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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
mysterious
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
REREAD:
I want to give this one credit for having one of my favorite resolutions to a locked room mystery, which is always a classic whenever I see it. I will take away a bit of credit because for the life of me I can't figure out the point ofhaving Fay Seton be a sex maniac or whatever, especially if it's acknowledged that Harry lied in his slander of her on purpose ; it doesn't really add anything to the story and just comes across weird. The first time I read this I hated the ending- this time around I liked it a lot. I do think it has a few too many of some of the tropes that he uses a bit too often, but they were fun so whatever.
There is one issue I have with the overall plot though-how did Stephen/Harry not realize that the woman he was attacking was Marion rather than Fay? I mean, in the first place his plot seems to have been way too elaborate- why not just pretend to have Fay kill herself from the trauma or because she's creepy or whatever? That would also make it much more realistic that he'd get the wrong person bc he'd have much less physical contact with them. But instead the scheme Fell describes is one that would take a lot of hands on activity and surely at SOME point Stephen/Harry would be able to tell the difference between these two women who he'd surely physically interacted with enough to tell apart. The absolute only reason I can think of for the elaborate and improbable scheme is to prevent Marion from being actually killed, though as she never really returns I can't really see the point .
I want to give this one credit for having one of my favorite resolutions to a locked room mystery, which is always a classic whenever I see it. I will take away a bit of credit because for the life of me I can't figure out the point of
There is one issue I have with the overall plot though-
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a waste of time
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Carr is an excellent writer who knows how to create atmosphere, tone, unique characters and intriguing plots. You will find all of this in He Who Whispers.
Where it breaks down is the explanation of how the recent crime was committed. The flaw in this solution is so egregious, it makes the entire mystery fall apart from my perspective. As much as I enjoy Carr's work, this is not oneog his better efforts.
Where it breaks down is the explanation of how the recent crime was committed. The flaw in this solution is so egregious, it makes the entire mystery fall apart from my perspective. As much as I enjoy Carr's work, this is not oneog his better efforts.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
It always surprised me that John Dickson Carr--at least initially; he reevaluated his position later in life--was critical of the hardboiled detective novel. Of the traditional mystery writers, he comes the closest to the hardboiled school. Not in terms of what he considered hardboiled’s most obvious traits: the chases and sluggings [his words] and cleavage. No, what he shared with them--and did not share with most of his contemporaries--was movement. He eschewed that one staid location where the suspects would be paraded through the detective’s presence until the proper solution was divined. For that to work you needed a genius like Agatha Christie, who made the unique location an integral part of both the story and the mystery, as with [b:Murder on the Orient Express|853510|Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)|Agatha Christie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486131451l/853510._SY75_.jpg|2285570] or [b:And Then There Were None|16299|And Then There Were None|Agatha Christie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391120695l/16299._SY75_.jpg|3038872]. And Carr did write some of his own in this tradition, like [b:The Arabian Nights Murder|921073|The Arabian Nights Murder (Dr. Gideon Fell, #7)|John Dickson Carr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1260659853l/921073._SY75_.jpg|3160654] for example. But movement in terms of location, or even activity, was not the issue with Carr. It was movement within the narrative. After setting up the mystery, he would peel away layers over here while adding complications over there. Interest had to be maintained, and he accomplished this through the characters and their situations as much as through the mystery. The motives of guilty and innocent alike were important to him. Most of the characters wanted to help the investigation but some had to hinder it, and not always out of malevolent intent. His ultimate goal was for the story to be as involving as the mystery. He Who Whispers is the first Carr novel I’ve read where the story actually takes precedence over the mystery.
The first indicator of this may be that the only murder in the novel happens six years before the start of the story. Miles Hammond, hit with the twin blows of an eighteen-month wartime illness and news of the death of his uncle, returns to England with the end of World War II, still weak but heartened by an invitation to a meeting of the Murder Club, a small group of well-known Londoners who enjoy stories of cryptic murders and unexplained horrors. It is there that Miles learns from a visiting professor--the guest speaker--the story of an English family living in rural France and the impossible murder of its patriarch. At the center of the turmoil leading up to his mysterious death is a specifically-imported English secretary, a woman who is promptly labeled at best wanton and at worst something considerably more evil. Coincidentally it is the same woman Miles is scheduled to interview the next day to catalogue his uncle’s enormous, unwieldy library; a coincidence made more palatable by the time period in which the novel takes place. The same circumstances that allowed Miles to come home, the end of the war, also allowed for her repatriation from France, thus making her the only qualified person for the employment agency to offer him. Miles hires her in spite of her history (or maybe because of it) and along with his sister--they are co-inheritors--they travel to their rural estate, where the past intrudes on the present with frightening results.
Once the story shifts to this secluded location, as with the best of Carr, the reader is hooked. As with any Carr, though, two areas of frustration also follow. The first is that when the detective, in this case Dr. Gideon Fell, is about to explain some piece of the puzzle, an interruption will occur and he will not get back to that revelation until the end of the book. In He Who Whispers it is of little importance, as the matters in question pale beside more pressing difficulties that need attending. The second frustration comes with the interior monologue of the viewpoint character. Carr was a master at setting a scene, particularly if it was gothic in nature--sometimes to the point of creating an almost supernatural mood--though he could also handle poolside in broad daylight with equal ease. He ran into trouble when the narrative moved from exterior description to that of sharing a character’s experiences. I understand the structural reason Carr wrote these thoughts in such detail that they often overwhelmed the drama. This character’s purpose in the mystery was to misinterpret the clues and mislead the reader. If he were to lapse into such detail only then, it would be seen though immediately. The alternative, the choice Carr felt he had to make, was to subject the reader to an overabundance of shock, regret, anguish and self-doubt; so much so that we often find ourselves screaming, “Shut up already.” Eventually we realize that we can shut him up by just dropping down to the next line of dialogue. If what you read makes no sense, go back to where you were and trudge your way through.
With He Who Whispers you are hooked anyway and minor frustrations are a small price to pay. Even figuring out who was behind it all--only the second time I've been able to do so in over fifty Carr novels read--is not a detriment. Also, I can’t take much pride in that because I had no idea how the impossible murder in the past had taken place and it was that solution that led to the final solution.
It’s an odd thing being a fan of John Dickson Carr. Regarding the mystery by itself, I prefer his work as Carter Dickson. The solutions are not as complicated. But the true classic of the genre--[b:The Three Coffins|498490|The Three Coffins (Dr. Gideon Fell, #6)|John Dickson Carr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1260649785l/498490._SY75_.jpg|435889], the aforementioned Arabian Nights, [b:The Crooked Hinge|930193|The Crooked Hinge (Dr. Gideon Fell, #8)|John Dickson Carr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1290832481l/930193._SY75_.jpg|2532718]--are all under his own name. He Who Whispers is not quite on that level. But it comes real close.
The first indicator of this may be that the only murder in the novel happens six years before the start of the story. Miles Hammond, hit with the twin blows of an eighteen-month wartime illness and news of the death of his uncle, returns to England with the end of World War II, still weak but heartened by an invitation to a meeting of the Murder Club, a small group of well-known Londoners who enjoy stories of cryptic murders and unexplained horrors. It is there that Miles learns from a visiting professor--the guest speaker--the story of an English family living in rural France and the impossible murder of its patriarch. At the center of the turmoil leading up to his mysterious death is a specifically-imported English secretary, a woman who is promptly labeled at best wanton and at worst something considerably more evil. Coincidentally it is the same woman Miles is scheduled to interview the next day to catalogue his uncle’s enormous, unwieldy library; a coincidence made more palatable by the time period in which the novel takes place. The same circumstances that allowed Miles to come home, the end of the war, also allowed for her repatriation from France, thus making her the only qualified person for the employment agency to offer him. Miles hires her in spite of her history (or maybe because of it) and along with his sister--they are co-inheritors--they travel to their rural estate, where the past intrudes on the present with frightening results.
Once the story shifts to this secluded location, as with the best of Carr, the reader is hooked. As with any Carr, though, two areas of frustration also follow. The first is that when the detective, in this case Dr. Gideon Fell, is about to explain some piece of the puzzle, an interruption will occur and he will not get back to that revelation until the end of the book. In He Who Whispers it is of little importance, as the matters in question pale beside more pressing difficulties that need attending. The second frustration comes with the interior monologue of the viewpoint character. Carr was a master at setting a scene, particularly if it was gothic in nature--sometimes to the point of creating an almost supernatural mood--though he could also handle poolside in broad daylight with equal ease. He ran into trouble when the narrative moved from exterior description to that of sharing a character’s experiences. I understand the structural reason Carr wrote these thoughts in such detail that they often overwhelmed the drama. This character’s purpose in the mystery was to misinterpret the clues and mislead the reader. If he were to lapse into such detail only then, it would be seen though immediately. The alternative, the choice Carr felt he had to make, was to subject the reader to an overabundance of shock, regret, anguish and self-doubt; so much so that we often find ourselves screaming, “Shut up already.” Eventually we realize that we can shut him up by just dropping down to the next line of dialogue. If what you read makes no sense, go back to where you were and trudge your way through.
With He Who Whispers you are hooked anyway and minor frustrations are a small price to pay. Even figuring out who was behind it all--only the second time I've been able to do so in over fifty Carr novels read--is not a detriment. Also, I can’t take much pride in that because
Spoiler
this is where the mystery took a back seat to the story. For the story to retain its impact it had to keep the number of characters to an important minimum. Once the culprit in the past was identified, there could only be one person responsible for the troubles in the present. Beside which,It’s an odd thing being a fan of John Dickson Carr. Regarding the mystery by itself, I prefer his work as Carter Dickson. The solutions are not as complicated. But the true classic of the genre--[b:The Three Coffins|498490|The Three Coffins (Dr. Gideon Fell, #6)|John Dickson Carr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1260649785l/498490._SY75_.jpg|435889], the aforementioned Arabian Nights, [b:The Crooked Hinge|930193|The Crooked Hinge (Dr. Gideon Fell, #8)|John Dickson Carr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1290832481l/930193._SY75_.jpg|2532718]--are all under his own name. He Who Whispers is not quite on that level. But it comes real close.
The opening chapters are amazing and set the tone for the rest of the book. Carr's depiction of post-war England shows his unique capacity for creating atmosphere and would, on it's own, be enough to justify investing in the book. The portrayals of the female characters, in particular the tragic Fay Seton, is better than Carr's usual stereotypical depictions. The impossibility and the explanation of how the murder was actually committed is one of Carr's finest. The only somewhat negative remark I have is that the plot rests on a couple of wildly improbable coincidences, which - for me at least - detract somewhat from what is otherwise a top-tier Carr. Highly recommended.