A review by thecommonswings
Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr

4.0

More correctly it’s three and a half stars, but I’ll give it a four because it’s still a wonderful read even if it doesn’t quite do justice to the premise. This is definitely second tier Carr, and Bencolin is already creaking as a hero. He’s not as focused as he was in The Lost Gallows and is emotionally a bit all over the show - I would suggest that the obvious relish Carr has in writing Agatha Alison suggested to him elements of both Fell AND Merrivale, although this would almost certainly be a Fell novel a few years later. It’s got the same gothic flourishes that Fell’s novels revel in, albeit with a solution that’s actually a lot more straightforward that much of what was to come. There’s a far greater focus on misdirection - one character is almost gleefully hinted at being the villain, and Carr is spending more time seeding red herrings than an actually complex solution. Which is a nice change, but somehow means the book feels a bit of a let down by the end. It’s not a great crime novel but demonstrates the incredible work to come and is hugely enjoyable