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Henri Bencolin #3
Castle Skull: A Rhineland Mystery
'That is the case. Alison has been murdered. His blazing body was seen running about the battlements of Castle Skull.'
And so a dark shadow looms over the Rhineland where Inspector Henri Bencolin and his accomplice Jeff Marle have arrived from Paris. Entreated by the Belgian financier D’Aunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison, the pair find themselves at the imposing hilltop fortress Schloss Schädel, in which a small group of suspects are still assembled.
As thunder rolls in the distance, Bencolin and Marle enter a world steeped in macabre legends of murder and magic to catch the killer still walking the maze-like passages and towers of the keep.
This new edition of John Dickson Carr’s spirited and deeply atmospheric early novel also features the rare Inspector Bencolin short story 'The Fourth Suspect'.
And so a dark shadow looms over the Rhineland where Inspector Henri Bencolin and his accomplice Jeff Marle have arrived from Paris. Entreated by the Belgian financier D’Aunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison, the pair find themselves at the imposing hilltop fortress Schloss Schädel, in which a small group of suspects are still assembled.
As thunder rolls in the distance, Bencolin and Marle enter a world steeped in macabre legends of murder and magic to catch the killer still walking the maze-like passages and towers of the keep.
This new edition of John Dickson Carr’s spirited and deeply atmospheric early novel also features the rare Inspector Bencolin short story 'The Fourth Suspect'.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1931
119 people are currently reading
554 people want to read
About the author
John Dickson Carr
423 books486 followersAKA Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn.
John Dickson Carr was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1906. It Walks by Night, his first published detective novel, featuring the Frenchman Henri Bencolin, was published in 1930. Apart from Dr Fell, whose first appearance was in Hag's Nook in 1933, Carr's other series detectives (published under the nom de plume of Carter Dickson) were the barrister Sir Henry Merrivale, who debuted in The Plague Court Murders (1934).
John Dickson Carr was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1906. It Walks by Night, his first published detective novel, featuring the Frenchman Henri Bencolin, was published in 1930. Apart from Dr Fell, whose first appearance was in Hag's Nook in 1933, Carr's other series detectives (published under the nom de plume of Carter Dickson) were the barrister Sir Henry Merrivale, who debuted in The Plague Court Murders (1934).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
October 26, 2024
Ablaze on the Battlements
A review of the Poisoned Pen Press eBook (November 5, 2020) of the British Library Crime Classics reprint (January 10, 2020) of the Harper & Brothers hardcover original (1931).
Castle Skull is one of the earliest books by the prolific American/Anglo writer John Dickson Carr. It features his French detective (technically a juge d'instruction i.e. an examining magistrate) Henri Bencolin. Carr would go on to greater success for his so-called "locked room" mysteries with the sleuths Dr. Gideon Fell (23 novels from 1932-1967) and Sir Henry Merrivale (23 novels from 1934-1991).
This Bencolin mystery is more along the lines of an "impossible crime." A retired actor is seen running along the battlements of Castle Skull having been set ablaze. The witnesses view the event from a house across the Rhine river and are all present and accounted for. The body is recovered and found to have been shot as well. A Belgian financier asks Bencolin to take the case. The site of the crime is in Germany however, and the Berlin police send Baron Sigmund von Arnheim, an espionage rival of Bencolin, to also investigate.
The front cover of the original Harper & Brothers edition (1931). Image sourced from Goodreads.
The house and the castle were the homes of a notorious magician Mageler, who willed the properties to the actor Alison and the financier d'Aunay on his death. But did Mageler really die? Is he or one of his descendants seeking revenge for some slight? Arnheim and Bencolin propose varying solutions to the case until Arnheim reveals his grand explanation at the conclusion. But perhaps Bencolin has an alternative solution which he is not prepared to expose.
The descriptive settings of the gothic atmosphere here were the best part. The witnesses / suspects were really far-fetched characters though and made for rather unbelievable situations. So this wasn't completely satisfactory, but you could see it as an early template for Carr's later works which often involved historical settings and seemingly impossible crimes which occurred in locked rooms where no one beyond the victim had entered or departed.
Trivia and Links
The BLCC cover illustration is cropped from a 1927 poster of the former bridge over the Rhine River in Bonn, Germany. The bridge was destroyed in WW2. Image sourced from Alamy.
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.
A review of the Poisoned Pen Press eBook (November 5, 2020) of the British Library Crime Classics reprint (January 10, 2020) of the Harper & Brothers hardcover original (1931).
It was a breath-taking sight to see Castle Skull illuminated in that fashion, and I have no doubt that night-travellers on the Rhine gaped up at it. The vast death’s head lifted itself to stare with light. The eyes were enormous oval windows of violet coloured glass; the nose was triangular and yellow, as were also the arches of the gallery forming the teeth; and all of them shone out with a devilish and sardonic blaze.
Castle Skull is one of the earliest books by the prolific American/Anglo writer John Dickson Carr. It features his French detective (technically a juge d'instruction i.e. an examining magistrate) Henri Bencolin. Carr would go on to greater success for his so-called "locked room" mysteries with the sleuths Dr. Gideon Fell (23 novels from 1932-1967) and Sir Henry Merrivale (23 novels from 1934-1991).
This Bencolin mystery is more along the lines of an "impossible crime." A retired actor is seen running along the battlements of Castle Skull having been set ablaze. The witnesses view the event from a house across the Rhine river and are all present and accounted for. The body is recovered and found to have been shot as well. A Belgian financier asks Bencolin to take the case. The site of the crime is in Germany however, and the Berlin police send Baron Sigmund von Arnheim, an espionage rival of Bencolin, to also investigate.
The front cover of the original Harper & Brothers edition (1931). Image sourced from Goodreads.
The house and the castle were the homes of a notorious magician Mageler, who willed the properties to the actor Alison and the financier d'Aunay on his death. But did Mageler really die? Is he or one of his descendants seeking revenge for some slight? Arnheim and Bencolin propose varying solutions to the case until Arnheim reveals his grand explanation at the conclusion. But perhaps Bencolin has an alternative solution which he is not prepared to expose.
The descriptive settings of the gothic atmosphere here were the best part. The witnesses / suspects were really far-fetched characters though and made for rather unbelievable situations. So this wasn't completely satisfactory, but you could see it as an early template for Carr's later works which often involved historical settings and seemingly impossible crimes which occurred in locked rooms where no one beyond the victim had entered or departed.
Trivia and Links
The BLCC cover illustration is cropped from a 1927 poster of the former bridge over the Rhine River in Bonn, Germany. The bridge was destroyed in WW2. Image sourced from Alamy.
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.
