I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't think it was fair to review a book I didn't finish.

This American Mystery Classics reissue gives modern readers a chance to appreciate an old-school locked-room mystery by the master of the subgenre, John Dickson Carr. I read an advance digital review copy (courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher), so I’m not sure whether the sprinkling of flagrantly offensive racial terms will be edited out of the new edition. Archaic attitudes and turns of phrase are to be expected when reading a novel this old, but even back in 1940, a certain Agatha Christie title was revised to "And Then There Were None” for publication in the US.

From a modern reader’s point of view, the thing that’s harder to get used to is how little action there is in the locked-room subgenre: there’s a crime in a sealed environment, and basically everyone sits around cogitating and discussing it until ultimately some brilliant detective reveals the clever mechanism. These days we’re more used to seeing our detectives run around chasing clues, beating up bad guys, cracking uncooperative witnesses, etc. The actual mystery here takes a little while to get going, and it takes what feels like half the book even to meet the detective. For not that long a book, it just felt like awfully slow going. Things pick up towards the end, when there are more revelations and crimes, so it feels like something is finally happening. The solution is obscure, just as it should be, and there are amusingly self-aware comments along the way about the conventions of the locked-room crime.

One of my favorite things is life is cozying up with a thrilling novel written before I was born, escaping into a different world. Sadly, "The Plague Court Murders" did not enthrall me. After several weeks of dutifully picking up up, then invariably falling asleep on my iPad, I finally called it quits, especially when I realized that I did not care in the least the solution of this locked-room mystery. I do think the writing style contributed to my lack of engagement- not that its dated, but that it reads more like a screenplay than a traditional novel, being dialogue heavy, and I found myself getting lost in who was talking. The characters were superficial and the casual racism horrifying. There were moments of subtle humor, sure, but it was not enough for this woman with modern sensibilities. I am truly sorry to have not enjoyed this more. However, I am grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to review this title with honesty.

Wow! This locked-room mystery kept me on my toes! I'm so thrilled that the American Mystery Classics series is introducing new generations of readers to these hidden gems. John Dickson Carr has a unique way of describing characters, getting into their minds to display their idiosyncrasies.

I love a good-locked room mystery, and this one included mediums, a house with a morbid history, sinister suspects and a mysterious dagger. The clues were adroitly laid out before me, yet I failed to guess the culprit.

Definitely going to catch up rest of the cases in the Sir Henry Merrivale series as well as eagerly awaiting fresh editions in the American Mystery Classics. What a treat!

I love classic crime, and surprisingly have read little John Dickson Carr. One of the reasons I love the American Mystery Classics by Otto Penzler is that it regularly introduces me to new authors or books.

This was a great locked room mystery, with an ending I did not guess. It was engaging and I was invested in the end. Some problematic language (I get that it was in the original/different time but doesn’t make it less offensive to people affected by it) detracted, from the mystery. I did enjoy the solution and found it a satisfying ending.

1930. Dean Halliwell invited Ken Blake and D.I. Masters to his house, Plague Court, at night to debunk supernatural activities. But not long after they arrive, and finding various people in attendance, Roger Darworth, spiritualist, who aimed to exorcise the evil at Plague Court is found dead in a sealed chamber, stabbed multiple times. Masters with D.S. Bert McDonnell investigate but find that they need the help of Sir Henry Merrivale.
An entertaining historical locked room mystery.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Originally published in 1934

The Plague Court Murders is a beatifully atmospheric locked-room mystery by John Dickson Carr. Originally released in 1934, this reformat and re-release as part of the American Mystery Classics series from Penzler Publishers is 416 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.

Carr is well known (with good reason) for his 'impossible' locked room mysteries. Despite being almost 90 years old, it wears well, and still provides a load of atmosphere (in some places, positively creepy). There is a perpetually building sense of dread and a near-constant series of threatening occurrences which lead to the discovery of a medium/psychic inside a locked building with no way in or out.

The resolution and denouement are fantastically well wrought and memorable. I loved the whole ghost story "vibe" from start to finish. The dialogue and style are admittedly a bit dated and true to the period, but I found it charming. For fans of golden age mysteries, it'll definitely be a plus, not a detraction.

