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Henri Bencolin #4
The Corpse in the Waxworks
Monsieur Bencolin investigates a series of baffling murders involving a gloomy wax museum and the mysterious Silver Key Club
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
44 people are currently reading
546 people want to read
About the author
John Dickson Carr
423 books487 followersAKA Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn.
John Dickson Carr was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1906. It Walks by Night, his first published detective novel, featuring the Frenchman Henri Bencolin, was published in 1930. Apart from Dr Fell, whose first appearance was in Hag's Nook in 1933, Carr's other series detectives (published under the nom de plume of Carter Dickson) were the barrister Sir Henry Merrivale, who debuted in The Plague Court Murders (1934).
John Dickson Carr was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1906. It Walks by Night, his first published detective novel, featuring the Frenchman Henri Bencolin, was published in 1930. Apart from Dr Fell, whose first appearance was in Hag's Nook in 1933, Carr's other series detectives (published under the nom de plume of Carter Dickson) were the barrister Sir Henry Merrivale, who debuted in The Plague Court Murders (1934).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
September 10, 2021
yikes -- what a book!
full post is here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/09/...
A quotation from Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" serves as one of two epigraphs for this book and as it turns out, it is beyond appropriate. Words like "grotesque," "phantasm," "delirious fancies," leap out immediately, but it's more Poe's conjuring of
"much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust"
that truly fits the atmosphere, the setting, and the overall action in The Corpse in the Waxworks.
More often than not I tend to forget that John Dickson Carr was an American author since he wrote so many novels set in the UK. He did spend a good twenty years there before returning back to the US, and according to most biographies, was one of only a very few American writers to be admitted into the Detection Club. The Corpse in the Waxworks throws yet another curveball: it's set in France, and features M. Henri Bencolin, who is described in the book just prior to this one, The Lost Gallows as "a tall and lazy Mephisto," as well as "juge d'instruction of the Seine, the head of the Paris Police and the most dangerous man in Europe." In the present book, he is also noticed as a "man-hunting dandy," with an associate by the name of Jeff Marle who also serves as narrator.
The blurb for this British Library edition is pretty straightforward, but the one on the back of my old Collier paperback (1969) edition of this book is much more fun, with a teaser on the front that reads
"A Dead Girl in a Satyr's Arms -- A Club Devoted to Nocturnal Orgies"
and then on the back the salacious detail of a "notorious club ... whose masked members revel in carefully planned orgies," as well as mentioning "nocturnal debauches." I ask you, who could resist?
The Corpse in the Waxworks is notable not just for the mystery at hand, but also for the atmosphere that Carr establishes from the beginning. Marle's initial impressions of his first trip into the Gallery of Horrors are absolutely stunning, including the staircase that suggested "walls pressing in with the terrors so that you might not be able to escape," the exhibits imbued with a "pallor on each" face, the soundless terror caught on the faces of a particular group of wax figures, the ghastliness of the "shadowy people" who did not move, and the "choking stuffiness of wax and wigs" that left him needing "light and the knowledge of human presence." But what really sets this book apart is the second half of the story, where pretty much everything that happens is completely unexpected. And oh, that ending!
Don't miss Martin Edwards' fine introduction, and the added bonus of a short story (also featuring Bencolin), "The Murder in Number Four." And my many thanks to the British Library for reprinting this novel, since my little Collier paperback is pretty much on its last legs. Needless to say, I had a great time with this book, and it's one I can definitely recommend.
full post is here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/09/...
A quotation from Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" serves as one of two epigraphs for this book and as it turns out, it is beyond appropriate. Words like "grotesque," "phantasm," "delirious fancies," leap out immediately, but it's more Poe's conjuring of
"much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust"
that truly fits the atmosphere, the setting, and the overall action in The Corpse in the Waxworks.
More often than not I tend to forget that John Dickson Carr was an American author since he wrote so many novels set in the UK. He did spend a good twenty years there before returning back to the US, and according to most biographies, was one of only a very few American writers to be admitted into the Detection Club. The Corpse in the Waxworks throws yet another curveball: it's set in France, and features M. Henri Bencolin, who is described in the book just prior to this one, The Lost Gallows as "a tall and lazy Mephisto," as well as "juge d'instruction of the Seine, the head of the Paris Police and the most dangerous man in Europe." In the present book, he is also noticed as a "man-hunting dandy," with an associate by the name of Jeff Marle who also serves as narrator.
