The Case of the Constant Suicides

Carr has long been known as the king of the locked room mystery, and in this book we get two actual locked-room mysteries. One appears to be a suiciide and one is a murder, but neither one is straight-forward. In true Carr fashion, he keeps us guessing until the very end. But thank goodness crime fighter extraordinaire Gideon Fell is on the scene and he finds his way through the maze. This book has Carr's trademark black humour as well, and kept me laughing all the way through. The antics when the characters get into the famous in "Doom of the Campbells" (which happens to be a particularly strong whiskey)are incredibly funny! I love the way Carr plotted his stories. His mysteries are highly intelligent, complex and he is the unrivalled master in his particular genre.

"The Case of the Constant Suicides" (1941) is a fun read and one of the author's more interesting mysteries--three men die and the reader must determine who committed suicide and who was murdered. This book is very much of a howdunit as well as a whodunit. Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell, galumphs into view about a third of the way through, after one man is already mysteriously deceased. Old Angus Campbell meets his end after plunging out of the window of his locked tower bedroom. The door has to be broken down in order for the deceased man's bedroom to be examined. The only unusual object in the tower room is an empty animal carrier, its wire-mesh door tightly shut. Professor of history, Alan Campbell and his second cousin Kathryn Campbell meet on the train taking them to Scotland and immediately dislike each other. Too bad, because they are forced to share a sleeping compartment on the crowded, blacked-out train. They bicker all the way to the Castle of Shira at Inverary where Angus had jumped or was forced from his bedroom window the previous week. Here they meet the insurance agent, the Castle's lawyer, and Angus's brother Colin arguing about whether Angus was murdered or done himself in. Carr's serial detective, Dr. Gideon Fell wheezes and chuffs through the castle like an off-the-track steam engine, dropping mysterious hints as he goes. Colin decides to spend a night in his brother's former bedroom, just to lay rumors of ghostly goings-on, and he too defenestrates himself. When a third man is found hanging in a locked fishing cabin, Dr. Fell sorts out the murder and attempted murder from the suicide, rewards the innocent, and sets a murderer free if only he will sign a fake confession. John Dickson Carr takes a turn to heavy-handed humor in "The Case of the Constant Suicides." Most of the roistering is caused by a malt whiskey called 'the Doom of the Campbells.' A pesky American newspaperman is drenched, shot at, and hunted from the castle grounds whenever the Doom is flowing through the inhabitants of the castle. This isn't my favorite Gideon Fell mystery--for one thing, I'm not sure the murder weapon is really quite as effective as the author seems to assert--but it was fun to read. There were more smiles than shudders, which suits me fine.

There were airstrike warnings. Alan Campbell, professor, found his sleeping compartment on the train to Glasgow. Campbell was involved with another person of the same name in a dispute currently lining the letters pages of an historical journal. He met his adversary, a woman as it turned out, on the train. Unwillingly they had to share the compartment since there had evidently been a mistake in the booking of the train and no other seats were available. They were both going to the Castle Shira. A distant cousin, Angus Campbell, had been murdered. By accident they took a journalist named Swan with them to the castle, they had believed that he was also someone distantly related to Angus. Angus would not have committed suicide, he had insurance policies with suicide clauses; nevertheless, it seemed that he could not have been murdered, either. Angus had had a common law wife, but she was so filled with the idea that she must be respectable that she had probably filched Angus's diary to prevent others from seeing his private musings and discovering his relationship with her. Not finding the diary impeded the investigation of Dr. Fell and others called to the scene. Amusingly a journalist, a lawyer, and an insurance agent were all present to sort out the details of Angus's death. In the course of their highly interesting stay at the castle, the two Campbell cousins become interested in each other to a great degree. Two other men encounter danger and the death of one ensued and the near death of the other occurred prior to the ultimate unraveling of the mystery. The story is clever and highly satisfying to the reader. The Scots atmosphere is delightful.

I read this book a few years ago.This book is one of my favorites of all his novels. This is a masterpiece of '40 mystery novel and it has its unique flavor.The scene in which a murder happens is a lony castle in Scotland.This murder also belongs to the so called "impossible"crime that no one dares to reason out why such unbelievable murder case could happen in our real world. And the main charcters are simply three person.The old man who occupies the old castle and his daughter and her lover. As there are few characters you would think it is easy to find who is the murderer.But not at all.That is the power of his craft. The scene is wildy like a description in a novel "Wuthering Hights".Carr's description of the scenery is always remarkbly outsupassing.He makes a scenery never forgettable. I think this book is one of his three greatest of Dr.Fell series with "the three coffin" and "the crooked hinge".