The Seat of the Scornful: A Devon Mystery

The elephantine star of John Dickson Carr's mysteries, Dr. Gideon Fell plays chess with a hanging judge and loses in "Death Turns the Table (1941)." I went after the obvious red herring in this murder mystery, was faithful to it through the whole book, and of course was wrong. This author never suffers from a dearth of suspects or motives. Judge Horace Ireton is proud of the fact that he administers absolute, impartial justice without a drop of mercy. At the end of the Westshire spring assizes, he sentences a man to death with all due ceremony--the square of black silk on his wig, the ominous roll of words that end: "...and there be hanged by the neck until you are dead. And may God have mercy on your soul." Then he decides to take a short vacation in his bungalow by the sea. He challenges the eccentric Dr. Fell to a chess match as part of his R & R program, and in pops the judge's daughter and announces that she is engaged to be married--and not to the dried stick of a barrister whom her father had hand-picked for her. Dr. Fell, who isn't without a clumsy sort of tact lumbers off-scene. Judge Ireton is introduced to the new fiancé, whom he recognizes as a man who was once tried and acquitted of extorting money from his previous betrothed's family. Sure enough, the man offers to back out of his current engagement if the judge sheds enough pounds from his bank account. Twenty-four hours later, a murder occurs under seemingly impossible conditions. Everyone within a square mile of the judge's bungalow has an excellent motive for doing away with the victim. It's up to Dr. Fell to play a grim sort of cat-and-mouse game with the real killer and obtain a confession. How did the corpse get from the scene of the murder to the judge's bungalow or did the shooting somehow occur in the bungalow? Did you know that Canadian taxidermists sometimes stuff their moose heads with sand? Who is the dried stick of a barrister (who turns out to be a pretty decent sort) really in love with? Who tries to drown his newly-discovered love in a darkened, subterranean swimming pool? Carr provides lots of interesting side-tracks and tricksy turns, as is usual in his mysteries.

Unquestionably the author's best book of the 1940s: one of the very few successful attempts to combine the problem of detection with the novel of character, and a simple and straightforward case without any nervous hysteria. Superb presentation of a severe cat-and-mouse judge who finds himself suspected of murder, until Dr. Fell solves the case in remarkably short time, discovering it to be an almost-perfect murder: although the murderer is known, his guilt cannot be proved.

The elephantine star of John Dickson Carr's mysteries, Dr. Gideon Fell plays chess with a hanging judge and loses in "Death Turns the Tables (1941)." I went after the obvious red herring in this murder mystery, was faithful to it through the whole book, and of course was wrong. This author never suffers from a dearth of suspects or motives.Judge Horace Ireton is proud of the fact that he administers absolute, impartial justice without a drop of mercy. At the end of the Westshire spring assizes, he sentences a man to death with all due ceremony--the square of black silk on his wig, the ominous roll of words that end: "...and there be hanged by the neck until you are dead. And may God have mercy on your soul." Then the judge decides to take a short vacation in his bungalow by the sea. He challenges the eccentric Dr. Fell to a chess match as part of his R & R program, and in pops the judge's daughter and announces that she is engaged to be married--and not to the dried stick of a barrister whom her father had hand-picked for her.Dr. Fell, who isn't without a clumsy sort of tact lumbers off-scene. Judge Ireton is introduced to the new fiancé, whom he recognizes as a man who was once tried and acquitted of extorting money from his previous betrothed's family. Sure enough, the man offers to back out of his current engagement if the judge sheds enough pounds from his bank account.Twenty-four hours later, a murder occurs under seemingly impossible conditions. Everyone within a square mile of the judge's bungalow has an excellent motive for doing away with the victim. It's up to Dr. Fell to play a grim sort of cat-and-mouse game with the real killer and obtain a confession.How did the corpse get from the scene of the murder to the judge's bungalow or did the shooting somehow occur in the bungalow? Did you know that Canadian taxidermists sometimes stuff their moose heads with sand? Who is the dried stick of a barrister (who turns out to be a pretty decent sort) really in love with? Who tries to drown his newly-discovered love in a darkened, subterranean swimming pool?Carr provides lots of interesting side-tracks and tricksy turns, as is usual in his mysteries.

Although Carr is best known for his locked-room stories, in this novel he demonstrates he can write straight stories too. When a young man is murdered, all the evidence points to a hanging judge. Dr. Fell thinks that it was a set-up. But by who?This is a top-notch, must-read novel. You can clearly see Carr at the top of his form.--rm