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Dr. Gideon Fell #10
Vụ Án Viên Nhộng Xanh
Vụ án viên nhộng xanh là một trong các tiểu thuyết trinh thám nổi tiếng nhất của John Dickson Carr. Trong tác phẩm, Marcus Chesney – chủ sở hữu những nhà kính trồng đào tại Sodbury Cross – đã bị đầu độc chết trong một màn trình diễn do chính mình sắp đặt. Khi ấy, Marcus đang dùng một loạt bẫy tâm lí để chứng minh lập luận: nhân chứng không thể kể lại chính xác những điều đã xảy ra ngay trước mắt mình. Và tệ thay, ông đã đúng. Tất cả các nhân chứng đều mục kích vụ sát nhân nhưng dường như họ đều đang đeo một cặp kính đen, mọi thứ đều bị che phủ và lừa mị. Thấy vậy nhưng không hẳn là vậy, nghe thế nhưng chưa chắc là thế. Nhân chứng bị bưng tai bịt mắt bằng các bẫy gài liên hoàn dù cho họ vẫn mở mắt lắng tai. Qua Vụ án viên nhộng xanh, John Dickson Carr không chỉ dẫn dắt người đọc vào ma trận của những lời khai không trùng khớp mà còn nêu bật được một lập luận mới mẻ về giá trị của các nhân chứng trong làng văn trinh thám.
294 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
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984 people want to read
About the author
John Dickson Carr
421 books468 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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May 28, 2023
Why do Golden Age criminals keep poisoning chocolates??
Inspector Andrew MacAndrew Elliot of Scotland Yard has been sent to the village of Sodbury Cross to look into a case that has baffled the local police for some months. Several people who had bought chocolates from the local sweet shop one day had fallen ill, and one child died. It transpired that some of the chocolates had been poisoned. The local gossip has fixed on Marjorie Wills as the guilty party – the young niece of a local peach farmer, Marcus Chesney. The local police don’t object to this suggestion but haven’t been able to find any evidence that Marjorie, or anyone else for that matter, switched the chocolates in the shop. When Elliot arrives in Sodbury Cross, he discovers that he has met Marjorie before, or seen her, at least, while on holiday in Pompeii, and he’d developed a bit of a fancy for her. So that gives him an added motivation to find the real culprit… assuming Marjorie is innocent. Marcus Chesney, meantime, thinks he’s worked out how the chocolate switching was done, and sets up a dramatic performance to prove his theory to his assembled relatives and friends. It all goes wrong when, during the performance, Chesney dies – poisoned! Everyone involved in the case was watching at the time, but they all saw different things…
While this is mostly a howdunit, there’s plenty of interesting characterisation and focus on the psychology of poisoners to stop the how aspects from making it too dry. The initial poisoning appears to have been completely random – anyone could have bought and eaten the poisoned chocolates. This suggests insanity on the part of the murderer. However the second poisoning, of Chesney, suggests a much more intricately planned and deliberately targeted murder, more indicative of a sane, intelligent mind. Along the way Carr has his characters discuss many real life cases as they try to get at the root of what is behind the crimes and whether the murderer is insane or not, and this is an added interest although some of the cases he mentions, which were probably well known at the time this book came out in 1939, have faded from the public consciousness now – or my consciousness, at least! But he gives enough information about each of these cases for the reader to be able to follow the discussions about them.
The howdunit aspect is more interesting than I usually find them. It depends less on fantastical devices and crazy methods than most “impossible crimes”, which made me quite happy! Instead the focus is on the unreliability of witnesses, sleight of hand, misdirection, etc., and, while it’s all a very complex way to commit a crime as howdunits usually are, it actually makes sense once all is revealed, for once. And because it’s not about widgets that miraculously open windows when an arrow is shot up a fireplace at the moment the clock strikes a quarter past nine (yes, I do get fed up with that kind of nonsense in Golden Age howdunits!), but instead is about what people have seen as opposed to what they think they have seen, it’s quite possible for the reader to follow along with the various theories and revelations.
Elliot is a likeable detective, although his decision to hide his pre-existing attraction to the chief suspect is a bit morally dubious. However, he reveals all to Gideon Fell, who happens to be in the neighbourhood. I haven’t quite got my head around who exactly Gideon Fell is. The police seem to use him on a semi-formal basis as some kind of consultant, but is he an ex-policeman? Or a private detective? Or simply a gifted amateur? The two or three books I’ve read so far don’t seem to clarify this – one day I might have to read the first in the series to find out. Anyway, everyone seems quite happy to have him involved. His personality in this one is rather less annoying than sometimes, and again I think that’s because the psychology is more important than the widgetry on this occasion.
I enjoyed this one a lot. While I always admire Carr’s writing, especially his ability to create a tense, sometimes creepy, atmosphere, I sometimes find he gets too bogged down for my taste in the how at the expense of the why, which always interests me more. This one focuses about equally on both aspects, allowing me to admire the intricacy with which he plots while also having a proper mystery around motivation and psychology to keep me interested. I still feel his criminals could find much simpler methods to commit their crimes, but I know lots of people love the puzzle aspect of his books. I love him much more when, like here, the questions of who and why are at least as important as how.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Inspector Andrew MacAndrew Elliot of Scotland Yard has been sent to the village of Sodbury Cross to look into a case that has baffled the local police for some months. Several people who had bought chocolates from the local sweet shop one day had fallen ill, and one child died. It transpired that some of the chocolates had been poisoned. The local gossip has fixed on Marjorie Wills as the guilty party – the young niece of a local peach farmer, Marcus Chesney. The local police don’t object to this suggestion but haven’t been able to find any evidence that Marjorie, or anyone else for that matter, switched the chocolates in the shop. When Elliot arrives in Sodbury Cross, he discovers that he has met Marjorie before, or seen her, at least, while on holiday in Pompeii, and he’d developed a bit of a fancy for her. So that gives him an added motivation to find the real culprit… assuming Marjorie is innocent. Marcus Chesney, meantime, thinks he’s worked out how the chocolate switching was done, and sets up a dramatic performance to prove his theory to his assembled relatives and friends. It all goes wrong when, during the performance, Chesney dies – poisoned! Everyone involved in the case was watching at the time, but they all saw different things…
While this is mostly a howdunit, there’s plenty of interesting characterisation and focus on the psychology of poisoners to stop the how aspects from making it too dry. The initial poisoning appears to have been completely random – anyone could have bought and eaten the poisoned chocolates. This suggests insanity on the part of the murderer. However the second poisoning, of Chesney, suggests a much more intricately planned and deliberately targeted murder, more indicative of a sane, intelligent mind. Along the way Carr has his characters discuss many real life cases as they try to get at the root of what is behind the crimes and whether the murderer is insane or not, and this is an added interest although some of the cases he mentions, which were probably well known at the time this book came out in 1939, have faded from the public consciousness now – or my consciousness, at least! But he gives enough information about each of these cases for the reader to be able to follow the discussions about them.
