What do you think?
Rate this book
The Bowstring Murders
The Bowstring Murders is a fast, realistic tale, with a fascinating group of characters. Against the dusty, historic background of Bowstring Castle, Carter Dickson plays out a tormentingly puzzling mystery to an exciting yet logical end.
Beginning with a corpse found strangled in a room where the dust at the windows is undisturbed and the door was watched, a household of strangely assorted men and women watch a succession of tragic murders, helpless, unable to do anything until, in a thrilling climax, John Gaunt, a detective of the old school, solves the mystery of the missing gauntlets and the stolen bowstring.
Beginning with a corpse found strangled in a room where the dust at the windows is undisturbed and the door was watched, a household of strangely assorted men and women watch a succession of tragic murders, helpless, unable to do anything until, in a thrilling climax, John Gaunt, a detective of the old school, solves the mystery of the missing gauntlets and the stolen bowstring.
ebook
First published January 1, 1933
4 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Carter Dickson
70 books76 followersCarter Dickson is a pen name of writer John Dickson Carr.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 5, 2017
Great detective! One of my favorites! For some unknown reason, I am pleased to read that book. An interesting story that allows readers to be in suspense until the denouement. Because the killer could be anyone. Fans of good old detective suggest this book!
July 3, 2025
Maybe closer to a 3.5, but I enjoyed it. This is a standalone from John Dickson Carr. Murder has happened at Bowstring Castle. The lord of the castle has been killed. When another body is discovered, John Gaunt, a brilliant if eccentric detective, is summoned.
I do recommend it for fans of the locked room kind of mysteries. This one is well written and is filled with interesting characters. It keeps you guessing enough to keep you interested.
I do recommend it for fans of the locked room kind of mysteries. This one is well written and is filled with interesting characters. It keeps you guessing enough to keep you interested.
January 11, 2023
Una obra policiaca menor del maestro de los enigmas de habitación cerrada.
Al borde todo el rato del melodrama, la novela acumula acertijos. El principal (cómo fue asesinada la víctima si TODO estaba cerrado) yo creo que es fácil para los que somos cinturón negro de policiaca.
Sigue una acumulación de misterios y giros de tuerca en los que uno se pierde. Hay una mención malvada a la Christie y su Rogelio Ackroyd sin citarla (esta obra es seis o siete años posterior). Detective que no tuvo continuidad. Guanteletes, armaduras, doncellas que se desmayan, armas por todas partes, declamaciones, una interesante reflexión sobre los buenos mentirosos y mucha exageración. Me ha recordado mucho a las novelas de Dorothy Sayers, de la que el año pasado leí dos o tres. Algo pedante. Novela sólo para los muy cafeteros.
Al borde todo el rato del melodrama, la novela acumula acertijos. El principal (cómo fue asesinada la víctima si TODO estaba cerrado) yo creo que es fácil para los que somos cinturón negro de policiaca.
Sigue una acumulación de misterios y giros de tuerca en los que uno se pierde. Hay una mención malvada a la Christie y su Rogelio Ackroyd sin citarla (esta obra es seis o siete años posterior). Detective que no tuvo continuidad. Guanteletes, armaduras, doncellas que se desmayan, armas por todas partes, declamaciones, una interesante reflexión sobre los buenos mentirosos y mucha exageración. Me ha recordado mucho a las novelas de Dorothy Sayers, de la que el año pasado leí dos o tres. Algo pedante. Novela sólo para los muy cafeteros.
October 6, 2021
This one was another good mystery, but pretty sad - beginning with the gloomy atmosphere of the castle, and ending with the somewhat unresolved issues of the three main characters; also, strange and unkind portrayal of what was considered a "strong woman" back then; however, the whole story of something dark, twisted, and sinister in that gloomy and oppressively castle ending up as good old-fashioned greed and evasion of responsivities (instead of anything strange and supernatural) is what makes this book great.
April 25, 2022
This is a cracking yarn , great murder mystery set in an old castle. Old fashioned style of writing of course, but makes for a good read and the detectives explanation of the events and murders at the end of the story is very detailed and clever. Well worth a read.
June 19, 2023
Twisty, of course, it is a John Dickson Carr or Carter Dickson book one of the best at locked room murders, and while you might guess who it is, how is a whole different ball game. Full of atmosphere and a sleuth who is quite the character.
April 19, 2020
Excelente !!! Muy buen trama, con las pistas a la vista y un desenlace espectacular. Excelente novela de la primeras escritas por John Dickson Carr.
