nolalibrarian: Why Read John Dickson Carr?

John Dickson Carr was one of those mid-20th century writers who could turn out books year after year and always find some new historical era or cunning trick to bring before the public. He was the inventor (nearly) of the historical mystery novel (The Bride of Newgate). His Sir Henry Merrivale novels were so outrageously full of slapstick that people thought that the first one was written by P. G. Wodehouse.
Carr was the son of a Pennsylvania congressman. After college, he was sent to Paris to become a writer. He wrote some stories. He ended up writing radio plays for the BBC and novels. He moved back and forth across the Atlantic, and usually lived in the South. For years some of his books were often published in England first. This meant that the books often have several titles--the English title and the American title. After a suitable interval, the American publisher would re-issue the book with the English title. At one point, Carr had met his contract for several books a year with one publisher and was free to send work to other publishers. This constant flow of books also encouraged his publishers to print his books under different names, so that it would look like they had another popular writer.
Carr was widely praised and his books sold well. He won many prizes for his books and wrote a column for Ellery Queen's mystery magazine. He suffered a stroke in the 1960s and wrote with one hand from then on. His later books seem to suffer from a sameness and lack of the wild Carr "touch."
After 1950, most of his books are "historical" mysteries.
He published a widely acclaimed biographyof Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as well as several Sherlock Holmes pastiches written in conjunction with Conan Doyle's son, Adrian.
Carr wrote stories as well as novels. Douglas G. Greene's collection of Carr stories, The Door to Doom, contains some rare stories as well as a detailed bibliography of Carr's works. Greene is a collector, publisher, and critic who has kept Carr's memory alive for us.
Like a lot of writers of his between the Wars era, his work is fallen mostly out of print. It's not all great. But out of 72 books, there are at least 20 that are spooky, funny, or full of interesting historical details.
The internet offer us some nice benefits in that several episodes of the Suspense radio show are available for free downloads that include Carr's radio adaptations and original radio plays. Otr.net has The Burning Court Suspense episode in a free download format and another radio archive has several more. There is a good Wikipedia article on Carr. There are several web-sites and a yahoo discussion group.
He published under John Dickson Carr, Carter Dickson, and Carr Dickson.
Carr's Detectives.
Dr. Gideon Fell. He had a few detectives he used several times. Dr. Gideon Fell is a large man in a cloak who loves beer and mysteries. He apparently was named after the old rhyme, "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell. Why I don't, I cannot tell." Fell likes beer and is widely read. He is some sort of scholar. He is based on G. K. Chesterton, The mystery writer/catholic thinker friend of J. D. Carr. He is fat.
Merrivale. I really like his wild and racscally Sir Henry Merrivale, who dresses in odd outfits. He comes from one of the great noble families of England, but speaks in non-stop Americanese jargon. He is a doctor and a lawyer, but he didn't practice as either. In several books he has a high-up and mysterious post with the government and terrorizes the war-time secreteries. His own is called Lollypop! Merrivale travels around the world and finds murder and mayhem everywhere. He is large and bald.
Marx Brothers Type Humor. There is a lot of slapstick humor in Merrivale books. An early chapter in The Skeleton in the Clock has him disrupting an auction at Christie's or someplace like it in London. In Graveyard to Let, the notable toff causes a riot in New York. There's at least one other book in which he detonates a crowd, but since it's out of print, I'll refrain.
People thought that the first Merrivale mystery was written by P. G. Wodehouse because of the romantic anarchy in the book. Some readers and critics held Merrivale's antics against him and preferred Gideon Fell, who could also sometimes have a manic scene or two in his books. I suppose that there are people who don't like the Marx Brothers.
Supernatural themes. John Dickson Carr would include supernatural trappings and eeriness at the drop of a hat. The Plague Court Murders is just a ghost story without a ghost, set in a London house. The Crooked Hinge is sinister mayhem with impersonated heirs, a monster running around the garden, and a Titanic survivor. The Lost Gallows is creepiness in a closed down prison. There is Papa La-Bas, an otherwise forgettable mystery set in Louisiana. The Red Widow Murders is just plain spooky and when you think about the history he (hopefully) invented for the book, it's worse. The Burning Court is one of his most famous for mixing in witchcraft, witch trials, and reincarnation. It is also the only Carr mystery that was ever made into a movie (French).
