The Curse of the Bronze Lamp by Carter Dickson

Sometimes you find a magical lamp that when you rub it out comes a genie that would fulfil all your wishes and sometimes you find a cursed lamp that brings destruction to all those who own it. Lady Helen Loring of Severn Hall finds a Bronze Lamp during her excavations with her father in Cairo. This is not the Lamp that grants one's wishes but looks like one that could cause death and pain. First Professor Gilary dies of a Scorpion Sting, if such a thing is even possible Helen wonders. And then soothsayer Alim Bey forecasts that Helen would go poof into the air before she reaches her room in Severn Hall. When just such a thing happens, you wonder if the curse of the Lamp is not just a superstition.

There are two witnesses who notice Helen run into her home and within seconds they find her Mackintosh and the bronze Lamp in the middle of the hall. But where is Helen? With the house practically swarming with servants and the grounds being worked on by workers and all exits are clearly visible how could one leave the house without notice. But they search the house thoroughly and they couldn't find her in it. Not inside it, not outside it where did she go. Are they any secret rooms, secret passages, trap door and all? Or is this the curse of the Bronze Lamp? Sir Henry Merrivale is at hand to solve these mysterious circumstances.

I love these impossible scenarios and there is something exciting about somebody who practically disappears before one's eyes, add in a cursed Bronze Lamp, two men who love our Lady, two soothsayers and a Gothic house inspired by The Castle of Otranto, what else one wants? I had a vague idea about the first disappearance (yes there is more than one) and what surprises me again like in other Carter Dickson/John Dickson Carr's books I have read is that though the solution is just before my eyes I keep looking for something else elsewhere. This is the first book featuring Sir Henry Merrivale that I have read, I wouldn't say I got a clear picture of him, except that he loves scrapbooking, he is eccentric and funny. An exciting little puzzle!


Published in 1945 this book can be borrowed as an ebook from Open Library like I did.

The Problem of the Green Capsule by John Dickson Carr

What would you do to prove your pet theory? Would you be willing to die to prove it? When Marcus Chesney planned an elaborate set up to prove his pet theory, that eyewitnesses are not reliable, he did not plan to get himself killed, but his murderer used this ingenious plan to kill him. Marcus not only had three eyewitnesses for his murder, he also had it filmed. So catching his murderer would be no difficulty, or would it be? If the murderer is dressed as an 'invisible man', and none of the eye witnesses agree on as simple thing as the time that is clearly visible on the clock in the stage or the height of the killer, can the police catch the culprit. Police? Maybe not. Scotland Yard? Maybe. Dr. Gideon Fell? Definitely.

"No hermetically sealed rooms. No supernatural elements." Will Dr. Fell be interested in this case? When Scotland Yard detective Elliot is infatuated with one of the main suspects, he approaches Dr. Fell and he decides to help put away the poisoner.

In Sodbury Cross, a market-town near Bath, "is a criminal lunatic who enjoys poisoning people wholesale." Somebody introduced poisoned chocolates in Mrs.Terry's tobacco-and-sweet shop, poisoning three children and an eighteen year old, one of the children died and Marcus Chesney's niece Marjorie is suspected of the poisoning. Marcus wants to prove his pet theory that "All men are unobservant". And "Whenever he had a theory, he had to test it. And this is the result." He also wants to prove how the poisoned chocolates found its way into Mrs Terry's without anybody noticing it. He sets up a short play with a list of questions to be answered afterwards, only thing he hadn't planned, is that he wouldn't be there to enjoy his victory. Who killed Marcus and why? Are the cases relates? Is a maniac running loose? Gideon Fell solves this ingenious case.

I didn't guess the killer, though I should have. There were clues. And at one point I was foolishly thinking why in detective stories 'somebody' is not the killer. Foolish because 'somebody' is often the killer in Agatha Christie's books and I told myself this immediately after the thought occurred. Foolish again because while I linked the thought to Christie's books, how have I failed to link it to this story. And even when Elliot echoed my thoughts, I should have linked it, I failed it. No matter. It is the ingenuity of the plot, John Dickson Carr lead me where he wanted to lead me and very early on I had marked someone as the murderer and I wouldn't budge. Classic detective story, some great work for the grey cells.

This book was originally published in 1939 and also published under the alternative title The Black Spectacles.

Thanks to Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out for gifting me this book, I won a prize among those successfully completing Eclectic Reading Challenge 2012. This book is a treasure.

Below Suspicion by John Dickson Carr

I read two books by John Dickson Carr last year, The Burning court and The Problem of the Wire Cage. I loved both of them. I borrowed Below Suspicion published in 1949 from the Openlibrary.

Patrick Butler, a barrister, is one hell of a defending lawyer nicknamed 'the Great Defender', he could always get his client free out of prison, even when he is sure that his client is guilty. Patrick is never wrong and he never loses his case. Joyce Ellis is accused of poisoning Mrs.Taylor. Joyce worked as a companion-nurse-secretary to Mrs.Taylor and pleads vehemently that she is innocent. Patrick feels otherwise.