July 20, 2020
Unfortunately, this is one of those JDCs that irritated me. It was a slog. Not as bad as Poison in Jest, and not without potential, but not good.
March 22, 2017
Read 3 times. And why not read it again?
June 14, 2025
A history lesson, courtesy of Greene's ever-fascinating The Man Who Explained Miracles. It's Autumn, 1932. John Dickson Carr and his wife Clarice are living in America when Clarice falls pregnant. They decide to move back to England, but that, together with the cost of a child, requires money. John Dickson Carr churns out The Bowstring Murders, but his publisher demurs ... Carr is already writing Hag's Nook for them, and they don't want to flood the market. But if he was willing to use a pen name ...? Enter: Christopher Street. Except not, because, without even bothering to tell him, Carr's American publisher changed his pseudonym to "Carr Dickson" instead. Carr was angry, his British publisher was angry, but The Bowstring Murders was a success and nobody wanted to lose the good will mystery readers had for "Carr Dickson," so if they changed the pen name for The Plague Court Murders, it needed to be similar to Carr Dickson. Enter: Cartwright Dixon. Or not, because for a second time, his American publishers changed his pen name without letting the author know. This time, Carr decided to put up with it, and Carter Dickson was born.
By this point in his career, Carr had put aside Bencolin and Poe, but is still often Poe-esque in trappings if not in style. In Poison In Jest, a marble hand scurries around of its own accord, and in Hag's Nook, a man must spend a night in an abandoned prison to claim his inheritance, and seemingly falls victim to a family curse; but The Bowstring Murders feels like the most complete throwback, set in a castle presided over by an insane lord and populated with armor that appears to move on its own. Its tone, however, remains restrained compared to his early Bencolin novels, and his character work is better--his narrator, a fusty old don who resents being thought of as fusty and old, shows more personality than Jeff Marle did across four novels.
Carr had created Gideon Fell by now, and obviously anticipated great things for him, but since he was writing under a pseudonym, he needed a new detective. Enter John Gaunt, the alcoholic former detective who went to pieces professionally and personally after his wife died, but is still more than capable of dealing with this novel's criminal. He's perfectly fine, but you can obviously see why Carr might have shied away from using him long-term; an alcoholic detective, if taken seriously, wouldn't be quite the tone he's aiming for. The next Carter Dickson novel will introduce HM, a far more sustainable character. The secondary characters are perfectly functional, although Carr is developing types--a lot of his young male secondary protagonist types are pretty indistinguishable across his oeuvre. Here, the ghastly Lady Rayle and her gigolo, the actor Kestevan, are the standouts.
As an impossible crime novel, I wouldn't say there's a lot of thunder here. A man is found strangled in a locked room. Very well; that sort of thing has happened to many a victim in a John Dickson Carr novel, often more impressively. The solution seems plausible, maybe, although it's hard for me not to think that medical evidence would make it clear what happened, in spite of Carr's protestations, and a map would have made parts of this novel much clearer.
So, on the whole, not spectacular, but competent---almost unbelievably so, given that it was dashed off over the course of weeks to pay for some unexpected expenses. Carr himself might have dismissed it as a ``potboiler," but if you can view it on its own merits instead of placing it against his more famous works, there's a few pleasant afternoons to be had with a novel like this.
In the library at Bowstring, there is still a tall clock about which visitors are told a story. The clock is of German manufacture, and a round, smiling, yellow face used to revolve about the dial as the hours were struck. Moreover, there used to be a complicated series of chimes, and a mellow ticking; but the face ceased to turn, and the chimes to strike, on a certain night about two years ago. Not only did it mark the hours for Lord Rayle’s death, but in a sense it watched over him after death —which is the reason why it is broken now. If you are a favored visitor, they may show you the bullet-holes, though the blood has been washed off long ago.
By this point in his career, Carr had put aside Bencolin and Poe, but is still often Poe-esque in trappings if not in style. In Poison In Jest, a marble hand scurries around of its own accord, and in Hag's Nook, a man must spend a night in an abandoned prison to claim his inheritance, and seemingly falls victim to a family curse; but The Bowstring Murders feels like the most complete throwback, set in a castle presided over by an insane lord and populated with armor that appears to move on its own. Its tone, however, remains restrained compared to his early Bencolin novels, and his character work is better--his narrator, a fusty old don who resents being thought of as fusty and old, shows more personality than Jeff Marle did across four novels.
