the hollow man - Dickson Carr
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A great mystery story from a master. I like old fashioned mystery stories so this might not suite everyone since we seem to think that all old stuff is to be thrown out which is a very sad conclusion to make. I had to really concentrate on the book in parts to understand what it was all about so don't read this if you are on a crowded train or bus but if you peservere with Dickson Carr he is well worth reading.
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The greatest ever locked room mystery
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John Dickson Carr's many excellent mysteries are hard to find these days, so any reissue is extremely welcome. The Hollow Man is his masterpiece, a brilliant confection of creepy atmosphere, strong characterisation and intricate plotting.
One of Carr's strengths was always his ability to imply the supernatural in his baffling 'impossible crimes', and here he is at the peak of his powers. It's a scary, exciting, enormously satisfying puzzle, through which we are guided by the Chestertonian Dr. Fell, one of the more endearing detectives in fiction.
Any lover of the Golden Age detective novel who doesn't know Carr (or his pseudonym, Carter Dickson) is missing out on one of the best. Get this book today!
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Stunning Locked-Room Mystery
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Also published under the title "Three Coffins", JDC's 1935 puzzler is the supreme example of the locked-room mystery.
A stranger calls on Dr Grimaud and announces that his brother will rise from the grave and kill Grimaud. A week later a mysterious figure enters Grimaud's study, shoots him and vanishes. The original stranger is sought, and it is found that he was shot at close range fifteen minutes later - the body lies in the middle of a snow covered street, the smoking gun at hand, but no-one's footprints are found by the body...
The solution is terrifically entertaining (and more importantly satisfying), and the novel devilishly plotted. Although the solution may rely on a piece of slightly suspect pyschology, JDC addresses the question and, as he puts it in the extended review of the mechanics of the locked-room story included in the tale, one should never confuse the unlikely with the impossible...
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