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orangefan65's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent "locked-room" whodunnit by one of the masters of the genre: John Dickson Carr.
joel_buck's review against another edition
2.0
When I tell you I am humiliated by how long it took me to read this fairly short novel. Ooh boy. :/ In my defense, it was a very busy month. And in my additional defense, it wasn't super engaging for some reason and I can't really say why. I like a locked room mystery (or anyway, I think of myself as liking them) and this one's supposed to be The One™ but for whatever reason it never really stirred up an acute curiosity. The reveal was satisfying enough, but I feel like I wouldn't recommend it if someone asked me, and I'm not really interested in reading other books in the series.
ferrisscottr's review against another edition
4.0
The of first and best locked door mysteries. Great puzzle - plot and characters were lacking.
swathi_narasimhan's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastic locked room mystery and knowing that this book was written long back amazes me even more.
Chapter 17 - The locked room lecture is just BRILLIANT. It gives the perfect explanation for all the locked mysteries written/ yet to come. Gideon Fell and Hadley are an amazing duo who solves murders.
Carr has a little inclination towards the supernatural , but at the end everything fits into place like a jig saw puzzle.
Chapter 17 - The locked room lecture is just BRILLIANT. It gives the perfect explanation for all the locked mysteries written/ yet to come. Gideon Fell and Hadley are an amazing duo who solves murders.
Carr has a little inclination towards the supernatural , but at the end everything fits into place like a jig saw puzzle.
thenovelbook's review against another edition
3.0
Really spooky beginning, clever solution, and an (apparently famous) lecture in one chapter about the mechanics of the locked-room mystery.
The only thing was, none of the characters did much for me. I found it odd that the brilliant sleuth had *two* Everyman sidekicks and wasn’t sure what the point of that was. And Dr. Gideon Fell is less interesting than Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes. But as a locked-room mystery it’s first in its class.
'But, if you're going to analyse impossible situations,' interrupted Pettis, 'why discuss detective fiction?'
'Because,' said the doctor, frankly, 'we're in a detective story, and we don't fool the reader by pretending we're not. Let's not invent elaborate excuses to drag in a discussion of detective stories.’
Soooo meta
The only thing was, none of the characters did much for me. I found it odd that the brilliant sleuth had *two* Everyman sidekicks and wasn’t sure what the point of that was. And Dr. Gideon Fell is less interesting than Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes. But as a locked-room mystery it’s first in its class.
'But, if you're going to analyse impossible situations,' interrupted Pettis, 'why discuss detective fiction?'
'Because,' said the doctor, frankly, 'we're in a detective story, and we don't fool the reader by pretending we're not. Let's not invent elaborate excuses to drag in a discussion of detective stories.’
Soooo meta
ecari's review against another edition
4.0
This novel is held up as one of the earliest and best “locked room” mysteries and 90 years (give or take) has not changed that assessment. Dr. Fell is an appropriately eccentric Sherlock, Hadley the police detective straight man, and the mystery wonderfully mysterious with diagrams, illusions and timetables. Good fun!
2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge - A locked room mystery
2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge - A locked room mystery
sara_o's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Started this one way back in May, but then my sis had trouble getting her hands on it, so I stopped it at page 21 and waited.... It's actually a very quick read.
Wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this one. It kept showing up at the top of various Locked-Room Mystery lists, and I can see why it is held up at the top of its class. I very much enjoyed it. Gideon Fell feels very Sherlock Holmes-y to me, and Hadley was fun as his every day counterpart. I think my favorite part was not so much the mystery, though that was fun, but the famous Locked Room Lecture toward the end.
Overall, a satisfying read.
Read for the Popsugar Reading Challenge: A locked room mystery
Wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this one. It kept showing up at the top of various Locked-Room Mystery lists, and I can see why it is held up at the top of its class. I very much enjoyed it. Gideon Fell feels very Sherlock Holmes-y to me, and Hadley was fun as his every day counterpart. I think my favorite part was not so much the mystery, though that was fun, but the famous Locked Room Lecture toward the end.
Overall, a satisfying read.
Read for the Popsugar Reading Challenge: A locked room mystery
fictionfan's review against another edition
3.0
Impossible…
Professor Charles Grimaud is found shot to death in his room one night. The murderer couldn’t have left by the door since it was in the view of Grimaud’s secretary all through the relevant time. But the murderer also couldn’t have escaped through the window, since there had been a deep snowfall that evening, and the snow was undisturbed. It’s up to Gideon Fell to work out how the murder was done in the hope that that will also reveal whodunit. But just to complicate matters, another “impossible crime” is committed the same evening – a man is shot in an empty street in front of reliable witnesses, but the shooter is nowhere to be seen and again there is an absence of footprints in the snow.
I’ve long known that impossible crimes only interest me when they are packaged into a traditional whodunit with good characterisation, a range of suspects and plenty of motives. This would appear not to be how Carr works in the Gideon Fell stories – the emphasis is almost entirely on the way the crimes are committed, and frankly, in this one at least, the background story of why the murders were committed is a bit of a mish-mash of horror tropes and a convoluted and incredible motive backed up by a bunch of cartoonishly drawn mysterious characters. I loved his early Bencolin books, but this is my second Fell and they’re proving not to be my kind of thing, unfortunately.