The howdunit aspect is more interesting than I usually find them. It depends less on fantastical devices and crazy methods than most “impossible crimes”, which made me quite happy! Instead the focus is on the unreliability of witnesses, sleight of hand, misdirection, etc., and, while it’s all a very complex way to commit a crime as howdunits usually are, it actually makes sense once all is revealed, for once. And because it’s not about widgets that miraculously open windows when an arrow is shot up a fireplace at the moment the clock strikes a quarter past nine (yes, I do get fed up with that kind of nonsense in Golden Age howdunits!), but instead is about what people have seen as opposed to what they think they have seen, it’s quite possible for the reader to follow along with the various theories and revelations.
Elliot is a likeable detective, although his decision to hide his pre-existing attraction to the chief suspect is a bit morally dubious. However, he reveals all to Gideon Fell, who happens to be in the neighbourhood. I haven’t quite got my head around who exactly Gideon Fell is. The police seem to use him on a semi-formal basis as some kind of consultant, but is he an ex-policeman? Or a private detective? Or simply a gifted amateur? The two or three books I’ve read so far don’t seem to clarify this – one day I might have to read the first in the series to find out. Anyway, everyone seems quite happy to have him involved. His personality in this one is rather less annoying than sometimes, and again I think that’s because the psychology is more important than the widgetry on this occasion.
I enjoyed this one a lot. While I always admire Carr’s writing, especially his ability to create a tense, sometimes creepy, atmosphere, I sometimes find he gets too bogged down for my taste in the how at the expense of the why, which always interests me more. This one focuses about equally on both aspects, allowing me to admire the intricacy with which he plots while also having a proper mystery around motivation and psychology to keep me interested. I still feel his criminals could find much simpler methods to commit their crimes, but I know lots of people love the puzzle aspect of his books. I love him much more when, like here, the questions of who and why are at least as important as how.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
January 26, 2021
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/01/...
While not limited to these books, this year's mystery reads focus mainly on a group of mystery/crime novels chosen by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated into Spanish, and started to be published in 1945. It's known as the séptimo círculo collection; the books are listed here:
http://www.borgesdebioycasares.com.ar...
The Problem of the Green Capsule apa The Black Spectacles is book number two of this group and book number ten in Carr's Gideon Fell series. I have to be honest: I haven't read many of these novels -- after collecting them from library/yard sales for what seems like forever, they've been living in wicker shelf baskets for years. It feels weird not to be starting with the first novel of this series as Carr refers to past Fell adventures in this book, but I didn't mind -- he gave nothing away in terms of plot so I can go back and read them without knowing anything.
Detective Inspector Andrew MacAndrew Elliot of Scotland Yard's CID has been assigned to look into a case in the village of Sodbury Cross, where someone has been poisoning chocolates in Mrs. Terry's tobacco-and-sweet shop, somehow substituting strychnine-laced confections for the chocolate creams kept on the shop's counter. Sadly, eight year-old Frankie Dell died after he'd "wolfed down the lot" he'd bought, while the children of another family and their "maidservant" who had also picked up a half pound of the tainted chocolates became very ill. The young niece of local businessman Marcus Chesney, Marjorie Wills (for reasons I won't go into here), is the main suspect. As Elliot begins to work with the local police on that case, word arrives that Marcus Chesney is dead. After arriving at the Chesney home, the detectives hear a fantastic story: as it happened, Chesney's murder not only occurred in front of a small group of people, always within sight of each other, but that
"every one of 'em saw the murderer and followed every move he made."
Even more surprising is that "they can't agree on anything that happened."
What comes next is unlike anything I've ever read before.
I'll confess that I had absolutely no clue as to the who and the how before reaching the end and the big reveal, always a good sign. I'm also sure that the phrase "jaw-dropping" was more than appropriate at that point, garnering silent but worthy praise for the mind that put this puzzler together. At just over 160 pages it should have been a quick read, but there are a number of elements at play here, each to be unfurled slowly, mused over, and put on hold in the brain as the story progresses. Not only is there a solid, impossible mystery here, but one of the added perks from my point of view is a brief, whirlwind history of infamous real-life poisoners, in which Fell expounds on the psychological make-up of people who had turned to this method of killing. Another clue that The Problem of the Green Capsule is not going to be your run-of-the-mill Golden-Age detection story comes from the book's subtitle, "Being the Psychologist's Murder Case." Add to that the author's remarkable construction of the sleight-of-hand, misdirection and illusion that rule the day in this well-plotted novel, and it becomes something rather ingenious. I also had great fun with this book, which in the end, is the most important thing.
Definitely recommended.
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/01/...
While not limited to these books, this year's mystery reads focus mainly on a group of mystery/crime novels chosen by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated into Spanish, and started to be published in 1945. It's known as the séptimo círculo collection; the books are listed here:
http://www.borgesdebioycasares.com.ar...
The Problem of the Green Capsule apa The Black Spectacles is book number two of this group and book number ten in Carr's Gideon Fell series. I have to be honest: I haven't read many of these novels -- after collecting them from library/yard sales for what seems like forever, they've been living in wicker shelf baskets for years. It feels weird not to be starting with the first novel of this series as Carr refers to past Fell adventures in this book, but I didn't mind -- he gave nothing away in terms of plot so I can go back and read them without knowing anything.