The blurb for this British Library edition is pretty straightforward, but the one on the back of my old Collier paperback (1969) edition of this book is much more fun, with a teaser on the front that reads
"A Dead Girl in a Satyr's Arms -- A Club Devoted to Nocturnal Orgies"
and then on the back the salacious detail of a "notorious club ... whose masked members revel in carefully planned orgies," as well as mentioning "nocturnal debauches." I ask you, who could resist?
The Corpse in the Waxworks is notable not just for the mystery at hand, but also for the atmosphere that Carr establishes from the beginning. Marle's initial impressions of his first trip into the Gallery of Horrors are absolutely stunning, including the staircase that suggested "walls pressing in with the terrors so that you might not be able to escape," the exhibits imbued with a "pallor on each" face, the soundless terror caught on the faces of a particular group of wax figures, the ghastliness of the "shadowy people" who did not move, and the "choking stuffiness of wax and wigs" that left him needing "light and the knowledge of human presence." But what really sets this book apart is the second half of the story, where pretty much everything that happens is completely unexpected. And oh, that ending!
Don't miss Martin Edwards' fine introduction, and the added bonus of a short story (also featuring Bencolin), "The Murder in Number Four." And my many thanks to the British Library for reprinting this novel, since my little Collier paperback is pretty much on its last legs. Needless to say, I had a great time with this book, and it's one I can definitely recommend.
December 3, 2023
I loved this early book of John Dickson Carr's when I first read it many years ago, and with the new edition out from British Library Crime Classics, I thought I'd revisit it when I was in the mood for a macabre setting. Set at a dark and spooky waxworks museum in Paris, THE CORPSE IN THE WAXWORKS has plenty of John Dickson Carr's signature atmospheric charm, and also his famously tight puzzle plotting.
June 26, 2024
this was a random choice from the British Library crime classics series and as usual was a lot of fun. The "blurb" on the back of the book pretty much sets the scene as the story pretty much dives right in.
The story is fast paced and there are quite a few fun misdirection's but I think for me the real character of the book was from Paris itself I think the descriptions used on the locations was amazing and so atmospheric.
The whole series is full of such a mixture from the golden age where crime novels were coming in to their own - and this is no exception. The only reason why I dropped a star is that I felt that the some of the characters had been introduced in earlier books as there was a level of familiarity which threw me a couple of times - but that could be my own doing since I had picked this one in isolation.
The story is fast paced and there are quite a few fun misdirection's but I think for me the real character of the book was from Paris itself I think the descriptions used on the locations was amazing and so atmospheric.
The whole series is full of such a mixture from the golden age where crime novels were coming in to their own - and this is no exception. The only reason why I dropped a star is that I felt that the some of the characters had been introduced in earlier books as there was a level of familiarity which threw me a couple of times - but that could be my own doing since I had picked this one in isolation.
May 8, 2021
Chamber of horrors…
Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle take on a case involving a woman who walked into the Musée Augustin waxworks one evening and was never seen alive again. Her body later turned up in the Seine. Before they can discover who killed her, they must find out why she went to the waxworks, and why so many other unlikely people seem to find it a place worth visiting late in the evenings…
This is the fourth in the series about the Mephistophelian Bencolin, head of the Parisian detective force, and his American sidekick Marle. The plots are always intricate versions of the “impossible” crime subgenre for which Carr was apparently famous, and this is just as fiendish as the others. But what makes them stand out most from the crowd is Carr’s ability to create wonderfully macabre settings, steeped in horror and decadence and the gruesomeness of the Grand Guignol.
The idea of being in a waxworks late at night is pretty creepy to begin with, but these waxworks have been made by a master of the art and, in the dim green light of the basement, one could be forgiven for imagining that one or two of them are real. But is it imagination? Is that movement you glimpsed out of the corner of your eye a trick of the light, or…? Carr is brilliant at spooking both poor Jeff and the reader too, and the decadent evil at the heart of the plot seems right at home in this world of shadows and horrors. Yes, the story veers wildly over the credibility line as it does in all of the Bencolin books, but much in the way of Edgar Allen Poe – there is a madness underneath most of the crimes.
Bencolin himself is a bit too over the top to be believable – he is all devilish mystery and almost mystical insight. But Jeff is a great foil who provides the humanity that Bencolin lacks. There are only five books in total in the Bencolin series, I understand. Four of them, including this and the other three the BL has previously re-published, were written early in Carr’s career, and he revisited the characters just once years later – I’m hoping they issue it too sometime for completion’s sake. I love the way he mixes the various horror genres into the standard mystery novel and comes up with something quite unique in my experience. Since I still haven’t read anything else by him I don’t know how they compare to the later work he is better remembered for, but they’ve certainly whetted my appetite to find out. This one is excellent and there’s no need to read them in order so if a creepy night in a waxworks sounds like your kind of thing, go for it!
The book also includes a bonus Bencolin short story, The Murder in Number Four – another impossible crime, this time the murder of a man alone in a carriage of a moving train. Witnesses confirm no one could have gone along the corridor to the carriage without being seen, and yet the deed was done. Obviously this doesn’t have the same intricacy as the novels, but it has the same atmosphere of creepiness and Bencolin is as mysteriously brilliant as ever. An added treat!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle take on a case involving a woman who walked into the Musée Augustin waxworks one evening and was never seen alive again. Her body later turned up in the Seine. Before they can discover who killed her, they must find out why she went to the waxworks, and why so many other unlikely people seem to find it a place worth visiting late in the evenings…
This is the fourth in the series about the Mephistophelian Bencolin, head of the Parisian detective force, and his American sidekick Marle. The plots are always intricate versions of the “impossible” crime subgenre for which Carr was apparently famous, and this is just as fiendish as the others. But what makes them stand out most from the crowd is Carr’s ability to create wonderfully macabre settings, steeped in horror and decadence and the gruesomeness of the Grand Guignol.
The idea of being in a waxworks late at night is pretty creepy to begin with, but these waxworks have been made by a master of the art and, in the dim green light of the basement, one could be forgiven for imagining that one or two of them are real. But is it imagination? Is that movement you glimpsed out of the corner of your eye a trick of the light, or…? Carr is brilliant at spooking both poor Jeff and the reader too, and the decadent evil at the heart of the plot seems right at home in this world of shadows and horrors. Yes, the story veers wildly over the credibility line as it does in all of the Bencolin books, but much in the way of Edgar Allen Poe – there is a madness underneath most of the crimes.
Bencolin himself is a bit too over the top to be believable – he is all devilish mystery and almost mystical insight. But Jeff is a great foil who provides the humanity that Bencolin lacks. There are only five books in total in the Bencolin series, I understand. Four of them, including this and the other three the BL has previously re-published, were written early in Carr’s career, and he revisited the characters just once years later – I’m hoping they issue it too sometime for completion’s sake. I love the way he mixes the various horror genres into the standard mystery novel and comes up with something quite unique in my experience. Since I still haven’t read anything else by him I don’t know how they compare to the later work he is better remembered for, but they’ve certainly whetted my appetite to find out. This one is excellent and there’s no need to read them in order so if a creepy night in a waxworks sounds like your kind of thing, go for it!
The book also includes a bonus Bencolin short story, The Murder in Number Four – another impossible crime, this time the murder of a man alone in a carriage of a moving train. Witnesses confirm no one could have gone along the corridor to the carriage without being seen, and yet the deed was done. Obviously this doesn’t have the same intricacy as the novels, but it has the same atmosphere of creepiness and Bencolin is as mysteriously brilliant as ever. An added treat!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
April 22, 2020
Carr wrote five novels with Bencolin as the lead detective. This fourth entry is what I tend to think of as the last"real" Bencolin story as The Four False Weapons, which would appear some years later, has a different, less fevered feel than these early novels. And there's the key word, early - the Bencolin stories were written early in Carr's career and they have that heavy sub-Gothic atmosphere that, while it never disappeared altogether, was used in a much more controlled way later on.
Here though we have Bencolin, and point of view narrator Jeff Marle, in the heady and decadent world of interwar Paris, where the mood and atmosphere is as intoxicating as a shot of absinthe. The body of a young woman is discovered stabbed in a somewhat dingy wax museum, cradled in the arms of a model of a satyr. The bulk of the action switches between the museum and a neighboring "house of assignation" with a high class membership.
The story is fairly clued, but you'll likely miss most of them, or misinterpret them if you do catch them. And just when you think you've solved the whole thing, well you'll discover you haven't. That's part of the pleasure of course, being hoodwinked by a master plotter. A hugely entertaining book.
Here though we have Bencolin, and point of view narrator Jeff Marle, in the heady and decadent world of interwar Paris, where the mood and atmosphere is as intoxicating as a shot of absinthe. The body of a young woman is discovered stabbed in a somewhat dingy wax museum, cradled in the arms of a model of a satyr. The bulk of the action switches between the museum and a neighboring "house of assignation" with a high class membership.