April 8, 2020
I don't know why I persist in subjecting myself to John Dickson Carr. This is the third book of his I've tried, I think, and it's just... not for me. His work feels stilted and contrived, lacking the style of someone like Dorothy L. Sayers or the breeziness of Agatha Christie's best. His genius detective, all but infallible, all but omniscient, just gets on my nerves. In fairness, almost all of the clues are there, but it's hard to solve the mystery (though in another sense, it's obvious) when everybody is so opaque; not even the Watson really feels alive, despite the access to his thoughts you have with him as the narrator.
Just... not for me, and I really need to remember that; I've had the same problem with Dickson Carr's other series detective, and I just... don't enjoy the contrived nature of his plots.
This is the second book in the British Library Crime Classics line of reissues that featured the sealed book ending: if you could take it back to the place you bought it without cutting it open to read the ending, you got your money back. It's sort of interesting to think about that kind of gimmick. I wonder how well it worked! I can't remember which Golden Age book I've read did this now... maybe it was John Dickson Carr's other book, though?
In any case, argh, I should have put this down and given up, but I still had the tiniest bit of curiosity to satisfy.
Just... not for me, and I really need to remember that; I've had the same problem with Dickson Carr's other series detective, and I just... don't enjoy the contrived nature of his plots.
This is the second book in the British Library Crime Classics line of reissues that featured the sealed book ending: if you could take it back to the place you bought it without cutting it open to read the ending, you got your money back. It's sort of interesting to think about that kind of gimmick. I wonder how well it worked! I can't remember which Golden Age book I've read did this now... maybe it was John Dickson Carr's other book, though?
In any case, argh, I should have put this down and given up, but I still had the tiniest bit of curiosity to satisfy.
October 7, 2023
read in September
like a 3.7 rounded up
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2023/10/...
I have three Bencolin books under my belt so far and I'm working on a fourth, The Lost Gallows, right now. I've been highly entertained with the tinge of weirdness each series entry has brought with it, as well as the uncoventional and out-there crimes that need solving. So far It Walks by Night offered more than a touch of Grand Guignol, The Corpse in the Waxworks, which I read out of series order, leans into the grotesque, and now Castle Skull comes with more than a hint of the Gothic. While it seems like he might be heading into supernatural territory with his plots or his titles, Carr's books don't actually go there, something I admit to being happy about.
Just very briefly, "Belgian financier" Jerôme D'Aunay, "one of the richest men in the world" comes to Inspector Bencolin with a proposition. He wants the inspector to solve the murder of English actor Myron Alison, whose "blazing body" had been seen running on the battlements of Schloss Schadel or Castle Skull eight days earlier. Once the property of the famous magician Maleger, who had mysteriously disappeared on a train from Mainz to Coblenz and somehow wound up dead, D'Aunay believes that Alison's death is somehow connected to Maleger's strange demise and he wants to hire Bencolin to investigate, for "not one sou," believing that the Inspector will take on, as he says to the detective, "the strangest affair you have ever handled."
Once again, I did not guess the solution (yay!) and once again, I offer a tip o' my hat to anyone who did. It's so bizarre and so unexpected that I have to wonder if anyone has ever guessed the solution, going back to the days of its first appearance as a Harper Sealed Mystery. Above all, even though a bit on the verbose side (a standard Carr trait, evidently), Castle Skull is a fun read. If you're looking for something out of the ordinary in your crime/mystery reading, or in your crime/mystery reading particularly from this era, you can't go wrong with this series. The three I've now read were simply unputdownable, and I'm finding the same to be true with the fourth.
like a 3.7 rounded up
full post here:
http://www.crimesegments.com/2023/10/...
I have three Bencolin books under my belt so far and I'm working on a fourth, The Lost Gallows, right now. I've been highly entertained with the tinge of weirdness each series entry has brought with it, as well as the uncoventional and out-there crimes that need solving. So far It Walks by Night offered more than a touch of Grand Guignol, The Corpse in the Waxworks, which I read out of series order, leans into the grotesque, and now Castle Skull comes with more than a hint of the Gothic. While it seems like he might be heading into supernatural territory with his plots or his titles, Carr's books don't actually go there, something I admit to being happy about.
Just very briefly, "Belgian financier" Jerôme D'Aunay, "one of the richest men in the world" comes to Inspector Bencolin with a proposition. He wants the inspector to solve the murder of English actor Myron Alison, whose "blazing body" had been seen running on the battlements of Schloss Schadel or Castle Skull eight days earlier. Once the property of the famous magician Maleger, who had mysteriously disappeared on a train from Mainz to Coblenz and somehow wound up dead, D'Aunay believes that Alison's death is somehow connected to Maleger's strange demise and he wants to hire Bencolin to investigate, for "not one sou," believing that the Inspector will take on, as he says to the detective, "the strangest affair you have ever handled."
Once again, I did not guess the solution (yay!) and once again, I offer a tip o' my hat to anyone who did. It's so bizarre and so unexpected that I have to wonder if anyone has ever guessed the solution, going back to the days of its first appearance as a Harper Sealed Mystery. Above all, even though a bit on the verbose side (a standard Carr trait, evidently), Castle Skull is a fun read. If you're looking for something out of the ordinary in your crime/mystery reading, or in your crime/mystery reading particularly from this era, you can't go wrong with this series. The three I've now read were simply unputdownable, and I'm finding the same to be true with the fourth.
May 22, 2024
Review of the audiobook narrated by John Telfer
Wow! What a ride. Castle Skull was everything I hoped it be. This early John Dickson Carr novel is not great literature, but it is great fun. It's chock full of creepy places, odd and interesting people, and gruesome murders.
John Telfer is a narrator who I had not heard before, and he does an excellent job differentiating between the characters, handling various accents without overdoing it, and giving the narrative an appropriately somber yet bizarre tone.
Yes, it's all a little over the top, but that's what I am looking for each October when I embark on my pre-Halloween reads/listens.
Wow! What a ride. Castle Skull was everything I hoped it be. This early John Dickson Carr novel is not great literature, but it is great fun. It's chock full of creepy places, odd and interesting people, and gruesome murders.
John Telfer is a narrator who I had not heard before, and he does an excellent job differentiating between the characters, handling various accents without overdoing it, and giving the narrative an appropriately somber yet bizarre tone.
Yes, it's all a little over the top, but that's what I am looking for each October when I embark on my pre-Halloween reads/listens.
November 21, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. It was refreshing in its way even though I could feel my credulity being stretched on one or two occasions. It would be unfair of me to say why this is, as it's important to the plot.
A man called Myron Alison is an idol of the stage and has a flair for the dramatic.
It seems appropriate then that he dies in dramatic circumstances, shot three times, and burnt to a crisp in a flare of kerosene on the battlements of the titular building high up on the banks of the Rhine river. It's not suicide, so whodunit? The suspects are all the people stopping in a large house on the opposite bank. The gun is found in one of the murdered man's own garments in this house.