Detective Inspector Andrew MacAndrew Elliot of Scotland Yard's CID has been assigned to look into a case in the village of Sodbury Cross, where someone has been poisoning chocolates in Mrs. Terry's tobacco-and-sweet shop, somehow substituting strychnine-laced confections for the chocolate creams kept on the shop's counter. Sadly, eight year-old Frankie Dell died after he'd "wolfed down the lot" he'd bought, while the children of another family and their "maidservant" who had also picked up a half pound of the tainted chocolates became very ill. The young niece of local businessman Marcus Chesney, Marjorie Wills (for reasons I won't go into here), is the main suspect. As Elliot begins to work with the local police on that case, word arrives that Marcus Chesney is dead. After arriving at the Chesney home, the detectives hear a fantastic story: as it happened, Chesney's murder not only occurred in front of a small group of people, always within sight of each other, but that
"every one of 'em saw the murderer and followed every move he made."
Even more surprising is that "they can't agree on anything that happened."
What comes next is unlike anything I've ever read before.
I'll confess that I had absolutely no clue as to the who and the how before reaching the end and the big reveal, always a good sign. I'm also sure that the phrase "jaw-dropping" was more than appropriate at that point, garnering silent but worthy praise for the mind that put this puzzler together. At just over 160 pages it should have been a quick read, but there are a number of elements at play here, each to be unfurled slowly, mused over, and put on hold in the brain as the story progresses. Not only is there a solid, impossible mystery here, but one of the added perks from my point of view is a brief, whirlwind history of infamous real-life poisoners, in which Fell expounds on the psychological make-up of people who had turned to this method of killing. Another clue that The Problem of the Green Capsule is not going to be your run-of-the-mill Golden-Age detection story comes from the book's subtitle, "Being the Psychologist's Murder Case." Add to that the author's remarkable construction of the sleight-of-hand, misdirection and illusion that rule the day in this well-plotted novel, and it becomes something rather ingenious. I also had great fun with this book, which in the end, is the most important thing.
Definitely recommended.
August 18, 2020
Khi đại gia sở hữu những nhà kính trồng đào Marcus Chesney sắp đặt một “màn trình diễn” vào khoảng nửa đêm, không ai có thể ngờ đó lại là một vụ án mạng. Trước sự chứng kiến của ba nhân chứng: cô cháu gái Marjorie Wills của ông, George Harding - vị hôn phu của Marjorie, và giáo sư Ingram, ngài Marcus Chesney đã dàn dựng một quang cảnh với mục đích chứng minh rằng không một nhân chứng nào có thể kể lại chính xác những điều đã xảy ra trước mắt mình. Và rồi một bóng đen được mệnh danh “bác sĩ Nemo” - nhân vật được các nhân chứng quả quyết là do Wilbur Emmet đóng giả - đã bước vào từ khung cửa sổ kiểu Pháp, nhét một viên nhộng xanh vào miệng Marcus Chesney - viên thuốc đã được tiêm chất độc và sau đó giết chết vị đại gia xấu số. Trước đó, tại vùng Sodbury Cross, nơi Marcus Chesney bị đầu độc, cũng đã có một vụ đầu độc các trẻ em ăn phải những viên sô-cô-la bị tẩm độc trong cửa hàng của bà Terry. Vậy liệu có sự liên hệ nào giữa hai vụ án này? Và liệu hung thủ của cả hai vụ án có phải là một?
Những tưởng với ba nhân chứng chứng kiến vụ án mạng của Marcus Chesney, cộng với một cuộn băng video quay lại cảnh màn trình diễn dẫn tới cái chết bất ngờ của ông chủ nhà, được để hớ hênh như thể hung thủ muốn “dâng tận miệng” bằng chứng có thể kết tội hắn, “Vụ Án Viên Nhộng Xanh” có thể được dễ dàng giải mã “chỉ trong một nốt nhạc”. Ấy thế mà mọi thứ lại không hề dễ dàng như thế, bởi dường như không có một câu trả lời nào thực sự chính xác để giải thích cho các chi tiết của màn trình diễn, từ thời điểm xảy ra vụ án (cho dù chiếc đồng hồ trong phòng là loại đồng hồ không thể bị tác động để thay đổi giờ giấc), chiếc hộp để trên bàn Marcus Chesney là màu xanh lá hay xanh dương, chiều cao của nhân vật Nemo, cái que dài dài mà Marcus Chesney cầm lên giả vờ viết chữ trong khi thực hiện màn trình diễn, cho tới việc ai thực sự là người đóng vai Nemo. Phải nhờ tới tiến sĩ Fell cùng khả năng quan sát, suy luận, thậm chí liên hệ với các vụ án đầu độc nổi tiếng trước đó và tự mình xây dựng profile của hung thủ dựa trên những tội phạm đầu độc, thì hung thủ mới được lộ diện.
