The Problem of the Wire Cage

Dr. Gideon Fell #11

by John Dickson Carr

Book by John Dickson Carr

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Detective, Classics, Thriller, British Literature

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

AKA 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).

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read but one that's far from Carr's best; also, there's not as much Gideon Fell in it as you might expect.

An objectionable young man is found strangled in the middle of a storm-soaked outdoor tennis court, the only footsteps in the clay being his own. The tennis court is in effect a locked-room setting for an impossible murder, and Hadley of the Yard knows just who to call in such circumstances.

Fell solves the case, of course. However, I found myself a bit dissatisfied by the "howdunnit" aspect of the crime: the murder technique is of such byzantine complexity as to be beyond all credibility. To be honest, I spent much of the book thinking that this might be one where Carr was using our expectations of him to fool us, with the killer being not someone startling but the obvious suspect, unsuspected by the reader solely because of the character's place in the novel's structure. I also worked out a quite different and (I'd suggest) far more plausible murder technique. (My guess from textual evidence is that Carr dickered with it but then decided on the fancier explanation.)

By the standards of most other Golden Age mystery writers, this novel is pretty damn' fine. By Carr's own standards, however, it's a bit average. But even a middle-tier Carr tale offers a rattling good read.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of his best, but good enough

[Justin Hairston · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5/5)

Exciting not just because it’s a fascinating puzzle, cleverly solved, but because it’s a thrill to find a new old mystery author who can hold a candle to Agatha. Even better, he isn’t just copying the queen but working with a flavorful style of his own, still featuring a Poirot-esque super detective but only marginally — largely, we stay with the rich (and richly drawn) suspects, all of whom are poked and prodded by Carr’s deft (and surprisingly funny) prose.

A real treat, and the insightful foreword by Rian Johnson makes perfect sense: there’s a clear structural precursor here to Marta’s plot from Knives Out, and Johnson recently referenced Carr when talking about the upcoming Knives Out 3. Excited to keep benefitting from one genius of the form learning from another!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

[Calum Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

B+:

Carr's decision to root the story within the perspective of dim lovers Hugh and Brenda at the expense of getting more of Fell's musings is puzzling, but I loved the late reveal and heinous nature of the murder to such a degree that I can overlook that. There are also a couple of really interesting secondary characters (Hugh's father is a hoot), and, as often with Carr, it's a swift read. One of the better GF entries.

[Carissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of John Dickson Carr's mysteries, and this is one of my favorites. First, Dr. Gideon Fell is one of my favorite of his series detectives. Second, many of Carr's mysteries (particularly those featuring Henri Bencolin) tend toward the macabre or grotesque. This one does not. Third, I particularly enjoyed Carr's descriptive writing in this book. His descriptions of the tennis court, trees, people, etc., were unusually vivid. Fourth (but not least), this is one of Carr's "impossible crimes," and he carries it off beautifully.

[Jacob Vahle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best mysteries I’ve read. Excellent cast of characters and clever solution. Rian Johnson also writes the intro, showing his indebtedness to Carr for his own mysteries.

John Dickson Carr deserves to be ranked with the best mystery writers.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would say this for me was a 2.5 star. The idea and story wasn’t so bad, but it was told in a way that was round about and didn’t involve Fell so much - which made it not so fun to play the game of hunting the murderer.

A young arrogant man was to marry a woman (both who were “wards” of a man who was equally arrogant as one of the victims.). The murder seems impossible, and the first serious suspect with the skill to do the amazing was also killed (this was written on the cover of the book so no secret here.). The hardest part was to try and 1. Figure out how it was done, and 2. Who could do it. 3. Then finally why? Won’t say more as it will give things away. If you’re a Gideon Fell fan, you won’t hurt by reading this. But if you looking for one of Fell’s more satisfying mysteries.... look elsewhere.

[EuroHackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only thing more insufferable (and incredulous) than the howdunit, painfully explained in the final chapter step by agonizing step, is the introduction by Rian Johnson. My friend, there is a reason Dickson Carr is not in the pantheon with Christie, Sayers, Chesterton, and Queen. Perhaps you should read more Golden Age mystery novels - and try the British Library Crime Classics series, which seems to be a bit more consistent in quality.

