What do you think?
Rate this book
Fear Is the Same
Many men held her body - did any man hold her heart?
The answer to this might be a clue to the solution of a brutal murder - a beautiful young woman strangled in her own bed in the dead of night. The plush bedroom showed signs of a lovers' meeting - the curtains tightly drawn, a wine bottle on the table, the lady in her most provocative dressing gown.
The answer to this might be a clue to the solution of a brutal murder - a beautiful young woman strangled in her own bed in the dead of night. The plush bedroom showed signs of a lovers' meeting - the curtains tightly drawn, a wine bottle on the table, the lady in her most provocative dressing gown.
250 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
36 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 2, 2010
This completes my reading of the three John Dickson Carr timeslip historical detections (the others being The Devil in Velvet and Fire, Burn!). This, the second to be written (and done under his Dickson pseudonym), is much of a muchness with the other two -- which is to say, it's a tremendous amount of fun, the mystery aspect of it is well handled, but the timeslip element is perfunctory. In this instance Jennifer Baird and Philip Clavering, Lord Glenarvon, find themselves in Regency London with a feeling that they've known another life, and that they've known each other, and been romantically entwined, in that life. Jenny, whose "memories" of that life, 150 years in the future, expand slightly ahead of Philip's, soon dimly recalls they were tangled up in a murder case then and that when Phil was in terrible danger -- presumably because convincingly framed for the crime -- she'd impassionedly wished they could be carried off into a different time altogether. Well, so they have been . . . but it looks as if the events of the 20th century are going to be "repeated" back here at the end of the 18th.
Phil's wife Chloris is magnetically sexy but poisonous. Expecting him soon to drop dead of a heart attack so that she can inherit his fortune, she has been carrying on an affair with pompous stuffed-shirt swordsman Colonel Thornton, a man swift to defend his honour even though he evidently has none. When Phil -- "inexplicably changed" into a much stronger and more vibrant man than Chloris has known him, capable of kicking Thornton downstairs -- knowing now that he loves Jenny, starts to demand a divorce, Chloris says she'll think about it, but not tonight. Even so, that night he goes to her room to demand they talk terms, only to find her place has been taken by her similar-looking maid Molly, Chloris having slipped out the back way presumably to the arms of her fancy man. Phil leaves the maid, having helped himself to a glass of what proves to be opium-laced wine, and falls into profound slumber in his own room. The next morning the maid is found strangled in Chloris's room, and everyone assumes Phil went there in the dark and accidentally killed the wrong woman.
The lovers go on the run, being sheltered first by Richard Brinsley Sheridan at the Drury Lane Theatre, then by vicious, untrustworthy underworld boss Samuel Holder. They are rescued from Holder's clutches by a cluster of Regency notables headed by the Prince of Wales himself, who has befriended them and whom Carr/Dickson portrays as a figure not blatantly distinguishable from his series character Sir Henry Merrivale. But even after Phil has unravelled the facts of the murder, events conspire against them . . . In the last few pages, they return to their present, where they find a very similar murder case has been solved in their absence, and that the menace Jenny "remembered" has now evaporated.
For most of the book, my interest had no chance to flag. The sole exception came fairly late on (pp214-43), where Carr indulged in one of those big, contrived set pieces that mar a few of his other novels. Here the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Sheridan, etc., all descend on a disused church where Holder intends to force Phil (whose secret life in the 20th century is as a pugilist) to take on Gentleman Jackson in a bareknuckle fight to the finish; the dignitaries intervene, for reasons that aren't terribly clear; the Prince acts as referee while boxer Phil takes on in the ring swordsmen Thornton and Holder simultaneously; when he wins, the dignitaries face down an army of Bow Street Runners to give the lovers safe conduct to Carlton House. I suppose this sequence is all right in its way; it reminded me, though, of one of those stupid Hollywood movies where the directors have thought it witty to stuff in as many cameo parts as possible -- I didn't know whether to yawn or be irritated.
And there's an odd bit. At one point Phil, coloured by his more brutal Regency persona, dishes out a backhander to Chloris. When she picks herself up, she makes it plain that she quite likes a bit of the rough. I'd not have thought much about this except that I recalled, back in The Devil in Velvet, one of Sir Nick's floozies had similar masochistic tendencies. What dark little secret, I wonder, lurked behind the urbane mask of one of my favourite mystery writers . . .
Phil's wife Chloris is magnetically sexy but poisonous. Expecting him soon to drop dead of a heart attack so that she can inherit his fortune, she has been carrying on an affair with pompous stuffed-shirt swordsman Colonel Thornton, a man swift to defend his honour even though he evidently has none. When Phil -- "inexplicably changed" into a much stronger and more vibrant man than Chloris has known him, capable of kicking Thornton downstairs -- knowing now that he loves Jenny, starts to demand a divorce, Chloris says she'll think about it, but not tonight. Even so, that night he goes to her room to demand they talk terms, only to find her place has been taken by her similar-looking maid Molly, Chloris having slipped out the back way presumably to the arms of her fancy man. Phil leaves the maid, having helped himself to a glass of what proves to be opium-laced wine, and falls into profound slumber in his own room. The next morning the maid is found strangled in Chloris's room, and everyone assumes Phil went there in the dark and accidentally killed the wrong woman.