The story is fairly clued, but you'll likely miss most of them, or misinterpret them if you do catch them. And just when you think you've solved the whole thing, well you'll discover you haven't. That's part of the pleasure of course, being hoodwinked by a master plotter. A hugely entertaining book.
June 5, 2022
What's spookier than a wax museum? A wax museum at night with the lights off.
This was my first enounter with Henri Bencoulin, head of the Parisian police. And a memorable one. The whole atmosphere of this novel feels a little like horror, but of course, with John Dickson Carr in charge, the mystery must always be explainable. I loved how Bencolin would detail what happened and then proceed to disprove the theory himself—ever looking for a complete explanation with no loose ends. Nothing must escape rationalization.
A most enjoyable read with everything you expect from the master, John Dickson Carr. My only disappointment with the Kindle version was that it didn't include the floor plan drawing of the Silver Key Club next door to the waxworks where the story also takes place. But fortunately, I also had a paperback copy and switched to that for the rest of the book. It took me longer to read as a result. The end was surprising not only in the revealing of the murderer but the resolution of the crime. Highly recommended to fans of Golden Age mystery.
This was my first enounter with Henri Bencoulin, head of the Parisian police. And a memorable one. The whole atmosphere of this novel feels a little like horror, but of course, with John Dickson Carr in charge, the mystery must always be explainable. I loved how Bencolin would detail what happened and then proceed to disprove the theory himself—ever looking for a complete explanation with no loose ends. Nothing must escape rationalization.
A most enjoyable read with everything you expect from the master, John Dickson Carr. My only disappointment with the Kindle version was that it didn't include the floor plan drawing of the Silver Key Club next door to the waxworks where the story also takes place. But fortunately, I also had a paperback copy and switched to that for the rest of the book. It took me longer to read as a result. The end was surprising not only in the revealing of the murderer but the resolution of the crime. Highly recommended to fans of Golden Age mystery.
May 16, 2020
Well, this is not a long book but the Bencolin mysteries tend to have density of physicality that makes them feel quite big. I hate to give away any answers- But in this one, it felt like you got tour through quite a bit of Paris, and the people that you met were from such interesting differing backgrounds that the person who committed the crime is a surprise. Though I feel pretty good about the person I suspected, as I was on a similar tac to the answer.
It reads like an old black and white film, where you visit a wax works museum with older gentleman who considers it is work of art, the Moulin Rouge to see a singer who must be interviewed, older families with formal ways, and a risqué Club of Masks where you may seek pleasure.
And the action in this story, which gets pretty tense at the end,is really well done. A good read for a raining grey day!
It reads like an old black and white film, where you visit a wax works museum with older gentleman who considers it is work of art, the Moulin Rouge to see a singer who must be interviewed, older families with formal ways, and a risqué Club of Masks where you may seek pleasure.
And the action in this story, which gets pretty tense at the end,is really well done. A good read for a raining grey day!
February 28, 2025
Uno strano giallo, che non mi ha entusiasmato più di tanto, visto che ho pensato più volte di smetterlo. Non ricordo nemmeno il colpevole.
April 3, 2021
Written in 1932 this classic this Poe style dark crime is like stepping on to the set of Boris Karloff movie. The funny thing is that the book is set around Masks which is very topical. The detective Bencolin is bit like Satan with beard. But big problem is that has no depth, he may be head of The Sûrteré but no idea if he is married or has girlfriend. He his flat and this 4th book in the series. But don't be afraid put off its a good twister
We all so we have short story too The Murder in number Four published 1928 which only 22ps but even better than the book.
We all so we have short story too The Murder in number Four published 1928 which only 22ps but even better than the book.
January 23, 2025
I loved this one! Carr brilliantly paints the picture of a seedy and sordid Paris. This was wonderfully complimented by some quirky characters and a good mystery. I of course missed the (in hindsight) obvious clues🕵️♂️
I enjoyed the bonus short story too. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the Bencolin stories!
I enjoyed the bonus short story too. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the Bencolin stories!
August 31, 2025
Pretty much like I expected it to be, a mildly entertaining police procedural, that has lots of atmosphere to it initially, when the scene is set in Paris’s Agustin Waxworks.
The waxworks is known for its Chamber of Horrors, so when a woman disappears there, and a ghost appears, of course Henri Bencolin is interested. After an investigation a night while the place is closed, a fresh corpse has been added to the display of horrors. The trail leads to the manipulative and stereotypical baddy, Etienne Galant, and a secret club for affluent Parisians.
