Panic in Box C: Review

Sometimes it doesn't pay to go back and reread. I'm not sure when I read John Dickson Carr's Panic in Box C the first time--but I liked it well enough to originally assign it four stars on Virtual Bookshelf. I'm not sure why. This is one of Carr's later mysteries and reading it this time around...well, it just didn't sit quite right.

The story begins on board ship. Dr. Gideon Fell and his friend Philip Knox, a writer, are sailing from England to America. Each have been invited to the States for a lecture tour. While crossing the Atlantic, they are introduced to an odd assortment of characters--Lady Tiverton (the former actress, Margery Vane), her latest young lover, and her female companion of over 30 years. There is, as Fell remarks, an atmosphere surrounding Lady Tiverton and she brings that atmosphere to him as she insists on meeting both Fell and Knox and gathering them into her circle. As they are all exchanging secrets, as it were, a shot rings out. Did someone intend to kill and miss? Or was it just a warning?

Some weeks later, all paths lead to a dress rehearsal of Romeo & Juliet in Connecticut at a theatre recently endowed by Miss Vane--a theatre where she happened to begin her career. Unfortunately, it will also be the theatre where her career will end. While occupying Box C at the theatre, Miss Vane is struck by a quarrel (a bolt from a cross bow) which has apparently been shot at her from either the stage or the box opposite. Who among this new crop of actors could want their benefactress dead? Or is it someone she brought with her? Or maybe even someone from her past?

The mystery is a bit of a disappointment. Dr. Fell is not nearly as prominent as one might like and the wit and humor that one is accustomed to falls flat. There is a bar scene with grown men singing college songs and a bit of a brawl that's obviously meant to be funny, but isn't. The supposedly snappy dialogue between the men and women doesn't work all that well either. The explanation of the "impossible" crime is a good one (as always). Truly, the best parts are the intro scenes aboard ship and the wrap-up at the end...but there's a long way in between the two. I miss the Gideon Fells of the vintage years. Out of fondness for those, I'll give it three stars on this go-round.