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baxlotyl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
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
4.5
kudeern1's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
jimmypat's review against another edition
3.0
This novel starts off strong with some grisly events in a locked room, but runs out of steam midway through. This is Carr’s first novel and it shows: he just hasn’t mastered the trickery to pull off this type of mystery…. yet. I’m going to be a bit generous and give it three stars, but don’t start here with Carr.
mckeanja's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.75
chanty1125's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? Yes
4.75
ashleylm's review against another edition
2.0
Not at all what I thought it would be, and perhaps more to your taste than mine. I assumed (wrongly) it would be a particularly clinical, locked-room mystery type book, replete with facts and clues and an ace detective, and except for the particiularly clinical bit that's true. But I wanted clinical. Instead, I got that sort of poetic dreamlike atmosphere (think Fata Morgana) that normally rubs me the wrong way.
People stay up 'til all hours, drift around Paris, have unlikely conversations, manifest in new locations without being clear how they got there, rarely sleep, etc., etc. The suspense for me becomes "when are they going to go to bed," rather than "who (or how) dunnit?"
As far as the mystery goes, there was none, for me (which is unusual, I'm a dunderhead who never figures things out). Almost immediately after the crime was presented, during the listing of events by time, it was obvious what happened, and yet no one (but me, and apparently the detective) picked up on it. Shortly after the second bit fell into place, and then it was just waiting for the characters to catch up to me.
So the mystery failed, the atmosphere failed, and the plot points often were sooooooooo ridiculous (plastic surgery in the early 20th century to make someone identical to someone else, for instance) that it was impossible to take seriously.
Not for me, unfortunately.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
People stay up 'til all hours, drift around Paris, have unlikely conversations, manifest in new locations without being clear how they got there, rarely sleep, etc., etc. The suspense for me becomes "when are they going to go to bed," rather than "who (or how) dunnit?"
As far as the mystery goes, there was none, for me (which is unusual, I'm a dunderhead who never figures things out). Almost immediately after the crime was presented, during the listing of events by time, it was obvious what happened, and yet no one (but me, and apparently the detective) picked up on it. Shortly after the second bit fell into place, and then it was just waiting for the characters to catch up to me.
So the mystery failed, the atmosphere failed, and the plot points often were sooooooooo ridiculous (plastic surgery in the early 20th century to make someone identical to someone else, for instance) that it was impossible to take seriously.
Not for me, unfortunately.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
sanmarri's review against another edition
4.0
Решила начать Джона Диксона Карра и Агату Кристи с самого начала, по мере написания книг.
Это - первая книга Карра вообще, и про детектива Анри Банколена в частности.
Не могу выразить восторга, хотя в целом книга понравилась - возможно, это из-за моей любви к герметичному детективу.
Повествование затянуто немного, очень много описаний, в том числе природы, от чего ослабляется внимание к самому действию.
Трудно держать в голове события из-за их "разбросанности".
Для сравнения, первая книга Агаты Кристи "Таинственное происшествие в Стайлз" держит в напряжении от начала и до конца. Все описания непосредственно касаются линии действа, поэтому книга не перегружена и очень легко и быстро читается.
Кажется, более поздние произведения Карра радуют меня больше, но в этом еще надо убедиться.
Это - первая книга Карра вообще, и про детектива Анри Банколена в частности.
Не могу выразить восторга, хотя в целом книга понравилась - возможно, это из-за моей любви к герметичному детективу.
Повествование затянуто немного, очень много описаний, в том числе природы, от чего ослабляется внимание к самому действию.
Трудно держать в голове события из-за их "разбросанности".
Для сравнения, первая книга Агаты Кристи "Таинственное происшествие в Стайлз" держит в напряжении от начала и до конца. Все описания непосредственно касаются линии действа, поэтому книга не перегружена и очень легко и быстро читается.
Кажется, более поздние произведения Карра радуют меня больше, но в этом еще надо убедиться.
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Deliciously decadent...
Young Jeff Marle has been summoned to Paris by an old friend of his father: the legendary detective Henri Bencolin, director of the Paris police. Bencolin has a peculiar case on his hands and feels Jeff may be interested in observing his methods. So Jeff becomes our “Watson”, and it’s through his eyes that we see the great detective at work. The case involves a madman – perhaps these days we would say psychopath – Alexandre Laurent, who was locked up after trying to kill his young and beautiful wife, Louise. That wife, her first marriage annulled, is now about to get married again to the famous all-round sporting legend, Raoul de Saligny. But Laurent has escaped and rumour has it that he may have visited a plastic surgeon to change his appearance. He has sent a letter warning Raoul not to marry Louise and Bencolin fears that he will turn up in Paris, bent on killing Raoul and possibly Louise too. On the night of their wedding day, Raoul, Louise and the wedding party go to a fashionable gambling house, and Bencolin has his men there in force to guard them. But Laurent has the true cunning intelligence of the madman...
This is Carr’s first mystery novel, and my first introduction to his work. I thought it was totally marvellous! There are a couple of plots weaknesses, some moments where you have to take a deep breath and just let your suspension of disbelief have full rein, and it occasionally goes over the top into high melodrama. But the writing is great, and Carr creates a wonderfully creepy, almost hallucinatory atmosphere of horror and tension. In fact, it seemed to me draw as much, if not more, on the tradition of the Decadent horror writing of the fin de siècle period as on the mystery conventions of the Golden Age.