It’s very strong in its first third, but goes downhill after that, with a rather tame, predictable and disappointing final third.
The waxworks is known for its Chamber of Horrors, so when a woman disappears there, and a ghost appears, of course Henri Bencolin is interested. After an investigation a night while the place is closed, a fresh corpse has been added to the display of horrors. The trail leads to the manipulative and stereotypical baddy, Etienne Galant, and a secret club for affluent Parisians.
It’s very strong in its first third, but goes downhill after that, with a rather tame, predictable and disappointing final third.
February 23, 2025
A woman has been murdered, but clearly the thing we should really care about is a man's reputation.
September 6, 2020
This in my third Henri Bencolin book by Dickson Carr - the story of a body found in a waxworks museum, a club where men ostensibly go to hook up with women and a particularly unpleasant man who makes his living through blackmail.
To be honest, I found this book a bit of a slog to get through. It’s clever and well written, but I just couldn’t invest myself in any of the characters. I think in large part I find Bencolin somewhat insufferable. Some of the deduction feels like a bit of a leap and I don’t think fair play is always adhered to.
All that said, the killer was a bit of a twist, and the eerie settings and action made the book.
To be honest, I found this book a bit of a slog to get through. It’s clever and well written, but I just couldn’t invest myself in any of the characters. I think in large part I find Bencolin somewhat insufferable. Some of the deduction feels like a bit of a leap and I don’t think fair play is always adhered to.
All that said, the killer was a bit of a twist, and the eerie settings and action made the book.
May 19, 2022
I must admit that I bought this book, in part, because of the cover. The title intrigued me, too, with its promise of a creepy kind of setting, more than a hint of the macabre, an epigraph from Poe. And I know almost nothing about the Golden Age of detective fiction, other than a few Agatha Christies. The book was published in 1932, the story is set in Paris, 1930. As expected, the narration is considerably different from what you’d find in a crime novel today, though I liked a lot about it. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Paris, its often gloomy, chilly, ominous (and portentous) weather. I liked the intriguing chapter titles, e.g., “A Ghost in a Brown Hat,” “The Green Lights of Murder,” and “Confidences Are Exchanged Over a Coffin,” And I enjoyed the story (well, sort of) for about half of the book, after which it became too convoluted for me to follow. I was both surprised and disappointed by the end. Didn’t like it and would never have guessed it, even though the detective spelled out the supposedly telling clues.
January 21, 2024
This was a fantastic story by John Dickson Carr. A great setting in a Paris Waxworks museum had me gripped from start to finish wanting to find out who the culprit was in this classic whodunnit.
The setting and tone were spot on. Dickson Carr in my opinion is a genius when it comes to detective fiction
The setting and tone were spot on. Dickson Carr in my opinion is a genius when it comes to detective fiction
Read
February 22, 2022Shades of Eyes Wide Shut, what with that sex club.
Overall, meh. Motive was strained.
Also, way too many conversations where someone was speaking in a deprecating - deprecative - deprecatory way. I wish I'd counted - I think it was more than 10x.
Overall, meh. Motive was strained.
Also, way too many conversations where someone was speaking in a deprecating - deprecative - deprecatory way. I wish I'd counted - I think it was more than 10x.
September 28, 2024
Good fast paced mystery but I didn’t like the ending. Always a huge put off for me.
February 27, 2022
Rich in atmosphere by the master of the impossible crime--this isn't quite one--and a lot of fun.
November 17, 2021
First book I've read by this author. It's definately a classic and kept you guessing right up until it all ties together... At which point you wonder how you could have missed the signs.
May 18, 2022
This was a little bit ho-hum through the middle, but came back around to finish on an enjoyable last third or so. Not my favorite JDC outing, but still a solid vintage mystery with plenty of atmosphere.
January 20, 2022
Major characters:
Jeff Marle, narrator
M. -- Augustin, owner of the wax museum
Mlle. Marie Augustin, his daughter
Mlle. Odette Duchêne, deceased
Mlle. Claudine Martel, her friend
Mlle. Gina Prêvost, a.k.a. Estelle, a singer
M. Etienne Galant, wealthy underworld man-about-town
Captain Robert Chaumont
Inspector Henri Bencolin
Locale: Paris
Synopsis: Inspector Henri Bencolin, along with narrator Jeff Marle, investigate the death of Mlle. Odette Duchêne. She was found in the Seine, and had last been seen entering the Musée Augustin, a wax museum. The museum is operated by M. Augustin and his daughter Mlle. Marie Augustin.
