This hugely atmospheric and beautifully written whodunnit is a cross between a Gothic novel and a crime thriller. It introduces JDC's most popular amateur sleuth Dr Gideon Fell (supposedly based on G K Chesterton) who also appears in The Hollow Man, selected in 1981 as the best locked-room mystery of all time. Hag's Nook similarly sets a seemingly impossible challenge.
In order to inherit their estate, sons of the Starberth family (who are cursed with dying of a broken neck) must spend the night of their twenty-fifth birthday in the Governor's Room of the now-derelict Chatterham Prison, once controlled by their ancestor. Suspiciuous of the possibility of foul play, Dr Fell and his associates set a watch over the prison on the relevant night. Nevertheless, a death occurs.
This murder mystery has very little in the way of forensics and it is the antithesis of a police procedural but it has a blossoming romance, an easily-fooled but gung-ho heroic sidekick, a cryptic poem, ancient curses, a clock deliberately set ten minutes wrong, plenty of convincing red herrings and a butler. What's not to like?
Thoroughly enjoyable and with strong writing throughout.
Selected quotes:
- "There was loneliness in wandering through the grimy station, full of grit and the iron coughing of engines, and blurred by streams of hurrying commuters. The waiting-rooms looked dingy and the commuters, snatching a drink at the wet-smelling bar before train time, looked dingier still. Frayed and patched they seemed, under dull lights as uninteresting as themselves." (Ch 1)
- "Just for a moment, he could have sworn that he had seen something looking over the wall of Chatterham prison. And he had a horrible impression that the something was wet." (Ch 2)
November 2024; 214 pages
First published in 1933 by Hamish Hamilton
My edition was published by Polygon in 2019
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