Nếu so với tác phẩm đầu tiên của John Dickson Carr mà mình đọc là “Người Rỗng”, thì “Vụ Án Viên Nhộng Xanh” ít tinh quái cũng như ít gây bất ngờ hơn. Thế nhưng đây vẫn là một cuốn sách hay và đầy thú vị, khi nó nhấn mạnh đến yếu tố đánh lừa thị giác, rằng cái mà chúng ta nhìn thấy nhiều khi là sự sai lệch so với sự thật, do vị trí đứng của chúng ta và cả sự mặc nhiên thừa nhận của bộ não. Đồng thời, cuốn sách cũng mang đến những suy luận kỳ tài và cả sự thấu hiểu bản chất, tính cách của những kẻ giết người theo kiểu đầu độc - sự thấu hiểu chỉ có được sau nhiều năm tìm hiểu về các vụ án mạng do đầu độc. Ban đầu mình cứ tưởng đầu độc cho người ta chết thì dễ lắm, vì không máu me, không cần hung khí chi hết. Cơ mà sau khi nghe tiến sĩ Fell giải thích thì hóa ra, đầu độc thực sự lại khó thành công hơn nhiều so với khi cầm dao cầm súng giết người, vì sau khi nạn nhân chết thì hung thủ vẫn phải tiếp tục làm cách nào đó để duy trì vẻ bề ngoài của cái chết ấy là một cái chết tự nhiên nữa cơ, hơi bị dễ lộ tẩy luôn ah :))))
Khi tiến sĩ Fell phá án, giải thích những gì diễn ra trong cuộc băng và những gì thực sự diễn ra vào lúc vụ án mạng xảy ra, thì mình mới vỡ lẽ được nhiều thứ. Cũng quả có hơi bất ngờ trước lời giải của vụ án, cùng sự lắt léo trong âm mưu giết người, có thể khiến lời khai của cả ba nhân chứng trở nên không thống nhất và dám cố tình dắt mũi cả tiến sĩ Fell. Bên cạnh đó, câu chuyện cũng đề cập đến tình cảm của thám tử điều tra trẻ tuổi Elliott dành cho cho Marjorie Wills nữa, coi như là truyện trinh thám mà có thêm tí gia vị lãng mạn, đọc cũng vui vui :)))
Những tưởng với ba nhân chứng chứng kiến vụ án mạng của Marcus Chesney, cộng với một cuộn băng video quay lại cảnh màn trình diễn dẫn tới cái chết bất ngờ của ông chủ nhà, được để hớ hênh như thể hung thủ muốn “dâng tận miệng” bằng chứng có thể kết tội hắn, “Vụ Án Viên Nhộng Xanh” có thể được dễ dàng giải mã “chỉ trong một nốt nhạc”. Ấy thế mà mọi thứ lại không hề dễ dàng như thế, bởi dường như không có một câu trả lời nào thực sự chính xác để giải thích cho các chi tiết của màn trình diễn, từ thời điểm xảy ra vụ án (cho dù chiếc đồng hồ trong phòng là loại đồng hồ không thể bị tác động để thay đổi giờ giấc), chiếc hộp để trên bàn Marcus Chesney là màu xanh lá hay xanh dương, chiều cao của nhân vật Nemo, cái que dài dài mà Marcus Chesney cầm lên giả vờ viết chữ trong khi thực hiện màn trình diễn, cho tới việc ai thực sự là người đóng vai Nemo. Phải nhờ tới tiến sĩ Fell cùng khả năng quan sát, suy luận, thậm chí liên hệ với các vụ án đầu độc nổi tiếng trước đó và tự mình xây dựng profile của hung thủ dựa trên những tội phạm đầu độc, thì hung thủ mới được lộ diện.
Nếu so với tác phẩm đầu tiên của John Dickson Carr mà mình đọc là “Người Rỗng”, thì “Vụ Án Viên Nhộng Xanh” ít tinh quái cũng như ít gây bất ngờ hơn. Thế nhưng đây vẫn là một cuốn sách hay và đầy thú vị, khi nó nhấn mạnh đến yếu tố đánh lừa thị giác, rằng cái mà chúng ta nhìn thấy nhiều khi là sự sai lệch so với sự thật, do vị trí đứng của chúng ta và cả sự mặc nhiên thừa nhận của bộ não. Đồng thời, cuốn sách cũng mang đến những suy luận kỳ tài và cả sự thấu hiểu bản chất, tính cách của những kẻ giết người theo kiểu đầu độc - sự thấu hiểu chỉ có được sau nhiều năm tìm hiểu về các vụ án mạng do đầu độc. Ban đầu mình cứ tưởng đầu độc cho người ta chết thì dễ lắm, vì không máu me, không cần hung khí chi hết. Cơ mà sau khi nghe tiến sĩ Fell giải thích thì hóa ra, đầu độc thực sự lại khó thành công hơn nhiều so với khi cầm dao cầm súng giết người, vì sau khi nạn nhân chết thì hung thủ vẫn phải tiếp tục làm cách nào đó để duy trì vẻ bề ngoài của cái chết ấy là một cái chết tự nhiên nữa cơ, hơi bị dễ lộ tẩy luôn ah :))))
Khi tiến sĩ Fell phá án, giải thích những gì diễn ra trong cuộc băng và những gì thực sự diễn ra vào lúc vụ án mạng xảy ra, thì mình mới vỡ lẽ được nhiều thứ. Cũng quả có hơi bất ngờ trước lời giải của vụ án, cùng sự lắt léo trong âm mưu giết người, có thể khiến lời khai của cả ba nhân chứng trở nên không thống nhất và dám cố tình dắt mũi cả tiến sĩ Fell. Bên cạnh đó, câu chuyện cũng đề cập đến tình cảm của thám tử điều tra trẻ tuổi Elliott dành cho cho Marjorie Wills nữa, coi như là truyện trinh thám mà có thêm tí gia vị lãng mạn, đọc cũng vui vui :)))
May 23, 2025
L'abilità di sbrogliare autentici rompicapo come i delitti perpetrati in un ambiente chiuso, sono per John Dickson Carr autentici tour de force che gli fanno onore e lo hanno reso ai miei occhi un grande giallista insuperabile: in questo suo romanzo del 1939 due sono le domande impossibili che si pongono al famigerato dr Fell: é mai possibile avvelenare una persona in una pasticceria piena di persone e successivamente in una strada affollata e scomparire? potrà essere complicato ma non impossibile perché il dr Fell ne darà risposta venendo fuori alla grande con la sua perfetta e inoppugnabile logica.
January 9, 2021
4.5
Mình thích cuốn này nhất trong số 3 cuốn mình đã đọc của tác giả (Người rỗng, Chiếc bản lề cong).
Trước tiên là nói về mấy điểm mà mình không thực sự thích lắm ở cuốn này. Thứ nhất là động cơ của thủ phạm không ph�� hợp với cách gây án tương đối là phức tạp. Sự liên quan của thủ phạm giết ông Chesney với vụ đầu độc Sodbury không được giải thích kĩ càng, mình đã đọc đi đọc lại mà không tìm được nguyên nhân tại sao phải có vụ kẹo độc xảy ra. Nó quá rắc rối và không cần thiết, không hiểu sao thủ phạm lại phải phức tạp hoá như vậy làm gì. Thứ hai là cả phần đầu, phần mà thanh tra Elliot theo dõi gia đình Chesney ở khu di tích, có nghĩa lý gì với cả truyện. Có thể là để người đọc hiểu hơn về các mối quan hệ trong gia đình Chesney và để tác giả giới thiệu luôn về vụ kẹo độc ở Sodbury. Nhưng dù sao thì mình vẫn không thể hiểu lý do Elliot theo dõi gia đình đó, mà phải đi theo họ đến tận nơi du lịch nữa. Thứ ba là có một đoạn dài dòng tiến sĩ Fell giải thích về động cơ và tính chất những kẻ giết người bằng cách đầu độc, khá là chán và không cung cấp mấy những gì mình cần.