Accompanied by Captain Robert Chaumont, who had been Odette's fiancé, they investigate the museum. They find another woman, Claudine Martel, dead in the display area. There is evidence she was killed just outside a rear door of the museum, in a passageway which is shared with the adjacent building.
Odette and Claudine had been good friends with Gina Prêvost, working as a singer under the name Estelle. She had also been seen in the museum. Bencolin finds the adjacent building hosts The Club of the Silver Key (a.k.a. The Club of the Colored Masks), where men and women wear masks to meet for clandestine trysts. The club is entered by a door in the passageway, which may also be accessed through passing through the museum for those who do not wish to be observed. Members have numbered keys to enter, which correspond to individual private rooms within.
Bencolin wishes to infiltrate the club. He finds Gina has set up a tryst with wealthy underworld figure Etienne Galant, obtains a key to the club, and sends Jeff Marle in to spy.
Review: This one is a twist on the usual Carr locked-room mystery. In this case, instead of a locked room, all the action focuses on a narrow passageway running between two buildings. The passageway has three doors - the museum's rear door, the club entrance, and a door out to the street. All have locks, of course. The key to tracking down the murderer(s) is to find who used which door in what order.
The wax museum is a creepy setting, and it sounds just like one I remembered visiting once. Waxy smells, dim lighting, staring figures in various poses.
The club was interesting, with the color-coded masks indicating whether an individual was looking for a partner, had a partner already, just looking, or one of the staff. It was quite an establishment with all the numbered rooms, a bar, and even an orchestra.
I have a hard time following the action in some of Carr's books, but not this one. Everything was clear and progressed right along. A good way to spend a creepy evening, it takes you back to the days when wearing a mask was for fun!
Please visit The Mystillery Blog and try The Mystillery Reading Challenges!
Jeff Marle, narrator
M. -- Augustin, owner of the wax museum
Mlle. Marie Augustin, his daughter
Mlle. Odette Duchêne, deceased
Mlle. Claudine Martel, her friend
Mlle. Gina Prêvost, a.k.a. Estelle, a singer
M. Etienne Galant, wealthy underworld man-about-town
Captain Robert Chaumont
Inspector Henri Bencolin
Locale: Paris
Synopsis: Inspector Henri Bencolin, along with narrator Jeff Marle, investigate the death of Mlle. Odette Duchêne. She was found in the Seine, and had last been seen entering the Musée Augustin, a wax museum. The museum is operated by M. Augustin and his daughter Mlle. Marie Augustin.
Accompanied by Captain Robert Chaumont, who had been Odette's fiancé, they investigate the museum. They find another woman, Claudine Martel, dead in the display area. There is evidence she was killed just outside a rear door of the museum, in a passageway which is shared with the adjacent building.
Odette and Claudine had been good friends with Gina Prêvost, working as a singer under the name Estelle. She had also been seen in the museum. Bencolin finds the adjacent building hosts The Club of the Silver Key (a.k.a. The Club of the Colored Masks), where men and women wear masks to meet for clandestine trysts. The club is entered by a door in the passageway, which may also be accessed through passing through the museum for those who do not wish to be observed. Members have numbered keys to enter, which correspond to individual private rooms within.
Bencolin wishes to infiltrate the club. He finds Gina has set up a tryst with wealthy underworld figure Etienne Galant, obtains a key to the club, and sends Jeff Marle in to spy.
Review: This one is a twist on the usual Carr locked-room mystery. In this case, instead of a locked room, all the action focuses on a narrow passageway running between two buildings. The passageway has three doors - the museum's rear door, the club entrance, and a door out to the street. All have locks, of course. The key to tracking down the murderer(s) is to find who used which door in what order.
The wax museum is a creepy setting, and it sounds just like one I remembered visiting once. Waxy smells, dim lighting, staring figures in various poses.
The club was interesting, with the color-coded masks indicating whether an individual was looking for a partner, had a partner already, just looking, or one of the staff. It was quite an establishment with all the numbered rooms, a bar, and even an orchestra.
I have a hard time following the action in some of Carr's books, but not this one. Everything was clear and progressed right along. A good way to spend a creepy evening, it takes you back to the days when wearing a mask was for fun!
