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shanaqui's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
John Dickson Carr's The Corpse in the Waxworks was surprisingly in the middle for me -- usually I quite dislike John Dickson Carr's earlier work and books involving Henri Bencolin, though I've later come to enjoy some of his Gideon Fell stories.
This one's not one of his more famous, and isn't a locked room mystery, meaning it actually felt less contrived than some of them. And Bencolin wasn't quite as annoying as I usually find him, though I wasn't a huge fan either; his sidekick (Marle) is just kind of vanilla, really, though he gets his own little action sequence (predictable as it is).
In the end, it felt relatively straightforward as Carr's mysteries go, and without any femmes being too fatale, and it did have an intriguing sense of atmosphere around the masked club and the waxworks -- a little bit creepy, a little bit high-strung.
Not a new favourite by any means, but more enjoyable than I expected.
This one's not one of his more famous, and isn't a locked room mystery, meaning it actually felt less contrived than some of them. And Bencolin wasn't quite as annoying as I usually find him, though I wasn't a huge fan either; his sidekick (Marle) is just kind of vanilla, really, though he gets his own little action sequence (predictable as it is).
In the end, it felt relatively straightforward as Carr's mysteries go, and without any femmes being too fatale, and it did have an intriguing sense of atmosphere around the masked club and the waxworks -- a little bit creepy, a little bit high-strung.
Not a new favourite by any means, but more enjoyable than I expected.
meganh123's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
bmip666's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kathieboucher's review against another edition
3.0
This type of mystery novel is all puzzle and zero character development. Interesting enough, but kind of a slog to get through it. Still, I'll read any mystery set in Paris.
toniclark's review against another edition
3.0
I must admit that I bought this book, in part, because of the cover. The title intrigued me, too, with its promise of a creepy kind of setting, more than a hint of the macabre, an epigraph from Poe. And I know almost nothing about the Golden Age of detective fiction, other than a few Agatha Christies. The book was published in 1932, the story is set in Paris, 1930. As expected, the narration is considerably different from what you’d find in a crime novel today, though I liked a lot about it. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Paris, its often gloomy, chilly, ominous (and portentous) weather. I liked the intriguing chapter titles, e.g., “A Ghost in a Brown Hat,” “The Green Lights of Murder,” and “Confidences Are Exchanged Over a Coffin,” And I enjoyed the story (well, sort of) for about half of the book, after which it became too convoluted for me to follow. I was both surprised and disappointed by the end. Didn’t like it and would never have guessed it, even though the detective spelled out the supposedly telling clues.
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Chamber of horrors…
Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle take on a case involving a woman who walked into the Musée Augustin waxworks one evening and was never seen alive again. Her body later turned up in the Seine. Before they can discover who killed her, they must find out why she went to the waxworks, and why so many other unlikely people seem to find it a place worth visiting late in the evenings…
This is the fourth in the series about the Mephistophelian Bencolin, head of the Parisian detective force, and his American sidekick Marle. The plots are always intricate versions of the “impossible” crime subgenre for which Carr was apparently famous, and this is just as fiendish as the others. But what makes them stand out most from the crowd is Carr’s ability to create wonderfully macabre settings, steeped in horror and decadence and the gruesomeness of the Grand Guignol.
The idea of being in a waxworks late at night is pretty creepy to begin with, but these waxworks have been made by a master of the art and, in the dim green light of the basement, one could be forgiven for imagining that one or two of them are real. But is it imagination? Is that movement you glimpsed out of the corner of your eye a trick of the light, or…? Carr is brilliant at spooking both poor Jeff and the reader too, and the decadent evil at the heart of the plot seems right at home in this world of shadows and horrors. Yes, the story veers wildly over the credibility line as it does in all of the Bencolin books, but much in the way of Edgar Allen Poe – there is a madness underneath most of the crimes.
Bencolin himself is a bit too over the top to be believable – he is all devilish mystery and almost mystical insight. But Jeff is a great foil who provides the humanity that Bencolin lacks. There are only five books in total in the Bencolin series, I understand. Four of them, including this and the other three the BL has previously re-published, were written early in Carr’s career, and he revisited the characters just once years later – I’m hoping they issue it too sometime for completion’s sake. I love the way he mixes the various horror genres into the standard mystery novel and comes up with something quite unique in my experience. Since I still haven’t read anything else by him I don’t know how they compare to the later work he is better remembered for, but they’ve certainly whetted my appetite to find out. This one is excellent and there’s no need to read them in order so if a creepy night in a waxworks sounds like your kind of thing, go for it!
The book also includes a bonus Bencolin short story, The Murder in Number Four – another impossible crime, this time the murder of a man alone in a carriage of a moving train. Witnesses confirm no one could have gone along the corridor to the carriage without being seen, and yet the deed was done. Obviously this doesn’t have the same intricacy as the novels, but it has the same atmosphere of creepiness and Bencolin is as mysteriously brilliant as ever. An added treat!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle take on a case involving a woman who walked into the Musée Augustin waxworks one evening and was never seen alive again. Her body later turned up in the Seine. Before they can discover who killed her, they must find out why she went to the waxworks, and why so many other unlikely people seem to find it a place worth visiting late in the evenings…
This is the fourth in the series about the Mephistophelian Bencolin, head of the Parisian detective force, and his American sidekick Marle. The plots are always intricate versions of the “impossible” crime subgenre for which Carr was apparently famous, and this is just as fiendish as the others. But what makes them stand out most from the crowd is Carr’s ability to create wonderfully macabre settings, steeped in horror and decadence and the gruesomeness of the Grand Guignol.
The idea of being in a waxworks late at night is pretty creepy to begin with, but these waxworks have been made by a master of the art and, in the dim green light of the basement, one could be forgiven for imagining that one or two of them are real. But is it imagination? Is that movement you glimpsed out of the corner of your eye a trick of the light, or…? Carr is brilliant at spooking both poor Jeff and the reader too, and the decadent evil at the heart of the plot seems right at home in this world of shadows and horrors. Yes, the story veers wildly over the credibility line as it does in all of the Bencolin books, but much in the way of Edgar Allen Poe – there is a madness underneath most of the crimes.
Bencolin himself is a bit too over the top to be believable – he is all devilish mystery and almost mystical insight. But Jeff is a great foil who provides the humanity that Bencolin lacks. There are only five books in total in the Bencolin series, I understand. Four of them, including this and the other three the BL has previously re-published, were written early in Carr’s career, and he revisited the characters just once years later – I’m hoping they issue it too sometime for completion’s sake. I love the way he mixes the various horror genres into the standard mystery novel and comes up with something quite unique in my experience. Since I still haven’t read anything else by him I don’t know how they compare to the later work he is better remembered for, but they’ve certainly whetted my appetite to find out. This one is excellent and there’s no need to read them in order so if a creepy night in a waxworks sounds like your kind of thing, go for it!
The book also includes a bonus Bencolin short story, The Murder in Number Four – another impossible crime, this time the murder of a man alone in a carriage of a moving train. Witnesses confirm no one could have gone along the corridor to the carriage without being seen, and yet the deed was done. Obviously this doesn’t have the same intricacy as the novels, but it has the same atmosphere of creepiness and Bencolin is as mysteriously brilliant as ever. An added treat!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
fern17's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
beezzaz's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
As I was reading this I thought to myself that it felt a lot like the Sherlock Holmes stories. Maybe that's just what you get with a lot of detective books but there must have been a lot of people inspired by those stories back then so it's understandable. I really liked Mlle. Augustin, she was just trying to add a little spice to her life whilst getting that coin. The ending felt odd to me, a bit abrupt I think.
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