[Beka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect as a weekend read! Great storytelling, classic murder mystery but plenty of levity and humor.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mssrs. Penzler and Johnson do not lie — this is a particlarly good 'un.

[Tim Evanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this latest Dr. Fell detective adventure, a group of rich 20-somethings with more relationship drama than a whole season of Beverly Hills 90210 are playing tennis just before a thunderstorm. After the storm is over, they disperse. The clay tennis court is smooth as glass after the storm...

A half hour later, the nastiest of the men is found strangled in the center of the tennis court. Only his own footprints lead in.

John Dickson Carr is considered the pre-eminent "locked room" mystery writer of all time. This version of the locked room essentially isolates the victim in the center of a sea of mud. Thus, the victim had to be murdered long-distance, as it were.

I'm going to reveal the solution here because it's so ludicrous: The wheelchair-bound murderer told the victim he was building a robot to play tennis. The robot would be suspended from a rope. He told the victim to run out into the center of the court with a rope. "Twist it around your neck! I want to be sure I have enough rope to suspend the robot!" Then he pulled, strangling the victim.

It's an absolutely ludicrous solution. Anyone who has had a loop of string or rope around a finger or wrist or even neck knows that all you have to do is twist a bit and the loop dislodges.

Moreover, you have to be some sort of immensely stupid to think that (a) the inventor was building a robot and (b) the inventor would be haphazardly measuring the amount of rope needed in this way.

The novel is a very short one, and characterization suffers terribly here. The reader is dropped into the middle of a lover's spat, the causes of which slowly spill out over the next 40 or so pages. It seems that this is a strategy of Carr's to keep the reader interested, because the characters simply are not capable of doing so. The main love interest is a woman in an impossible, silly financial situation of the kind that only shows up in murder mysteries. (A rich uncle left her and the victim equal shares in his fortune, but only if they marry one another.)

One of the four in this romantic menage is a slightly older woman, widowed. Instead of creating a "cougar" (the term for a sexually predatory older woman), Carr essentially makes this character unimportant. She's never suspected of the crime, she holds no key to unraveling the mystery, and her appearances outside the first 40 pages or so are minimal to the point of invisibility.

In his lesser works, Carr often relies on really blatant misdirection to fill pages. This usually takes the form of "we think there's a supernatural cause!" -- an obviously stupid suggestion (Carr is not a supernatural horror writer) that goes on for pages and pages and pages while Dr. Gideon Fell and a Scotland Yard inspector (in this case, Hadley) solve the crime behind the scenes. At the end of the novel, Fell reveals the solution.

The Problem of the Wire Cage adopts much the same strategy, focusing instead on a local theatrical performer whom people keep saying "must be an acrobat" even though nobody knows anything about the guy. So much of this novel is that type of idle, confusing, idiotic speculation that it really grated on my nerves.

Fell solves the crime in less than 48 hours, so there's little time for the reader to get to know the character or care about them. Fell himself is mostly background here. People walk by the tennis court seeing him arguing with Hadley, or see him scurrying around the grounds with Hadley, or see him leaving a room after interrogating someone with Hadley.

That's not what I read a Gideon Fell story for. I want Fell front and center, and in the best Carr novels (like Hag's Nook) he is. That's not so here, and it two-star rating shows it.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of Carr's two most famous detectives, I am firmly in Sir Henry Merrivale's camp, but even fans of Dr. Fell may find that so much time is spent stage-setting (and a complicated stage it is!) that there's too little time spent with the Great Detective pontificating and explaining. Solicitor Hugh is in love with Brenda White, who is engaged to Frank Dorrance, with her guardian Nick's utmost approval. When Hugh finds Brenda in a compromising situation with Frank's murdered body, he tries to cover up the evidence--but everything he does seems to make it worse for Brenda or himself. Only when he comes clean with Inspector Hadley and Fell can the truth about the seemingly impossible murder method come clear.

