The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr), 1948

 

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About the author: Carter Dickson is a pseudonym of John Dickson Carr, known for his locked room mysteries. 

Major characters:

• John Stannard, a lawyer
• Ruth Callice, bookshop owner
• Martin Drake, artist
• Jennifer "Jenny" West
• Richard Fleet, Jennifer's fiancé
• Sophia, Dowager Countess of Brayle; Jennifer's grandmother
• Aunt Cecily, Lady Fleet (Jennifer's "aunt" by courtesy only - no relation)
• Enid Puckston, innkeeper's daughter
• Dr. Hugh Laurier
• Sir Henry Merrivale

Locale: Fleet House, rural England

Synopsis: In a late night confab, lawyer John Stannard, bookshop owner Ruth Challice, and artist Martin Drake discuss the idea of earthbound spirits lurking about after a sudden death. They come up with the idea of looking for some - and the most likely place being a prison's execution shed. Stannard has connections with the keepers of Pentecost Prison, and as it has been closed for years, manages to get the keys for an overnight stay.

Drake has been diligently searching for a lost love, only known to him as Jenny, since they got separated after a brief romance during the war three years earlier. Drake attends an auction with his friend Sir Henry Merrivale, and runs into Jenny - learning her name is Jennifer West - and to his dismay learns she is engaged to Richard Fleet.

Drake seeks out Fleet, to try to dissuade him from the marriage. To his surprise, Fleet is happy to back out of it (he actually prefers Susan Harwood). Drake learns that Richard's father, Sir George Fleet had fallen to his death from Fleet House, near the prison, twenty years ago. The police receive a series of anonymous postcards claiming his death was murder. Sir Henry Merrivale investigates.

Review: This story has several parallel mysteries occuring:

1. What happened to Jenny during the war, and can Martin find her again?

2. Why is there a skeleton in the clock case?

3. Was Sir George Fleet's death a murder? How was it done?

4. Will Martin and Stannard survive a night in the execution shed?

5. Who is sending the postcards?

6. Who is responsible for the murder of another character I won't name?

There is a lot going on in the story, and as usual, I had a bit of trouble following some of it - mostly due to the excessive use of pronouns instead of names, which caused me to lose track of who was speaking or acting at any given moment.

There is lots of humorous relief whenever H.M. is around, and his adventures - especially the bristly relationship with the Dowager and his misadventures at the auction house and the traveling carnival - are quite funny.

 

Also see this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.

My Late Wives by Carter Dickson, 1946

 

Major characters:

Roger Bewlay - the killer husband

Angela Phipps - late wife #1

Elizabeth Posner - late wife #2

Andrée Cooper - late wife #3

(Unnamed) - late wife #4

Mildred Lyons - witness

Beryl West - theatre director

Dennis Foster - attorney

Bruce Ransom - actor

Daphne Herbert - bait in the trap

John Herbert - her father

Sir Henry Merrivale

Inspector Masters

Synopsis:

Scotland Yard has been after Roger Bewlay ever since a string of murders eleven years ago, in which he killed four wives in succession to gain their money. No bodies were ever found, and all they have to go on is a witness to the fourth, Mildred Lyons.

Now theatre director Beryl West invites her friend, attorney Dennis Foster, to meet famed leading-man actor Bruce Ransom. Someone has sent him the manuscript of a play based on Bewlay's murders. There are details in the play known only to the killer and the police, leading them to suspect Bewlay is the author.

In an attempt to flush Bewlay out, Ransom pretends to be Bewlay and starts a relationship with Daphne Herbert, following the plot of the play. 

A Graveyard to Let by Carter Dickson, 1949

 

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Major characters:

Frederick Manning, widower

Irene Stanley, his new girlfriend 

Crystal Manning, 24, his daughter

Bob Manning, 22, his son

Jean Manning, 21, his daughter

Huntington Davis Jr., "Dave", Jean's fiancé

Cy Norton, newspaperman

Howard Betterton, attorney

Gilbert Byles, D.A.

Sir Henry Merrivale

Synopsis:

Sir Henry Merrivale is in New York City. He astounds his companions by demonstrating passing through a subway turnstile without paying.

His friend, widower Frederick Manning, operates a prep school rumored to be in financial difficulty. Manning goes to his bank and apparently withdraws a large sum of cash. He meets with his three children: Bob, Crystal, and Jean and explains that he is going to run away with Irene Stanley, that he never liked them but is making sure they are provided for; and that he will disappear and never be seen again.

The Manning family estate includes a swimming pool, baseball diamond, and an old cemetery. The next day the family is at the swimming pool. Jean, her fiancé Huntington "Dave", and attorney Howard Betterton are in the water. Fred Manning dives into the pool but does not come up. The pool is searched but he is not found. 

H.M. knows how it was done, but he only says it was the same principle he used in passing through the subway turnstiles.

You may enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block. 

The Curse of the Bronze Lamp by Carter Dickson, 1945

 

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About the author: Carter Dickson is a pseudonym of John Dickson Carr, known for his locked room mysteries. 

Major characters:

• Professor Gilray, scorpion bite victim
• John Loring (Lord Severn)
• Lady Helen Loring, Lord Severn's daughter
• Christopher "Kit" Farrell, a lawyer, Helen's boyfriend
• Sandy Robertson
• Audrey Vane, Sandy's girlfriend
• Alim Bey, Egyptian fortune teller
• Leo Beaumont, American fortune teller
• Benson, the butler
• Elizabeth Pomfret, housekeeper
• Sir Henry Merrivale, "H.M."