The investigation is deemed worthy of two detectives, one French and one German, plus an assistant who's not much of a sleuth. The suspects are all suitably interesting and none of them appears capable of telling the truth fully.
There are two solutions to the murder, the first one provided by the German inspector is correct in most details, and the second solution provided by Henri Bercolin is also correct but in all details.
A man called Myron Alison is an idol of the stage and has a flair for the dramatic.
It seems appropriate then that he dies in dramatic circumstances, shot three times, and burnt to a crisp in a flare of kerosene on the battlements of the titular building high up on the banks of the Rhine river. It's not suicide, so whodunit? The suspects are all the people stopping in a large house on the opposite bank. The gun is found in one of the murdered man's own garments in this house.
The investigation is deemed worthy of two detectives, one French and one German, plus an assistant who's not much of a sleuth. The suspects are all suitably interesting and none of them appears capable of telling the truth fully.
There are two solutions to the murder, the first one provided by the German inspector is correct in most details, and the second solution provided by Henri Bercolin is also correct but in all details.
January 26, 2021
This was a nail biter. At first we have no idea who anyone is until after they are gruesomely murdered. There are two detectives determined to beat the other at solving the cases (there are two murders. Are they related?).
I thought this story held very well and even though there were quite a few characters and I had to do some memory jogging to remember who was who, it all fitted very well together in the end.
As with the other mystery by Carr that I have just read, this one has many unexpected developments and in the end, I never guessed a thing.
The murder and investigation take place in a castle on the Rhine. Needless to say the front of the castle, looming over the river looks like a skull.
Carr likes to mix the metaphysical, or at least the suspicion of and belief in it with his detective stories. I like his original takes and how he avoids the normal formulas of the time period.
I thought this story held very well and even though there were quite a few characters and I had to do some memory jogging to remember who was who, it all fitted very well together in the end.
As with the other mystery by Carr that I have just read, this one has many unexpected developments and in the end, I never guessed a thing.
The murder and investigation take place in a castle on the Rhine. Needless to say the front of the castle, looming over the river looks like a skull.
Carr likes to mix the metaphysical, or at least the suspicion of and belief in it with his detective stories. I like his original takes and how he avoids the normal formulas of the time period.
March 2, 2020
Gothic mystery on the Rhine...
Rich financier Jérôme D’Aunay begs Inspector Henri Bencolin to investigate the death of his friend, Myron Alison. Alison died in Castle Skull, last seen running ablaze about the battlements. When his body is examined it transpires he had been shot before having kerosene poured over him and being set alight. Castle Skull belonged to the famous stage magician Maleger, whose own death many years earlier was somewhat mysterious – he disappeared from the carriage of a train in motion and was found in a river below the tracks. Did he fall or was he pushed? Or did he jump? He bequeathed the spooky Castle Skull jointly to his friends, D’Aunay and the actor Myron Alison and it has been empty except for an old caretaker ever since. Situated on the other side of the Rhine from Alison’s own house, the castle is built in the shape of a death’s-head gazing out over the river, windows placed to look like eyes, and the battlements resembling the teeth of the skull. But why was Alison there, and who killed him? D’Aunay doesn’t have faith in the local police, hence his request to the famous Parisian detective. But the local police have also called in an expert – von Arnheim of the German police, an old adversary of Bencolin’s when they were on opposite sides during the war...
The story is told by Jeff Marle, Bencolin’s young American friend who acts as his sidekick. When they arrive at Alison’s house, they find an assorted bunch of people in residence – Alison’s hearty poker-playing sister Agatha, concert violinist Émile Levasseur, modern youngsters Sally Reine and Sir Marshall Dunstan who may or may not be in love, and D’Aunay and his beautiful but unhappy wife Isobel. Bencolin and von Arnheim are soon in more or less friendly competition to find the solution to the mystery, but there’s never any doubt in Jeff’s or the reader’s mind as to who will win out in the end. After all, it’s 1931 and we couldn’t have the German win, now could we?
This is the third book in the Bencolin and Marle series, written when Carr was a young man still learning his craft. Like the first, It Walks by Night, this is as much horror as mystery, although the decadence of It Walks by Night has given way to a rather more Gothic feel in this one. There is the same almost hallucinatory air to some passages, brought on by the constant consumption of vast quantities of alcohol – there’s almost a “lost generation” feel, especially to the younger characters: Sally, Dunstan and Jeff himself. Bencolin is frequently described as Mephistophelian, both in his appearance and in his almost supernatural ability to intuit the truth. Maleger’s magic was of the scary kind – Jeff saw him once when he was a boy and found his act terrifying – and it appears he liked to be just as mysterious and frightening off-stage. And the castle itself is the ultimate in Gothic – ancient, deserted, filled with hidden passages and secret chambers, and deliciously spooky.
The plot veers into high melodrama – perhaps a little too high. I felt at points that Carr was trying too hard, piling horror on grisly horror, with a Poe-esque feel of madness underlying the whole thing. However, it’s very effective and the evil motivating the plot matches the wonderful setting of the castle perfectly, as it gradually builds towards a tense and atmospheric climax with some truly horrifying imagery. Jeff is an appealing narrator who gets involved with the characters rather than simply observing Bencolin’s methods. I didn’t get anywhere close to working it out – looking back perhaps it’s fair play, but I reckon you’d have to have a pretty fiendish mind to solve it from the clues given. Fortunately, Bencolin has just such a fiendish mind...
Marginally, I preferred It Walks by Night, but both are excellent, and in both the horror aspects arise out of purely human evil – no supernatural elements required. I don’t know whether Carr continued with the horror theme in his later work or went down a more traditional mystery route, but the strength of his writing and plotting suggests to me that he could have done either with equal success. I’m looking forward to finding out... 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Rich financier Jérôme D’Aunay begs Inspector Henri Bencolin to investigate the death of his friend, Myron Alison. Alison died in Castle Skull, last seen running ablaze about the battlements. When his body is examined it transpires he had been shot before having kerosene poured over him and being set alight. Castle Skull belonged to the famous stage magician Maleger, whose own death many years earlier was somewhat mysterious – he disappeared from the carriage of a train in motion and was found in a river below the tracks. Did he fall or was he pushed? Or did he jump? He bequeathed the spooky Castle Skull jointly to his friends, D’Aunay and the actor Myron Alison and it has been empty except for an old caretaker ever since. Situated on the other side of the Rhine from Alison’s own house, the castle is built in the shape of a death’s-head gazing out over the river, windows placed to look like eyes, and the battlements resembling the teeth of the skull. But why was Alison there, and who killed him? D’Aunay doesn’t have faith in the local police, hence his request to the famous Parisian detective. But the local police have also called in an expert – von Arnheim of the German police, an old adversary of Bencolin’s when they were on opposite sides during the war...
