should be able to find at least a few of his books at Russell's.
Yes, the books I've read by Carr have been pretty entertaining. You might like him. I hadn't really noticed the resemblance between him and Simon Brimmer, but it was there. Of course it was rather popular in the 30s and 40s. Nick Charles had it too, although William Powell was taller and skinnier.
It looks like Bencolin was Carr's first series detective, appearing three years before Dr. Fell and four before Sir Henry Merrivale. Haven't read any books featuring him, but I know via Wikipedia that he was a judge in Paris. Another foreign setting for the author to conquer. A good locked room mystery is always enjoyable.
Happy hunting at Russell's. The copy of Mad Hatter Mystery I read was from the fairly recent Otto Penzler edition.
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