Very well done. I have read a lot of Carr's work, but somehow had missed this one. Worth a read, especially for fans of the golden age.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read! John Dickson Carr has been on my wish list for so long and I’m so glad to have finally jumpier in with The Plague Court Murders. A psychic medium is stabbed to death during a seance, but he is alone, locked in a stone outbuilding apparently murdered by malevolent spirits. Dickson Carr really proves himself a master of the locked room mystery with this one.

This is the first novel following Sir Henry Merrivale as the primary sleuth and the story really picks up when he becomes involved. He is a lovably crass older man who is nicknamed Mycroft after Sherlock Holmes’ brother because of his brilliant mind, yet lazy demeanour. Dickson Carr is very obviously influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing and is stylistically very similar. The Plague Court Murders has supernatural elements and family drama very similar to that in Hound of the Baskervilles, while the locked room puzzle is more reminiscent of the Speckled Band. I highly recommend this for any fans of Sherlock Holmes.

Thank you W. W. Norton & Company and NetGallery for the ARC.

I have been reading a lot of mysteries lately where the characters and even the setting were prioritized above the mystery itself. Having read other locked room mysteries by this author, I was looking forward to the challenge. And the Plague Court Murders did not disappoint!

“Cats with their throats cut. Bells with wire attached to them. Thirty-odd pounds of stone flower-box chucked at you by someone who isn’t there.”

The mystery was a great challenge but all the clues were there for an observant reader. The creepy atmosphere with its underlying ghosts killed by the black death subplot certainly fits in with our current national mood. The Plague Court Murders is a great choice for armchair detectives. 4 stars!

Thanks to American Mystery Classics, Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a very clever and exciting classic mystery involving a locked room murder. The narrator, Ken Blake, sees his friend Dean Halliday in his club, and Dean asks Blake if he wants to spend the night in a haunted house. The old house, Plague Court had belonged many years prior to the Hangman's assistant Louis Playge. Playge's dagger was donated to a museum by Dean's father and had just been stolen from the museum. The old house was said to be haunted, and a psychic, Darworth, is going to exorcise the ghosts. Blake enlists a police friend, Masters, to come with them. When they get to the house, Dean's aunt, Lady Benning, her friend Major Featherton, and Dean's friend Marion, and her younger brother Ted are all there. Darworth has just gone into the stone house in the middle of the courtyard with the house locked on both the inside and outside, with a big fire. They have wired up a bell into the stone house so that if something goes wrong, Darworth can summon help.

However, when the bell rings, Masters and Blake have to break down the door. They find Darworth with several light wounds, and a wound through his back to his heart made with the Playge daggar. The ground around the house is muddy, and there are no footprints other than those of the rescuers. The only windows are high up with very small openings. Darworth's young helper, Joseph, has been playing cards with a policeman, and then he had taken morphine. The five people in the inside room had sat in silence and not gone out.

Finally Major Featherton suggests they call in Sir Henry Merrivale who people call Mycroft after Sherlock Holmes' brother and is called H. M. H. M. tells them that even if they figure out who did the murder, that it can't come to trial unless they can figure out how it was done. The creepy setting of Plague Court and the problem with getting folks to tell the truth makes this a VERY difficult task. When Ted disappears and Joseph is killed, they find they need to look into the past. Near the end of the book, H. M. decides to do a reenactment of the crime with most of the original players. It doesn't go exactly as he planned, but he can finally tell them all how the crime was executed.

I have been spending a lot of time on golden age mysteries lately. Both the British Library Crime Classics reissues and the American Mystery Classics reissues have been wonderful in reintroducing many mystery stories from the 1920s-1940s (and beyond) to current readers. The quality of the stories varies, but since only the best are reprinted it is usually pretty good. It’s interesting to see how the language, the style, and what’s viewed as acceptable behavior has changed over time.