The story is told by Jeff Marle, Bencolin’s young American friend who acts as his sidekick. When they arrive at Alison’s house, they find an assorted bunch of people in residence – Alison’s hearty poker-playing sister Agatha, concert violinist Émile Levasseur, modern youngsters Sally Reine and Sir Marshall Dunstan who may or may not be in love, and D’Aunay and his beautiful but unhappy wife Isobel. Bencolin and von Arnheim are soon in more or less friendly competition to find the solution to the mystery, but there’s never any doubt in Jeff’s or the reader’s mind as to who will win out in the end. After all, it’s 1931 and we couldn’t have the German win, now could we?
This is the third book in the Bencolin and Marle series, written when Carr was a young man still learning his craft. Like the first, It Walks by Night, this is as much horror as mystery, although the decadence of It Walks by Night has given way to a rather more Gothic feel in this one. There is the same almost hallucinatory air to some passages, brought on by the constant consumption of vast quantities of alcohol – there’s almost a “lost generation” feel, especially to the younger characters: Sally, Dunstan and Jeff himself. Bencolin is frequently described as Mephistophelian, both in his appearance and in his almost supernatural ability to intuit the truth. Maleger’s magic was of the scary kind – Jeff saw him once when he was a boy and found his act terrifying – and it appears he liked to be just as mysterious and frightening off-stage. And the castle itself is the ultimate in Gothic – ancient, deserted, filled with hidden passages and secret chambers, and deliciously spooky.
The plot veers into high melodrama – perhaps a little too high. I felt at points that Carr was trying too hard, piling horror on grisly horror, with a Poe-esque feel of madness underlying the whole thing. However, it’s very effective and the evil motivating the plot matches the wonderful setting of the castle perfectly, as it gradually builds towards a tense and atmospheric climax with some truly horrifying imagery. Jeff is an appealing narrator who gets involved with the characters rather than simply observing Bencolin’s methods. I didn’t get anywhere close to working it out – looking back perhaps it’s fair play, but I reckon you’d have to have a pretty fiendish mind to solve it from the clues given. Fortunately, Bencolin has just such a fiendish mind...
Marginally, I preferred It Walks by Night, but both are excellent, and in both the horror aspects arise out of purely human evil – no supernatural elements required. I don’t know whether Carr continued with the horror theme in his later work or went down a more traditional mystery route, but the strength of his writing and plotting suggests to me that he could have done either with equal success. I’m looking forward to finding out... 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
June 25, 2023
I was so pleased to discover that this book that turned me into a fan of John Dickson Carr holds up to rereading more than two decades after I first discovered it. Carr wrote CASTLE SKULL at 25, and it's not his best book, but it includes all of the the things he went on to develop and that I love in his work: a deliciously gothic atmosphere, setting at an ancient castle on the bank of a river, characters who are both fun and macabre, and most of all, his signature of ingenious impossible crime puzzles.
February 15, 2018
At the start, this appears to be one of the spookiest murder mysteries of all time. One of the world's greatest magicians, who specializes in occult-themed performances, dies by apparently hurling himself from a train. His wife, the sister of one of the world's greatest Shakespearean actors, inherits his home -- Castle Skull, a castle that looks like a giant grinning skull, carved out of the rocks overlooking the Rhine. The actor, whose own Art Deco home sits on atop the cliffs opposite Castle Skull, takes his sister in.
Fifteen years pass. One dark and stormy night, as the sister and her guests look on in horror from the Art Deco mansion, the actor is seeing running out onto the balcony of Castle Skull -- on fire. The man burns to death. A police investigation reveals he'd been shot as well. But no one could have done it: The boat was on the wrong side of the river, and everyone was accounted for.
John Dickson Carr's great detective, the Satanic-looking M. Bencolin, chief of the Paris police, is hired by one of the guests to investigate the actor's death. He matches wits against Baron von Arnheim, chief of the Berlin police, a man Bencolin once accused of having no imaginatioin.
Through two-thirds of the novel, Carr manages to weave a great tale of immense atmosphere and eerieness. This was only Carr's second mystery novel, and his second Bencolin novel. (His first adventure featuring Dr. Gideon Fell was published a year later.) The characters are much better realized, especially the actress Sally Reine, the sister Agatha Alison, and the financier's wife Isobel D'Aunay. The male characters are less so, with the violinist Lavasseur a veritable cipher who barely appears yet seems integral to various alibis. Of particular importance is that there is much less of a "Capt. Hastings" feel about Bencolin's sidekick, author Jeff Marle.
Bencolin himself, however, barely figures in the novel, and that's a major disappointment. The charm about Bencolin in his first appearance, It Walks By Night, was that he seemed able to deduce how the crime was committed almost immediately. Much of the action revolved around his attempts to test his theory by gathering evidence. Here, there's a hint of the same insight by Bencolin -- but the detective drops out of two-thirds of the story and has almost nothing to do with solving the crime.
If you're expecting the clues to be presented fully to the reader, think again. The novel's final pages contain a new clue completely unhinted at anywhere else -- something so outlandish, so outrageous, so incomprehensible that you'll either toss the book aside in rage or laugh out loud at it's silliness. It's a resolution both so inane and so surreal that you just want to give up.
And that's the sad part about it. Clues and revelations had been piling up nicely. The novel seemed headed for a really sweet climax. And this this crap is pulled.
Fifteen years pass. One dark and stormy night, as the sister and her guests look on in horror from the Art Deco mansion, the actor is seeing running out onto the balcony of Castle Skull -- on fire. The man burns to death. A police investigation reveals he'd been shot as well. But no one could have done it: The boat was on the wrong side of the river, and everyone was accounted for.
John Dickson Carr's great detective, the Satanic-looking M. Bencolin, chief of the Paris police, is hired by one of the guests to investigate the actor's death. He matches wits against Baron von Arnheim, chief of the Berlin police, a man Bencolin once accused of having no imaginatioin.
Through two-thirds of the novel, Carr manages to weave a great tale of immense atmosphere and eerieness. This was only Carr's second mystery novel, and his second Bencolin novel. (His first adventure featuring Dr. Gideon Fell was published a year later.) The characters are much better realized, especially the actress Sally Reine, the sister Agatha Alison, and the financier's wife Isobel D'Aunay. The male characters are less so, with the violinist Lavasseur a veritable cipher who barely appears yet seems integral to various alibis. Of particular importance is that there is much less of a "Capt. Hastings" feel about Bencolin's sidekick, author Jeff Marle.
Bencolin himself, however, barely figures in the novel, and that's a major disappointment. The charm about Bencolin in his first appearance, It Walks By Night, was that he seemed able to deduce how the crime was committed almost immediately. Much of the action revolved around his attempts to test his theory by gathering evidence. Here, there's a hint of the same insight by Bencolin -- but the detective drops out of two-thirds of the story and has almost nothing to do with solving the crime.