[Jon McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the style Carr uses in his mysteries. He is always changing perspective from suspect to police and back. This is one of those "locked room" mysteries, good puzzle.

[Vasilii Borovkov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Фрэнк и Бренда должны пожениться. Они не любят друг друга, но завещание покойного опекуна Фрэнка составлено так, что его внушительное состояние молодые получат только после бракосочетания друг с другом. Фрэнк — на редкость неприятный человек. У Бренды есть другой поклонник — молодой юрист Хью. Хью и Бренда нравятся друг друга, но до ее свадьбы с Фрэнком остается чуть больше месяца. Однажды вечером после дождя Бренда увидела, как Фрэнк лежит посреди теннисного корта. Она подбежала к нему и увидела, что Фрэнк мёртв — задушен. А единственные следы, что есть на корте — ее собственные. Только присоединившийся к расследованию доктор Фелл способен обелить Бренду и выяснить личность настоящего убийцы.

Этот роман — очередная вариация Карра на «убийство в запертой комнате». То, что в «Клетке» фигурирует не закрытая комната, а открытый теннисный корт — сути особо не меняет. Посреди корта лежит задушенный человек и никаких следов убийцы вокруг него. Разгадка у Карра на этот раз такая — убитый сам затянул петлю на своей шее. Да, убитый был идиотом, но строить на этом разгадку детективного романа — как-то не очень.

Проблема романа в том, что это должен был быть рассказ, но Карр искусственно растянул его до размеров романа. Знакомство с персонажами и убийство в первых нескольких главах. Разгадка в последней главе. А между этими событиями — куча ненужного бесполезного текста. Вранье Бренды и Хью, чтобы запутать полицию. Юмористическая сценка с проверкой кортов в клубе. Абсолютно бездарно вписанное в роман второе убийство — в его описании Карр уже даже и стараться бросил.

Феллу в этом романе даже не над чем думать — он появляется в романе всего в 3 диалогах. В середине романа у корта, затем дома и затем снова у корта — теперь уже с решением. А его убедительный рассказ о способе убийства на этот раз подкреплен… фотографиями убийства, который сделал свидетель в кустах. А чтобы роман не кончился после первых 30 страниц, Карру пришлось изобретать глупости о том, как этот свидетель решил поиграть с полицией в «я вам всё расскажу потом, когда-нибудь, наверное».

В 1939 году Карр написал 4 романа — два под своим именем и два под псевдонимом. Не считая пригоршни рассказов. На износ работал и иногда необходимость выдать нужное количество слов для издателя забивала мысли о том, что пишет он совсем откровенную ерунду. Вот как с этой «Клеткой для простака».

4/10

Оригинал отзыва - https://cahier.ru/carr-problem-wire-c...

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 2 out of 5]

Malý odskok do světa záhad zamčených pokojů, do světa, kde jsou vraždy jen záminkou k zábavě. Do světa Johna Dicksona Carra, experta na nemožné vraždy, chlápka, který šel opačným směrem než většina autorů – přesunul sám sebe i své příběhy z Ameriky do Anglie a převzal i ten lehce ironický anglický styl.

I tady dojde na neproveditelnou vraždu, ale celé je to trochu jinak. Místo aby byla mrtvola nalezena spořádaně v zamčené místnosti, leží uprostřed tenisového hřiště. Uškrcená. A kolem nikde žádné stopy.

A ještě v něčem je to jiné. Více než detektivovi (opět Gideon Fell) se to věnuje podezřelým, milenecké dvojici, kteří se snaží zamést stopy, které by vedly k nim… a přitom zároveň zjistit, kdo za tím stojí. Během toho jsou postaveni před zajímavé dilema. Z vraždy je totiž obviněn někdo jiný a oni sami nevědí, jestli se mají přiznat, že s důkazy manipulovali, protože, co když je ten chlápek nakonec opravdu vrah? Je nutné vypátrat, jak je to doopravdy.

