The Reader Is Warned

Sir Henry Merrivale #9

by Carter Dickson

"The basis of the idea," said Pennik, "is roughly that thought has a physical force like sound. Notes in sound can shatter glass or even kill a man. The same applies to thought."...

Sam Constable entered the conservatory. "You have probably heard what happened - accident to the car, servants in the hospital. You will be lucky to get anything to eat at all tonight."

"I will get you a meal if you like," offered Pennik.

Sam Constable looked at him. "You are a cook, in addition to your other accomplishments?... I must thank you, my friend, for your offer. Shall we say, then, that you can have it ready as soon past eight o'clock as possible?"

"If you like," said Pennik. "But I do not think, Mr. Constable, that you will get any dinner."

"Not get my dinner? Why the devil shouldn't I get my dinner?"

"I do not think you will be alive at eight o'clock."

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Classics, Thriller

306 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1939

About the author

Carter Dickson is a pen name of writer John Dickson Carr.

Reviews

[Avradeep Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.It is one of the best detective mystery thrillers that I have read in recent times and I am glad that I have started reading John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson's works sooner than later. At the outset the case seemed implausible or tending towards supernatural. The whole atmosphere of tension is built up gradually and culminates in a great climax. The denouement in the end when Sir Henry Mellvile not only tells the who but also the how of it, made me chuckle as there was no way I could have figured it out at all and I doubt anyone would. This is mystery writing at its ingenious best. I will try to read all of JDC's works for sure and now I feel he is even better than the dame of detective fiction - Agatha Christie :). Very much recommended.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing set-up with a man claiming to be able to read minds, who then goes a step further to claim he can kill with his mind. When people begin dying, Sir Henry Merrivale must figure out how. A clever fair-play mystery, and I didn't see the solution coming.
I don't read as many of John Dickson Carr's books that he wrote as Carter Dickson (I enjoy the atmosphere and style of Dr. Gideon Fell's adventures over Sir Henry Merrivale's), but this one did not disappoint.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another top notch mystery from Dickson Carr.Not a locked room as such this time,rather the method of murder is the mystery.Can the mind reader Pennik really kill people with just the power of thought?Ingenious as always,i particularly liked the narrator's reading notes,where you,the reader is warned and given hints and tips,thus giving the novel it's title.This is a real page turner,highly recommended.

[Filip · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice whodunnit in which at first we'll dealing with a supernatural angle but quickly it turns out to be a bit more to it. The characters were fun and quite distinctive and the crime(s) quite interesting, even if their execution was definitely far-fetched and not very probable. I liked the resolution itself but not how the culprit was caught - with way too much monologuing.

[TheRavenking · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a great hook: What if someone could kill by mind control? - and is less bloated than some of Carr's other novels. Often his books suffer from a second-act-slump where nothing much happens, this one however is relatively well-paced, even though his characters still have an annoying tendency to talk a lot instead of just getting on with their business. Carr's sense of humor has always been of a particular taste and he thankfully keeps the jokes to a minimum in this novel.
The problem is the solution. Not only can the culprit be spotted relatively easily, the method for murder is not only laughable but simply dull. "The Crooked Hinge" had a very disappointing solution but it was at least fun and memorable, this one is simply boring.
So, reader BE warned! If you are just looking for an entertaining thriller, then this one's for you, but if you expect a clever impossible mystery like "The Hollow Man" or " The Case Of The Constant Suicides" then you will no doubt be let down by the ending.

[Umer Abbas · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I hadn't read the short story where Carr uses the same technique it would have been a blast but even without the solution it is a superb piece of work.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compact story with atmosphere, mysterious deaths, and an odd collection of people - and of course the Old Man enters in hope he can solve this so he won't be sent off to the House of Lords. Was thought-force used to kill? Or was it something else?

There are a lot of layers to this plot and the compression in its telling makes for a story that moves, but also does hides some clues from the reader in a way that doesn't permit them to figure out all the pieces. That being said, was a fun read- some odd ball characters and also interesting as it contains references to events of the time as well.