Having said all of that, I am having a hard time with John Dickson Carr. Recognized as the master of locked room puzzles, Mr. Carr had a long successful career with many recurring characters and was generally acclaimed by the critics and reading public. Having read 3 or 4 of his books, I find him long-winded and confusing (at times), his main characters are often cocky and unlikeable, and the solutions are either a bit far-fetched or repetitive. As far as his detectives, I really don’t like Gideon Fell (at all), I was a fan of Henri Bencolin (big, overblown gothic mystery), here we have Sir Henry Merrivale who falls somewhere between the two.

“The Plague Court Murders” was written by Mr. Carr under his Carter Dickson pseudonym. Our narrator is Ken Blake, who is asked by his friend Dean Halliday to attend a séance at his family home, Plague Court, which is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a hangman. Dean is looking to disprove the medium as a swindler who has taken in his aunt and fiancée. Blake recruits Inspector Masters, who specializes in debunking mediums, who is too willing to get another shot at Roger Darworth, a conman who has avoiding prosecution by the police. As the evening unfolds, Darworth is locked in a small outbuilding while our cast of characters sit in a dark room in the main house, praying, all under police supervision. Of course, Darworth is murdered in the locked room, which no one has entered or exited.

The police have no answer to this impossible crime, so they bring in Sir Henry Merrivale: physician, barrister, and head of military intelligence for the war office in England. Merrivale is a cranky old man, he complains non-stop, thinks everyone is an idiot, and tries very hard not to get involved at all. Our suspects cover the classic gamut: the old ex-military man, the elder aunt, the fiancée, the old college chum, the boy assistant who was in on the scams. We also have the supporting cast: the landlady who knows nothing, the ex-wife who mysteriously vanished, the current(?) wife living abroad. When someone disappears and another character gets murdered, will Sir Merrivale be able to solve the impossible mystery before the killer strikes again?

A bit long-winded, it doesn’t really get interesting until they bring Merrivale in a third of the way into the book. Confusing at times, the ghost story aspect doesn’t really factor in, the conclusion was a bit disappointing. I’m not sure how much more time I will devote to Mr. Carr with so many other good stories out there.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Penzler Publishers via NetGalley. Thank you!

4.5 stars

I am so excited to have read this book! I am a John Dickson Carr fan and have so far only been acquainted with Dr. Gideon Fell and Carr’s radio plays.

I am so thankful to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers for having granted me the opportunity to read and review this Sir Henry Merrivale mystery.

This book is another one of Carr’s signature suspenseful, masterfully plotted locked room mysteries. How this man could conceptualize and execute so many fresh and original locked room mysteries, I know not. Though thankful I am. In “The Plague Court Murders”, a dubious medium is stabbed during a séance he had planned, and his body found in a locked room in a atmospheric mansion with a spooky history.

I loved the ambience and characterization in this novel. All characters are very distinct and charming in their own way, clearly representation of their era. I just love the carelessness of privileged 1930’s male youth and how they talked to each other, and I feel Carr did a superb job transporting me to that mansion and the events there occurred.

Carr superpower is his ability to write, for sure. He manages to grant personality to sentences and each word and punctuation choice is careful, purposeful. You can almost hear them breathe as they jump from the page and surround you, giving you no choice but to be transported to the world Carr chooses to create.

I was worried that H.M. would be like Fell, but he wasn’t. He is just as delightful, but completely himself. He is a little cheeky, extremely smart and unapologetically himself. The book became so much better once he made his appearance. Not that Chief-Inspector Masters is much behind. This duo had me cracking up and in a great mood as I investigated the case with them.

Carr also plays extremely fair, which makes it for an enjoyable read.

I hope that Penzler Publishers continues to reprint all of Carr’s works, especially Merrivale’s stories. I want to read them all and so should everyone!

#Netgalley #theplaguecourtmurders

John Dickson Carr couldn’t have written a more obnoxious and unlikable sleuth if he had tried, but he did write a modestly clever and compelling locked room mystery.

Sir Henry Merrivale is a dreadful mix of Sherlock Holmes and—I dunno—the old fashioned equivalent of everyone who got #MeToo’ed in the last few years. Though it’s technically a plot flaw, it feels merciful that we aren’t introduced to him until the story is half gone.