When Mrs.Taylor's relative Richard Renshaw also dies by poisoning by the same substance, suspicion falls on his beautiful, blonde seductive wife Lucia. Should I say Patrick falls for Lucia and believes she is innocent? Can he prove that Lucia is innocent? Who killed Mrs.Taylor and why? Who killed Renshaw? Patrick Butler, brilliant though he is, now needs the help of Gideon Fell to solve this case.

Carr plays with our perception of innocence and guilt. Butler finds himself in a curious position after he falls for Lucia. He had saved the innocent looking according-to-him guilty Joyce and turned the suspicion on seductive Lucia, now his love. When Gideon Fell brings in the concept of serial poisoners and devil worship, I couldn't help wondering where it is going. Whatever the reason, there is a plausible explanation on who did it, how and why! I like the way the story moves from logical to fantastic and moves back again to logic.

If you wonder, what below suspicion is, Carr explains that in a murder investigation no one is above suspicion. But some are below suspicion, like the investigator, the butler, maid, and servants who have no motive. Did I figure who the murderer is? No! Carr has created a perfect smokescreen that it is not possible for me to see the truth until the revelation.

I couldn't just pass this snippet about the Labour Government and democracy without sharing it.

"The term she mentions, Doctor," he said richly, "were framed by our Labour Government to describe any man who works with his brain rather than his hands."

The star of the fanatic sprang into Miss. Cannon's eyes; as, on the other side of the fence, it was also in Butler's.

"The Government, young man," Miss. Cannon said pityingly, "do not exactly work with their hands."

"No, madam. Or with their brains. I should respect them more if they did either."
"You ought to be jailed for speaking against the Government!" cried Miss. Cannon. "We're living in a democracy!"

"Madam," said Bustle, closing his eyes, " your remark is such a perfect thing that its beauty must not be spoiled by comment. I accept the definition."

The Problem of the Wire Cage by John Dickson Carr

The Problem of the Wire Cage by John Dickson Carr published in 1939 features Detective Gideon Fell. Brenda White's marriage is arranged to Frank Dorrance by their guardians. The only way they both would inherit the enormous money their guardian has left would be my marrying each other. Or. Oh! Yes! There is always an Or. Or the other one drops dead. So it is not a surprise that Frank Dorrance drops dead. The vital question is not who or why but how. If you figured out the how, you can later figure out who or why. How did anybody kill Frank?

This is a locked room mystery with a twist. Only the murder is not in a locked room but inside a tennis court, one caged on all sides except the entrance. It has rained heavily, meaning anyone entering or leaving the tennis court will leave footprints. There are just two pairs of prints one of the victim, the other of his fiancée, who swears she didn't kill. After all she is the heroine, it doesn't look like she killed. Maybe she did. But if she didn't, who killed and how? We will come to the why later. How can you strangle somebody in the centre of the tennis court without leaving footprints? There is another complication. One of the suspects is an acrobat. Did he do a tightrope walk to kill his victim? Is it possible? And how far one would go to kill somebody without leaving evidence.

There is of course a simple logical solution. I didn't figure it out. I couldn't help wondering the lengths people go to protect themselves. Is it really possible? Until the final explanation, I had no clue on how it was done. And I do really wonder if it is possible. Very entertaining. A classic Howdunit!

The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr

Edward Stevens, 'who was not much different from you or me', was going by train to his weekend home in the countryside. It was not an unusual day or evening. Working in an important position in a publisher's house, his editor had given him a manuscript of murder trials by Gaudan Cross, the mysterious writer who liked having his photo printed on the jacket.

Stevens couldn't help thinking about the death of his neighbour, Miles Despard of gastro-entritis. Miles did not have children of his own, so his brother's children would inherit the estate. They found a string with nine knots beneath the dead man's pillow. And Mrs Henderson had reported a strange event, a woman in a 'queer old-fashioned dress' was in Miles' room just before he died and went out of a door that didn't exist. Nothing really significant. Maybe something wrong with Mrs Henderson.

Abroad the train Stevens starts reading the manuscript by Cross and gets the shock of his life, to see the photo of his wife, underneath the photo her name and that she was guillotined in 1861. Probably, an ancestor of his wife?

He comes home and finds the photo missing. No longer this evening is ordinary. There are so many bizzare events. At one point of time, I was expecting zombies walking in the middle of the night to the heavy metal music. (influence of watching too many horror movies). There are people disappearing into mirrors, corpses missing from their coffins. There are two locked room mystery components in this book. One, who entered the room and disappeared into the mirror and possibly murdered Miles when all the doors are locked. Next, how did the Corpse disappear from the vault. How or where did the Corpse go from a closed coffin?

Who killed Miles, if he was killed? And more importantly how? How did somebody enter a locked room and walk out of a door that did not exist? Oh! I love the twist in the end. I didn't see it coming. One of the best mysteries I have read and Carr creates quite an atmosphere. Now I want to read all books written by Carr.

My post for Letter B for the Crime Fiction Alphabet.