The White Priory Murders

Rating:
Summary: an excellent detective novel
Review: Although published in Carr's (a.k.a. Carter Dickson) early years, this novel is an excellent example of Carr's "impossible" murders and is better written than many of his later ones. In this novel, a woman's dead body was found in a pavilion surrounded by unmarked snow save for the footprints of the one who discovered the body. Despite the fact that the murder was committed after the snow stopped, outgoing footprints were not found, nor was murderer found inside. Carr ingeniously provided 3 explanations for this situation, among which Sir H.M.'s was naturally chosen as final.

While it is not difficult to guess H.M.'s explanation due to its straightforwardness, not until the very end of this novel does one have enough evidence to decide the murderer. Readers are thus ensured not to lose their patience or interests in this well paced detective novel.

However, in this novel of a bloody murder, nowhere does it mention how much blood was found in the supposed murder scene, which is an extremely important matter as readers will later find. I consider it a weakness but easily fixable, so I won't let it mar the book's rating.

Rating:
Summary: the white priory murders
Review: Although published in Carr's (a.k.a. Carter Dickson) early years, this novel is an excellent example of Carr's "impossible" murders and is better written than many of his later ones. In this novel, a woman's dead body was found in a pavilion surrounded by unmarked snow save for the footprints of the one who discovered the body. Despite the fact that the murder was committed after the snow stopped, outgoing footprints were not found, nor was murderer found inside. Carr ingeniously provided 3 explanations for this situation, among which Sir H.M.'s was naturally chosen as final.

While it is not difficult to guess H.M.'s explanation due to its straightforwardness, not until the very end of this novel does one have enough evidence to decide the murderer. Readers are thus ensured not to lose their patience or interests in this well paced detective novel.

However, in this novel of a bloody murder, nowhere does it mention how much blood was found in the supposed murder scene, which is an extremely important matter as readers will later find. I consider it a weakness but easily fixable, so I won't let it mar the book's rating.

Rating:
Summary: the white priory murders
Review: The author is at the top of his form in this hilarious and puzzling tale involving Sir Henrey Merrivale. Impossible situations, great characters, fast pace. I loved it!