The lovers go on the run, being sheltered first by Richard Brinsley Sheridan at the Drury Lane Theatre, then by vicious, untrustworthy underworld boss Samuel Holder. They are rescued from Holder's clutches by a cluster of Regency notables headed by the Prince of Wales himself, who has befriended them and whom Carr/Dickson portrays as a figure not blatantly distinguishable from his series character Sir Henry Merrivale. But even after Phil has unravelled the facts of the murder, events conspire against them . . . In the last few pages, they return to their present, where they find a very similar murder case has been solved in their absence, and that the menace Jenny "remembered" has now evaporated.
For most of the book, my interest had no chance to flag. The sole exception came fairly late on (pp214-43), where Carr indulged in one of those big, contrived set pieces that mar a few of his other novels. Here the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Sheridan, etc., all descend on a disused church where Holder intends to force Phil (whose secret life in the 20th century is as a pugilist) to take on Gentleman Jackson in a bareknuckle fight to the finish; the dignitaries intervene, for reasons that aren't terribly clear; the Prince acts as referee while boxer Phil takes on in the ring swordsmen Thornton and Holder simultaneously; when he wins, the dignitaries face down an army of Bow Street Runners to give the lovers safe conduct to Carlton House. I suppose this sequence is all right in its way; it reminded me, though, of one of those stupid Hollywood movies where the directors have thought it witty to stuff in as many cameo parts as possible -- I didn't know whether to yawn or be irritated.
And there's an odd bit. At one point Phil, coloured by his more brutal Regency persona, dishes out a backhander to Chloris. When she picks herself up, she makes it plain that she quite likes a bit of the rough. I'd not have thought much about this except that I recalled, back in The Devil in Velvet, one of Sir Nick's floozies had similar masochistic tendencies. What dark little secret, I wonder, lurked behind the urbane mask of one of my favourite mystery writers . . .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2018
Avvincente la prima parte, un po' tirata per le lunghe la parte sulla fuga a Londra senza che io riuscissi a capire dove si voleva andare a parare con la faccenda del pugilato.
October 30, 2018
Heroine dimly remembers that, though the year is 1795, she’s from 1950, and that Hero is facing the gallows for a murder he didn’t commit. So why is hero now some kind of foppish lad with a title and a beautiful but slutty wife? And what did that mocking voice in her head mean when it answered her wish to be somewhere, anywhere else with her man with the comment, “So you think it would be different?”
Well, you have to read the book to find out. And you should, even though the mystery is atypically lame from John Dickson Carr, master of the locked room puzzle. But it’s hard to fault him. Carr is having such a grand time with the historical swashbuckling and fantasy elements of his plot, that the somewhat deficient mystery and modern day wrap up are no big deal. The period is beautifully rendered, the infamous Prince Regent, for a change, is not depicted as a decadent bad guy, and the fantasy elements are cleverly, if not rigorously, integrated.
Pure escapism that’s worth finding.
Well, you have to read the book to find out. And you should, even though the mystery is atypically lame from John Dickson Carr, master of the locked room puzzle. But it’s hard to fault him. Carr is having such a grand time with the historical swashbuckling and fantasy elements of his plot, that the somewhat deficient mystery and modern day wrap up are no big deal. The period is beautifully rendered, the infamous Prince Regent, for a change, is not depicted as a decadent bad guy, and the fantasy elements are cleverly, if not rigorously, integrated.
Pure escapism that’s worth finding.
July 20, 2025
Inconsueto. Ineluttabile. Sottotono.
July 31, 2016
One of JDC's time-travelling tales where a hero (and heroine) go back in time, this time to 1795. I won't summarize the plot, simply observe that the hero has to solve a murder with parallels to the hero's life in the present.
The depiction of society in the past is well-done in the usual Carrian fashion, while the mystery is rather slight and not one of Carr's best but I think fairly clued. There are is a lot of fighting, and I personally did not like the depiction of it. Seeing an arrogant bully get thrashed by the surprisingly skillful hero can be satisfying in small doses, but Carr rather overdoes it here.
The how and why of the time-travelling aspect is left unanswered, which I think is a good choice.
The hero and heroine are in love, of course, and depicted much like every other hero and heroine Carr ever wrote. One does not generally read Carr for his incisive character portraits, and this book is certainly no exception, but I on the whole rather like how Carr depicts his main characters. The book is intended to be escapist fun, and they are depicted perfectly for that.
The depiction of society in the past is well-done in the usual Carrian fashion, while the mystery is rather slight and not one of Carr's best but I think fairly clued. There are is a lot of fighting, and I personally did not like the depiction of it. Seeing an arrogant bully get thrashed by the surprisingly skillful hero can be satisfying in small doses, but Carr rather overdoes it here.
The how and why of the time-travelling aspect is left unanswered, which I think is a good choice.
The hero and heroine are in love, of course, and depicted much like every other hero and heroine Carr ever wrote. One does not generally read Carr for his incisive character portraits, and this book is certainly no exception, but I on the whole rather like how Carr depicts his main characters. The book is intended to be escapist fun, and they are depicted perfectly for that.
August 17, 2014
A solid little historical crime novel with a dash of time travel thrown in for good measure. Does not really match the pulpy/sexy promise of the cover, but once you have resigned yourself to that fact the boxing, Regency manners, and murder really drawn you in.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews