Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
An invitation to the Murder Club...
Miles Hammond has been invited to attend a meeting of the Murder Club, a dining club made up of people with an interest in crime who get together monthly to discuss murders. Normally guests are not invited, but on this occasion they’ve also asked Professor Rigaud, a Frenchman with inside knowledge of a scandalous crime that happened in France in the early days of the war. And when Miles turns up, he finds a third guest there – Barbara Morell, a young woman who claims to have been invited, like Miles himself, by Dr Gideon Fell. But none of the members of the club have turned up and none of them seem to be available by phone. At Barbara Morell’s request, the disgruntled Professor Rigaud agrees to tell Miles and her the story he had prepared to present to the club. It is a strange tale, of a man killed at the top of a tower, with witnesses who can prove that no one entered or left the tower at the relevant time. Suspicion fell on a young woman, Fay Seton, who had been engaged to the murdered man’s son, but since the police were unable to work out how she, or anyone else, could have done the crime, no charges were ever brought…
John Dickson Carr is probably most famous for being the leader in the field of the howdunit – the “impossible crime” where the emphasis is as much on finding out how the crime could have been done as on whodunit. For me, though, what makes him stand out from the crowd is the wonderful way he often incorporates Gothic or Decadent horror into his mysteries. Sometimes the combination of those two skills – the howdunit and the horror – leaves the actual mystery somewhat weak and the characterisation a bit underdeveloped. But sometimes, and happily this book is one of those times, he gets the balance between all those factors just right, and then there’s really no one to beat him.
This one chills from the very beginning and the horror aspects never let up. What has happened to all the club members? Why is it that every time anyone leaves the room in the club, from the servants to the Professor, they too seem to vanish? How could anyone – any human – have reached the top of the tower on which the murdered man died without going up the only staircase? Why were the locals so angry at Fay Seton, even before the murder, that they tried to stone her in the streets? Is she an innocent victim of unfounded suspicion or some kind of evil monster? Miles, gazing at her beauty in the photo Rigaud shows them, is convinced she must have been slandered and falsely accused. So when she turns up next day in response to his advertisement for a librarian to sort out his uncle’s library which he has just inherited, he decides to give her a chance, and the four of them – Miles, his sister Marion and her fiancé Steve, and Fay – go off together to Miles’ isolated house in the middle of the New Forest – and mystery and terror travel with them…
Gosh, it’s good! It’s extremely rare for me these days to really feel that I can’t put a book down, but I literally had to keep reading this one, and any time I had to pause I took the fear with me into whatever I was doing. Creepy, with hints at the supernatural but always grounded in very human evil, it’s the horror that makes it so irresistible. But it also has an excellent mystery where the human motivations are not overwhelmed by the technical aspects of how the crime was done, as is sometimes the case with Carr. Here, the impossibility of the crime merely adds to the general atmosphere of dread, and the solution to the how, when it comes, is just about plausible. The characterisation is strong, and every character is given enough ambiguity for the reader to be in a constant state of suspicion. Told in the third person, Miles is the main character, but even with him we are not entirely privy to his internal thoughts, and we know that he has only recently recovered from severe illness brought on by his wartime experiences – an illness that leaves him sometimes dizzy and a little disorientated. Is Rigaud telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what happened in France? Is Fay as innocent as Miles wants to think? Who is Barbara Morell and what is her interest in this far away murder? Only Gideon Fell can see a clear path through these ambiguities but even he may not be able to prevent another tragedy…
I’ve loved a few of Carr’s books (and not loved a few others) but this one has just leapt into the lead as my new favourite. If you enjoy that sensation of fear that relies on atmosphere rather than gore, if you like a strong mystery plot that doesn’t push too far over the credibility line, and if you like characters that you care about but can’t be sure you can trust, then this is the one for you! Brilliant!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Miles Hammond has been invited to attend a meeting of the Murder Club, a dining club made up of people with an interest in crime who get together monthly to discuss murders. Normally guests are not invited, but on this occasion they’ve also asked Professor Rigaud, a Frenchman with inside knowledge of a scandalous crime that happened in France in the early days of the war. And when Miles turns up, he finds a third guest there – Barbara Morell, a young woman who claims to have been invited, like Miles himself, by Dr Gideon Fell. But none of the members of the club have turned up and none of them seem to be available by phone. At Barbara Morell’s request, the disgruntled Professor Rigaud agrees to tell Miles and her the story he had prepared to present to the club. It is a strange tale, of a man killed at the top of a tower, with witnesses who can prove that no one entered or left the tower at the relevant time. Suspicion fell on a young woman, Fay Seton, who had been engaged to the murdered man’s son, but since the police were unable to work out how she, or anyone else, could have done the crime, no charges were ever brought…
John Dickson Carr is probably most famous for being the leader in the field of the howdunit – the “impossible crime” where the emphasis is as much on finding out how the crime could have been done as on whodunit. For me, though, what makes him stand out from the crowd is the wonderful way he often incorporates Gothic or Decadent horror into his mysteries. Sometimes the combination of those two skills – the howdunit and the horror – leaves the actual mystery somewhat weak and the characterisation a bit underdeveloped. But sometimes, and happily this book is one of those times, he gets the balance between all those factors just right, and then there’s really no one to beat him.
