In the second volume of John Dickson Carr's collected short fiction, we get all stories with Colonel March or Sir Henry Merrivale as the problem solver. The stories were originally published as by the pseudonym Carter Dickson, which Carr used because he during 20 years of his career had so many ideas that it wasn't deemed possible to profitably publish them all under the same name.
The stories about Colonel March were intentionally written as a cohesive series with the same lead character, and were published by the British magazine The Strand. All were written during the late 30s and early 40s and feature different types of impossible crimes.
The first of these tales, "The New Invisible Man" is a breezy story that we'll mainly accept as an introduction to the good Colonel. A man comes to the police station and reports that another man has been killed by an invisible man. If the reader accepts that this story shouldn't be taken too seriously, the explanation just about works.
In "The Crime in Nobody's Room", a man who's been out cavorting and is somewhat worse for the wear gets home to his apartment block, but when he enters what he believes to be his flat he ends up in a place he doesn't recognise at all, and he also finds a dead man inside. He's knocked out, but when later they try to find this flat it turns out that it doesn't exist.
This is much, much better. I'm not 100 % sure that the defect Carr relies on actually works the way Carr maintains, but I'll let it slide, because the rest of the solution is just wonderful. A top story.
"Error at Daybreak" has a setup that Carr often returned to, a man who is lying stabbed on the beach even though there are no footprints and no one could have got near him.
This all seems a bit coincidental. I don't think the explanation for the impossibility could have ever worked, and yet it's quite an entertaining story. So, as an impossible crime it's not particularly good, but as a reading experience it's better.
In "The Hiding Place" a bank is robbed. The robbers are caught, but the money cannot be found. The police suspect that an eminent lawyer has hidden them, but the police cannot find them when they search his place.
The solution here is another variation of the "hiding place that no one notices because it's so inconspicuous". It's one of my least favourites, because I think it leaves so much to chance. And the only reason no one searches it (until Colonel March sets them right) is because the author says that they wouldn't. On the whole, I'm not too impressed with this story, as you might guess.
"Death in the Dressing-Room" takes place in a nightclub where an exotic dancer is found dead after finishing her act.
There's only one real suspect here - okay, maybe two - and the only reason it's an impossible crime is because Carr says it is. There's never any indication during the events of the story that it is an impossible crime, it just turns out to be that because of the killer that Carr "chose". Otherwise, this is not bad at all. The whole setting is interesting and the characters have real, believeable motives for what they are doing.
In "The Empty Flat", a respected lawyer is found dead in an empty flat with a radio blaring next to the corpse.
Another story with an unorthodox solution - this is as you might have guessed fairly common in the Colonel March stories. I did like this better than the previous unorthodox ones, the solution seems plausible to me, even though I'd question the reason for the lawyer to end up in the flat.
In "The Silver Curtain", one man is following directly behind another man who suddenly keels over with a knife in his back.
This is one of the best of the March stories, no, in fact, one of the best Carr stories. The setup is exquisite and the solution is very clever.
The penultimate March story is "Clue in the Snow", where March has to explain how a footprint has appeared in the snow on top of a hedge.
We return to the less orthodox solutions here. Not really top drawer from Carr, it must be said.
And then finally we get "William Wilson's Racket", where Carr makes a connection with an Edgar Allan Poe story. A young lady approaches Colonel March and asks him to explain how her fiancé could have disappeared from an office, even though he was there just a few minutes earlier.
This is again less than serious. If the reader approaches it with this knowledge I'm sure he'll appreciate the solution more. If not, he will probably find it a cheat.
Colonel March is a pleasant acquaintance, but Sir Henry Merrivale is probably (in stiff competition from Dr. Gideon Fell) Carr's foremost detective. This noisy and easily offended nobleman, who works for the Secret Service yet generally solves "regular" crimes, gets the opportunity here to solve two different mysteries. These stories were written later in Carr's career than the March ones.
In "The House in Goblin Wood" from 1947, H. M. (as he's usually called) has to work out how a woman managed to disappear from a locked house without leaving any trace.
This tale has an exquisitely chilling ending - very suitable for another one of Carr's better stories. A fine setup with an explanation that is just about workable (though the plan seemed excessively risky for the murderer).
"Ministry of Miracles" is a novella in which a young woman feels threatened by an unknown assailant. Hijinx and misunderstandings ensue before H. M. enters the picture and sorts everything out.
The impossible elements are minor in this story, but H. M. makes a fine job of finding a least likely suspect and putting snooty old ladies in their place. This novella was published in 1956 and thus became Merrivale's last adventure since his novel appearances ended in 1953 with "The Cavalier's Cup". That novel cannot be said to be among Carr's better works, but thanks to this clever novella H. M. gets to end his career on a high.
Conclusion
The March stories are a bit of a mixed bag. If you go in with an expectation that these are going to be bonafide impossible mysteries with orthodox solutions, you'll be disappointed. But if you're in the right frame of mind they are all enjoyable. And it has to be said that two or three of them are among the very best in the genre: "Nobody's Room", "Silver Curtain", "Emtpy Flat". And as for the Merrivale stories, they are both great.
As you might guess those five stories will definitely be included in my impossible mystery project. A couple of the other March stories might also be included, depending on the mood I'm in.
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