Published in 1930 and set in Paris, it offers a darker take on the “lost generation” of that time – of those living after one devastating war and seeing the approaching inevitability of another on the horizon. There is a great sense of amorality, of sensuous egoism, of a kind of cruelty of empty friendships and brutal infidelities. Drugs and drink play their part in the glittering hopelessness of the characters’ lives, and even in Jeff’s observations. One scene, where he has dinner with a young woman caught up in the case, is a masterpiece of fear heightened by the befuddling effects of alcohol – Poe-like in its creation of an atmosphere of impending horror. Grand Guignol was in my mind for much of it, since there’s no holding back in the gruesome bloodiness of the crimes, nor the pointless cruelty of them.
As a mystery, I do think it’s just about fair play, although one has to be willing to let one’s imagination run riot a bit. There’s a locked room aspect to it, and as usual I failed to get that at all and frankly felt the solution to that part of the mystery was a bit too contrived. But in terms of the whodunit aspects – in this case, the who-is-Laurent aspect – I spotted several of the clues without realising that that’s what they were; in fact, I had sort of thought they were accidental inconsistencies rather than clues until all was explained at the end. But when the solution comes it’s wonderfully twisted, carrying the atmosphere of decadent horror right through to the end.
I’m aware that part of the reason I loved it so much is because of the horror aspects and that this may not appeal to all Golden Age mystery fans as much as it does to me. But the mystery aspect is good too and while Bencolin can be a bit too full of himself, as many of the great detectives are, Jeff is a wonderfully original creation as Watsons go, becoming deeply involved not just in the investigation but in the characters’ lives and the playing out of the plot. Wonderful stuff, and I can’t wait now to read more Carr – no wonder he’s considered one of the greats.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
Young Jeff Marle has been summoned to Paris by an old friend of his father: the legendary detective Henri Bencolin, director of the Paris police. Bencolin has a peculiar case on his hands and feels Jeff may be interested in observing his methods. So Jeff becomes our “Watson”, and it’s through his eyes that we see the great detective at work. The case involves a madman – perhaps these days we would say psychopath – Alexandre Laurent, who was locked up after trying to kill his young and beautiful wife, Louise. That wife, her first marriage annulled, is now about to get married again to the famous all-round sporting legend, Raoul de Saligny. But Laurent has escaped and rumour has it that he may have visited a plastic surgeon to change his appearance. He has sent a letter warning Raoul not to marry Louise and Bencolin fears that he will turn up in Paris, bent on killing Raoul and possibly Louise too. On the night of their wedding day, Raoul, Louise and the wedding party go to a fashionable gambling house, and Bencolin has his men there in force to guard them. But Laurent has the true cunning intelligence of the madman...
This is Carr’s first mystery novel, and my first introduction to his work. I thought it was totally marvellous! There are a couple of plots weaknesses, some moments where you have to take a deep breath and just let your suspension of disbelief have full rein, and it occasionally goes over the top into high melodrama. But the writing is great, and Carr creates a wonderfully creepy, almost hallucinatory atmosphere of horror and tension. In fact, it seemed to me draw as much, if not more, on the tradition of the Decadent horror writing of the fin de siècle period as on the mystery conventions of the Golden Age.
Published in 1930 and set in Paris, it offers a darker take on the “lost generation” of that time – of those living after one devastating war and seeing the approaching inevitability of another on the horizon. There is a great sense of amorality, of sensuous egoism, of a kind of cruelty of empty friendships and brutal infidelities. Drugs and drink play their part in the glittering hopelessness of the characters’ lives, and even in Jeff’s observations. One scene, where he has dinner with a young woman caught up in the case, is a masterpiece of fear heightened by the befuddling effects of alcohol – Poe-like in its creation of an atmosphere of impending horror. Grand Guignol was in my mind for much of it, since there’s no holding back in the gruesome bloodiness of the crimes, nor the pointless cruelty of them.
As a mystery, I do think it’s just about fair play, although one has to be willing to let one’s imagination run riot a bit. There’s a locked room aspect to it, and as usual I failed to get that at all and frankly felt the solution to that part of the mystery was a bit too contrived. But in terms of the whodunit aspects – in this case, the who-is-Laurent aspect – I spotted several of the clues without realising that that’s what they were; in fact, I had sort of thought they were accidental inconsistencies rather than clues until all was explained at the end. But when the solution comes it’s wonderfully twisted, carrying the atmosphere of decadent horror right through to the end.
I’m aware that part of the reason I loved it so much is because of the horror aspects and that this may not appeal to all Golden Age mystery fans as much as it does to me. But the mystery aspect is good too and while Bencolin can be a bit too full of himself, as many of the great detectives are, Jeff is a wonderfully original creation as Watsons go, becoming deeply involved not just in the investigation but in the characters’ lives and the playing out of the plot. Wonderful stuff, and I can’t wait now to read more Carr – no wonder he’s considered one of the greats.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
ungildedlily's review
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
3.5