The Crooked Hinge

Sir John Farnleigh’s story is one of surprises. As a youth, he had been sent to live in the States and was thought to have drowned in the sinking of the Titanic. But he survived, lived in the States, then returned to England to claim the ancestral home when his older brother died. But about a year after he did so, another man turned up also claiming to be Sir John Farnleigh. Who’s the real one? Who’s the fake? And which of the two was murdered…? Gideon Fell is on the case.

This story doesn’t seem like it would have much to it, but it’s sufficiently packed with weird details and small, odd events to keep the reader going. Gideon Fell makes an amusing amateur detective; I like that he doesn’t take himself too seriously and show more placidly solves the case. There’s a bit of sensational stuff here in the form of witchcraft and Satanic cults that lend the book some atmosphere (but it’s never really scary). I’d recommend this if you’re looking to try a John Dickson Carr that isn’t *too* impossible (some of the locked-room ones are simply unsolvable). show less

The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr was published in 1938.

A panel of seventeen detective story writers and reviewers chose The Crooked Hinge as the fourth best locked room mystery of all time. The Hollow Man by the same author was voted the best.

A man has his throat slashed and dies, in full view of at least three people with no killer in sight. Meanwhile, a mysterious automaton, immobile for centuries, suddenly springs to life and a housemaid almost dies of fright. Accusations of witchcraft and foul play abounds, while Dr. Fell investigates.

I loved the atmosphere of this book! Carr manages to create an environment of palpable fear and suspicion.

Till the very end I didn’t know who the real culprit was. My suspicion rested on show more various characters until the final revelation.

This is a very engrossing read. I barely managed to put it down after picking it up. If work and life had not interfered, I would have finished it at one go.

I learnt about Maelzel's Chess Player and early automatons in general from this book. That was an extra added bonus.

Having said all that, I was disappointed by The Crooked Hinge. The entire book was so gripping and exciting! But the ending was far-fetched, overcomplicated and oddly dull. This is the same kind of problem that The Hollow Man had.

I just don’t like Carr’s premier detective Dr. Gideon Fell. He seems dull and tends to over explain things.

The book could easily have done without the narrator like character of Page, just like I thought The Hollow Man could have done without Rampole and his wife. None of the characters really stand out. The character of Patrick Gore is a shade duller than the rest of them.

The Crooked Hinge is the third Carr mystery and the second Dr. Fell mystery I’ve read. Overall, there is something missing from John Dickson Carr’s mysteries. They somehow lack the finishing touch that makes a mystery a worthwhile read. show less

A campy delight. None of the novels of Carr (the Dean of that campiest of genres, the locked-room mystery) is without its flaws, but this is probably the most all-around satisfying. It is a tightly-plotted and gripping mystery that manages to integrate wildly heterogeneous elements--Maazel's chess-playing automaton, the Tichborne claimant, the sinking of the Titanic, Inigo Jones, witchcraft, and an inexplicable throat-slashing--while remaining just this side of the totally absurd. Though other reviewers fault the characterization, I think the suspects are more sharply differentiated than is usual for the genre, and the solution is quite satisfying: eschewing the baroque extravagance of, say, [b:The Three Coffins|498490|The Three Coffins show more (Dr. Gideon Fell, #6)|John Dickson Carr|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1260649785s/498490.jpg|435889], it cuts the Gordian knot with one ingenious stroke. In all, as close to perfect as locked-room mysteries get, says I. show less

Two men claim to be the real Sir John Farnleigh, legitimate heir to a vast English estate; when one of the two men is brutally killed, the authorities have trouble determining whether it was suicide or murder. The identity of the genuine John Farnleigh is quickly established, but the who, the how & the why of the brutal death prove more elusive. Investigators must deal with tales of the Titanic disaster, a centuries-old automaton decaying in an attic, music hall soothsayers, & rumors of witchcraft in order to solve the case.

The Crooked Hinge is based on an interesting premise: stolen identities; the associations with the Titanic, automatons, & swamis make it all the more intriguing—the witchcraft element, much less so.

The primary show more detective in the case, Dr. Gideon Fell, is bland & doesn’t do much investigating; he ends up just sort of knowing everything without too much explanation as to how he got to his conclusions. None of the book’s characters are particularly pleasant or sympathetic.

In spite of these flaws, the book was well-written & the story itself was an ok read until the final two chapters. The penultimate chapter finds our dreary detective detailing—at length—exactly how one of the suspects committed the murder. However, after all that ballyhoo, he admits that isn’t really the solution after all. The final chapter is a lengthy letter from the murderer revealing how the crime was actually committed; and this genuine ‘solution’ to the crime is so farfetched it manages to completely ruin the entire book. So, yeah, a colossal waste of time. show less

The current Farnleigh of Farnleigh Close comes under scrutiny when questions arise as to if he is really the John Farnleigh who is descended from the long line of Farnleighs. A man has shown up claiming to be the real John Farnleigh and the current one is a fraud.

