Corpse in the Waxworks (A Monsieur Bencolin Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Only avg. for Carr
Review: I felt this book was only average for someone of John Dickson Carr's caliber. His usual "locked room" formula was not present here, and the plot was only so so. The best part about The Corpse in the Waxworks was the settings of the Wax Museum, and then the Colored Mask Society. Those were both interesting, and gave an eerie air to the story. Unfortunately, I didn't care anything about the characters or whodunnit. The conclusion rang false to me (especially of Odette) and was confusing. The last 2 pages were fascinating, without giving it away, but I was left wanting a bit more explanation.

It's a good read, but not up to Carr's usual high standards, in works like The Crooked Hinge, The Three Coffins, or The Problem of the Wire Cage.

Rating:
Summary: A Bencolin Mystery
Review: In the eerie green light of a sepulchral old museum of waxworks the French detective Bencolin stumbles across the body of a young girl with a knife in her back placed in the arms of a sinister figure of the Satyr of the Seine. That same morning the body of another young girl had been found stabbed in the back, floating on the Seine river.
Trails lead directly to the infamous Club of the Silver Key: it is known that the propietor's mistress entered the waxworks museum at the time of the murder and was never seen to leave. What connection is there between the musty waxworks and the exotic modern club? What happened to the silver keys belonging to the murdered girls?

The Corpse in the Waxworks is by far the best Bencolin mystery that J.D. Carr has written.

Rating:
Summary: classic locked-room mystery
Review: One would think that a novel written seventy years ago would have lost much of its luster by now, but this novel holds up remarkably well in a plot that revolves around a dead body found in a wax museum and a secret society of the Paris elite devoted to carnal pleasures. Though some of the elements are dated, this is still a fast-paced and complex mystery by the master of the locked-room crime novel.