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For mystery readers who like their puzzles complex, there simply is no author better than Carr, who delighted in explaining the impossible. This, and his other novels, are highly recommended. (Note, though, that the solution here is one of the more complicated ones, and it might be better for those who have not experienced Carr to start with another book first.)
This is one of the very best by Carr. What draws me to Carr is the mastery of mood, tone, and atmosphere-- a brooding, semi-supernatural, atmosphere of the Gothic-- of terror, of raw fear-- of people literally frightened to death. To put it crudely, it's like "Sherlock Holmes" meets "Stephen King."
In this novel we have a fabulous beginning with an "impossible murder" that seems to have no explanation, a "femme fatale" woman, the setting of a ruined Norman tower in France, and a most sympathetic leading character, Miles. Dr. Gideon Fell is a colorful and delightful detective who usually enters the story at least a third into the book.
Frankly, the conclusions sometimes let the reader down -- or seem to -- because Carr's skill at "atmosphere" has got the poor fellow so on the edge of his chair with anxiety that no ending could totally meet the expectations.
This book-- like many Carr books -- has a neat love interest-- a totally improbable love between a convalescent British gentleman and a French "woman of the streets." The love interest alone drew me through some of the chapters.
Carr's style and descriptive skills are excellent. He will describe a setting with original turns of phrase. He will paint word-pictures that force one to reread the paragraph more than once, savoring the writer's skills. He's a highly literate man with a control of English that would have made him successful in writing more conventional novels.
This is probably the best Gideon Fell novel I have read, and one of the two or three best novels by Dickson Carr I have read. I urge you to enjoy the book, and wish you, er, "unpleasant dreams."
However, his scrupulosity is not my favorite characteristic of this American author. What I love are the hot-house, claustrophobic, even supernatural atmospheres that he creates in his mysteries. In "He Who Whispers" a man is murdered at the top of a medieval French tower when no one could have possibly climbed the tower's sole staircase to accomplish the deed. His son's fiancée is accused of vampirism and barely escapes war-torn France with her life. She resurfaces in England and takes a position as private librarian at Greywood Mansion in New Forest. The first night she spends in the house, another woman is nearly frightened to death.
Dr. Gideon Fell bumbles and rumbles onto the moonlit grounds of Greywood shortly before the mysterious shot is fired, and he and his French compatriot, Professor Rigaud attempt to solve the mystery of how the sister of Greywood's owner was almost frightened to death in her own bedroom. Was the beautiful new librarian really a vampire? Professor Riguad, using a rather convoluted form of Gallic logic believes she is. It is the only 'logical' explanation of how Howard Brooke was killed on top of the French tower back before the war.
However, if you've read enough Gideon Fell mysteries, you know that Carr's humongous detective always manages to find a non-supernatural explanation to the mystery, in spite of the Unspeakable Horror that always seems to lurk just around the corner, breathing its chill vapours through the text.
Though Carr was an American most of his books (especially the early ones) were set in England and France. He moved to Great Britain with his English wife in 1933 and they lived there for a number of years before moving back to the United States in 1965. Carr was awarded an Edgar in 1950 by the Mystery writers of America (MWA) for his Conan Doyle biography. He was also awarded the title of Grand Master by the MWA in 1970.
Even though I'm not particularly fond of Carr's serial detective, the lumbering, snorting, coyly hinting Dr.Gideon Fell, the mysteries he inhabits are wonderfully brooding, baffling, atmospheric tales.
For mystery readers who like their puzzles complex, there simply is no author better than Carr, who delighted in explaining the impossible. This, and his other novels, are highly recommended. (Note, though, that the solution here is one of the more complicated ones, and it might be better for those who have not experienced Carr to start with another book first.)
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