Trở lại với điểm mình thích ở cuốn sách này là vụ án mạng xảy ra và cách gây án. Toàn bộ vụ án xảy ra dưới sự chứng kiến của các nhân chứng có vẻ tin cậy và họ đều có thể làm chứng lẫn nhau. Vậy làm sao một kẻ trong số họ có thể giết người thật trong khi hắn thuộc về các nhân chứng? Đây là điểm gây tò mò nhất và cũng vững chắc nhất khiến vụ án gần như là không thể do người cùng gia đình gây ra (người có mặt tại hiện trường). Chỉ cần lý giải được điểm bất hợp lý là có thể đánh đổ toàn bộ lời khai.
Điểm thứ hai chính là không khí bao trùm của truyện có vẻ rất đáng sợ và đen tối. Bóng kẻ lạ mặt kinh tởm nhét viên con nhộng độc vào Chesney trước sự chứng kiến của bao nhiêu người! Truyện xây dựng thành công không khí ghê rợn và truyền đạt được dã tâm độc ác của một kẻ hạ độc nhẫn tâm.
Mình thích cuốn này nhất trong số 3 cuốn mình đã đọc của tác giả (Người rỗng, Chiếc bản lề cong).
Trước tiên là nói về mấy điểm mà mình không thực sự thích lắm ở cuốn này. Thứ nhất là động cơ của thủ phạm không ph�� hợp với cách gây án tương đối là phức tạp. Sự liên quan của thủ phạm giết ông Chesney với vụ đầu độc Sodbury không được giải thích kĩ càng, mình đã đọc đi đọc lại mà không tìm được nguyên nhân tại sao phải có vụ kẹo độc xảy ra. Nó quá rắc rối và không cần thiết, không hiểu sao thủ phạm lại phải phức tạp hoá như vậy làm gì. Thứ hai là cả phần đầu, phần mà thanh tra Elliot theo dõi gia đình Chesney ở khu di tích, có nghĩa lý gì với cả truyện. Có thể là để người đọc hiểu hơn về các mối quan hệ trong gia đình Chesney và để tác giả giới thiệu luôn về vụ kẹo độc ở Sodbury. Nhưng dù sao thì mình vẫn không thể hiểu lý do Elliot theo dõi gia đình đó, mà phải đi theo họ đến tận nơi du lịch nữa. Thứ ba là có một đoạn dài dòng tiến sĩ Fell giải thích về động cơ và tính chất những kẻ giết người bằng cách đầu độc, khá là chán và không cung cấp mấy những gì mình cần.
Trở lại với điểm mình thích ở cuốn sách này là vụ án mạng xảy ra và cách gây án. Toàn bộ vụ án xảy ra dưới sự chứng kiến của các nhân chứng có vẻ tin cậy và họ đều có thể làm chứng lẫn nhau. Vậy làm sao một kẻ trong số họ có thể giết người thật trong khi hắn thuộc về các nhân chứng? Đây là điểm gây tò mò nhất và cũng vững chắc nhất khiến vụ án gần như là không thể do người cùng gia đình gây ra (người có mặt tại hiện trường). Chỉ cần lý giải được điểm bất hợp lý là có thể đánh đổ toàn bộ lời khai.
Điểm thứ hai chính là không khí bao trùm của truyện có vẻ rất đáng sợ và đen tối. Bóng kẻ lạ mặt kinh tởm nhét viên con nhộng độc vào Chesney trước sự chứng kiến của bao nhiêu người! Truyện xây dựng thành công không khí ghê rợn và truyền đạt được dã tâm độc ác của một kẻ hạ độc nhẫn tâm.
June 23, 2016
This is an excellent mystery with a wonderfully shrewd plot and keeps the reader engaged throughout. Dr. Gideon Fell, with his several chins and gargantuan presence is easily one of the most endearing sleuths ever created and he is in top form here. If you will ever read only one book featuring Dr. Fell, then I may not recommend this one, but I will recommend it in all other cases.
May 7, 2021
The book was engaging, and I read it all in one go as is standard with GAD fiction, yet I found myself somewhat disappointed by the conclusion. I would put it at the level of a tier-2 Christie; engaging enough plot, decent pacing, but a solution that's a bit too contrived. I loved the central premise of the unreliability of eyewitnesses, but toward the end, the plot clung too much to the intricacies of this premise, and relied too heavily on suppositions of the "ingenious" tricks that the victim played.
Another thing I disliked was the characterisation - with GAD, this is often a problem, but the Christie and Alligham books I read manage to create a good deal of atmosphere, and I think this book fell flat on that. Overall, though, a good read for a lazy afternoon.
Another thing I disliked was the characterisation - with GAD, this is often a problem, but the Christie and Alligham books I read manage to create a good deal of atmosphere, and I think this book fell flat on that. Overall, though, a good read for a lazy afternoon.
June 2, 2021
A:
Incredible! JDC is a King!
Contains so many red herrings that I kept shifting my opinion on who the murderer was and it still ended up somewhat surprising me. Madly entertaining (took just a day to read), beautifully reasoned and psychologically sound, too. I can't believe that I was fool enough to put off reading Carr's work for so long.
Incredible! JDC is a King!
Contains so many red herrings that I kept shifting my opinion on who the murderer was and it still ended up somewhat surprising me. Madly entertaining (took just a day to read), beautifully reasoned and psychologically sound, too. I can't believe that I was fool enough to put off reading Carr's work for so long.
February 17, 2024
Wonderful, taut and sinister tale told so well. The twist was wonderful and I was completely gripped the whole way through.
November 24, 2019
Full review at classicmystery.blog
February 21, 2020
Clever! The puzzle snapped together, the psychology was frightfully believable, and the book was worth hunting down. Absolutely delightful.