Also helpful is that it’s Masters and Blake who we hear from directly, and not Merrivale, which helps make his presence slightly more tolerable.

The story is a clever one, though too slow to get moving and fairly convoluted in the end. Regardless, it’s well done in terms of atmosphere and has a clever twist and a logical (if a tad tough to follow) solve.

It’s a shame the author felt compelled to create this cringily awful sleuth in Merrivale. He could have made the character a typical amateur sleuth archetype of the era and that would have been fine. He also could have left the sleuthing up to the two protagonists, who did pretty well at it on their own as it was.

I can’t see myself reading another of these that includes Merrivale, which is a shame because it was otherwise a fun, clever locked room mystery.

A creepy haunting classic mystery.Atmospheric characters that come alive dialogue that drew me in.I really enjoy going back in time reading of different mannerisms dialogue a really dark entertaining read.#netgalley#wnorton&norton

John Dickson Carr is known as one of the masters, if not the best writer of locked-room mysteries. I’d never read one of his books and, being a fan of these kinds of books, I was curious. Now, this sub-genre is hard to get right. Either the solution is too absurd to be believable, or it relies too much on coincidence. The Plague Court Murders is just right. Once the crime is explained, it makes perfect sense and it is believable enough that someone would be able to do it and get away with it. Same with the baddie, all the clues were consistent and it couldn’t have been explained better. Yet, I never saw it coming. Every single clue is explained and there is nothing superfluous, no plot points that go nowhere, no red herring that isn’t important. The setting is gothic and creepy. With all these great assets, I still didn’t connect with the characters and the plot never really engrossed me. Fans of classic whodunits will enjoy it. Even if I didn’t love it, I was still impressed at the perfect way that the novel was written.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/American Mystery Classics!

2020 is my year for Classic Crime novels! I'd never read John Dickson Carr but this one was a pleasure and just a generally fun mystery. I was initially drawn to this book based on its supernatural description and cover and it did not let me down. It has a wonderfully creepy atmosphere, and the characters are larger than life, as only characters written in that era can be. I'm so glad these classics are being repackaged and reintroduced. I look forward to reading more of John Dickson Carr's works in the future.

"I know where Elsie Fenwick is buried."

From the dark, damp, drizzly, candle spluttery suffocating atmosphere to a cast of interesting dark characters to the ultimate in an impossible locked room mystery, The Plague Court Murders is one of my favourites written by John Dickson Carr. When I saw the title available on NetGalley I was beyond thrilled! The book is utterly immersive and scintillating and whilst reading it, nothing else mattered. The plot and conclusion are highly memorable, too, as most of Carr's books are.

A group gathers at Plague Court with ghostly intent and a man from the party, a medium with something to prove, is discovered missing. After a search, he is found murdered in a locked little stone house with no way in or out. Sir Henry Merrivale, an amateur sleuth with an abrasive personality but ingenius mind, works along with the authorities to track down the killer. Suspects are interrogated, of course. We are given "clews" but man, I grasped for ideas...and just couldn't figure it out! The twists include a historical unsolved mystery and Carr's trademark cleverness and superb descriptions. His prose takes my breath away and the solution was astonishing in its brilliance. I went to bed mulling it over, again and again, piecing everything together.

This book would be the perfect introduction to the Golden Age writers and to Carr. There is something special about writing from this era...this book is so unique and gripping with a touch of the supernatural but not scary evil. Mystery readers in general will be held captive. Do be sure to read the notes about the author at the beginning.

My sincere thank you to Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this enthralling book in exchange for an honest review. I am so happy that this book is being re-published! Kudos to you.

"The Plague Court Murders" is a mystery set in 1934 in England. Just a warning: Sir Henry Merrivale is a rude, arrogant man who uses a lot of bad language. He's not actually the point of view character, but he's in half of the book. A con man sets up quite a show to prove that he can banish an evil spirit, but he ends up dead instead and the newspapers claim it was the evil spirit. Despite this being a locked room mystery, the police are certain that human did it. They just don't know how.

