Hag's Nook (Dr. Gideon Fell)

'Hag's Nook' marks the first appearance of John Dickson Carr's iconic detective Dr. Gideon Fell. Here he solves the mysterious death of Marin Starberth. The Starberth family has traditionally been the wardens of Chatterham prison, where inmates were frequently hanged at Hag's Nook. The prison has long since been abandoned, but it is still the tradition that the male heir spends the night of his 25th birthday in the governor's office overlooking Hag's Nook. It is also 'tradition' that Starberth's die of broken necks. It is up to Dr Fell to separate fact from superstition in solving the circumstances behind Martin Starberth's death. Although John Dickson Carr is famous for so-called 'locked room mysteries', he is also noted for the seemingly supernatural circumstances of his mysteries. 'Hag's Nook' is a good example of the latter.

The corpulent lexicographer, Dr. Gideon Fell, first appears in Hag's Nook (1933), one of John Dickson Carr's earliest novels. Residing in the small village of Chatterham, Dr. Fell has apparently already developed a reputation for his eccentricities as well as for his remarkable deductive skills. Supposedly, Carr patterned Dr. Gideon Fell after the oversized, exuberant author, G. K. Chesterton, famed creator of the Father Brown mysteries. The story centers around a local aristocratic family, the Starberths, notorious for having in centuries past carried out the executions at Chatterham Prison, now a ruined structure perched on an overhanging ridge known as Hag's Nook. The eldest son in each generation must spend a night alone in the Governor's Room in the prison to inherit the family estate. This time, however, tradition ends in death. The best of Carr's novels come later, but Hag's Nook is nonetheless a good tale that helped establish his early career. It is typical John Dickson Carr in that the setting has haunted overtones, the mystery involves a "locked room", and Dr. Fell utilizes intuition, logic, and deductive skills, rather than forensic science. As with many Golden Age mysteries (roughly 1920-1945), the focus in Hag's Nook is the puzzle and its solution. The solution is explained in detail in the final chapter, not unlike an Ellery Queen mystery. I found the solution to Hag's Nook to be unexpected (always the case with John Dickson Carr), but even more surprising I found the solution to be plausible. I like Carr's mysteries. They move along at a good pace, are always intriguing, and are difficult to set aside even for few moments. The problem with John Dickson Carr is that his solutions are often overly complicated and even implausible to the extreme. On occasion Carr's solutions even rely on clues only partially revealed earlier. Carr does play by the rules in Hag's Nook and the solution is indeed fair. Hag's Nook makes a good introduction to John Dickson Carr, undoubtedly the foremost writer of locked room mysteries.

One of John Dickson Carr's best books, this novel introduces Chestertonian detective Dr Gideon Fell. Although it does not have an "impossible crime", like many of his other titles, this is more than made up for by the magnificently cold and creepy atmosphere, the loving description of rural England and the shock revelation of the murderer's identity. Anyone who loves either mystery novels, or ghost stories, or both, should enjoy this one.