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Deadly Hall
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harper&Row (1972)
ISBN: B000BNK8OO
Hardcover
Edition: First US Edition
SKU: O219=norank2
Condition: Good
Comments: 1st Edition. Good overall condition. No writing (except name), very tight binding. Some spine stains. Ships same day or next in a bubble mailer. Enjoy.
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Customer Reviews
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Deadly Dull
Rating  (2)
Date: 2006-06-08
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
The "New York Times" book reviewer says, "The plot's the thing" in "Deadly Hall" (1971). However, I fell asleep so many times while reading this mystery, that I can only vaguely remember the plot, most of which is explained by the deadly dull characters, rather than acted out. Usually I enjoy John Dickson Carr for his gothic atmosphere rather than his complicated plot, but this book's got all the atmosphere of a car repair shop waiting room.
Even at his best (his mysteries from the 1930s to the early 1950s), Carr's characters tend to lapse into mysterious hints and half-sentences. In this book, that's all they do. Uncle Gil, whose Mephistophelean eyebrows wiggled and waggled at least once per chapter, drops hints to his clueless nephew, Jeff, who in turn utters oracular nonsense to his girlfriend, Penny. Penny and the poor reader end up gasping and flopping around like beached fish. Who cares if the maid heard something outside in the night just before Thad Peters, "that noted all-round athlete" as we are constantly reminded, falls down the stairs and breaks his neck, while stealing the family silver? Who cares if one of the dopey heirs to Delys Hall defenestrates out of her locked bedroom? Maybe she jumped out to escape death by boredom.
I'm surprised sheer annoyance didn't keep me awake. I swore if Uncle Gil twitched a Mephistophelean eyebrow one more time, I was going to heave him and "Deadly Hall" into the wastebasket (an 'Americanism' as we are reminded in this book. The English would say 'waste paper basket' which, believe it or not, is a bloody damn CLUE to this mystery.)
But Uncle Gil did and I didn't. I really wanted to see how the mystery of the falling corpses was going to be resolved.
So the really infuriating thing about this complicated mystery is that I couldn't remember WHO the murderer was or what connection he had to the plot when good, old Uncle Gil finally denounces him.
I agree with one of the suspects at the convoluted denouement when she shrieks, "I can't stand this any longer!"
I think Carr must have written "Deadly Hall" on auto-pilot. Read his early stuff and skip this bomb.
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