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A review by saareman
The Blind Barber by John Dickson Carr
1.0
A Drunken Farce, without a Locked Room
Review of The Murder Room eBook (November 19, 2012) of the Harper and Brothers hardcover original (October 1, 1934)
The Blind Barber is a particularly weak entry for the Dr. Gideon Fell series and hopefully a one-off with its reliance on drunken comic antics. Dr. Fell is approached at home by his friend, the writer Henry (Hank) Morgan who was a passenger on the Queen Victoria cruise liner due to dock at Southampton after its journey from New York City. Morgan has managed to get ashore ahead of time via a smaller crew vessel as the larger ship awaits a docking berth.
Morgan relates a tale of how he and a group of friends had got themselves mixed-up in the middle of a jewelry heist and then found a body apparently murdered by a cutthroat razor (the single brief tie-in to the title) but when bringing it to the attention of the ship's authorities they found that the body had disappeared. Enormous amounts of alcohol are consumed throughout, adding to the befuddlement of the characters. There were various other irritations such as having 3 characters deliver their dialogue in fake accented dialogue: a Norwegian, a Scot and an Italian.
What might be funny in small doses becomes insufferable when used several dozen times.
There are also extended fake French language passages, usually involving ranting about the alcohol intake.
The front cover of the original 1934 Harper and Brothers hardcover. Image sourced from Goodreads.
To top it off, there are artefacts that demonstrate that a sloppy proofread / copy edit of the text scan was done to produce the eBook edition. Various scan typos were not fixed, even some that should have been caught by spellcheck such as the word: "endorsemHnt" (sic).
Dr. Fell is able to explain it all of course and even to cable a message to the authorities to have the culprit arrested upon docking. Overall, there was too little deduction, even though Fell lists 16 clues which point to the villain during the course of the story-telling. Disappointingly, I thought the bad 'un was apparent fairly early on, unlike most John Dickson Carr books which usually involve confusing puzzles in the so-called "locked room" sub-genre.
Avoid this one, even if you are a Dr. Fell or John Dickson Carr completist.
Bonus Track
Even among the dregs and the dross, I thought this one passage describing inebriation
Review of The Murder Room eBook (November 19, 2012) of the Harper and Brothers hardcover original (October 1, 1934)
Uninsured jewels belonging to ?!£&/! viscounts were stolen while murdering thieves posed as Harley Street doctors at his table. Blood-stained blankets and razors mysteriously appeared in the cabins; women vanished but did not vanish; the nephews of eminent American administrators first went mad and gibbered of bears and geography then ran amok with bug-powder guns, tried to poison him and finally threatened him with razors. Indeed, an unprejudiced listener would have decided that the situation aboard the Queen Victoria was past hope. - the ship's captain summarizes the mayhem of events on board his ship.
The Blind Barber is a particularly weak entry for the Dr. Gideon Fell series and hopefully a one-off with its reliance on drunken comic antics. Dr. Fell is approached at home by his friend, the writer Henry (Hank) Morgan who was a passenger on the Queen Victoria cruise liner due to dock at Southampton after its journey from New York City. Morgan has managed to get ashore ahead of time via a smaller crew vessel as the larger ship awaits a docking berth.
Morgan relates a tale of how he and a group of friends had got themselves mixed-up in the middle of a jewelry heist and then found a body apparently murdered by a cutthroat razor (the single brief tie-in to the title) but when bringing it to the attention of the ship's authorities they found that the body had disappeared. Enormous amounts of alcohol are consumed throughout, adding to the befuddlement of the characters. There were various other irritations such as having 3 characters deliver their dialogue in fake accented dialogue: a Norwegian, a Scot and an Italian.
“You get somet’ing to gag him wit’ till he cool down, or he call de chief mate and den maybe we iss all in de brig." “do you t’ank we are right, or iss dere a mistake? Dat wass no yoke, what dey tell us. If dey say dere is nobody missing, den ay don’t see how dere is somebody missing. Maybe we talk about a murder and dere is no murder.”
"'Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,'" announced Dr. Kyle, with a gesture that indicated him to be a local boy and proud of it, "'for honest men and bonnie lasses'! Aye! A statement ye ken, Mr. Morgan, frae the wairks o' the great Scottish poet, Rabbie Burrrns. Sit down Mr. Morgan. And perhaps yell tak a drap o' whusky, eh? 'The souter tauld his queerest stories__.'"
“So! So! You have trieda to de-ceive me, eh? You have a trieda toa deceive Signor Benito Furioso Camposozzi, eh? Sangua della madonne, I feex you! You tella me he eesa all-right, eh? Haah! What you call all-aright, eh? I tell you, signorina, to youra face, he eesa DRUNK!”
What might be funny in small doses becomes insufferable when used several dozen times.
There are also extended fake French language passages, usually involving ranting about the alcohol intake.
“Eh, bien, eh bien! Encore tu bois! Toujours tu bois! Ah, zut, alors!” She became cutting. “Tu m’a donné votre parole d’honneur, comme un soldat de la France! Et qu’est-ce que je trouve? Un soldat de la France, hein! Non!” She drew back witheringly. “Je te vois en buvant le GIN!”
The front cover of the original 1934 Harper and Brothers hardcover. Image sourced from Goodreads.
To top it off, there are artefacts that demonstrate that a sloppy proofread / copy edit of the text scan was done to produce the eBook edition. Various scan typos were not fixed, even some that should have been caught by spellcheck such as the word: "endorsemHnt" (sic).
Dr. Fell is able to explain it all of course and even to cable a message to the authorities to have the culprit arrested upon docking. Overall, there was too little deduction, even though Fell lists 16 clues which point to the villain during the course of the story-telling. Disappointingly, I thought the bad 'un was apparent fairly early on, unlike most John Dickson Carr books which usually involve confusing puzzles in the so-called "locked room" sub-genre.
Avoid this one, even if you are a Dr. Fell or John Dickson Carr completist.
Bonus Track
Even among the dregs and the dross, I thought this one passage describing inebriation