Carr had created Gideon Fell by now, and obviously anticipated great things for him, but since he was writing under a pseudonym, he needed a new detective. Enter John Gaunt, the alcoholic former detective who went to pieces professionally and personally after his wife died, but is still more than capable of dealing with this novel's criminal. He's perfectly fine, but you can obviously see why Carr might have shied away from using him long-term; an alcoholic detective, if taken seriously, wouldn't be quite the tone he's aiming for. The next Carter Dickson novel will introduce HM, a far more sustainable character. The secondary characters are perfectly functional, although Carr is developing types--a lot of his young male secondary protagonist types are pretty indistinguishable across his oeuvre. Here, the ghastly Lady Rayle and her gigolo, the actor Kestevan, are the standouts.
As an impossible crime novel, I wouldn't say there's a lot of thunder here. A man is found strangled in a locked room. Very well; that sort of thing has happened to many a victim in a John Dickson Carr novel, often more impressively. The solution seems plausible, maybe, although it's hard for me not to think that medical evidence would make it clear what happened, in spite of Carr's protestations, and a map would have made parts of this novel much clearer.
So, on the whole, not spectacular, but competent---almost unbelievably so, given that it was dashed off over the course of weeks to pay for some unexpected expenses. Carr himself might have dismissed it as a ``potboiler," but if you can view it on its own merits instead of placing it against his more famous works, there's a few pleasant afternoons to be had with a novel like this.
June 26, 2016
Hmm, rasanya saya kurang bersemangat untuk membuat full-length review untuk buku ini..
Overall : Premisnya cukup menjanjikan. Berseting kastil tua dengan bermacam2 armor dan senjata abad pertengahan. Pemilik kastil yg eksentrik. Pembunuhan yang mustahil. Tokoh detektif yg menarik as he is alcoholic.
Yang agak bikin saya down adalah pendekatan John Gaunt dalam pemecahan kasus.
As for the clues, they fit nicely to the case. Dalam aspek misteri dan clue-ing, Carr memang tidak diragukan lagi. Tapi entah mengapa, Gaunt tidak membuat saya terpukau ketika menjelaskannya. Saya malah lebih suka momen ketika Gaunt menyelidiki pembunuhan kedua dengan TKP yg masih hangat.
Dengan satu kekurangan itu, tadinya saya ingin kasih tiga bintang. Tapi untuk Carr.. Empat bintang aja ah! xD
Overall : Premisnya cukup menjanjikan. Berseting kastil tua dengan bermacam2 armor dan senjata abad pertengahan. Pemilik kastil yg eksentrik. Pembunuhan yang mustahil. Tokoh detektif yg menarik as he is alcoholic.
Yang agak bikin saya down adalah pendekatan John Gaunt dalam pemecahan kasus.
As for the clues, they fit nicely to the case. Dalam aspek misteri dan clue-ing, Carr memang tidak diragukan lagi. Tapi entah mengapa, Gaunt tidak membuat saya terpukau ketika menjelaskannya. Saya malah lebih suka momen ketika Gaunt menyelidiki pembunuhan kedua dengan TKP yg masih hangat.
Dengan satu kekurangan itu, tadinya saya ingin kasih tiga bintang. Tapi untuk Carr.. Empat bintang aja ah! xD
April 4, 2013
I've read some of the later books with Sir H. Merriville (sp?). This one is an early mystery with Gaunt as the lead and he is very similar to the detective person who followed in a later series. Though thankfully Gaunt is a little less flamboyant, and works well for this setting. There's a lot of chatter in this story... and while I guessed who did the murder before the end, it was still an enjoyable read.
January 8, 2016
Dickson's early detective John Gaunt doesn't have the charisma of his later over-the-top creations and the real star of the show is the crime scene of an ancient castle with its collection of mediaeval armour. Carr was an American of course so we'll overlook his setting the castle within walking distance of the Suffolk town of 'Aldbridge' (Aldeburgh?) surrounded by rolling hills and a waterfall. Suffolk of course is almost as flat as Norfolk.
July 10, 2016
An early mystery set in a medieval castle, in which Carr tries to introduce a new detective, a chronic alcoholic and former police star.
September 29, 2016
Quaint little mystery. Not as well written as some of Carr's other novels, but the story and plot are pretty good.
Want to read
October 12, 2018Synopsis: a detective of the old school, John Gaunt deals with a corpse found in a room into which no one seems to have gone.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews