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A review by saareman
Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr
3.0
Ablaze on the Battlements
A review of the Poisoned Pen Press eBook (November 5, 2020) of the British Library Crime Classics reprint (January 10, 2020) of the Harper & Brothers hardcover original (1931).
Castle Skull is one of the earliest books by the prolific American/Anglo writer John Dickson Carr. It features his French detective (technically a juge d'instruction i.e. an examining magistrate) Henri Bencolin. Carr would go on to greater success for his so-called "locked room" mysteries with the sleuths Dr. Gideon Fell (23 novels from 1932-1967) and Sir Henry Merrivale (23 novels from 1934-1991).
This Bencolin mystery is more along the lines of an "impossible crime." A retired actor is seen running along the battlements of Castle Skull having been set ablaze. The witnesses view the event from a house across the Rhine river and are all present and accounted for. The body is recovered and found to have been shot as well. A Belgian financier asks Bencolin to take the case. The site of the crime is in Germany however, and the Berlin police send Baron Sigmund von Arnheim, an espionage rival of Bencolin, to also investigate.
The front cover of the original Harper & Brothers edition (1931). Image sourced from Goodreads.
The house and the castle were the homes of a notorious magician Mageler, who willed the properties to the actor Alison and the financier d'Aunay on his death. But did Mageler really die? Is he or one of his descendants seeking revenge for some slight? Arnheim and Bencolin propose varying solutions to the case until Arnheim reveals his grand explanation at the conclusion. But perhaps Bencolin has an alternative solution which he is not prepared to expose.
The descriptive settings of the gothic atmosphere here were the best part. The witnesses / suspects were really far-fetched characters though and made for rather unbelievable situations. So this wasn't completely satisfactory, but you could see it as an early template for Carr's later works which often involved historical settings and seemingly impossible crimes which occurred in locked rooms where no one beyond the victim had entered or departed.
Trivia and Links
The BLCC cover illustration is cropped from a 1927 poster of the former bridge over the Rhine River in Bonn, Germany. The bridge was destroyed in WW2. Image sourced from Alamy.
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.
A review of the Poisoned Pen Press eBook (November 5, 2020) of the British Library Crime Classics reprint (January 10, 2020) of the Harper & Brothers hardcover original (1931).
It was a breath-taking sight to see Castle Skull illuminated in that fashion, and I have no doubt that night-travellers on the Rhine gaped up at it. The vast death’s head lifted itself to stare with light. The eyes were enormous oval windows of violet coloured glass; the nose was triangular and yellow, as were also the arches of the gallery forming the teeth; and all of them shone out with a devilish and sardonic blaze.
Castle Skull is one of the earliest books by the prolific American/Anglo writer John Dickson Carr. It features his French detective (technically a juge d'instruction i.e. an examining magistrate) Henri Bencolin. Carr would go on to greater success for his so-called "locked room" mysteries with the sleuths Dr. Gideon Fell (23 novels from 1932-1967) and Sir Henry Merrivale (23 novels from 1934-1991).
This Bencolin mystery is more along the lines of an "impossible crime." A retired actor is seen running along the battlements of Castle Skull having been set ablaze. The witnesses view the event from a house across the Rhine river and are all present and accounted for. The body is recovered and found to have been shot as well. A Belgian financier asks Bencolin to take the case. The site of the crime is in Germany however, and the Berlin police send Baron Sigmund von Arnheim, an espionage rival of Bencolin, to also investigate.
The front cover of the original Harper & Brothers edition (1931). Image sourced from Goodreads.
The house and the castle were the homes of a notorious magician Mageler, who willed the properties to the actor Alison and the financier d'Aunay on his death. But did Mageler really die? Is he or one of his descendants seeking revenge for some slight? Arnheim and Bencolin propose varying solutions to the case until Arnheim reveals his grand explanation at the conclusion. But perhaps Bencolin has an alternative solution which he is not prepared to expose.
The descriptive settings of the gothic atmosphere here were the best part. The witnesses / suspects were really far-fetched characters though and made for rather unbelievable situations. So this wasn't completely satisfactory, but you could see it as an early template for Carr's later works which often involved historical settings and seemingly impossible crimes which occurred in locked rooms where no one beyond the victim had entered or departed.
Trivia and Links
The BLCC cover illustration is cropped from a 1927 poster of the former bridge over the Rhine River in Bonn, Germany. The bridge was destroyed in WW2. Image sourced from Alamy.
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.