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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very probably the best of the Merrivales (or at least tied with The PlagueCourt Murders), this book plays out as a 'detective court-room thriller',if such a thing exists, and sees Sir Henry Merrivale defending a man foundin a sealed chamber next to a dead body. The arrow in the chest of AvoryHume bears the fingerprints of Jimmy Answell and so the case seemsopen-and-shut. That is until Merrivale reveals how someone else could havecommitted an impossible murder.
A thoroughly good read with very few questionable points. The solution isbrilliant and convincing, and the only slight negative is that thecharacters are not as vivid as in some of Carr's other work.
Definitely one to read for any fan of Carr, impossible crime, or crimefiction in general. Superb.
A thoroughly good read with very few questionable points. The solution isbrilliant and convincing, and the only slight negative is that thecharacters are not as vivid as in some of Carr's other work.
Definitely one to read for any fan of Carr, impossible crime, or crimefiction in general. Superb.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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13 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Classic detection and the best courtroom drama ever
4 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
Jimmy Answell is summoned for an audience with Avory Hume. The two men are later discovered after witnesses break into Hume's study - a room with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door locked on the inside. Answell is found lying unconscious and Hume stabbed to death with an arrow. How can young Answell but be guilty? How could Sir Henry Merrivale (H.M.!) be foolhardy enough to undertake his defence at the Old Bailey? And what is the `Judas Window' to which H.M. keeps alluding?
This is John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson), the acknowledged master of the locked room mystery, in top form. The quality of the puzzle in The Judas Window is superior to that in The Three Coffins (popularly regarded as Carr's best book and the most famous locked room murder mystery). The case unfolds through the medium of a riveting courtroom drama that simply ought to have been filmed. The comic touches provided by H.M. as defence counsel are terrific. And the modus operandi of the crime is stunning in its simplicity and the conviction it carries. Less convincing however (and this is what makes the book stop just short of perfection) is the murderer's motive. But this flaw makes only a ripple in the overall masterly construction of the mystery.
Don't miss it!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
The British mystery does not get any better than this...
21 Oct 1998
Format:Paperback
This is, without a doubt, one of the finest mysteries ever written (and after devouring Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, and Colin Dexter, I should know!). THE JUDAS WINDOW is John Dickson Carr's masterpiece. From the very first page he plunges the reader into one of his most elaborate deceptions ever. In addition to a superbly constructed plot, THE JUDAS WINDOW delivers a wonderfully authentic courtroom drama at the Old Bailey, and plenty of delightful humor (courtesy of Merrivale, of course).
Every strand of the plot is in place; every clue is carefully laid right in front of the reader. But the central mystery is still completely baffling: how did the victim end up dead in a locked room? What exactly is a Judas window? To spoil the secret would be cruelly unfair, suffice it to say that the solution is so ingenious, and yet so simple, that you will hate yourself for not realizing it sooner. This book is excellent--not even THE THREE COFFINS can compare with this.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
unbelievably well-constructed mystery
8 Aug 2006
Format:Paperback
This is one of the finest mystery novels ever written, and I am more than a bit disappointed not to see more rave reviews of it on this page. It is arguably the high point of the brilliant career of John Dickson Carr (alias Carter Dickson), the greatest writer of "locked room" mysteries and in many people's opinion the greatest writer of the "Golden Age" of mystery novels (the 1930s and 40s). It features the detective H.M. (Sir Henry Merrivale), my personal favorite fictional detective of them all. His brilliance and irascibility is only exceeded by his basic good-heartedness and desire to see the innocent protected. Oh, he is wildly funny, as well.
This novel features an unsurpassably brilliant and baffling crime, and a fantastic assortment of 'red herrings' in the form of untrustworthy potential murderers. Carr/ Dickson really did virtually perfect the form of the mystery novel, and in an era when mystery novels are so popular it is a shame that his contributions to the genre are not more widely recognized, if not worshipped!
This novel features an unsurpassably brilliant and baffling crime, and a fantastic assortment of 'red herrings' in the form of untrustworthy potential murderers. Carr/ Dickson really did virtually perfect the form of the mystery novel, and in an era when mystery novels are so popular it is a shame that his contributions to the genre are not more widely recognized, if not worshipped!
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