Locked Door Master. Carr specialized in the "locked door" mystery. So some of his books seem to have the world's most contrived murders---outdoing Agatha Christie by a mile. Don't even think of killing anyone with John Dickson Carr methods--I'm sure that they don't work. The Judas Window, The Plague Court Murders, The Red Widow Murders, in order words, nearly everything he wrote has an "impossible murder." In The Hollow Man/Three Coffins, Dr. Gideon Fell explains the "rules" of the locked-door mystery.
Love and Romance. John Dickson Carr was married a few times, so who knows if he was a decent husband or lover. We probably can't judge anyone who died in 1977 for his feminism and enlightened attitude. However, his women have aged well. I like them. They are adventurous, rather than sweet "rescue-me" female furniture. Usually they have careers or are treated as equal partners by their husbands. While Dr. Fell and Merrivale's wives stay off-stage, they are treated with verbal consideration by their sleuthy husbands.
The Bride of Newgate features one of Carr's classic female characters, who marries a man condemned to die at dawn in order to obtain her inheritance. That didn't work out, by the way. . . not the way she thought it would. Her spiritual sisters were involved in Fire, Burn, The Devil in Velvet, and The Emperor's Snuff-Box.
Carr's romance plotline usually will not involve the detectives, but there is often a couple or two in the book who NEED to get together or back together. The Emeror's Snuff-Box includes one of these star-crossed and un-crossed couples. The Man Who Couldn't Shudder features a similar pair.
Carr's History. John Dickson Carr had several historical obsessions. He includes Napoleon and Napoleon's legacy in several msyteries. The Emperor's Snuffbox, mentioned above, is one. He even has one that is set in the Napoleonic Wars just before Waterloo, Captain Cut-Throat.
John Dickson Carr invented the historical mystery, a mystery set in a time long past. Nowadays everyone seems required to do this judging by my trips to the Mystery section at Barnes & Noble. There was a time when mysteries were contemporary, not so long ago.
However, it was Carr's The Bride of Newgate (1950, set in 1815) that is generally accepted to be the first historical whodunit. It is a rollicking adventure story--as are most of Carr's historical mysteries, Fire, Burn!, The Devil in Velvet, Captain Cut-Throat, Fear is the Same, and The Demoniacs.
A few years afterward, Carr returns to the this century in London with Fire, Burn!, the character is transported back in time and has contemporary knowledge he uses to his advantage in 1829. At the end of the book he is transported back to modern times.
The book never reveals how it was done---just enjoy it. In The Devil in Velvet, the time travel involves a deal with the real Devil. Isn't that nice??
Miscellaneous Notables: Carr's first book was It Walks by Night, set in Paris of the 1920s. It features a french magistrate/bon vivante. After this Carr uses this detective a few more times, notably in The Corpse in the Waxworks.
My Late Wives features a character who may or may not be a modern bluebeard.
The Nine Wrong Answers is a book in which a man agrees to impersonate someone else and every guess that the reader makes about the suspects and murder are asked and answered in footnotes. There is one of those mixed-up couples in Nine Wrong Answers.
Patrick Butler for the Defense is the book in which a younger lawyer takes on the role of eccentric detective. There is a crazy set of couples, a locked room mystery, and a contemporary setting. Butler "knows" Gideon Fell and appears in Below Suspicion, a Gideon Fell mystery.
My Favorites by John Dickson Carr:
The Devil in Velvet
The Crooked Hinge
Bride of Newgate
Burning Court
Cavalier Cup
The Skeleton in the Clock
Fire, Burn!
Captain Cut-Throat
Plague Court Murders
Red Widow Murders
Carr's books are usually highly readable, energetic, and contain historical tidbits. By now, his contemporary books include details of a way of life that has passed into history.
Where to find the books
Try your local library and even interlibrary loan if you are curious. Once you are a fan, you will have fun hunting for the books. Most are out-of-print, so look for copies online or in used bookstores. Keep an eye out. When I was collecting Carr books in the early 1990s, it seemed that I would find one or two at every church sale or house sale I went to.
I probably found more through e-bay than in stores and they were very reasonably priced. The variations in the name used by the publisher and between the American and English titles made the search more challenging. There are still a few titles I have yet to find ten years on.