The Plague Court Murders by John Dickson Carr

The Plague Court Murders by John Dickson Carr ISBN-13: 9781613161968 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: American Mystery Classics Released: February 2nd 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Plague Court is old and crumbling, long neglected after its lord, hangman’s assistant Louis Playge, fell victim to the black death hundreds of years before. Famously haunted by Playge’s ghost, the property finally has an owner set on banishing the spirit. When the medium employed with this task is found stabbed to death in a locked stone hut on the grounds, surrounded by an untouched circle of mud, the other guests at Plague Court have every reason to fear an act of supernatural violence—for who among them would be diabolical and calculating enough to orchestrate such an impossible execution?

Enter Sir Henry Merrivale, an amateur sleuth of many talents with deductive powers strong enough to unspool even the most baffling crimes. But in the creepy, atmospheric setting of Plague Court, he encounters a seemingly-illogical murder scene.

Reissued for the first time in thirty years, The Plague Court Murders is the first novel in the Sir Henry Merrivale series. Originally published under the name Carter Dickson, it is a masterful example of the “impossible crime” novel for which John Dickson Carr is known.


My Review:
The Plague Court Murders is a mystery set in 1934 in England. Just a warning: Sir Henry Merrivale is a rude, arrogant man who uses a lot of bad language. He's not actually the point of view character, but he's in half of the book. A con man sets up quite a show to prove that he can banish an evil spirit, but he ends up dead instead and the newspapers claim it was the evil spirit. Despite this being a locked room mystery, the police are certain that human did it. They just don't know how.

Well, from the clues given, I soon came up with a theory that would've worked. Despite the fact that Merrivale hid the critical clues, I did correctly guess some of what happened. However, I'd be seriously surprised if anyone guesses the full identity of the murderer before the reveal. With a lot of misdirection and Merrivale doing a little reveal here and a little reveal there, it was hard to keep things straight. Some things didn't even make sense to me. Like why did the victim do some things ahead of time to set the stage for an apparent fight with an evil spirit but delay a critical part that could have been done more easily and privately ahead of time until there were plenty of potential witnesses around? But then we wouldn't have a mystery.

It was an interesting puzzle mystery, but I didn't really care for the characters as they never really seem to "come alive." There was some descriptive gore. There was no sex. There was some bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.