The Judas Window

Rating:
Summary: Locked Room Classic
Review: Carter Dickson (also known as John Dickson Carr) created another wonderful golden age locked room mystery in his novel, The Judas Window. Sir Henry Marrivale is the sleuth and he is, as always, a dependable joy. The author has surrounded him with an able cast of supporting characters to help nudge the story along. The triumph, of course, and the reason for this book's existence is the locked room crime. Carter Dickson knows how to tease the mystery and drama out of this glorious cliche, making it seem fresh and new. This is a classic from a thrilling time in mystery writing by a true master of the form. Not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Locked Room Classic
Review: Carter Dickson (also known as John Dickson Carr) created another wonderful golden age locked room mystery in his novel, The Judas Window. Sir Henry Marrivale is the sleuth and he is, as always, a dependable joy. The author has surrounded him with an able cast of supporting characters to help nudge the story along. The triumph, of course, and the reason for this book's existence is the locked room crime. Carter Dickson knows how to tease the mystery and drama out of this glorious cliche, making it seem fresh and new. This is a classic from a thrilling time in mystery writing by a true master of the form. Not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Nearly perfect locked room mystery
Review: Dickson and John Dickson Carr are the same. He specialized in Locked Room mysteries. In various polls in mystery mags he always ends up at the top of locked room mysteries. I like this the best of his novels, but the Hollw Man (under Carr) is usually considered the best. His short story "The House in Goblin Wood" is I think even better -- simply the best locked room story ever.

Other writers to look for in locked rooms: Clayton Rawson, Ellery Queen (sometimes a locked room).

Ishould point out that as a novel aside from the puzzle its not very interesting. You read these things for the mystery and the detective!

Rating:
Summary: Ingenious courtroom drama
Review: I give it 4 stars as a specimen of the genre, 3 stars in a wider literary context, freely acknowledging that I haven't read much "classic" mystery and have less basis for comparison than some reviewers. I greatly enjoyed the curmudgeonly Sir Henry, and admired his methodical deductions. Without revealing any secrets, I found the Judas Window device pretty ingenious, though requiring a deeper knowledge of home construction than this layman possessed. Still, the plot succeeds very well in its central conundrum of "how" was it done. I found the "who" and "why" a bit less convincing, and felt there was plenty of room for alternative scenarios and suspects employing the same method. Nuff said - I'll try another Carr/Dickson soon and see how it grows on me.

Rating:
Summary: Classic detection and the best courtroom drama ever
Review: Jimmy Answell is summoned for an audience with Avory Hume. The two men are later discovered after witnesses break into Hume's study - a room with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door locked on the inside. Answell is found lying unconscious and Hume stabbed to death with an arrow. How can young Answell but be guilty? How could Sir Henry Merrivale (H.M.!) be foolhardy enough to undertake his defence at the Old Bailey? And what is the 'Judas Window' to which H.M. keeps alluding?

This is John Dickson Carr (aka Carter Dickson), the acknowledged master of the locked room mystery, in top form. The quality of the puzzle in The Judas Window is superior to that in The Three Coffins (popularly regarded as Carr's best book and the most famous locked room murder mystery). The case unfolds through the medium of a riveting courtroom drama that simply ought to have been filmed. The comic touches provided by H.M. as defence counsel are terrific. And the modus operandi of the crime is stunning in its simplicity and the conviction it carries. Less convincing however (and this is what makes the book stop just short of perfection) is the murderer's motive. But this flaw makes only a ripple in the overall masterly construction of the mystery.

Don't miss it!