Solid Merrivale mystery with Dr. Sanders telling the story. Some amazing descriptions of place with bits of humor.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Sam Constable entered the conservatory. Pennik said, I will get you a meal if you like. But I don't think you will be alive after 8.

[Gabriele Crescenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si può uccidere a distanza con la Teleforza? Herman Pennik sostiene di poterlo fare e ne dà una dimostrazione a casa di Sam Constable, dicendogli che prima delle otto morirà. Proprio mentre Sam scende le scale, si contorce e muore. L'autopsia non rivela alcuna causa che possa aver provocato la morte. Allora la Teleforza esiste davvero? Romanzo incredibile, con una soluzione ingegnosa. Apprezzo in Carr il fatto che tutto sembra essere sovrannaturale ma poi tutto si spiega con una logica impeccabile. Consigliatissimo.

[MARLENE RANTZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dickson Carr writing as Carter Dickson did it again! The reader is warned-this is an excellent mystery novel with a surprising solution which I have come to expect from this author!

[JDL · Rating 5 out of 5]

(I talk about the solution at length but nothing too close to blatant spoilers.)

At this point, I'm pretty sure I prefer H.M.'s impossibilities to Dr. Fell's, although I still do like both series equally. The truth behind the two "deaths without cause" is simple but brilliant - all the clues are there but darn if ya piece em together. The character of Herman Pennik must be one of the most interesting one-off characters in detective fiction, alongside Carr's own Fay Seton from He Who Whispers and Major Moon from Green for Danger. So evilly complex, so simply insinuating, and so cheerfully mad, Pennik and his supposed abilities are the real driving force of this story. There's also a small part of Pennik's character revealed at the end which reminds me of The Roman Hat Mystery if it had been done maybe a bit better - in this case there some interesting subversive tactics used around this aspect which you don't even realize. While at first I was not completely enamored by the reveal of whodunit (I mean, the cast of suspects is as limited as Green Capsule, which still gave me a sense of "why didn't I see it!",) there ended up being another level to that reveal which made it a lot better. The motive for the murders was something passed right under my nose but didn't really consider for certain reasons, and the motive for the impossibility, while parts of it are pretty obvious by halfway through, when the whole reason is shown is really brilliant. And the final reveal of H.M.'s reason for letting the media-circus over Teleforce happen was a really nice touch, especially when you consider the temporal setting of the book and the time it was published in. In that way I think it might surpass the ending of She Died a Lady for me. Some other aspects of the solution, like Pennik's mind-reading and the "astral projection", aren't too convincing but they make enough sense and honestly with how well-done everything else is I don't blame Carr for not knocking it out on every single mystery. Speaking of Green Capsule, this is definitely the Merrivale version of that. A complex, subtly clued crime (one of which on both counts took place in front of several witnesses) which has a rewarding solution on several counts. Highly recommended.

More spoiler-y side note - I actually thought I was really close with how the causeless deaths were done, and in a way I was. One aspect of the two victims, the Constables, are that they both had bad malaria in the past and still suffer side effects from it. I was convinced that somehow the murderer was enabling the Constables' malaria rebounds in the method of killing them, like some medical way they used their post-malaria weakness to kill them. Of course, in the solution it turns out that an aspect of their malaria rebound caused something to change in their house (rather than their actual physical health) which enabled the method of murder - a method which did not actually need the victim to have had malaria. So I was close... but not quite at the cigar. Sigh. Maybe one day I'll crack one of these cases.

[Gordie LaChance · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun novel from 1939 featuring a kooky gentleman who claims to be able to kill people with his mind through application of 'Teleforce'. When the bodies star piling up, his claims seem like they might not be so crazy after all.

A very fun mystery with a villain that I didn't see coming.

This feels like it could have been made into a William Castle film in the 50s/60s.

One interesting tidbit: towards the end, Sir Henry Merrivale compares 'a super bomb that will drop from an airplane and wipe out a whole country' to 'Teleforce', suggesting that they are equally absurd ideas. Six years later, of course, he would be proven wrong in regard to one of these things.