Apparently what makes this one a classic for impossible crime aficionados is that, in the middle of the book, Carr pulls his characters right out of the story, has them admit that they are in fact characters in a book rather than real people, and then has Fell give a lecture on the history of the impossible crime mystery, including many examples, complete with spoilers, of other books in the genre. While I fully accept that this is interesting as an essay, it felt entirely out of place to me within the novel, and the spoilers really annoyed me since I don't feel that any author has the right to give spoilers in his book for the books of other authors. Therefore the very thing that many people praise this book for was the part that annoyed me most.
I really wish I had enjoyed this more and because I enjoyed some of Carr’s earlier books so much I'm not yet ready to give up on him, so will continue to read at least a couple more of the Fell novels to see if by any chance I can get back in synch with him. I certainly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys the impossible crime style of mystery, but less so to people who prefer the traditional whodunit.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Professor Charles Grimaud is found shot to death in his room one night. The murderer couldn’t have left by the door since it was in the view of Grimaud’s secretary all through the relevant time. But the murderer also couldn’t have escaped through the window, since there had been a deep snowfall that evening, and the snow was undisturbed. It’s up to Gideon Fell to work out how the murder was done in the hope that that will also reveal whodunit. But just to complicate matters, another “impossible crime” is committed the same evening – a man is shot in an empty street in front of reliable witnesses, but the shooter is nowhere to be seen and again there is an absence of footprints in the snow.
I’ve long known that impossible crimes only interest me when they are packaged into a traditional whodunit with good characterisation, a range of suspects and plenty of motives. This would appear not to be how Carr works in the Gideon Fell stories – the emphasis is almost entirely on the way the crimes are committed, and frankly, in this one at least, the background story of why the murders were committed is a bit of a mish-mash of horror tropes and a convoluted and incredible motive backed up by a bunch of cartoonishly drawn mysterious characters. I loved his early Bencolin books, but this is my second Fell and they’re proving not to be my kind of thing, unfortunately.
Apparently what makes this one a classic for impossible crime aficionados is that, in the middle of the book, Carr pulls his characters right out of the story, has them admit that they are in fact characters in a book rather than real people, and then has Fell give a lecture on the history of the impossible crime mystery, including many examples, complete with spoilers, of other books in the genre. While I fully accept that this is interesting as an essay, it felt entirely out of place to me within the novel, and the spoilers really annoyed me since I don't feel that any author has the right to give spoilers in his book for the books of other authors. Therefore the very thing that many people praise this book for was the part that annoyed me most.
I really wish I had enjoyed this more and because I enjoyed some of Carr’s earlier books so much I'm not yet ready to give up on him, so will continue to read at least a couple more of the Fell novels to see if by any chance I can get back in synch with him. I certainly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys the impossible crime style of mystery, but less so to people who prefer the traditional whodunit.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
wocobob's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
diannamorganti's review against another edition
5.0
I picked The Three Coffins (aka Hollow Man) up when, after I started reading the Poirot mysteries, Adam mentioned the term "Locked Room Mysteries". Having not read many classic mysteries before, I was ignorant of the genre. So, what does any internet-savvy person do when they want a superficial introduction to a subject, of course I Wikipedia-ed it (you can burn me later). Anyway, this book was listed as the epitome of the locked-room mystery.
This book is actually a fantastic way to get acquainted with locked-room mysteries, because the main character (the grumbling mumbling Dr. Fell whose employ is unknown) considers himself an expert on literature in general, and the concept "the locked-room mystery" in specific, and goes on a chapters-long diatribe about its conventions in literature and their applications to the mystery at hand. He figures to solve the crime by treating it as if it were a piece of literature. This diatribe, I believe, is what got the book voted as best.
This was such a fun book. I had to read slowly and re-read sections - I wanted to savor the character descriptions and plot twists. In such a celebrated mystery, I knew I'd want to analyze and try to figure it out myself rather than simply reading through it for plot and letting the characters sort out the mystery.
If I hadn't in recent months declared I'd stop starting new series (gees, I hardly have time for non-series reading anymore), I'd go through these from number 1 on up. If you're looking for a great classic mystery series, this one is great. Dr. Fell is just as lovable as Inspector Poirot.
This book is actually a fantastic way to get acquainted with locked-room mysteries, because the main character (the grumbling mumbling Dr. Fell whose employ is unknown) considers himself an expert on literature in general, and the concept "the locked-room mystery" in specific, and goes on a chapters-long diatribe about its conventions in literature and their applications to the mystery at hand. He figures to solve the crime by treating it as if it were a piece of literature. This diatribe, I believe, is what got the book voted as best.
This was such a fun book. I had to read slowly and re-read sections - I wanted to savor the character descriptions and plot twists. In such a celebrated mystery, I knew I'd want to analyze and try to figure it out myself rather than simply reading through it for plot and letting the characters sort out the mystery.
If I hadn't in recent months declared I'd stop starting new series (gees, I hardly have time for non-series reading anymore), I'd go through these from number 1 on up. If you're looking for a great classic mystery series, this one is great. Dr. Fell is just as lovable as Inspector Poirot.