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April 18, 2022
This book was quite pleasantly surprising. I opened it, read the first "...there is a legend...which is known and believed in all the night haunts from the Montmartre to the Boulevard de la Chapelle." That is a condensed version of that sentence, the very second sentence of the book. Reading that, my first thought was "Is this going to be another 'The Count of Monte Cristo?'" I just wondered if it was going to be paragraph-long sentences and ages where nothing happens. Most incredibly delightfully, it was not. The French setting and Gilded-Age style of storytelling gave it a sophisticated feel, while having enough of the nitty-gritty action and crazy twists to stand up to today's mysteries. There are even secret clubs, hidden passages, and weird crime-boss-esque people who (vaguely threateningly) lurk in the shadows. It's a testament to its quality that one of the main settings, a "waxworks" - a wax statue museum - pretty much doesn't exist today. One of my only complaints was this: The story is told from the point of view of one Jeff, a disappointingly American name in a setting of fun French ones, and he is friends with the detective Bencolin. Because of this, we don't know what is going on in the great detective's head, and therefore John Dickson Carr is able to use that as a quick and easy plot tool to withhold information from us. The final side note is about the short story at the end of this specific copy. Some copies of this book have the short story "The Murder in Number Four," an absolutely average mystery that I feel suffers from trying to be an Agatha Christie novel in like 20-some pages. But for the main book, I feel like this is totally worth a read.
April 14, 2022
John Dickson Carr was an American born writer who came to live in the UK before heading back to the US in 1958. this book contains the novel which is the title of the book , written in 1932 and a short story called The Murder in Number 4, written in 1928.
They are both interesting stories, both set in France, and for me they don't feel like English crime stories, and certainly not American crime novels, but do feel very European, very French.
Certainly in the novel, and to a lesser extent in the short story, I felt a bit let down by the unmasking of the murderers in each case. I don't really want to let the cat out of the bag by saying much more about the solving of the case than that. I did like the way that the novel ended, after the identification of the murderer.
Worth a read but be aware that the whole thong, for me does feel European so if you are after a hardnosed Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe look elsewhere.
They are both interesting stories, both set in France, and for me they don't feel like English crime stories, and certainly not American crime novels, but do feel very European, very French.
Certainly in the novel, and to a lesser extent in the short story, I felt a bit let down by the unmasking of the murderers in each case. I don't really want to let the cat out of the bag by saying much more about the solving of the case than that. I did like the way that the novel ended, after the identification of the murderer.
Worth a read but be aware that the whole thong, for me does feel European so if you are after a hardnosed Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe look elsewhere.
March 19, 2022
Reading The Corpse in the Waxworks reminded me that it has been far too long since I last read a proper mystery novel. This was a very well crafted story, with the perfect amount of suspense--neither overdone nor understated--and excellent plot twists, as well as some hair-raising moments. What stood out to me the most about this book was the vivid, descriptive scenes Carr created. His prose transports you to 1920s Paris, and I was struck by the way he incorporated French mannerisms and characteristic ways of speech into a book written in English.
I would have liked to delve deeper into the characters of Jeff and M. Bencolin, but I realised after finishing this book that it is actually part of a larger story--if I read the rest of the books in the Henri Bencolin series, I will likely learn more about these characters. Fortunately, similarly to Agatha Christie novels, this book stands on its own; you need not have read previous books in the series to understand this one.
All in all, this was a gripping read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would have liked to delve deeper into the characters of Jeff and M. Bencolin, but I realised after finishing this book that it is actually part of a larger story--if I read the rest of the books in the Henri Bencolin series, I will likely learn more about these characters. Fortunately, similarly to Agatha Christie novels, this book stands on its own; you need not have read previous books in the series to understand this one.
All in all, this was a gripping read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
June 18, 2012
I chose to buy this book because a friend had a copy and I was intrigued by the title. Although the title may suggest horror, it is thoroughly a mystery story. Couldn't really get into the stiff, formal 19th century French characters, although the narrator has his heroic moment. Beyond the few chapters where the narrator does some sleuthing of his own, he is a bare cypher. With no real personality or purpose or than to report on the actions of his brilliant detective friend Bencolin. The story, in my opinion, would have been better from the point of view of the brilliant detective instead.
February 1, 2011
Best opening ever: "Bencolin was not wearing his evening clothes, and so they knew that nobody was in danger. For there is a legend about this man-hunting dandy, the head of the Paris police, which is known and believed in all the night haunts from Montmarte to the Boulevard de la Chapelle." Ha. Too bad the rest of the book wasn't quite in suit with those opening lines.