December 28, 2023
This is one of John Dixon Carr’s most acclaimed books. I enjoyed it but was not blown away.
January 11, 2022
Got interested about this after knowing about Christina Edmunds case and some reviews about golden age mystery writers. But ended up a bit disappointed. It shouldn't have been surprising though. As many other works from that era, while the "mystery" part itself was good and fit together correctly, the characters just seem to exist to display that puzzle. None of the the characters are interesting, and Gideon Fell was just another one of those obnoxious detective leads. Maybe its the mannerisms of that era, most of the characters speak and act the same. And the situations are sanitized to the extent possible for a murder mystery. Overall a short and dull read
December 29, 2020
Sau khi đọc xong cuốn tiểu thuyết này thì mình thấy khá thất vọng với những tình tiết mà tác giả đưa ra. Động cơ gây án của hung thủ cũng như cách suy luận và tìm ra hung thủ của nhân vật thám tử trong cuốn tiểu thuyết này chưa thuyết phục mình bằng những cuốn tiểu thuyết trinh thám của nữ tác giả Agatha Christie.
May 21, 2016
Carr on top form with this one.He sometimes over does the red herrings and possible suspects but this one is pitched just right.Not a locked room mystery as such this time,rather a murder committed in front of several watching witnesses and filmed at the same time!Highly recommended.
April 9, 2020
see review of another edition
August 1, 2023
Never like when the main detective starts to fall for one of the suspects. And this one took it to another level by conveniently making the third-wheel the murderer.
Elliot was such an unlikeable character, and the book had no clues whatsoever. The culmination was stupid and senseless.
Marjorie was a regular damsel, which by the ways, only men can write such useless female characters.
Seriously, when it comes to mysteries, women are unbeatable. Be it Christie, Lorac, Rinehart, unbeatable.
Men just can't write women. They just can't.
Elliot was such an unlikeable character, and the book had no clues whatsoever. The culmination was stupid and senseless.
Marjorie was a regular damsel, which by the ways, only men can write such useless female characters.
Seriously, when it comes to mysteries, women are unbeatable. Be it Christie, Lorac, Rinehart, unbeatable.
Men just can't write women. They just can't.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2021
Một cuốn trinh thám suy luận cổ điển tiệm cận hoàn hảo. Văn phong mượt mà, vụ án thú vị, các câu đố logic, manh mối được cung cấp công bằng để độc giả có thể tự suy luận, cá trích đỏ hợp lý, người dẫn truyện không phiền nhiễu, vị thám tử không diễn quá lố. Đông A cũng xứng đáng được khen ngợi vì đã cung cấp một bản dịch tốt và thiết kế bìa đẹp (không hiểu sao bìa của H.G. Wells bị đối xử như con ghẻ vậy :(( )
June 8, 2025
Excellent plot and character development. Also lots of red herrings as to who could have done it. And how it was done made for great reading. I loved every page of it, even the long winded unpacking of the motives. I didn’t solve it. My suspect was totally innocent. Oh well! 5 stars. And I plan on reading more Dr Fell.
December 5, 2025
What a brilliant opening, but I found the ending much too complicated and confounding.
Reread the last and tiring and confounding chapter — and with more attention, and will now upgrade this to 4.5. Now it makes sense!
Reread the last and tiring and confounding chapter — and with more attention, and will now upgrade this to 4.5. Now it makes sense!
September 5, 2022
I didn’t remember this one at all, but it is one of the best Dr. Fell mysteries. Ignore the romance plot, and concentrate on the tricks and sleight of hand.
The British title is better and spookier: The Black Spectacles.
The British title is better and spookier: The Black Spectacles.
April 9, 2020
John Dickson Carr is one of the grand masters of the locked room and the [apparently] impossible crime. And, of course, The Problem of the Green Capsule is another such specimen. It begins with Dr. Marcus Chesney lecturing his household and associates on the fact that eyewitnesses are unreliable--that, as has often been said, if ten people observe the same incident then ten different versions will be told. And, as he later writes in a letter to Dr. Gideon Fell, "Show them a black-and-white record of it aferwards, and they will believe you; but even then they will be unable to interpret correctly what they see."
This subject has long been a hobby-horse of his, but the latest lecture has been brought on by an incidence of poisoning his home village. One child was killed and several others became deathly ill when someone slipped strychnine-laden candies into the stock of a local merchant. The police are at a loss to find evidence enough to capture the culprit and suspicion falls upon Chesney's niece and heir Marjorie.
In order to prove his point and, as we later find out, to show how Chesney believes the poisoning to have been accomplished, the doctor arranges for a demonstration to be performed in his own home. He has three in his audience--his niece, her fiance, and a friend who is a psychologist. Harding, the fiance, is set to film the entire show. Chesney and an unknown player go through a scene in his darkened library. The doctor sits at a desk with various objects on it, pretends to write some sort of note, and then a man in coat and silk hat, muffled to his nose and wearing dark glasses and gloves, comes into the room. The mysterious figure forces a green capsule into the doctor's mouth and then leaves. When the show is over and the lights go up, the doctor dies of cyanide poisoning before he can find out how his audience has fared in their observations. Once the three observers realize what has happened, they rush outside to see if they can catch the mysterious visitor. They find his costume in a pile outside the french doors and the handyman lying prone under a tree--a victim of the proverbial blunt instrument.
The police begin investigating, but it seems that everyone who is a viable suspect has an alibi. And, as Chesney predicted, each of the observers saw things just a little bit differently. It is going to be difficult to bring the murder (and the poisonings) home to anyone. But then the inspector on the case brings in Dr. Fell who has a way of making the most mysterious plain and unraveling the most impossible conundrums.
This is another excellent example of Carr's taking a seemingly impossible situation and giving it enough twists and turns to make it come out right..and quite simply too. As always, the clues are all there and as soon as Fell dangled them under my nose, I was all "of course! I should have seen that."
This subject has long been a hobby-horse of his, but the latest lecture has been brought on by an incidence of poisoning his home village. One child was killed and several others became deathly ill when someone slipped strychnine-laden candies into the stock of a local merchant. The police are at a loss to find evidence enough to capture the culprit and suspicion falls upon Chesney's niece and heir Marjorie.
