- Paperback: 190 pages
- Publisher: International Polygonics,U.S.; paperback / softback edition (31 Dec 1985)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0930330285
- ISBN-13: 978-0930330286
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 9.9 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 128,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Dr. Gideon Fell, a history professor, agrees to help Scotland Yard investigate the baffling murder of Martin Starberth, who seems to be the victim of a family curse.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This was Carr's first Gideon Fell novel and contains some of his best, and most atmospheric, writing. The descriptions of the train journey to Lincolnshire and Dr Fell's cottage are delightful, and the period flashback narrated by the prison governor is gruesome and shuddery.
The plot is ingenious, the murderer's identity a real surprise and there is a final sting-in-the-tail. "Hag's Nook" is certainly in Carr's Top Five and may even be his best book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although he is little known today, in the 1930s John Dickson Carr was consider the greatest of mystery writers, and he counted both Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers among his many fans. Although Carr published a few earlier novels, in 1933 he struck gold with HAG'S NOOK, in which he introduced Dr. Gideon Fell--a character who would rival both Hercule Poroit and Lord Peter Wimsey in popularity for more than a decade.
Like many Carr novels, HAG'S NOOK is tinged with elements of the supernatural. The novel presents us with the Starberth family, whose family fortune was built several centuries earlier on ownership of a English prison--a prison so brutally managed that the family is said to be cursed. And inheritance of the fortune is dependent upon a strange requirement: on the night of his twenty-fifth birthday, the heir must spend a full hour alone in the office of the now abandoned prison, which is widely rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of the many who died there. The prospect daunts Martin Starberth, the current heir--and his anxiety fuels the anxiety of his sister Dorothy, the young American visitor Tad Rampole, and Rampole's host Dr. Gideon Fell. And indeed, they have good reason to be anxious, for the hour's vigil brings unexpected death.
Like many Carr novels, HAG'S NOOK is tinged with elements of the supernatural. The novel presents us with the Starberth family, whose family fortune was built several centuries earlier on ownership of a English prison--a prison so brutally managed that the family is said to be cursed. And inheritance of the fortune is dependent upon a strange requirement: on the night of his twenty-fifth birthday, the heir must spend a full hour alone in the office of the now abandoned prison, which is widely rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of the many who died there. The prospect daunts Martin Starberth, the current heir--and his anxiety fuels the anxiety of his sister Dorothy, the young American visitor Tad Rampole, and Rampole's host Dr. Gideon Fell. And indeed, they have good reason to be anxious, for the hour's vigil brings unexpected death.
In reading HAG'S NOOK, I understand why Carr is considerably less well known today than many of his contemporaries. The plot is pure slight-of-hand, a variation on the "locked room" mystery that attracted so many writers in the 1920s and 1930s. It reads as "tricksy" in an old-fashioned sort of way, and I found myself unable to work up much enthusiasm for it. On the other hand, Carr proves himself an extremely atmospheric writer, able to capture both setting and character in remarkably graceful prose, and he leaves you feeling that if indeed such an unlikely series of events could really happen... they would happen precisely like this.
I would not really recommend HAG'S NOOK to readers who are only casually interested in the mystery genre, for they are likely to be more than a little dissatisfied. But if you enjoy tracing the roots of the modern mystery, reading Carr is a must--and I give HAG'S NOOK four stars on style alone.
--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The first Dr Fell mystery. An atmospheric read, which as seems to be John Dickson Carr's thing has a particularly gruesome death awaiting the victim. It moves along at a cracking pace and even though the killer's identity might not be that much of a surprise the how and why is. I enjoyed this.
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