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A review by ashleylm
It Walks by Night by John Dickson Carr
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!