In order to prove his point and, as we later find out, to show how Chesney believes the poisoning to have been accomplished, the doctor arranges for a demonstration to be performed in his own home. He has three in his audience--his niece, her fiance, and a friend who is a psychologist. Harding, the fiance, is set to film the entire show. Chesney and an unknown player go through a scene in his darkened library. The doctor sits at a desk with various objects on it, pretends to write some sort of note, and then a man in coat and silk hat, muffled to his nose and wearing dark glasses and gloves, comes into the room. The mysterious figure forces a green capsule into the doctor's mouth and then leaves. When the show is over and the lights go up, the doctor dies of cyanide poisoning before he can find out how his audience has fared in their observations. Once the three observers realize what has happened, they rush outside to see if they can catch the mysterious visitor. They find his costume in a pile outside the french doors and the handyman lying prone under a tree--a victim of the proverbial blunt instrument.
The police begin investigating, but it seems that everyone who is a viable suspect has an alibi. And, as Chesney predicted, each of the observers saw things just a little bit differently. It is going to be difficult to bring the murder (and the poisonings) home to anyone. But then the inspector on the case brings in Dr. Fell who has a way of making the most mysterious plain and unraveling the most impossible conundrums.
This is another excellent example of Carr's taking a seemingly impossible situation and giving it enough twists and turns to make it come out right..and quite simply too. As always, the clues are all there and as soon as Fell dangled them under my nose, I was all "of course! I should have seen that."
July 6, 2023
Enamorada me hallo de las ediciones que @who_editorial nos está trayendo rescatando a los grandes escritores de la Golden Age policíaca inglesa. Como esta joya del estadounidense John Dickson Carr, uno de los pesos pesados del género; un autor que a pesar de no ser oriundo de Inglaterra, adoptó totalmente los escenarios y personajes ingleses en sus obras, convirtiéndose en un exponente básico del género, por adopción.
En las gafas oscuras, el autor nos plantea un juego en la trama que traspasa las páginas del libro para envolver al lector en sus redes. Marcus Chesney, está convencido de que en un acto delictivo, los testigos oculares nunca son capaces de captar toda la esencia y detalles del momento, varían sus percepciones, sus testimonios son subjetivos, es como si cada uno de ellos llevase unas gafas negras que le impiden ver el momento con claridad. Marcus, decide, para probar su teoría, escenificar un crimen, un juego para sus invitados y para alimentar su nada despreciable ego. Si a todo esto le sumamos un pueblo pequeño y una macabra bombonería donde muere gente, tenemos el cóctel lector perfecto.
Como todo buen hacedor de novela policíaca, Dickson Carr nos deleitará con su investigador estrella, el Dr. Gideon Fell, uno de los personajes más avispados del género; pretencioso a la par que bondadoso, nos encandilará con sus pomposas disquisiciones y nos acercará al true crime a través de un maravilloso anecdotario de asesinos famosos. Fell protagoniza varias de las novelas del autor, pero sin un orden particular de lectura, cada novela es un caso independiente; Las gafas negras puede ser un buen comienzo para conocer al sardónico Dr. Fell.
Una excelente novela de habitación cerrada, claustrofóbica y asfixiante, donde el lector tiene los hechos y culpables ante sí, pero es incapaz de verlos, todos tenemos gafas negras. En un escenario único y con los personajes en todo momento a la vista del investigador, el acto delictivo se torna imposible, más que al culpable en sí, se debe intentar entender el cómo, ahí reside la originalidad y el disfrute de esta historia.
“Está usted invitado a ser testigo de un asesinato…” ¿Puede haber mejor comienzo?
En las gafas oscuras, el autor nos plantea un juego en la trama que traspasa las páginas del libro para envolver al lector en sus redes. Marcus Chesney, está convencido de que en un acto delictivo, los testigos oculares nunca son capaces de captar toda la esencia y detalles del momento, varían sus percepciones, sus testimonios son subjetivos, es como si cada uno de ellos llevase unas gafas negras que le impiden ver el momento con claridad. Marcus, decide, para probar su teoría, escenificar un crimen, un juego para sus invitados y para alimentar su nada despreciable ego. Si a todo esto le sumamos un pueblo pequeño y una macabra bombonería donde muere gente, tenemos el cóctel lector perfecto.
Como todo buen hacedor de novela policíaca, Dickson Carr nos deleitará con su investigador estrella, el Dr. Gideon Fell, uno de los personajes más avispados del género; pretencioso a la par que bondadoso, nos encandilará con sus pomposas disquisiciones y nos acercará al true crime a través de un maravilloso anecdotario de asesinos famosos. Fell protagoniza varias de las novelas del autor, pero sin un orden particular de lectura, cada novela es un caso independiente; Las gafas negras puede ser un buen comienzo para conocer al sardónico Dr. Fell.
Una excelente novela de habitación cerrada, claustrofóbica y asfixiante, donde el lector tiene los hechos y culpables ante sí, pero es incapaz de verlos, todos tenemos gafas negras. En un escenario único y con los personajes en todo momento a la vista del investigador, el acto delictivo se torna imposible, más que al culpable en sí, se debe intentar entender el cómo, ahí reside la originalidad y el disfrute de esta historia.
“Está usted invitado a ser testigo de un asesinato…” ¿Puede haber mejor comienzo?
October 7, 2023
I can't say I liked it that much. It was fine though. (Listened to about 80% via audiobook, then read the rest on my kindle.) I do like the trick of the swapped film recording (plus actor being swapped) and how things like the "useless" question of guy's height actually meant that it was another man swapped for him.
But I do think that it's hard to picture the room/geography, plus the equipment is old, so a lot of that makes it hard to solve the piece. It's similar to some Queen/Christie pieces that use outdated technology, and it's harder for the reader to imagine/understand. I also dislike the random gunshot by uncle Joe near the end from an unexplained "accidentally loaded gun" - it seems out of nowhere and unexplained. Then the novel ends without any sort of full closure for Elliot/Margery. (I certainly felt pity for the woman and would've liked to see some sort of closure for her.)