September 28, 2016
Classic Carr, where all silences are unnatural, all darkness tainted with the smell of decay, and every creak freighted with sinister import. It all hangs together, at least as well as it needs to, and the secret masked sex-club next to the ancient waxworks with its dimly-lit horrors is a great gothic setting.
October 16, 2020
Despite not being familiar with Paris, I found this a very entertaining murder whodunit. Like most of Mr Carr's works, a lot of fun and even the odd reference by the characters of being in a detective story.
April 7, 2022
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this throughout. It's very much like a 1930's crime novel with multiple twists and "A-HA!" moments. Some of them seemed to require more than just a little leap of faith, but that's okay. The ending was probably the best part.
November 29, 2024
The Corpse In The Waxworks is the fourth of five Bencolin novels, published in 1932.
Paris in the 30's, and a woman has been found dead in the river. But don't cry “false advertising” just yet, because Bencolin's investigation quickly takes him to the chamber of horrors of a wax museum, where he discovers … well, take a guess.
John Dickson Carr is still very much in his Gothic/Poe phase (he'd never fully leave it, but lines like “I hurried past the leprous thing,” in reference to a wax sculpture of a satyr, seem more at home in his earlier works), and although the clues are there, Carr seems kind of uninterested in the actual detective-work this time around, compared to building an atmosphere. The climax of the book, where the narrator is sent by Bencolin to infiltrate the sinister Club of Coloured Masks to eavesdrop on a master criminal, is pure adventure novel a la Robert Louis Stevenson and his Suicide Club, and although Bencolin obligingly names the murderer and lays out the clues towards the end, by that point the killer has left their fingerprints on the crime scene, and identifying them through clever detective-work rather than forensics seems like it's just playing for honor. Also, this is a spoiler, but I was amused that one of the major clues was that
On the other hand, Carr's characterization is coming along well. Bencolin feels like a much-better realized character in this novel than in previous ones, in terms of his motivations and drives. There isn't a huge secondary cast, but what there is is strong. The emotional core of the book is also solid—Golden Age mystery novels sometimes feel slightly sociopathic in the way they treat murder as a fun intellectual puzzle (e.g. Agatha Christie's Mystery On the Blue Train, where a dead woman plays second fiddle to some stolen jewels, or especially Soji Shimada's The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, where not one person expresses distress over the slaughter of six women), but Carr tends to invest his deaths with some appropriate gravitas—and the last chapter, where he determines that the killer will be “judged by the standards he applied to [his victim]” is startling in its nastiness. Bencolin gets compared to Mephistopheles in all these books, but only occasionally does he seem to live up to it as he does here.
Paris in the 30's, and a woman has been found dead in the river. But don't cry “false advertising” just yet, because Bencolin's investigation quickly takes him to the chamber of horrors of a wax museum, where he discovers … well, take a guess.
John Dickson Carr is still very much in his Gothic/Poe phase (he'd never fully leave it, but lines like “I hurried past the leprous thing,” in reference to a wax sculpture of a satyr, seem more at home in his earlier works), and although the clues are there, Carr seems kind of uninterested in the actual detective-work this time around, compared to building an atmosphere. The climax of the book, where the narrator is sent by Bencolin to infiltrate the sinister Club of Coloured Masks to eavesdrop on a master criminal, is pure adventure novel a la Robert Louis Stevenson and his Suicide Club, and although Bencolin obligingly names the murderer and lays out the clues towards the end, by that point the killer has left their fingerprints on the crime scene, and identifying them through clever detective-work rather than forensics seems like it's just playing for honor. Also, this is a spoiler, but I was amused that one of the major clues was that
On the other hand, Carr's characterization is coming along well. Bencolin feels like a much-better realized character in this novel than in previous ones, in terms of his motivations and drives. There isn't a huge secondary cast, but what there is is strong. The emotional core of the book is also solid—Golden Age mystery novels sometimes feel slightly sociopathic in the way they treat murder as a fun intellectual puzzle (e.g. Agatha Christie's Mystery On the Blue Train, where a dead woman plays second fiddle to some stolen jewels, or especially Soji Shimada's The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, where not one person expresses distress over the slaughter of six women), but Carr tends to invest his deaths with some appropriate gravitas—and the last chapter, where he determines that the killer will be “judged by the standards he applied to [his victim]” is startling in its nastiness. Bencolin gets compared to Mephistopheles in all these books, but only occasionally does he seem to live up to it as he does here.
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