If you're expecting the clues to be presented fully to the reader, think again. The novel's final pages contain a new clue completely unhinted at anywhere else -- something so outlandish, so outrageous, so incomprehensible that you'll either toss the book aside in rage or laugh out loud at it's silliness. It's a resolution both so inane and so surreal that you just want to give up.
And that's the sad part about it. Clues and revelations had been piling up nicely. The novel seemed headed for a really sweet climax. And this this crap is pulled.
May 5, 2020
Be forewarned! Castle Skull is not your typical John Dickson Carr mystery.
It has many melodramatic elements tacked onto the traditional golden-age mystery. A castle that looks like a skull. Its owner, a magician, missing from a train car who is later found drowned in a nearby river. A close neighbor shot and set aflame at the Castle, who then falls to his death. A mansion full of suspects, a private detective and his chronicler, a competing German police detective, and loads of spooky atmosphere.
As long as you forget this book was written by Carr, there is much fun to be had within Castle Skull. It’s so outlandish, it seems like a parody. Or maybe, as the excellent introduction by famed Martin Edwards states, it shows the exuberance of a youthful author. Either way, it is an enjoyable ride that is not to be missed. 5 stars!
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
It has many melodramatic elements tacked onto the traditional golden-age mystery. A castle that looks like a skull. Its owner, a magician, missing from a train car who is later found drowned in a nearby river. A close neighbor shot and set aflame at the Castle, who then falls to his death. A mansion full of suspects, a private detective and his chronicler, a competing German police detective, and loads of spooky atmosphere.
As long as you forget this book was written by Carr, there is much fun to be had within Castle Skull. It’s so outlandish, it seems like a parody. Or maybe, as the excellent introduction by famed Martin Edwards states, it shows the exuberance of a youthful author. Either way, it is an enjoyable ride that is not to be missed. 5 stars!
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
April 13, 2020
Oh god this is bad.... god sake i don’t give a damn about who’s died why they died or who the hell these god awful people are trying to solve it both detectives are like bad caricatures of poirot and Holmes. It’s awful.
February 8, 2020
This is the second time I’ve read this book. And I really enjoyed it more than the first time. Carr really knows how to combine horror and mystery. No one else can emulate him. He is in a class of his own. And there is also a kind of impossible crime here. And he really fooled me with his murderer. This is one of Carr’s earlier works. In his later works he becomes even better.
I read the ebook of The British library Crime Classics. This edition also contains a Henri Bencolin short story “The Fourth Suspect”, a very good Locked Room story.
I read the ebook of The British library Crime Classics. This edition also contains a Henri Bencolin short story “The Fourth Suspect”, a very good Locked Room story.
December 28, 2019
For some bizarre reason I bought this copy at a local book store as it was popped on the shelves in error! Lucky me.
Anyway a gripping, dark, mysterious read that takes the classic country house crime story and adds a more exotic twist.
A great atmospheric read, I'd highly recommend it! (and honestly if I'd not just been spoiled by Little Women I'd have marked this as a 5 star)
Anyway a gripping, dark, mysterious read that takes the classic country house crime story and adds a more exotic twist.
A great atmospheric read, I'd highly recommend it! (and honestly if I'd not just been spoiled by Little Women I'd have marked this as a 5 star)
September 30, 2022
A rollicking tale of mystery and adventure set in a Rhineland castle that looks like a skull. With a colourful cast of characters and the enigmatic magician, Maleger, at the heart of it all, the armchair detective will be entertained. There are a couple of red herrings along the way but the keen detective will identify the culprit before the reveal and sit back smugly as Bencolin sheds light on the whole affair and explains how he cracked the case.
August 27, 2024
The great magician Maleger found the perfect house--the eerie, gothic Castle Skull sitting atop a rocky crag overlooking the Rhine River. The house was full of secret passages, hidden stairways, and false walls & windows. The atmosphere was perfect for the master of a creepy act. But not long after, Maleger travels alone by train in carriage that could only be entered or exited by passing a train guard. No one does, but when the train reaches its destination, Maleger is gone. When his body is found in the Rhine, it thought that it must have been accident or suicide. He either fell out of the train carriage and rolled down the embankment to drown in the river or he deliberately threw himself from the train.
Seventeen years later, his friend Myron Alison who had a home across the Rhine from Castle Skull dies. He was shot several times and then set on fire atop Castle Skull. Jerome D'Aunay, friend of both men, comes to Henri Bencolin to ask the detective to come sort everything out. It isn't long before Bencolin realizes that Alison's death is tied to the events of seventeen years ago. But will he be able to discover the truth behind both deaths before his old rival, Baron Von Arnheim. Von Arnheim has been called in by the local magistrate who doesn't want to his German police force be outdone by an upstart Frenchman.
The case is made difficult by the apparent impossibilities in the deaths, but there are also ghosts and legends that inhabit the castle. Not to mention a host of interesting suspects: a bizarre duchess with a mania for poker; an actor obsessed with Hamlet; a musician who plays his violin in the dark outer reaches of Alison's house; a young woman with modern ideals; a self-absorbed Belgian financier and his beautiful, straying wife; and a news reporter on a trip to report on Europe's haunted castle who has ties to Maleger. The clues include a pistol with no fingerprints and an awkward grip; muddy footprints; the sound of a motor boat; the man who rose up out of the ground; and a photo from Maleger's younger years. Bencolin and Von Arnheim see the same things but come up with slightly different solutions. The German will get the credit...but Bencolin will get it right.
Given how atmospheric this is--a castle shaped like a skull!--I expected to like it a lot more than I did. The characters are great--I particularly like the Duchess who seems to me to be a female version of Sir Henry Merrivale. She swears like a sailor, smokes like a chimney, and drinks like a fish. But has all her faculties when it matters most. But after the great build up, the interesting setting, and a nice cast of characters, the mystery just kind of gets solved. There are few clues that the reader is given full access to up front and we find out the meaning of the most important one only in Bencolin's wrap-up--we certainly can't know what it means just from what we're given when it shows up. I was also a bit disappointed in Bencolin in this one. Von Arnheim does most of the speechifying and I was beginning to wonder if our hero was going to solve anything. For most of the book he just serves as a foil to the Baron. Definitely not Carr's best, but interesting for the atmosphere and setting.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Seventeen years later, his friend Myron Alison who had a home across the Rhine from Castle Skull dies. He was shot several times and then set on fire atop Castle Skull. Jerome D'Aunay, friend of both men, comes to Henri Bencolin to ask the detective to come sort everything out. It isn't long before Bencolin realizes that Alison's death is tied to the events of seventeen years ago. But will he be able to discover the truth behind both deaths before his old rival, Baron Von Arnheim. Von Arnheim has been called in by the local magistrate who doesn't want to his German police force be outdone by an upstart Frenchman.