It is brought out that the real John Farnleigh had been shipped off to America after he disgraced his family, when he was 15, 25 years ago. He sailed on the Titanic and was thought lost at sea. It now seems he had been living in America all this time under another name.

People from John Farnleigh’s past are brought in to help determine which man is the real John Farnleigh. When the current head of Farnleigh is found dead in his garden, with his throat slashed, the question of show more who is the real John Farnleigh becomes even more important than who killed him.

Dr. Gideon Fell is called in to reconstruct the known facts and to determine who the real heir is. Gideon finds that determining the rightful heir isn’t the only problem; there are also complications regarding who is really entitled to the estate.

John Dickson Carr doesn’t write simple mysteries, but rather ones with many twists and turns. This is definitely one of them! show less

Nat Burrows, the solicitor, picks up his friend Brian Page, on a lazy, still summer day. Something unusual is happenning over at Farnleigh Close, the estate where he works for John and Lady Farnleigh. For out of nowhere a stranger has arrived, with a strange story of swapped identities on board the sinking Titanic, and claims to be the true owner of the estate. The old school teacher, the only one close to John in his childhood days, has been brought home from Jamaica, and is now ready to meet both pretendents and decide who is the real one. Strangely, they both seem totally confident, even in the face of fingerprint evidence. But left on his own to match the fingerprints, the old school teacher….ISN’T murdered. Someone else is, in show more a way that is both unlikely and impossible. Luckily, the huffing Doctor Fell and Elliot of the Scotland Yard happen to be in the neighborhood, investigating an incidents that is completely unrelated. Or is it?

This is a classic puzzle mystery, full of red herrings, implausible but believable scanrios and dark secrets. It's no’ my kind of book at all, but it’s hard to overlook it’s cleverness and charm. Evev going far over the top, it does so with a level of believability that makes me want to tag along. Added to this rather pleasant mix is also a pinch of creepiness – at the core of the mystery is a rather eerie mechanical woman from the 1700-eds, an ugly old living doll who refuses to stay in the attic…

I woldn’t have read this for many years, or possibly at all, if it wasn’t for my Blind Picks category. I’m glad I did, even if this genre will never be a given favorite of mine. show less

Something Crooked This Way Comes
Review of the Penzler Publishers American Mystery Classics eBook (October 1, 2019) of the Harper and Brothers hardcover original (1938)

We shall have to take our choice. On the one hand we have a somewhat preposterous suicide; but on the other hand, unfortunately, we have a more than somewhat impossible murder. Will someone kindly oblige me with an idea?

The Crooked Hinge is from towards the middle of the pack of Carr's Dr. Gideon Fell mysteries. I had randomly picked it up as a Kindle Deal of the Day and it isn't necessary to read the books in order. It is also listed quite high at #4 in a ranking of best "locked rooms / impossible crimes" novels. Carr is often considered the top writer of those scenarios. show more They usually involve a solution which is by necessity extremely elaborate and not very realistic, but as long as you are willing to go along, they can be very entertaining.

This one is par for the course. It takes a sort of Return of Martin Guerre scenario where there are two claimants to a baronetcy. One of them has already established themself in the position when another claimant appears, they have a lawyer and a supposed proof of their claim. Then one of the claimants dies, perhaps by suicide or was it an impossible murder? The man was observed standing outside with no one else seen nearby when he dies. The supposed "proof" also disappears. Somehow an automaton in the attic is involved, which seemingly moves unaided. Then a maid disappears. Then there appears to be a tie-in to a murder from a year ago which had previously been thought to be solved. Then there is apparent witchcraft involved.

You will think that there can't possibly be a solution to all this. Dr. Gideon Fell is of course on hand to explain it. In the end, the culprit also provides a complete confession which contains reveal after reveal, twist upon twist.

See cover at https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/...
The front cover of the original 1938 Harper and Brothers hardcover. Image sourced from Goodreads.

Trivia and Links
John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) is one of the 99 authors listed in The Book of Forgotten Authors (2017) by Christopher Fowler. He is No. 20 in the alphabetical listing which you can see towards the bottom of my review here.

This edition of The Crooked Hinge is part of the Otto Penzler American Mystery Classics series (2018-ongoing). There is a related Goodreads Listopia here with 57 books listed as of mid April 2024. There are currently 71 titles listed at the Mysterious Press online bookshop. The official website for the series at Penzler Publishers seems to show only the most recent and upcoming titles.

John Dickson Carr took the inspiration for Dr. Gideon Fell's appearance from that of author G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), writer of the Father Brown mysteries and other works.
See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Gilbert_Chesterton.jpg...
Photograph of G.K. Chesterton. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
The source of the name Dr. Fell is apparently from the apocryphal epigram:

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why – I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.

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