This one chills from the very beginning and the horror aspects never let up. What has happened to all the club members? Why is it that every time anyone leaves the room in the club, from the servants to the Professor, they too seem to vanish? How could anyone – any human – have reached the top of the tower on which the murdered man died without going up the only staircase? Why were the locals so angry at Fay Seton, even before the murder, that they tried to stone her in the streets? Is she an innocent victim of unfounded suspicion or some kind of evil monster? Miles, gazing at her beauty in the photo Rigaud shows them, is convinced she must have been slandered and falsely accused. So when she turns up next day in response to his advertisement for a librarian to sort out his uncle’s library which he has just inherited, he decides to give her a chance, and the four of them – Miles, his sister Marion and her fiancé Steve, and Fay – go off together to Miles’ isolated house in the middle of the New Forest – and mystery and terror travel with them…
Gosh, it’s good! It’s extremely rare for me these days to really feel that I can’t put a book down, but I literally had to keep reading this one, and any time I had to pause I took the fear with me into whatever I was doing. Creepy, with hints at the supernatural but always grounded in very human evil, it’s the horror that makes it so irresistible. But it also has an excellent mystery where the human motivations are not overwhelmed by the technical aspects of how the crime was done, as is sometimes the case with Carr. Here, the impossibility of the crime merely adds to the general atmosphere of dread, and the solution to the how, when it comes, is just about plausible. The characterisation is strong, and every character is given enough ambiguity for the reader to be in a constant state of suspicion. Told in the third person, Miles is the main character, but even with him we are not entirely privy to his internal thoughts, and we know that he has only recently recovered from severe illness brought on by his wartime experiences – an illness that leaves him sometimes dizzy and a little disorientated. Is Rigaud telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what happened in France? Is Fay as innocent as Miles wants to think? Who is Barbara Morell and what is her interest in this far away murder? Only Gideon Fell can see a clear path through these ambiguities but even he may not be able to prevent another tragedy…
I’ve loved a few of Carr’s books (and not loved a few others) but this one has just leapt into the lead as my new favourite. If you enjoy that sensation of fear that relies on atmosphere rather than gore, if you like a strong mystery plot that doesn’t push too far over the credibility line, and if you like characters that you care about but can’t be sure you can trust, then this is the one for you! Brilliant!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
dark
fast-paced
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/review-2256-he-who-whispers/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/review-2256-he-who-whispers/
mysterious
medium-paced
Più volte interrogato su quali fossero i romanzi da lui preferiti nella sua vastissima produzione, John Dickson Carr ha stilato vari elenchi, propendendo talvolta più per un'opera oppure per un'altra, ma una costante c'è sempre stata, ossia He Who Whisper.
Di fatti, Il terrore che mormora è uno dei più fulgidi esempi dello stile di Carr, e ben sintetizza la sua capacità di unire il soprannaturale con la rigida analisi razionale, e sebbene sia sempre la seconda a trionfare, il primo contribuisce indubbiamente alla creazione di un'efficace tensione narrativa.
I primi capitoli ci offrono un racconto nel racconto, con la ricostruzione dell'assassinio di Howard Brooke, avvenuto in Francia non molto prima dello scoppio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. L'uomo è stato ucciso mentre era da solo in una torre diroccata, e nessuno avrebbe potuto raggiungerlo senza venir visto da vari testimoni; eppure, il corpo è lì, accasciato a terra, ferito mortalmente dallo stocco che Brooke nascondeva nel suo bastone. Il mistero è talmente fitto che c'è chi chiama in causa addirittura un caso di vampirismo.
Probabilmente è proprio questa parte iniziale la più riuscita e caratteristica del romanzo, grazie al senso di attesa e all'inquietudine che riesce a suscitare nel lettore. L'elemento goticheggiante con il richiamo alla figura del vampiro, è la perfetta rifinitura che non ci si aspetterebbe in un giallo, che introduce e amplifica l'effetto di quanto accadrà in seguito, nella villa di campagna di Miles Hammond, oltre a giustificare lo stesso stato d'animo del personaggio (il tramite attraverso il quale il lettore si trova invischiato nella vicenda) e il suo approcciarsi agli eventi.
Quanto successo in Francia sei anni prima, come pure il tentato omicidio in casa Hammond, troverà una sua inattaccabile e del tutto plausibile spiegazione (per quanto piuttosto arzigogolata), e ovviamente di soprannaturale non rimarrà nulla.
Non tutti i colpi di scena sono prevedibili, o meglio, sebbene qualcosa sia intuibile, la sorpresa finale è comunque assicurata.
Non manca qualche sbavatura, in particolare per quanto riguarda Fay Seton e il suo inconfessabile segreto, ma complessivamente He Who Whisper rimane ancora oggi un caposaldo del giallo classico.