The case is made difficult by the apparent impossibilities in the deaths, but there are also ghosts and legends that inhabit the castle. Not to mention a host of interesting suspects: a bizarre duchess with a mania for poker; an actor obsessed with Hamlet; a musician who plays his violin in the dark outer reaches of Alison's house; a young woman with modern ideals; a self-absorbed Belgian financier and his beautiful, straying wife; and a news reporter on a trip to report on Europe's haunted castle who has ties to Maleger. The clues include a pistol with no fingerprints and an awkward grip; muddy footprints; the sound of a motor boat; the man who rose up out of the ground; and a photo from Maleger's younger years. Bencolin and Von Arnheim see the same things but come up with slightly different solutions. The German will get the credit...but Bencolin will get it right.
Given how atmospheric this is--a castle shaped like a skull!--I expected to like it a lot more than I did. The characters are great--I particularly like the Duchess who seems to me to be a female version of Sir Henry Merrivale. She swears like a sailor, smokes like a chimney, and drinks like a fish. But has all her faculties when it matters most. But after the great build up, the interesting setting, and a nice cast of characters, the mystery just kind of gets solved. There are few clues that the reader is given full access to up front and we find out the meaning of the most important one only in Bencolin's wrap-up--we certainly can't know what it means just from what we're given when it shows up. I was also a bit disappointed in Bencolin in this one. Von Arnheim does most of the speechifying and I was beginning to wonder if our hero was going to solve anything. For most of the book he just serves as a foil to the Baron. Definitely not Carr's best, but interesting for the atmosphere and setting.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
August 22, 2023
Read for #buzzwordchallenge 2023-body part-skull
September 1, 2017
John Dickson Carr, colui che io amo definire "il maestro delle atmosfere", è stato sicuramente una delle mie scoperte più entuasiasmanti fatte da quando sono sui social letterari: mi ha regalato istanti di puro terrore, mi ha fatto spremere le meningi con i sui rebus indiavolati, mi ha fatto riscoprire il valore del giallo classico, genere oggi purtroppo un po' superato. Ma il genio e l'intelligenza del maestro non sono superati affatto, e in questo romanzo, nel quale ho ritrovato l'arguto detective francese Bencolin, ne è l'ennessima dimostrazione. Sarei ipocrita se affermassi che "Sfida a Bencolin" sia il miglior giallo di Carr che ho avuto modo di leggere finora, ma, come in tutti gli altri romanzi, o forse, in più di tutti, qui il maestro lascia la sua impronta più tipica regalandoci qualcosa di tanto raro: l'atmosfera. L'atmosfera unica, tipica, tutta sua, evocata dalla descrizione di ambienti, luoghi, angoli, l'atmosfera che dà al romanzo un taglio particolare, una personalità, l'atmosfera che riesce a catturare il lettore inchiodandolo, con sopresa e inquietudine, in un altro spazio e in un altro tempo.L'atmosfera che fa paura. Eh si, qui Carr ci riesce, e alla perfezione. L'appetitoso contorno del giallo è infatti un sinistro castello a forma di teschio situato sulle rive del Reno, dimora di un diabolico illusionista e nel quale un famoso attore teatrale viene rinvenuto cadavere, con tre pallottole al petto dopo esere stato arso vivo; proprio in fronte al castello, attraversando le acque nere del Reno, si trova la casa dello stesso attore, nella quale Bencolin e gli altri personaggi si ritroveranno per far luce sul caso. Un caso insidioso, terrificante, maledetto. Tra escursioni al castello al lume di candela, passaggi segreti impensabili e scoperti, rivelazioni inattese e interrogatori mirati, ecco che l'assassino salterà fuori, e tutto finirà per quadrare alla perfezione, in maniera precisa e impeccabile, nella miglior tradizione del maestro, il quale batterà sul tempo assassino stesso e lettore, in un gioco di astuzia e intelligenza. Se Carr fosse ancora vivo non esiterei a stringergli la mano: perchè, al di là della storia stessa, le atmosfere che riesce a far vivere in questo giallo, non hanno davvero prezzo. Immergetevi nella lettura, e non sarete più nel salotto di casa vostra, bensì nelle stanze segrete del castello, mentre fuori imperversa un violento temporale. Carr è genio e magia!
March 11, 2021
3.5 Stars. A Carr that read more like a Christie. Generally, Carrs hinge on impossible crimes, and while there's a little of that going on here, it's clearly not the main focus. Instead, we have the typical country house of guests alongside ruminations over their comings and goings. As a bonus, we get plenty of the macabre with, you guessed it, a castle literally creating the image of a skull. I found aspects of the mystery ultimately predictable, but there were some surprises as well. The cluing, while not perfect, was pretty solid and paid dividends to careful reading.
My reading of Carr is still pretty limited, but this lands somewhere in the middle. I think I'd put it above Death Watch and Hag's Nook but below The Crooked Hinge and It Walks by Night.
And yes, Bencolin is kind of a silly character (especially when Carr would go on to create Gideon Fell), but anyone complaining about this is missing the point of reading Carr entirely. /snoot
One bonus- I both read and listened to this. The folks and British Library Crime Classics have finally started to re-publish Carrs alongside some of the more obscure authors they had been printing. Normally, I wouldn't care- I got lucky a few years back and found a couple of ebay lots that gave me nearly everything Carr had written. However, the BLCC releases are accompanied by audiobooks- up until now, nobody had released audiobooks for Carr in the US, so HUZZAH that this is finally happening. John Telfer did a terrific job of helping the characters to leap off the page even in a volume as slim as this. I'll buy as many of these audiobooks as the BLCC puts out.
My reading of Carr is still pretty limited, but this lands somewhere in the middle. I think I'd put it above Death Watch and Hag's Nook but below The Crooked Hinge and It Walks by Night.
And yes, Bencolin is kind of a silly character (especially when Carr would go on to create Gideon Fell), but anyone complaining about this is missing the point of reading Carr entirely. /snoot
One bonus- I both read and listened to this. The folks and British Library Crime Classics have finally started to re-publish Carrs alongside some of the more obscure authors they had been printing. Normally, I wouldn't care- I got lucky a few years back and found a couple of ebay lots that gave me nearly everything Carr had written. However, the BLCC releases are accompanied by audiobooks- up until now, nobody had released audiobooks for Carr in the US, so HUZZAH that this is finally happening. John Telfer did a terrific job of helping the characters to leap off the page even in a volume as slim as this. I'll buy as many of these audiobooks as the BLCC puts out.
March 29, 2020
Reading this book was like slowly slowly bleeding out, a torturous, mind-numbing experience that left me with much less patience for attempts at making instant classics of rightly forgotten iuvenilia. In a grotesque turn of events, the original publisher left the pages with the answer to the original riddle uncut (or somesuch, I'm far too lazy at this point to read the introduction again), encouraging the reader to send the book back and get their money back if they can stand the suspense: I would have gladly done just that, had the current publisher offered to do the same.