Locale: Egypt (briefly), then England

Synopsis: Professor Gilray, John Loring (Lord Severn), his daughter Lady Helen Loring, and Sandy Robertson are on an archeological expedition to Egypt, and retrieve many artifacts from a tomb. The locals believe they are cursed for doing so, and Gilray is bitten by a scorpion and dies. Lady Helen is given a small bronze lamp as a gift by the Egyptian government, which she announces she is taking back to Severn Hall in England. While travelling, she meets up with Sir Henry Merrivale. As they depart, Egyptian fortune teller Alim Bey prophesies that if she takes the lamp there, she will never reach her room at the hall.

Severn Hall has been closed for years, but is put into shape quickly under the direction of butler Benson and housekeeper Elizabeth Pomfret. The travelers arrive and Lady Helen, carrying the lamp, is the first in the door. When the others follow, they find the lamp on the floor, and Lady Helen missing.

The house is searched and she is not found. Benson shows an architect's book which testifies the house has no hidden rooms or secret passages. The house was surrounded by various workers who swear she did not leave the house. Then Lord Severn disappears in the same manner, again leaving the bronze lamp in his place.

Review:  This starts out with some comedy as H.M. has an unruly encounter with a taxi driver, which.   is enjoyable and not so long it detracts from the story. H.M is in the action right from the start. The search of the manor is well done, with workers staged around the outside who testify no one left the building.

I liked how the  secret room/passage possibility is ruled out right away by the architect's book which so testifies. That was a clever way to dismiss that possibility right from the start.

I had my own idea where Helen was, but of course, I was wrong. There are some red herrings dangled for possible hiding places. Her actual location was quite a surprise.

You may also enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block. 

And So To Murder by Carter Dickson (1940)

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About the author: Carter Dickson is a pseudonym of John Dickson Carr.

Major characters:

• Monica Stanton, author and now script writer
• Thomas Hackett, producer
• Howard Fisk, director
• Bill Cartwright, script writer and investigator
• Frances Fleur, actress
• Kurt Gagern, Frances Fleur's husband, assistant director, a.k.a. Joe Collins
• Tilly Parsons, script writer
• H.M., Sir Henry Merrivale

Locale: outside London

Synopsis: Monica Stanton, daughter of a parson, has written a spicy book, Desire, which has become a best seller, and is now being made into a movie. She is hired by producer Thomas Hackett, assuming it is to work on the movie version. To her surprise, she is not assigned to write her own script, but instead a detective story by Bill Cartwright; who will, in turn, write her script. 

She meets her idol Frances Fleur who will star in Desire. Everyone is on edge following a theft of acid, and its accidental spillage on a set. Then Monica is summoned to a deserted set where an attempt is made on her life using more acid; thwarted at the last moment by Bill Cartwright. Monica receives threatening letters as the pressure mounts. Who wants to kill her, and why?

Review: This is what you would get if Manning Coles wrote Sunset Boulevard. It is a slam-bang thriller (not a murder mystery, despite the title) featuring H.M., Sir Henry Merrivale. It begins with the young girl-next-door getting a job as a script writer at an exciting film studio and falling in love with another writer, our leading man. Then the mayhem begins: poisons, shootings, windows breaking, people thrown into the lake. Most of the legwork is done by our leading man Bill Cartwright, and he manages to pull H.M. in, unwillingly, toward the end. Unlike most of Carr/Dicksons, this one has no locked rooms; just a string of unsuccessful murder attempts. The descriptions of the studio workings are well done. An enjoyable page turner.

The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson (1934)

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About the author: Carter Dickson is a pseudonym of John Dickson Carr, known for his locked room mysteries. 

Major characters:

• Marcia Tait, glamorous film star
• Maurice Bohun, author of the current play, master of White Priory
• John Bohun, his brother; in love with Marcia Tait
• Tim Emery, Tait's Publicity Manager
• Carl Rainger, Tait's Director
• Lord Canifest, backer of the play
• Louise Carewe, his daughter
• Katherine Bohun, Maurice and John's niece
• James Bennett, nephew of Sir Henry Merrivale
• Jervis Willard, an actor
• Sir Henry Merrivale
• Chief Inspector Humphrey Masters

Locale: London

Synopsis: Actress Marcia Tate has up and walked off her Hollywood set to go to London, to star in a new play put on by brothers Maurice and John Bohun, and financed by Lord Canifest. Her director, Carl Rainger, and publicity manager, Tim Emery, have followed her to convince her to return to Hollywood.

All the principals are invited to White Priory, home of Maurice Bohun. White Priory has a "King Charles Room" which has a "secret staircase" built into the exterior wall which leads down to an exterior door. The estate also features a small cottage, "The Queen's Mirror",  surrounded by a shallow, ornamental lake (now frozen). 

Sir Henry Merrivale's nephew from the US, James Bennett, has been invited also. He arrives just after a snowfall, to find John Bohun just exiting The Queen's Mirror, shouting that he has just found Marcia Tate dead inside. There is only one set of footprints in the unbroken snow - John Bohun's from his entry to the cottage. It is then determined the murder occurred after the snowfall, so where are the killer's footprints?

There have been two previous attempts on Tate - first a box of poisoned chocolates had been sent to her, and then someone pushed her down the secret stairs of White Priory.

Review:

A nice locked-room puzzle where a woman in found dead in the cottage, yet the only footprints in the snow are those of John Bohun who discovered her! H.M. works on two possible explanations, but neither is just right. Sometimes I find Carr/Dickson a bit hard to follow, when long conversations occur without much clue as to who is speaking; but this one was OK. An enjoyable read, would be a good snowstorm read!