The Unicorn Murders, a Dell Mystery

John Dickson Carr, who wrote also under the name Carter Dickson (as he did in The Unicorn Murders) raised ingenuity to the level of genius, as Kingsley Amis once put it in an essay on the genre. Carr, with apologies to Christie and Queen, was, as to constructing a puzzling whodunnit, in a class by himself, a man without peer. Whether his detective was Gideon Fell (in those mysteries he wrote under his own name of Carr) or Sir Henry Merrivale (Carter Dickson), he was the supreme master of the classic detective story, and The Unicorn Murders is Carter Dickson at his best. He was adept at creating atmosphere and was expert at both high and low humor (See The Arabian Night's Murders), and he could pace a story with suspense like no one else (I defy anyone to read the first chapter of The Burning Court and say in all honesty he is not compelled to continue), but what he did that nobody achieved to the extent he did was write stories that dealt with impossible murders--either locked room or miracle murders that would later be reveled to have a rational explanation. At his best, Carr/Dickson was so good that he usually had some other other characters give an explantion that sounded entirely plausible before Fell or H.M. shot it down and gave the real explanation. These wrong solutions would have been lesser writers meat and drink. Read the stuff in the '30's and '40's. He also wrote a history in detective story fashion in the '30's, The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey, that is a masterpiece. Great history and great detection.

John Dickson Carr, who wrote also under the name Carter Dickson (as he did The Unicorn Murders) raised ingenuity to the level of genius, as Kingsley Amis once put it in an essy of the genre. Carr, with apologies to Christie and Queen, was, as to constructing a puzzling whodunnit, in a class by himself, a man without peer. Whether his detective was Gideon Fell (in those mysteries he wrote under his own name of Carr) or Sir Henry Merrivale (Carter Dickson), he was the supreme master of the classic detective story, and The Unicorn Murders is Carter Dickson at his best. He was adept at creating atmosphere and was expert at both high and low humor (See The Arabian Night's Murders), and he could pace a story with suspense like no one else (I defy anyone to read the first chapter of The Burning Court and say in all honesty he is not compelled to continue), but what he did that nobody achieved to the extent he did was write stories that dealt with impossible murders--either locked room or miracle murders that would later be reveled to have a rational explanation. At his best, Carr/Dickson was so good that he usually had some other other characters give an explantion that sounded entirely plausible before Fell or H.M. shot it down and gave the real explanation. These wrong solutions would have been lesser writers meat and drink. Read the stuff in the '30's and '40's. He also wrote a history in detective story fashion in the '30's, The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey, that is a masterpiece. Great history and great detection.