June 26, 2021
Bencolin mysteries I find are the most dramatic of Carr's series. They fall well within the area of macabre and mystery. In this one, it is fantastique! And yet by the end, it is all too real, when the cruelty of man is revealed for what it is.
Well written and has some amazing descriptions of place- in terms of not just visuals, but feeling the air and smelling the place as well. Whether you beat Carr at his game of figuring out who did it, you will certainly find the ride thrilling.
Well written and has some amazing descriptions of place- in terms of not just visuals, but feeling the air and smelling the place as well. Whether you beat Carr at his game of figuring out who did it, you will certainly find the ride thrilling.
June 28, 2022
The Castle Skull was a great mystery with a wonderfully eerie atmosphere, which is my preferred mystery settings. I didn't guess the ending, which kept it interesting right to the end. And it has that vintage feel, which sets it right at the top for me. Great work, John Carr, and I will be reading the rest in this Bencolin series!
January 9, 2020
Great little early Dickson Carr mystery. The classic house (or castle!) party, with the added twist of two competing detectives.
There was a slight Poirot/Hastings feel about this book. I enjoyed the humour!
There was a slight Poirot/Hastings feel about this book. I enjoyed the humour!
April 25, 2020
Before Castle Skull I'd only read a couple of John Dickson Carr short stories in anthologies and was not exactly overwhelmed. They were a bit too outlandish for me. Of course, Carr is "the master of the locked room mystery" and those are rarely down-to-earth and full of realism but there's "this isn't that realistic" and there's the "apart from a 10-step cunning plan by the villain this also requires a riddiculous chain of coincidences to work" that happened in the Carr stories I came across.
This book...well it features a riddiculous mustache-twirling villain and a series of coincidences that should have made me roll my eyes. But it also fully commited to the riddiculousness. I mean, it's called Castle Skull for God's sake. And the eponymous castle isn't called like that for some strange outlandish reason...it simply resembles a skull if you look at it from a certain distance. The murder victim was shot and then set on fire and "danced" and screamed before eventually dying. This book doesn't pretend to be a normal run-of-the-mill mystery and then hit you over the head with a riddiculous solution (which happened to me with the other Carr stories). It goes: "Do you want to read something over-the top and insane? Sit down with me. I have just the right thing for you." And I really can't complain about that.
This book...well it features a riddiculous mustache-twirling villain and a series of coincidences that should have made me roll my eyes. But it also fully commited to the riddiculousness. I mean, it's called Castle Skull for God's sake. And the eponymous castle isn't called like that for some strange outlandish reason...it simply resembles a skull if you look at it from a certain distance. The murder victim was shot and then set on fire and "danced" and screamed before eventually dying. This book doesn't pretend to be a normal run-of-the-mill mystery and then hit you over the head with a riddiculous solution (which happened to me with the other Carr stories). It goes: "Do you want to read something over-the top and insane? Sit down with me. I have just the right thing for you." And I really can't complain about that.
October 29, 2024
Most of the characters are archetypes without depth, but the gothic castle atmosphere and rollicking chapters in which the suspects gather for a wild night of drinking and revelations were amazing.
February 18, 2023
In Castle Skull, the “Dean of Locked Room Mysteries,” John Dickson Carr has one-upped himself with both a closed train and closed castle mystery. The eponymous Castle Skull (aka Schloss Schadel) is a macabre edifice on the Rhine haunted by the flamboyant artifices and peculiar tastes of a stage magician who liked to read old tomes of thaumaturgy and occult practices in order to imitate them spectacularly using staged gimmickry. It is a fascinating set-up when a murder involving a fading stage actor ends up in a fatal pyrotechnic vaguely reminiscent of the ending of an old German play. But the most likely candidate as to the murderer has either committed a strange suicide or been murdered himself in the most inexplicable manner.
So, readers ask themselves early on if Inspector Bencolin, a famous French detective asked to solve the case outside his home turf, must solve one mystery or two. Does the first have bearing on the second as catalyst or hint at the implementation? Will Bencolin solve either mystery despite the officious jealousy displayed by the German detective initially on the case, Magistrate Konrad, or the rivalry extent between Bencolin and the called-in German expert, Baron Sigmund von Arnheim?
And while they would definitely not be acceptable in polite society today, some of Carr’s descriptions are incredibly vivid. “A massive woman, a Matterhorn in white lace, glaring down over icy slopes of herself.” (p. 21) In contrast, another character is portrayed as so thin that he is described as a “monkey-on-a-stick.” (p. 52) As the stereotypical German veteran, a major character is presented as: “The eyes were of a chill greenish hue, with blonde brows forever raised; they moved quickly over all of us. Around them ran the jags of sabre-cuts.” (p. 69) And although not a clever description, the way a polite author euphemistically avoided a term was very entertaining from “…son of an illegitimate she-dog” (p. 55) to a person perceived of “canine ancestry” (p. 144). I also doubt many moderns would accept: “It was hard climbing for me, even in the daylight. No woman like Isobel D’Aunay could have managed it at any time, much less at night.” (p. 133)
I also particularly liked his description of a thunderstorm on the Rhine. “The frothing roar in the trees was drowned by a crash of thunder so close that it brought one’s heart jumping; and then with a sudden rush the storm tore down. It drove against the windows like buckshot. It hissed and spurted on the tiles of the porch. It rose to a drumming uproar, whispering from every part of the house.” (p. 38) And, of course, one can’t overlook descriptions of the castle itself. “The eyes were enormous oval windows of violet-coloured glass; the nose was triangular and yellow; as were also the arches of the gallery forming the teeth; and all of them shone out with a devilish and sardonic blaze.” (p. 155) Consider also the room where the big revelation was scheduled: “The floor seemed to be of a black-and-gold mosaic in circular patterns of zodiac symbols, but I could not see what symbols because it was strewn with animal-skin rugs—strangely like the hall of Alison’s house—and the animal heads opened white-fanged jaws like an uncanny dead menagerie.” (p. 161)
There were also some clever lines that caught my attention. In one scene, a suspect is described thusly: “’Conceit, Jeff, is more than half the solid, unbreakable force which has made him what he is.” (p. 29) An interesting cynical perspective on maturity is voiced by another potential suspect: “Youth can do nothing, not the smallest and most harmless action, without a sense of guilt. The only thing we learn with age is that our actions are not so reprehensible or fraught with consequences as we thought, and that is why we are content.” (p. 50) And I couldn’t resist a journalist’s protest, “I have all the social virtues. I got them from taking those courses advertised in the magazines—the kind that work while you sleep.” (p. 157)
Much of the story takes place in a wealthy household like the English countryside mysteries which inspired Cluedo (Clue), but the story takes a macabre detour when the German detective opts to hold a death-themed dinner in the castle’s banquet room. The conclusion is nicely foreshadowed, but the final “turn of the screw” was one I didn’t anticipate. What a glorious tale.