[Sam Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at my favorite used bookstore for $3 because the cover was cool and the 1939 paperback printing had a bunch of interesting notes about this being a "wartime" book and how I should "give it to someone in uniform" when I'm done. So I was doubly transported.

I rarely read mystery novels but this one makes me want to read more. The tone and pace are entertaining. It's pulpy and doesn't take itself too seriously, although it would fall well short of 2021 racial and cultural sensitivities. A satisfying diversion, and an interesting reflection of a particular moment in time.

[Sakshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. I went into this book expecting, from the title, that this will be like The Nine Wrong Answers. It wasn't remotely like that - the title is honestly clickbait - but overall, the book was good. In fact, I found it to be much better than a lot of the other "top-rated" Carrs I've read.

First of all, I loved that this time for ONCE, the villain wasn't the standard Carr fare. I was fully expecting the house help or some other such irrelevant background character to have done it. I was glad that it was a somewhat major character, who I initially believed was put in just to serve as the central yuppie's love interest. The murder method was surprising, although I had not the faintest clue about it, as in all Carr books. . The premise was also fun - very gothic, with the mind-reading, the mysterious deaths, the sheer fun of reading about the newspapers splashing pseudoscience across them! Overall, a fun read, unique and fresh, although not really meant for people like me who are just beginning to pick up that if the heater is mentioned five times, it's probably a clue....

[May · Rating 5 out of 5]

NAPRAWDĘ DOBRA KSIĄŻKA!
Po przeczytaniu mam ochotę zrobić spektakl na jej podstawie i wcielić się w rolę Vicky Keen 😮‍💨

Dobrze wykreowani bohaterowie i przemyślane przez autora szczegóły mnie absolutnie uwiodły! Rzadko kiedy czytam kryminały jednak ta książka naprawdę ma wszystkie cechy kryminału jakie potrzebowałam 🥴
Wszystkim bardzo polecam jako spokojna lektura na jeden/dwa dni - bo przysięgam, że nie mogłam się od niej oderwać ani na chwilę🫣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Keith Boynton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The feeling that some supernatural agency MUST be at work has rarely been so successfully evoked – and the focus of the mystery, more than ever, is on the HOW and not the WHO. This is a captivating story, whose resolution is rich with ironies, and which ends with an unexpectedly stirring patriotic speech – made on the very eve of World War II.

[SuedePuzzler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Certain details of the solution might sound sligthly odd from a scientific point of view, but for the main points Carr has said it is possible in this book so the reader should accept it .

[Ian Durham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was pretty good. It had a tinge of that creepy feel to it that I liked from the early Bencolin and Fell mysteries. My only complaint was that there were two things that were never explained and I thought that was kind of sloppy.

[Lyvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ifound the book tedious and pretentious. The ending was interminable!

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. I had figured out the murder weapon but not how the murders where done.

If you are into old books, I highly recommend this one.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente como siempre. Todas las claves están en el desarrollo de la novela y una solución al nivel de H.M.

[Suddenlyathisresidence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic. The best of the Merrivales.

[James Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review -- https://jamesscottbyrnside.com/2019/0...

[Jacquie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not in my top 5 John Dickson Carr novels. The plot was good, but the explanation at the end took far too long for me. I also thought some of the language in it was really uncomfortable.

[AL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t write a footnote specifically giving info to the reader and then defy that expectation on a technicality. That’s unfair. Also murder method was lame.

[Naphta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one does not feel like the typical Merrivale mystery, but it is timely (in a way). As noted the topic is the power of the mind and also the ability to instill fear by manipulation and also the use of the media. The book was written in 1938 before the onset of World War II, but Hitler looms somehow as an evil presence even though no one yet new of the things he would soon be doing. It is interesting aa a historical artifact beyond the clever ideas related to the "locked room" puzzles. Some of the character's racist statements are offensive, just fyi.

