Man Who Could Not Shudder

John Dickson Carr excelled at creating "impossible" crimes and then explaining how they occurred. To enjoy Carr's mysteries, you must like puzzles that have intricate solutions, and not mind that a few aspects may be difficult to follow. While Carr's solutions are clever, these mysteries were written in the 1930s to 1950s, so there may be an occasional clue that doesn't hold up in today's CSI era. Though some will disagree, Carr's most entertaining mysteries are those that feature Sir Henry Merrivale (written under the name Carter Dickson). THE MAN WHO COULD NOT SHUDDER is the twelfth Gideon Fell mystery. A group of people gather for a party in a home that is believed to be haunted. As one woman enters, she screams about a ghostly hand that no one can see grabbing her ankle. Then someone is murdered by a gun that seems to jump off a wall and fire by itself, or perhaps by the hand of another ghost. TMWCNS includes an interesting character who cleverly, and surreptitiously, manipulates others in various ways. The explanation of the ghostly hand is one of Carr's best. How the murder was committed is also logical, although it does require some luck not to have malfunctioned. (You have to be somewhat forgiving with a Carr mystery.) And the ending has some nice twists, including one aimed at fans of Agatha Christie and a memorable last sentence. Recommended for Carr fans and others, with the understanding that you may disagree with one or two aspects.

"The Man Who Could Not Shudder" (1940) is a fun read and one of the author's less complicated mysteries--actually one of his few mysteries where the identity of the murderer is obvious before the grand denouement at the end of the story. This book is more of a howdunit than a whodunit. Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell galumphs into view about half way through, after the obnoxious Mr. Logan is already violently deceased. Logan meets his end when a revolver jumps off of a wall display and plugs him. Naturally no one was anywhere near the revolver when it went off.The plot is one of the more standard for gothics and Golden Age mysteries. A rich man renovates an old mansion, supposedly haunted, then invites his acquaintances over for a week-end of ghost hunting. One of the guests feels something grab her ankle as she walks in the door, and so we're off to a jolly start to the house party. Guests are awakened by a loud thump in the middle of the night and set off in the dark, dressed in jammies and bathrobes to investigate the mysterious noise. Their various nocturnal meetings and accusations complicate at least three love affairs. One of the most puzzling historical events to occur in the old house was the demise of an old butler, who appeared to have been swinging on a monstrous iron chandelier before it pulled loose from the ceiling and crushed him. When the chandelier incident is repeated with one of the current house guests, Dr. Fell must act quickly to protect the innocent and punish the real murderer.