My copy of Castle Skull also included is a short story called “The Fourth Subject.” It features the same Inspector Bencolin as the novel, but with an anonymous narrator. It is a combination spy and disappearance tale. Carr even makes an oblique reference to Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” as an inspiration for one portion of Bencolin’s solution (p. 227). It is an appropriate reference, but alas, Inspector Bencolin gets no credit for his imaginative solution.
With a delightful short story and a masterful mystery, the British Library Crime Classics version of Castle Skull: A Rhineland Mystery is the complete package.
So, readers ask themselves early on if Inspector Bencolin, a famous French detective asked to solve the case outside his home turf, must solve one mystery or two. Does the first have bearing on the second as catalyst or hint at the implementation? Will Bencolin solve either mystery despite the officious jealousy displayed by the German detective initially on the case, Magistrate Konrad, or the rivalry extent between Bencolin and the called-in German expert, Baron Sigmund von Arnheim?
And while they would definitely not be acceptable in polite society today, some of Carr’s descriptions are incredibly vivid. “A massive woman, a Matterhorn in white lace, glaring down over icy slopes of herself.” (p. 21) In contrast, another character is portrayed as so thin that he is described as a “monkey-on-a-stick.” (p. 52) As the stereotypical German veteran, a major character is presented as: “The eyes were of a chill greenish hue, with blonde brows forever raised; they moved quickly over all of us. Around them ran the jags of sabre-cuts.” (p. 69) And although not a clever description, the way a polite author euphemistically avoided a term was very entertaining from “…son of an illegitimate she-dog” (p. 55) to a person perceived of “canine ancestry” (p. 144). I also doubt many moderns would accept: “It was hard climbing for me, even in the daylight. No woman like Isobel D’Aunay could have managed it at any time, much less at night.” (p. 133)
I also particularly liked his description of a thunderstorm on the Rhine. “The frothing roar in the trees was drowned by a crash of thunder so close that it brought one’s heart jumping; and then with a sudden rush the storm tore down. It drove against the windows like buckshot. It hissed and spurted on the tiles of the porch. It rose to a drumming uproar, whispering from every part of the house.” (p. 38) And, of course, one can’t overlook descriptions of the castle itself. “The eyes were enormous oval windows of violet-coloured glass; the nose was triangular and yellow; as were also the arches of the gallery forming the teeth; and all of them shone out with a devilish and sardonic blaze.” (p. 155) Consider also the room where the big revelation was scheduled: “The floor seemed to be of a black-and-gold mosaic in circular patterns of zodiac symbols, but I could not see what symbols because it was strewn with animal-skin rugs—strangely like the hall of Alison’s house—and the animal heads opened white-fanged jaws like an uncanny dead menagerie.” (p. 161)
There were also some clever lines that caught my attention. In one scene, a suspect is described thusly: “’Conceit, Jeff, is more than half the solid, unbreakable force which has made him what he is.” (p. 29) An interesting cynical perspective on maturity is voiced by another potential suspect: “Youth can do nothing, not the smallest and most harmless action, without a sense of guilt. The only thing we learn with age is that our actions are not so reprehensible or fraught with consequences as we thought, and that is why we are content.” (p. 50) And I couldn’t resist a journalist’s protest, “I have all the social virtues. I got them from taking those courses advertised in the magazines—the kind that work while you sleep.” (p. 157)
Much of the story takes place in a wealthy household like the English countryside mysteries which inspired Cluedo (Clue), but the story takes a macabre detour when the German detective opts to hold a death-themed dinner in the castle’s banquet room. The conclusion is nicely foreshadowed, but the final “turn of the screw” was one I didn’t anticipate. What a glorious tale.
My copy of Castle Skull also included is a short story called “The Fourth Subject.” It features the same Inspector Bencolin as the novel, but with an anonymous narrator. It is a combination spy and disappearance tale. Carr even makes an oblique reference to Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” as an inspiration for one portion of Bencolin’s solution (p. 227). It is an appropriate reference, but alas, Inspector Bencolin gets no credit for his imaginative solution.
With a delightful short story and a masterful mystery, the British Library Crime Classics version of Castle Skull: A Rhineland Mystery is the complete package.
May 11, 2020
A brilliant example of Rhineland mysteries and well worth the read.
Full review: https://mb-bookreviews.blogspot.com/2...
Full review: https://mb-bookreviews.blogspot.com/2...
January 14, 2024
Early, and not very good, John Dickson Carr. This is an attempt at fusing horror and straightforward golden age mystery that is more interesting in theory than practice. (Carr would do this frequently in later books, and would do a better job of it). This features an annoying French great detective who is in competition with an even more annoying German great detective to solve a spectacular murder at Castle Skull, one of those pointlessly scary places that attract detective and Scooby Doo.
I expect that Carr completists would want to read this one, because so many of his themes and tricks are there, as well as his sympathy for women who have led interesting lives. Because of a tedious narrative style and tedious detectives, however, it just doesn’t work.
Carr’s plotting audacity and far better detectives come after a couple more books. Start there. He is one of the greats.
I expect that Carr completists would want to read this one, because so many of his themes and tricks are there, as well as his sympathy for women who have led interesting lives. Because of a tedious narrative style and tedious detectives, however, it just doesn’t work.
Carr’s plotting audacity and far better detectives come after a couple more books. Start there. He is one of the greats.
May 9, 2020
This started well, a combination of spookiness (not really horror) and country house murder mystery. But the characters were mostly cardboardy and the ending got ruther melodramatic and far-fetched. Still, fun escapist holiday reading!
October 2, 2020
Theatrical to the point of absurdity, with some moments of good Gothic atmosphere, and about as subtle as you'd expect from the title. At times it feels almost like a cartoon parody of a mystery story instead of a mystery story - the characters are ridiculous, there's not one, but two melodramatic "impossible" deaths, and the castle is something out of Scooby-Doo.
I'm not sure the plot isn't something out of Scooby-Doo. Just with 100% more murder and immolated bodies.
I'm not sure the plot isn't something out of Scooby-Doo. Just with 100% more murder and immolated bodies.
July 24, 2022
Despite a very gruesome murder (the victim is set on fire while alive) and lots of gothic rigmarole, the tone is more light-hearted than in other Bencolin novels. This is in part due to the character of Agatha Alison, clearly a first draft of Merrivale, and the “rival detectives” trope. But as a mystery it is very poor, the solution being mainly based on off-stage discoveries made by the detectives (secret passages and the like) that the reader has to just passively accept -- little chance to play along here. The crime is not an impossible one, either. (The Poisoned Pen Press edition includes a bonus Bencolin mystery, "The Fourth Suspect" that ironically casts a negative verdict on Castle Skull: "Secret entrances? ... that is a sheer wild device of melodrama...")
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