„Určitě ti bude skvělou manželkou. Její… společenské postavení je… ehm… jistě dostatečně uspokojivé, že?“
„Její otec se zastřelil a matka upila k smrti.“
Rowland Senior si podrbal bradu.
„No, mohlo to být horší,“ řekl.

Carr má lehkou ruku, nebere to tak úplně vážně (scény, kdy je vysíláno služebnictvo, aby vyzkoušelo, jestli se dá chodit po tenisové síti, jsou na úrovni grotesky) a obratně žongluje s podezřelými. Je vidět, že je to autor, který přemýšlí o žánru a dokáže ho využívat. Vrah je hned z úvodu tak silně zamaskován, že je čtenáři okamžitě podezřelý… ale pak je na to jím samým poukázáno, že v románech by se určitě ukázalo, že vrahem je nakonec on, takže si ho člověk vyškrtne, protože zapomene, že tohle je koneckonců taky román.

Co je ale slabší, je celé řešení záhady. Tady se už musela oběť opravdu hodně snažit, aby vrahovi ulehčila práci. Čekal jsem něco zajímavějšího, nápaditějšího. Tyhle triky stojí na jednoduchém řešení, kdy vám lusknutím prstu dojde, k čemu vlastně došlo. Tady to potřebuje větší vysvětlování, a i tak tomu člověk moc nevěří. Možná i proto tady odvádí autor pozornost od záhady k romantické komedii a příběh nekončí vyřešením problému, ale svatbou. Což je mnohem méně zábavné než vražda.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am surprised to see that, as far as I can tell, no one has suggested that Carr wrote this as a satire of the genre, or at least an exercise in seeing how much nonsense can be packed into a single plot.

Let's start with Frank, old boy. In real life he could not possibly have still been alive at this point, old girl. You see, old boy, dim as you are, even you must see that people would have been doing the "I am Spartacus" thing because, old boy, they would ALL have wanted to be known as the person who finally killed that insufferable prick.

Old Nick, arr, I'd whack you one if I could get up, must have been the twin brother of Pratchett's Foul Ole Ron, bugrit, millennium hand and shrimp.

Throw in the china that was or wasn't there, the basket that was a suitcase, the improbabli introduction of an acrobat and a cowboy with a whip ... surely, surely Carr got into an argument at his club and agreed to write a novel that would break all possible boundaries of reasonableness ... and yet be able to have Gideon Fell see through it all.

I also note that throughout the book - with a few key exceptions - any piece of information learned by one character seems to be known to everyone else a few pages later.

And finally, when we see the acrobat's actual purpose in the plot, oh my goodness JDCarr, have you no shame? Ptui.

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid John Dickson Carr. Apparently, its reputation isn’t very good, but it was a fun read. The things that some people don’t like about this one don’t particularly bother me much.

(Crack!)

Carr is the king of setting up a problem and then over and over again complicating that problem and ratcheting up the tension and its increasing impossibility at the same time. The Problem of the Wore Cage is stellar in that regard. The protagonists play a very entertaining game of cat-and-mouse logic with Dr. Fell and Superintendent Hadley and keeping up with the back-and-forth is entertaining.

(Crack!)

There is one especially memorable, very Hitchcockian scene with a whip in a theater that had me turning the pages very carefully so as to avoid glimpsing any sentence that might break the suspense. I love that feeling. That’s why I read books.

(Crack!)

Carr makes very good use of an ingenious device that he also cleverly used in a short story called “Invisible Hands,” aka “King Arthur’s Chair.” If you read this, check that out too. Maybe leave a gap of time between readings, though.

(Crack!)

If you’re looking for a satisfying whodunit, you’ve found it. (For fans of Clue: maybe it was Miss White with the noose in the tennis court?)

(Crack!)

[Elusive · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 'The Problem of the Wire Cage', twenty-two-year-old Frank Dorrance winds up dead in the middle of a tennis court. The investigation proves to be challenging as Superintendent Hadley and Dr. Fell have to sift the truth from the lies, as well as puzzle out the absence of the killer's footprints.

