It Walks By Night
by John Dickson Carr (Grosset & Dunlap, 1930)
audiobook read by John Teller (Soundings, 2020)
Bencolin himself has potential but the viewpoint narrative is mostly slush-ridden, pseudo-poetic waffle disguising a paper-thin solution. The conspirators’ plan to hatch alibis—and thus the crime’s apparent impossibility—relies entirely on there existing an unusually observant witness with a slow watch!
Death-Watch
by John Dickson Carr (Harper & Bros., 1935)
audiobook read by Jonathan Keeble (Oakhill, 2019)
Carr obviously spent a long time working out not only how the murder could have occurred but also how those involved would likely have acted and how events might be misconstrued. Despite Gideon Fell’s rumbustious presence, it’s all rather scientific and dry.
Till Death Do Us Part
by John Dickson Carr (Hamish Hamilton, 1944)
audiobook read by Kris Dyer (Soundings, 2022)
A thoroughly ingenious locked room murder mystery, but one in which the author focusses too much on obfuscation. The narrator stumbles from confusion to confusion while the detective (Gideon Fell) skirts the main issue and sits pretty but silent on the solution.