He Wouldnt Kill Patience

To me this was one of the best John Dickson Carr books, because it is an improvement over his usual faults: the beginning is intriguing and funny, the trick of how the murder was done is plausible and solvable, the murderer's identity is hard to guess; lastly and most significantly, the finale is awesome, entertaining and satisfying. Perhaps the best part of this book is that the clues are laid out in the open, but their meaning is hard to figure out whereas in most Carr books the clues are hidden; however, had you known that was a clue you would immediately figure out what it means. You get to know and like the characters in this book and J.D. gives you lots of hints to make you think each of them could be the killer. Unlike many of his other stories the explanation of how the murder could have happened in a locked room does not involve anything so physically complex and impossible to imagine, but rather lends itself naturally from the descriptions given.