The events leading up to the murder fleshed out the characters through conversations and courses of action. Character dynamics and backgrounds were highlighted. The suspense was high throughout as there were a number of possible motives and suspects.

The details of the seemingly impossible crime were intriguing. Although Dr. Fell was not prominently featured as opposed to two suspects (Hugh and Brenda), he played a pivotal role in uncovering the identity, motive and method of the incredibly slick and smart killer.

The pretext (the dummy that returns strokes so that one could play tennis alone) used by Nick to lure Frank to the tennis court was brilliant. The motive was strong while the method was elaborate and well-thought-out (for both murders).

Overall, 'The Problem of the Wire Cage' kept me thinking and analyzing by gradually presenting more information and putting every character under suspicion at one point or another.

[Dave Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

"He can create atmosphere with an adjective, alarm with an allusion - in short, he can write." So said Dorothy L Sayers, who ought to know, though it does sound like she was asked to write a cover blurb rather than a serious review.

I had just read Michael Gilbert's Close Quarters, another mid-20th century whodunit. I must have bought this one around the same time, ie 50 years ago from the big secondhand bookshop in Woking. It sat on the shelf all this time because "The Problem of the Wire Cage" is not a particularly compelling title - and that's a shame, because Carr does make us care about the story using his traditional tricks: a love affair, strongly defined characters, conflict vectors.

And he can write. I liked this line especially: "The thick, hot air burnt on their faces outside the trees. It was another such day as Saturday, with the same oppressiveness against the brain. Grass blades, under that sun, were as individual as swords; and Madge Sturgess turned her face away from it." Other than the lex rep of "face" that's pretty evocative.

The detective is the sore thumb here - or perhaps I should say the shovel-hatted elephant in the locked room. Gideon Fell is a cartoon character in an otherwise properly rounded and credible cast. I mean that quite literally - it's as if they are live action and he's a Disney drawing. My heart sank every time he came back in, and he seems even more of a caricature than Campion in Allingham's Look to the Lady . I can't guess what baroque evolutionary path in the crime fiction of the '30s and '40s led to these hallucigenia-like figures, but they will strike the modern reader as very jarring.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a middle-of-the road golden age mystery, written by the locked room mystery master John Dickson Carr, featuring his best-known detective Gideon Fell. Personally, I find Gideon Fell annoying and arrogant, not one of my favorite characters, and one of the redeeming features of this mystery is that we don't have a lot of Gideon Fell to deal with, as his role is almost a sideline.

The "locked room" this time is an outdoor tennis court right after a rainstorm, where a lack of footprints make this an impossible crime. The victim is a 20-something cad, a rich playboy that many folks have a good reason to want dead, most of all his fiancée who doesn't love him but must marry him in order to get a fortune... but if he's dead the money comes to her. The man she loves is in the picture as well, as well as several other rich folks, each with their own secrets and motives.

We start the investigation with everyone lying for their own reasons, hidden conversations, clues that appear and disappear. As Fell works his way through the deceptions, we finally get to a rather ludicrous conclusion. Very few redeeming characters, and an unsatisfying conclusion make this a rather pedestrian effort from Mr. Carr.

[Judith Shadford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I change my expectations when a mystery story was published in 1939, though Dorothy L Sayers was writing at that time. John Dickson Carr is one of the mainstays of anthologies, so, picking up a $2 paperback down the alley from the evening's Mexican supper carried a bit of Ooo. Sadly, it didn't last long. The story involves a murder in the center of a tennis court with no footprints (following a thunderstorm) and a half dozen possible murderers. Instead of weaving them all together, the Gideon Fell character--an unpleasant looking and rather arrogant presence--snorts and mutters as all the possibilities are unfolded and dismissed until he alone is able to provide the accurate deduction. One after the other. Not Hugh, not Brenda--they're in love so they're special. Not Chandler, though that lingered for quite a while, not one or another minor possibilities, until we get to the old guy (equally unpleasant) in the wheelchair. Well, no spoilers, but the wire cage did have problems. Just not the one proposed by the Old Guard amongst British mystery writers.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a recent re-issue in the American Mystery Classics series. It is a 1939 murder mystery.

