This third and final volume of John Dickson Carr's collected short stories lets us make Dr. Gideon Fell's acquaintance. He is in competition with the previous volume's Sir Henry Merrivale for being Carr's most important creation. We get all five stories with the good doctor here.
The Fell stories are all written between 1936 and 1940, with the exception of the last one which was written much later, in 1957.
The first of them is "The Wrong Problem", which is one of Carr's most atmospheric. Dr. Fell and his policeman friend Hadley come across an old man who tells them a story about his family and how his father and sister were murdered.
As has been mentioned previously, Carr liked to reuse certain setups, and the murder method of this story can also be found in "Terror's Dark Tower", which appears later in this collection and does not feature Dr. Fell. I prefer this version, mainly because of the surprise ending Carr gives us here. A really great story.
The next problem Fell has to solve is "The Proverbial Murder", where he explains how a man could be shot through an open window even though a group of policemen were guarding the house.
Another fine story with an impossible situation that is solved by some fireworks by Fell. The fact that it is set in the early days of WWII adds to my enjoyment of this story.
Next is the prosaically titled "The Locked Room". A man has been robbed and knocked out by a seemingly invisible thief.
There are very few suspects in this story, which is always a drawback. And I'm not fully sure about the solution here. Is what Fell says to explain the knockout really true? But if we accept it, it's another fine story.
We find another reused setup in "A Guest in the House". A burglar is found dead after having broken in to steal a painting from a country house. And then it turns out that the murdered burglar is the owner of the painting...
This plot was later rewritten and extended into the Merrivale novel "The Gilded Man". It's not the most plausible solution ever, to be honest. But if you're able to accept it, it's a rather audacious way to explain the impossibility.
The final Fell story is "King Arthur's Chair". A woman is found strangled on the beach, but there are no footprints leading to her body.
It's a clever story where the setup is somewhat reminiscent of "Error at Daybreak" (in the previous collection), though the solution is entirely different. It's always nice when the solution is so specific that only one peron can have committed the crime.
The rest of the stories in this collection are those tales by Carr that are set in the present time, but do not feature any of his regular detectives. "Terror's Dark Tower" was mentioned previously. A young woman is found dead in a tower room, murdered by a stabbing through the eyes.
A grisly murder method - the same as in the earlier Fell story - and a really good one. Though the solution is the same as in "The Wrong Problem", this story is still quite different. Carr is even heavier on the atmosphere and melodrama here, and even though the reader might be spoiled for the specific solution it's still a tale well worth reading.
The following story is the novella "The Third Bullet", featuring Colonel Marquis in the leading role. A man is shot to death inside a locked room where another man is present, and the house is surrounded by police. Even though the other man has a revolver, the killing bullet doesn't come from his gun.
According to Carr, Marquis was a predecessor to Colonel March before he had finalised the concept of this character. This story, from 1937, is almost long enough to be counted as a full novel, and is deep and meaty enough to satisfy every connoisseur of impossible crimes. The solution for the many bullets is truly great.
This is followed by "The Diamond Pentacle", where the crime itself is a very small part of the story. Instead, it focuses on an impossible situation where a young man makes a bet that he will be able to retrieve the titular jewel from a small safe which is locked (and also placed in a room which is locked and sealed).
This tale was written in 1939, and it is a fairly slight thing. But the solution to the impossibility is actually pretty great, because Carr bamboozles us all with a twist that is superb in all its simplicity.
"Strictly Diplomatic" is also from 1939, and this too is light on crime - they are mainly described in passing. Again it focuses on the impossible situation instead, and in this case it is a young woman who is having tea with a young man in a hotel restaurant. But she leaves him rather suddenly and disappears completely.
The solution here is another variation of Chesterton's "Invisible Man" trick, which I've already mentioned that I'm not very fond of. I guess it might have worked in this case, but I do think the person responsible for the disappearance might have succeeded in their endeavours by other, less involved means.
The following year, "The Clue of the Red Wig" was published. The newspaper reporter Jacqueline Dubois and Inspector Bell manage in a joint effort to solve the murder of a woman who is found on a park bench, only dressed in her underwear.
This might be Carr's most conventional short story, and there is no impossible crime here. Carr still manages to give us a surprising ending after some twists and turns. Not bad at all.
The final story of this collection is "Detective's Day Off", a trifle in this context, written in the late 50s. The impossible situation concerns a man who disappears from a guarded phone box after having stolen some jewels.
The impossibility results from a challenge between Carr and his colleague Clayton Rawson (who solved it in his own short story "Off the Face of the Earth"). Unfortunately, Carr's solution isn't particularly plausible. The story might have gained from being a bit longer so Carr had some more room to make magic.
Conclusion
The stories here are quite varied in quality. The Fell stories are almost all good (and even great in two cases), The stories that do not feature Fell vary even more - from "The Third Bullet" which is simply awesome to "Detective's Day Off" which really is a disappointment. Overall, it's still a very good collection with most stories above average.
Most stories here are of the impossible variety, and the ones that are really great will definitely be included: "The Wrong Problem", "The Proverbial Murder", "The Third Bullet", "The Diamond Pentacle". At this particular moment, I definitely want to add "Strictly Diplomatic" and "King Arthur's Chair" as well.
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