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Poison In Jest by John Dickson Carr
May. 5th, 2021 10:23 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Many people in that ghostly place beside the moulins heard the murderer’s step in the hallways at night, and saw the white marble hand run along window-ledges like a spider, but nobody saw the murderer’s face. There were four clues written in the yellow book, and any member of the household might have been guilty.
Rossiter - who has credentials from Scotland Yard, but cannot keep a job anywhere - solves the Quayle murders by means of an empty paint-bucket, a view from a window, and an absent-minded drawing in a book.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
John Dickson Carr’s standalone novel first-published in 1932 puts Bencolin sidekick Jeff Marle in an emotionally overwrought and overly complicated plot that suffers from having a cast (including the main detective) who are bundles of quirks rather than fully realised characters. There are some interesting plot twists and I’m a sucker for poison plots and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction anyway but this is only an okay example of the genre.
Many people in that ghostly place beside the moulins heard the murderer’s step in the hallways at night, and saw the white marble hand run along window-ledges like a spider, but nobody saw the murderer’s face. There were four clues written in the yellow book, and any member of the household might have been guilty.
Rossiter - who has credentials from Scotland Yard, but cannot keep a job anywhere - solves the Quayle murders by means of an empty paint-bucket, a view from a window, and an absent-minded drawing in a book.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
John Dickson Carr’s standalone novel first-published in 1932 puts Bencolin sidekick Jeff Marle in an emotionally overwrought and overly complicated plot that suffers from having a cast (including the main detective) who are bundles of quirks rather than fully realised characters. There are some interesting plot twists and I’m a sucker for poison plots and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction anyway but this is only an okay example of the genre.