The set up is that an obnoxious rich cad is found strangled in the middle of a tennis court. The court is sandy clay. His footsteps are the only ones on the court. The court is surrounded by a high wire fence. How was he strangled?

The story is set in a country house. There is a complicated story. The cad's fiancée was going to break up with him to marry another. There was a very tricky will provision that gave several people motives.

Dr. Gideon Fell is Carr's detective. He is a large G. K. Chesterton type man. He solves the crime. The mystery is well done, and the solution is clever, but Gideon Fell does very little during the story until he shows up at the end to reveal the solution.

I am also not a fan of tricky will provisions as a plot device. They always seem like random gimmicks to get a plot going.

This is a solid 1930s murder mystery.

[Cindy Ladensack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was well on its way to being a five-star book for me — but it fell short at the end, unfortunately. As is usual with these types of technical ‘locked room’ mysteries, the ‘howdunnit’ was a bit far-fetched - I couldn’t quite believe or even imagine how the murder was done (even after the detailed explanation). I did kind of guess whodunnit from the get-go, but I admit not the motive. And I was less than impressed by Fell — his method for coming up with the solution was actually quite weak — he just ‘imagined’ how it could have happened and it turned out to be right. But I really liked the characterization and the setup, and I enjoyed it well enough to want to read more by Carr.

[José Van Rosmalen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek werd in 1939 geschreven en in 1961 in het Nederlands uitgebracht. Het verhaal speelt rond een tennisbaan. Twee mannen en twee vrouwen spelen gemengd dubbel, totdat het gaat regenen en zij schuilen in een loods naast de baan. Dan komt er een man op de verlaten baan; hij wordt vermoord. Er zijn geen sporen of voetafdrukken naar het lijk behalve van de man zelf. Een wonderlijk probleem voor inspecteur Fell. Al lezend gaat de verdenking naar diverse mensen, maar de echte dader komt pas laat in beeld hoewel deze al wel in het verhaal aanwezig was. Daardoor blijft het verhaal spannend. Carr hoort tot de klassieke thrillerschrijvers.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young cad is murdered on a tennis court with only his footprints to be seen. How was he killed? Enter Dr Gideon Fell.

Another impossible puzzle mystery from John Dickson Carr seen the portly amateur sleuth helping Inspector Hadley find the truth in a sea of clues that make no sense. Carr has become one of my favourite authors, and it's a delight to see his books coming back into publication. He fills his stories with mystery and atmosphere, while Dr Fell is an outrageous character, adding humour to the proceedings.

As is usual with John Dickson Carr, this was a fun and easy read.

[John Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is classic Carr a it’s best.

It’s the perfect impossible setup - a man lays strangles in the center of a muddy tennis court, with no footprints other than his own in sight.

The tennis court setup is perfect and allows for false solution after false solution. The final reveal when it comes is fair, though not quite as ingenious as one or two or Carr’s better known efforts (such as The Hollow Man, The Crooked Hingeor The Judas Window).

Nevertheless - Five Stars!

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read and pretty entertaining. I wish we'd had more of Fell and less of our boring main characters, who make up some lies because they think reality looks bad for them and get caught out for it like 10 pages later. I thought the reveal was going to be that the murderer had used snowshoes or something like that... the actual reveal is so convoluted that you can barely picture what happened, let along actually believe it. Still fairly satisfying but not Carr's best.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong 3/5 here. The method of murder is hilariously implausible, the characters all serve as mere functionaries to get to said crazy solution, and Gideon Fell barely factors into the case busting. However Carr is just so good at creating the classic mystery vibe. The stately manor house, the eccentric characters, the absurd scenarios, it all just tickles me so much that I can't help but be delighted in the end.

[Vinay Mehta · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others pointed, not much of Gideon Fell in the story but the usual explanation at the end on how the crime was done. We are weaved with the usual mix of small character sets and in the end, the crime explained is simple yet "miracle" impossibility. I would still not be impressed against other works from Carr in his books. So, giving it a 3 star