Castle Skull

 Castle Skull (1931) by John Dickson Carr

The great magician Maleger found the perfect house--the eerie, gothic Castle Skull sitting atop a rocky crag overlooking the Rhine River. The house was full of secret passages, hidden stairways, and false walls & windows. The atmosphere was perfect for the master of a creepy act. But not long after, Maleger travels alone by train in carriage that could only be entered or exited by passing a train guard. No one does, but when the train reaches its destination, Maleger is gone. When his body is found in the Rhine, it thought that it must have been accident or suicide. He either fell out of the train carriage and rolled down the embankment to drown in the river or he deliberately threw himself from the train. 

Seventeen years later, his friend Myron Alison who had a home across the Rhine from Castle Skull dies. He was shot several times and then set on fire atop Castle Skull. Jerome D'Aunay, friend of both men, comes to Henri Bencolin to ask the detective to come sort everything out. It isn't long before Bencolin realizes that Alison's death is tied to the events of seventeen years ago. But will he be able to discover the truth behind both deaths before his old rival, Baron Von Arnheim. Von Arnheim has been called in by the local magistrate who doesn't want to his German police force be outdone by an upstart Frenchman.

The case is made difficult by the apparent impossibilities in the deaths, but there are also ghosts and legends that inhabit the castle. Not to mention a host of interesting suspects: a bizarre duchess with a mania for poker; an actor obsessed with Hamlet; a musician who plays his violin in the dark outer reaches of Alison's house; a young woman with modern ideals; a self-absorbed Belgian financier and his beautiful, straying wife; and a news reporter on a trip to report on Europe's haunted castle who has ties to Maleger. The clues include a pistol with no fingerprints and an awkward grip; muddy footprints; the sound of a motor boat; the man who rose up out of the ground; and a photo from Maleger's younger years. Bencolin and Von Arnheim see the same things but come up with slightly different solutions. The German will get the credit...but Bencolin will get it right.

Given how atmospheric this is--a castle shaped like a skull!--I expected to like it a lot more than I did. The characters are great--I particularly like the Duchess who seems to me to be a female version of Sir Henry Merrivale. She swears like a sailor, smokes like a chimney, and drinks like a fish. But has all her faculties when it matters most. But after the great build up, the interesting setting, and a nice cast of characters, the mystery just kind of gets solved. There are few clues that the reader is given full access to up front and we find out the meaning of the most important one only in Bencolin's wrap-up--we certainly can't know what it means just from what we're given when it shows up. I was also a bit disappointed in Bencolin in this one. Von Arnheim does most of the speechifying and I was beginning to wonder if our hero was going to solve anything. For most of the book he just serves as a foil to the Baron. Definitely not Carr's best, but interesting for the atmosphere and setting. ★★★

First line: D'Aunay talked of murder, castles, and magic. 

Last line: "Cards, ladies and gentlemen?"
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Deaths = 4 (one fell from height; one smoke inhalation; one shot; one natural)