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.

Double, Double by Ellery Queen

Double, Double by Ellery Queen, the pseudonym of novelists duo Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, published in 1950 featuring novelist and detective Ellery Queen, was also published with the alternative title The Case of the Seven Murders.

Ellery Queen receives an anonymous letter with two newspaper clippings. The first one nearly two months old reports the death of Luke MacCaby, the Town Hermit, of heart failure. The next clipping reports that John Spencer Hart, President of Wrightsville Dye Works, committed suicide unable to face bankruptcy and prison. One is a heart failure, the other is suicide, neither seemed to be linked nor criminal. But somebody has linked it. These two clippings have been sent to Ellery Queen. How are these deaths related? Three days later Ellery Queen receives another envelope reporting the disappearance of Tom Anderson, the Town Drunk. How are these three incidents related? Rima Anderson, Tom Anderson's daughter approaches Ellery to find out about the disappearance of her father. What will Ellery uncover? When more deaths follow, and Ellery realises that somebody is killing off people in tune with a famous children's rhyme. There are various versions of the rhyme available, what version is the killer using? Will Ellery stop further deaths? Everything is not as appears, the town hermit whom everybody thought was penniless was a rich man, the President of Dye Works whom everybody thought was a rich man was in fact poor, who else is leading a double life?

I spotted the killer quite early, just a little thing threw me off, just as Ellery Queen novelists duo expected. But I was back again on the same track because there is really no where else to go. I like the chapter in the end where Ellery explains everything. I wish all crime novels had this kind of explanation. I know, in real life it is not possible to provide explanations for everything. That's why, I read fiction, I can work out most of the things, but give me the final chapter with all the explanations some I have worked out, making me feel clever and some I hadn't worked out, making me feel the writer is more clever, after all the book is world they created. Oh yes! This book made me feel clever, being able to see beyond the double smokescreen, but I hadn't worked out everything, making me respect and look for other work by Ellery Queen.

I borrowed an ebook from Openlibrary