Di fatti, Il terrore che mormora è uno dei più fulgidi esempi dello stile di Carr, e ben sintetizza la sua capacità di unire il soprannaturale con la rigida analisi razionale, e sebbene sia sempre la seconda a trionfare, il primo contribuisce indubbiamente alla creazione di un'efficace tensione narrativa.
I primi capitoli ci offrono un racconto nel racconto, con la ricostruzione dell'assassinio di Howard Brooke, avvenuto in Francia non molto prima dello scoppio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. L'uomo è stato ucciso mentre era da solo in una torre diroccata, e nessuno avrebbe potuto raggiungerlo senza venir visto da vari testimoni; eppure, il corpo è lì, accasciato a terra, ferito mortalmente dallo stocco che Brooke nascondeva nel suo bastone. Il mistero è talmente fitto che c'è chi chiama in causa addirittura un caso di vampirismo.
Probabilmente è proprio questa parte iniziale la più riuscita e caratteristica del romanzo, grazie al senso di attesa e all'inquietudine che riesce a suscitare nel lettore. L'elemento goticheggiante con il richiamo alla figura del vampiro, è la perfetta rifinitura che non ci si aspetterebbe in un giallo, che introduce e amplifica l'effetto di quanto accadrà in seguito, nella villa di campagna di Miles Hammond, oltre a giustificare lo stesso stato d'animo del personaggio (il tramite attraverso il quale il lettore si trova invischiato nella vicenda) e il suo approcciarsi agli eventi.
Quanto successo in Francia sei anni prima, come pure il tentato omicidio in casa Hammond, troverà una sua inattaccabile e del tutto plausibile spiegazione (per quanto piuttosto arzigogolata), e ovviamente di soprannaturale non rimarrà nulla.
Non tutti i colpi di scena sono prevedibili, o meglio, sebbene qualcosa sia intuibile, la sorpresa finale è comunque assicurata.
Non manca qualche sbavatura, in particolare per quanto riguarda Fay Seton e il suo inconfessabile segreto, ma complessivamente He Who Whisper rimane ancora oggi un caposaldo del giallo classico.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I don't normally get along with John Dickson Carr's work. In fact, I don't even buy the British Library Crime Classic editions -- it's one of only three gaps in my collection (a few of the short story collections, which I'm slowly picking up, and the Sergeant Cluff books are the others), because I just haven't got along with the others.
It's hard to say why this was an exception. I think in part it's that it's a fair-play mystery. Though there is a Great Detective (Gideon Fell), the POV character isn't treated too much as his side-kick, and there's some interesting attempts at psychological realism (even if it's unfortunately in part about a "nymphomaniac" girl). I was able to form theories about it, and feel like I had the clues that fell into place at the right moments, and I didn't universally hate the characters. There's nothing so straightforward as some of Carr's other female characters and snap romances.
It's enough to give me hope for some of the Carr books I haven't picked up yet: maybe some of those will equally have some joys for me. I was glad I gave this a shot thanks to my British Library Crime Classics subscription!
It's hard to say why this was an exception. I think in part it's that it's a fair-play mystery. Though there is a Great Detective (Gideon Fell), the POV character isn't treated too much as his side-kick, and there's some interesting attempts at psychological realism (even if it's unfortunately in part about a "nymphomaniac" girl). I was able to form theories about it, and feel like I had the clues that fell into place at the right moments, and I didn't universally hate the characters. There's nothing so straightforward as some of Carr's other female characters and snap romances.
It's enough to give me hope for some of the Carr books I haven't picked up yet: maybe some of those will equally have some joys for me. I was glad I gave this a shot thanks to my British Library Crime Classics subscription!
A "locked door" mystery that was very well done. The resolution was surprising and plausible, to a certain degree. Carr uses a few of my least favorite plot methods but it's to be expected in these types of "no-holes-barred" mysteries. One has to remember that *everyone* is a suspect!
Miles Hammond is invited by Dr. Gideon Fell to join a dinner of the Murder Club. He is a soldier who just got out of a year and a half convalescence after being gassed. During that time, he and his sister inherited a rather large fortune as well as a large estate with an incredible library. But Miles is at loose ends. He can't even make it on time to the Murder Club dinner. When he gets there though, the club members aren't even there. Just another guest (Barbara Morell) and a man with a fantastic story (Professor Rigaud).
It seems the professor was in France when a man was killed a the top of a tower, with no way anyone could have gotten to him. When the murder starts to come closer to home, Miles had better hope that Dr. Fell can help distinguish the normal from the paranormal.
It's certainly an interesting ending and while the mystery wrapped up nicely
It seems the professor was in France when a man was killed a the top of a tower, with no way anyone could have gotten to him. When the murder starts to come closer to home, Miles had better hope that Dr. Fell can help distinguish the normal from the paranormal.
It's certainly an interesting ending and while the mystery wrapped up nicely