I enjoyed Professor Ingram's character though and how he made a good witness, and I do like how a lot of small clues/inconsistencies came together, like Harding pretending not to know about the poisonings and such. Spring-bag was whatever, and I disliked the psychoanalysis on poisoners and over-emphasis on other poisoning cases, but as a mystery as a whole, it's not awful given the time frame it was written, though I don't love it. It's fine and clever enough.
I think I'd like it more if the writing wasn't as dry and if it didn't rely on older technology as much.
But I do think that it's hard to picture the room/geography, plus the equipment is old, so a lot of that makes it hard to solve the piece. It's similar to some Queen/Christie pieces that use outdated technology, and it's harder for the reader to imagine/understand. I also dislike the random gunshot by uncle Joe near the end from an unexplained "accidentally loaded gun" - it seems out of nowhere and unexplained. Then the novel ends without any sort of full closure for Elliot/Margery. (I certainly felt pity for the woman and would've liked to see some sort of closure for her.)
I enjoyed Professor Ingram's character though and how he made a good witness, and I do like how a lot of small clues/inconsistencies came together, like Harding pretending not to know about the poisonings and such. Spring-bag was whatever, and I disliked the psychoanalysis on poisoners and over-emphasis on other poisoning cases, but as a mystery as a whole, it's not awful given the time frame it was written, though I don't love it. It's fine and clever enough.
I think I'd like it more if the writing wasn't as dry and if it didn't rely on older technology as much.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2020
This is my first John Dickson Carr who was known for writing puzzling locked in room mysteries. The Black Spectacles which was also published in the US as The Problem of the Green Capsule in 1939.
Gideon Fell features as the private detective. Elliot a police detective is assigned to a case in the village of Sodbury Cross where Marjorie Wills is suspected of having poisoned some chocolates in the local sweet shop with a child dying from strychnine poisoning. Her millionaire uncle, Marcus Chesney, believes that she is innocent and that eyewitnesses are unreliable.
He believes he knows how the poisonings was carried out and does a re-enactment with three witnesses. Majorie and her fiancée George Harding who films literally the murder and the psychologist Professor Ingram.
One of these three people did the murders. The clues are there and Fell explains them in the conclusion. Elliot is a bit besotted with Majorie and suspects her fiancée George a research chemist with a good knowledge of poisons. It was an enjoyable read and has stood the test of time well.
Gideon Fell features as the private detective. Elliot a police detective is assigned to a case in the village of Sodbury Cross where Marjorie Wills is suspected of having poisoned some chocolates in the local sweet shop with a child dying from strychnine poisoning. Her millionaire uncle, Marcus Chesney, believes that she is innocent and that eyewitnesses are unreliable.
He believes he knows how the poisonings was carried out and does a re-enactment with three witnesses. Majorie and her fiancée George Harding who films literally the murder and the psychologist Professor Ingram.
One of these three people did the murders. The clues are there and Fell explains them in the conclusion. Elliot is a bit besotted with Majorie and suspects her fiancée George a research chemist with a good knowledge of poisons. It was an enjoyable read and has stood the test of time well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 30, 2018
For my full review click on the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...
March 26, 2023
Doubtless, I shall incur the wrath of the JDC fan club by not writing a rave review of this work, more generally known by its less fitting US title.
It is good, but is not without weaknesses and annoyances. I could easily have done without the lectures on poisoners, for instance, and the culprit was firmly in the spotlight for me at too early a stage.
The tricksiness around the central murder is fun, if tending toward the ludicrous, and it is a bit...obvious. The leading female character, Marjorie, is quite awful ,and one wonders about values and morality when the Chief Constable says of Gideon Fell:-
"...You had more luck than I had. I tried to interest him in this business last June. But no. Wasn’t sensational enough for him, it seems. No hermetically sealed rooms. No supernatural elements. No funny business at the Royal Scarlet Hotel. Only a brutal murder by strychnine, and several near-murders. But now we’ve got a broad range of evidence, and two more victims—one of whom, Inspector, it might be worth your while to examine—’..."
As always, this is very readable, and there is an intriguing similarity of behaviour to be found between Inspector Elliot here, and Albert Campion in Allingham's "Dancers in Mourning" from 1937.
Recommended.
It is good, but is not without weaknesses and annoyances. I could easily have done without the lectures on poisoners, for instance, and the culprit was firmly in the spotlight for me at too early a stage.
The tricksiness around the central murder is fun, if tending toward the ludicrous, and it is a bit...obvious. The leading female character, Marjorie, is quite awful ,and one wonders about values and morality when the Chief Constable says of Gideon Fell:-
"...You had more luck than I had. I tried to interest him in this business last June. But no. Wasn’t sensational enough for him, it seems. No hermetically sealed rooms. No supernatural elements. No funny business at the Royal Scarlet Hotel. Only a brutal murder by strychnine, and several near-murders. But now we’ve got a broad range of evidence, and two more victims—one of whom, Inspector, it might be worth your while to examine—’..."
As always, this is very readable, and there is an intriguing similarity of behaviour to be found between Inspector Elliot here, and Albert Campion in Allingham's "Dancers in Mourning" from 1937.
Recommended.
August 27, 2024
This mystery from 1939, recently republished by the British Library Crime Classics series, is by the actual master of the locked room mystery. Although this one is not a locked room puzzle, but a closed circle mystery, with a limited pool of suspects, it has many of the same attributes. Unlike the most recent mystery I reviewed, however, the relationships among the suspects, the character of the investigators, including the “conjuror”figure of Dr. Gideon Fell, are fully developed. Accordingly, the reader cares about them and the outcome makes sense emotionally as well as logically.
October 29, 2017
Hercule Poirot's Christmas, The Second Gong and this one, are the best examples of what a cozy murder mystery is like. Ideally suited to be a tightly knit play with the actors continuously challenging the reader to see beyond what is apparent. And thankfully none of Carr's habit of distracting readers with obscure passages. Love it!
abandoned
March 8, 202402/03- (abandoned 03/03/24) Audiobook narrated by Kris Dyer.
I just couldn’t handle Kris’ narration on this one, so abandoned the audio during the first chapter. I think this is one that would work better for me in a printed format.
I just couldn’t handle Kris’ narration on this one, so abandoned the audio during the first chapter. I think this is one that would work better for me in a printed format.
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