Reviews

The Eight of Swords by John Dickson Carr

tobyyy's review against another edition

3.0

Unread shelf project 2020: book 12.

This was a golden age mystery by a contemporary of Agatha Christie. However, I can see why (at least if this is a fairly generalized example of his work) Carr is not as well-known and well-loved as Christie. There were far too many characters in this book to easily keep straight (at least for me), and there were a lot of farcical scenes that made me struggle a bit.

This is definitely not a cozy mystery but I will be real, I didn’t guess the whodunit and it was quite a clever one. The mystery was decent but I did get swamped with all of the characters and the speed at which they were introduced. It felt a bit like I needed to do a genogram to keep all of them and their family members and other relations straight! This was the biggest thing that detracted from my enjoyment.

However, I liked the character of Fell; I have a few other books by Carr on my shelf, so I’ll probably meet Fell another time, during another murder investigation. This was not so difficult a book to make me refuse to read others by Carr.

jennykd2's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

tri_lo_bite's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

leandrathetbrzero's review

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The quiet normalcy of the country estate known as The Grange has recently been disturbed with reports even reaching Scotland Yard of odd encounters and a bishop off his rocker. Within a twenty-four hour period, the bishop was seen sliding down the banister like a child, a poltergeist attacked one of the houseguests with an inkbottle, and Mr. Depping – the estate’s tenant over in the Guest House – has been found with a bullet in his head. This is a case full of tangled, contradictory accounts and a good number of people attempting to play detective. Some are found to be more qualified than others. One of these detectives is the well-known Dr. Gideon Fell, a lexicographer by trade whose appreciation for improbable crimes matches his interest in the beer-drinking habits of the English people throughout history. An absolute delightful and chaotic cozy mystery!

John Dickson Carr’s The Eight of Swords was my introduction to the American mystery author, and the experience leaves me wanting more. I loved Carr’s cast of characters, emphasis on characters; the humor infused in the narrative and the various characters’ mannerisms were such good fun! I think it gave me an interesting view into Carr himself, his personality and his life philosophies, especially since there was an emphasis on the fact that in America at the time Prohibition was still actively in place, and all of the characters seemed grateful they were in England.

I appreciated the attention to details like character and setting description as both of these departments are typically lacking in Golden Age detection fiction titles. Above all, though, I must admit that I am a sucker for any book that participates in metafiction, as if the characters themselves are self-aware that they exist within a detective story. It helps that one of the “detectives” is a mystery writer named Henry Morgan, and his comments on what makes a mystery probable or not are just brilliant. A solid, wildly entertaining mystery! And my first of 2022!!