[Darek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kto nie zna serii z Jamnikiem czy książek z Klubu Srebrnego Klucza. Uważam, że są to solidne kryminały i powieści detektywistyczne, przy których te współczesne wypadają słabo. Akcja tych książek skupia się przede wszystkim na ciekawym pomyśle i intrygującej zagadce. Nie ma tu zbędnego rozlewu krwi i flaków. Właśnie za to uwielbiam te stare klasyczne kryminały. Kameralność, zamknięte towarzystwo, poszlaki i śledztwo prowadzone przez detektywa. Często pojawia się motyw „zbrodni niemożliwej do popełnienia”, czy „zamkniętego pokoju”. Te dwa występują właśnie w tej książce. Ogólnie autor uznawany jest za mistrza zagadek zamkniętego pokoju i muszę przyznać, że coś w tym jest. Nie rozumiem niskich ocen książek tego autora, jak i innych z serii z Jamnikiem czy Srebrnego Klucza. Są to pozycje totalnie niedoceniane i mam wrażenie, że już zapomniane. A szkoda, bo naprawdę warto.

Akcja książki rozgrywa się w czasie weekendu w wiejskiej posiadłości pod Londynem. Nadinspektor Masters i ekscentryczny sir Henry Merrivale muszą rozwiązać zagadki tajemniczych morderstw zapowiedzianych przez jasnowidza.
Książka „Ostrzegam czytelnika” zrobiła na mnie duże wrażenie i wzbudziła podziw dla autora za tak zmyślną fabułę i wywodzenie czytelnika w pole. Niesamowity klimat, odrobina mistycyzmu w postaci jasnowidza i intrygująca zagadka sprawiły, że książki nie dało się odłożyć i chciałem jak najszybciej poznać odpowiedzi na wszystkie pytania.
Zakończenie mnie zaskoczyło, wyjaśnienie zagadek mnie usatysfakcjonowało, a to najważniejsze. Przyjemnie spędziłem przy niej czas, więc nie zostaje mi nic innego, jak tylko ją polecić. Z wielką chęcią sięgnę po inne książki tego autora wydane w Polsce. Niestety jest ich bardzo mało.

[Jameson · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRST READING 7/28/14: 5 Stars

SECOND READING 7/17/20: 4 Stars

After reading the ‘meh’ late Merrivales I wanted to revisit a sure thing. I wouldn’t rate this as highly the second time around—the third act is kind of all over the place and drawn out—but it was still better than the last few Merrivale books.

THIRD READING 1/26/23: 3.5 Stars?

I’m not usually any good at deducing the whodunnit in John Dickson Carr’s books and the same holds true with this one, despite the fun Queenish “warnings.” And despite the fact that I’ve read it twice already.

I really loved it the first time around. The second, less so, but I still like it a lot. The whole thing is just so flippin’ preposterous. Now, I’m not positive, but this JDC book might elicit the most “oh, come ons” out of all of them. And that’s saying something. But that’s why we read these far-fetched fantasies, no?

Overall, one of my favorite Merrivale stories, for sure. Outlandish it may be, JDC does play fair and it all adds up in the end. However, I do have a few niggling Howevers:

1.) Why the heck wouldn’t Masters have checked the scrapbook-shaped fuse box for the scrapbook? It was even in her room, for cry eye. And who tore out that one missing article, by the by?

2.) The fact that there is an outside staircase leading from the dining room to that bedroom is divulged unnaturally late. Not unfairly late.

3.) It really didn’t occur to Sanders that Constable was in his dressing gown when he barged in his room? And that that fact was important?

[Life · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The basis is, roughly, that thought, or what we call thought-waves, have a physical force not disimilar to sound. Notes in sound can shatter glass or even kill a man. The same, naturally, applies to thought.”

“I do not think, Mr Constable, that you will get any dinner.”
The other sat up. “Not get my dinner? Why the devil shouldn’t I get my dinner?”
“Because I do not think you will be alive then,” said Pennik.

One of the most seemingly impossible crimes, the solution is very effective in its simplicity, managing to explain everything beautifully. If one can find a fault in it, it's the poor depiction of a man of another race, who is denigrated in a over-the-top racist manner.

[March · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a favorite. The hero behaves quite stupidly (HM doesn't acquit himself well, either) and it all climaxes with notably ludicrous example of the villain monologue. And the long-anticipated explanation for all the mysterious events is disappointing, especially for this author. The reader is warned.