Well, from the clues given, I soon came up with a theory that would've worked. Despite the fact that Merrivale hid the critical clues, I did correctly guess some of what happened. However, I'd be seriously surprised if anyone guesses the full identity of the murderer before the reveal. With a lot of misdirection and Merrivale doing a little reveal here and a little reveal there, it was hard to keep things straight. Some things didn't even make sense to me. Like why did the victim do some things ahead of time to set the stage for an apparent fight with an evil spirit but delay a critical part that could have been done more easily and privately ahead of time until there were plenty of potential witnesses around? But then we wouldn't have a mystery. It was an interesting puzzle mystery, but I didn't really care for the characters as they never really seem to "come alive." There was some descriptive gore. There was no sex. There was some bad language.

I loved the descriptions in this book the author really has a way of bringing people to life and making you want to know more about them. The mystery was fabulous also.

‘I want you to go with me, tonight, to a certain house in London; to tell me whether you see or hear; and, if you do, whether you can explain it on natural grounds.”

And when Ken Blake is approached by Dean Halliday with that request he jumps at the chance. Plague Court, is a derelict London property held by the Halliday’s, has a dark history of death. When they arrive, accompanied by Detective-Inspector Masters, they are startled to find the house already occupied. Halliday's aunt, Lady Benning, his fiancée Marion Latimer, her brother Ted, and family friend Major Featherton have come to hold a vigil. Devotees of psychic Roger Darworth, they have brought him to Plague Court to exorcist the house of its ghosts. Before the night is over there is bloody murder as Darworth is brutally killed, alone in a small house on the grounds. Its walls are made of solid stone, the window unreachable from the ground, fitted with iron gratings, the door padlocked on the outside and bolted on the inside. Knowing that this was not the work of ghosts, but unable to explain how the murder could have been committed, they apply to Sir Henry Merrivale or help.

As an uber John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson fan, to see a reprint of one of JDC's top tier books is like Christmas has come early. There are so many great things to be found in TPCM. The ghost story quality that Dickson generates is remarkable. With imaginative passages, he is able to construct an intense atmosphere which is full of darkness and decay. Like the damp and fog, it bleeds into everything, and is unescapable.

"…there seemed such an absolute hush in the desolation of the house before us. Something seemed to be impelling us to move faster; to get inside those high brick walls; something drawing us on and playing with us. The house—or what I could see of it—was made of heavy, whitish stones, now blackened with weather. It had almost a senile appearance, as of a brain gone, but its heavy cornices were carven with horrible gayety in Cupids and roses and grapes: a wreath on the head of an idiot.”

And while Dickson can never be accused of remarkable work regarding his characterizations, his caricatures are fabulous. Most notably here in the forms of the reptilian Lady Benning, with her cold malevolence—

"…the small face, which suggested wax flowers, was unwrinkled except around the eyes, and it was highly painted. The eyes were gentle—and hard…her jeweled hands, lying limply along the arms of the chair, were twisting and upturning as though to begin a gesture.”

And the bumptious Major Featherton, the very image of a Regency fop gone to seed—

"The paunchy figure tilted slightly backwards. From the brief glimpse I had had of him, of the map-veined cheeks and cadaverous eyes, I could fill out the bigness of an outworn buck and gallant of the eighties, tightened into his evening clothes like a corset.”

And when Sir Henry Merrivale picks up the baton, he just runs away with it. All the little hints that Dickson dropped in around the murder are slowly teased out as Merrivale goes over the evidence, prodding Masters (and the reader) to think harder about the facts. Oh, and the solution to the locked room murder itself, is so fabulous and imaginative, never in my wildest imagination did I think of it. And I thought I had the murderer, and the solution, tagged. But while I was close…I was of course wrong. This will be a hard one, even for the most avid of readers to figure before the reveal.

OK, so I've already got 2 early editions of TPCM, and have previously read it. But that matters very little as I will always re-read JDC. And to have a reprint of a JDC that has been unavailable for many years is a bonus. I’m so happy that the publishers have chosen Carr, and hopefully, can look forward to future reprints of his books. This is, quite simply, a great impenetrable locked room murder nestled very neatly inside a first-rate ghost story.