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Deadly Hall
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Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Author: John Dickson Carr
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price:
You Save: $ 3.95 ( 100% )
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Author: John Dickson Carr
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Average Customer Rating:
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Deadly Hall Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780881844955
ISBN: 0881844950
Label: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 252
Publication Date: 1989-04
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Studio: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780881844955
ISBN: 0881844950
Label: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 252
Publication Date: 1989-04
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Studio: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Editorial Review of Deadly Hall
Customer Reviews of Deadly Hall
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Wild Palms
Review: For long time fans of John Dickson Carr, the original publication of DEADLY HALL was intended as a sort of golden age return to the past a la Ellery Queen's THE FINISHING STROKE. By setting the book in the year 1927, roughly around the time Carr himself was beginning his long and illustrious career, and by casting a young novelist as his hero (though his uncle Gil does all the detecting while Jeff mostly looks on, an exclamation of "Archons of Athens!" occasionally slipping from his lips), we were brought back full circle to the wonderful early books of Carr, most of which had a Jeff of some sort in them.
This novel however, had some problems, and no amount of gussying up the local color (New Orleans in the era of Prohibition) is going to disguise that it is a sad story indeed. I speak, of course, of Carr's gradual descent into a bumbling prolixity that has few modern day counterparts. The characters never say anything, instead they begin to say the first words of sentences and then they get interrupted by other characters pointing out meaningless occurrences, or by recapping information that everyone present already knows. Such as, "You've met your wife, of course, Sir Henry?"
The murder method in DEADLY HALL has been much debated. I can't believe that the person who invented it is sort of given a pardon by the author, saying that the inventor did not actually intend anyone to die by this method. Even if he or she intended no deaths, it was still a startling and horrifyingly barbaric thing to do to someone. And plus, due to the problems with Carr's syntax, it is hard to imagine how the device works in the first place. I for one will never approach a house that has cast iron fleurs de lys mounted on the front of it without first putting on my gloves before touching any of them, much less gripping one to prevent a fall. My hands hurt just thinking about it!
Review Summary: Wild Palms
Review: For long time fans of John Dickson Carr, the original publication of DEADLY HALL was intended as a sort of golden age return to the past a la Ellery Queen's THE FINISHING STROKE. By setting the book in the year 1927, roughly around the time Carr himself was beginning his long and illustrious career, and by casting a young novelist as his hero (though his uncle Gil does all the detecting while Jeff mostly looks on, an exclamation of "Archons of Athens!" occasionally slipping from his lips), we were brought back full circle to the wonderful early books of Carr, most of which had a Jeff of some sort in them.
This novel however, had some problems, and no amount of gussying up the local color (New Orleans in the era of Prohibition) is going to disguise that it is a sad story indeed. I speak, of course, of Carr's gradual descent into a bumbling prolixity that has few modern day counterparts. The characters never say anything, instead they begin to say the first words of sentences and then they get interrupted by other characters pointing out meaningless occurrences, or by recapping information that everyone present already knows. Such as, "You've met your wife, of course, Sir Henry?"
The murder method in DEADLY HALL has been much debated. I can't believe that the person who invented it is sort of given a pardon by the author, saying that the inventor did not actually intend anyone to die by this method. Even if he or she intended no deaths, it was still a startling and horrifyingly barbaric thing to do to someone. And plus, due to the problems with Carr's syntax, it is hard to imagine how the device works in the first place. I for one will never approach a house that has cast iron fleurs de lys mounted on the front of it without first putting on my gloves before touching any of them, much less gripping one to prevent a fall. My hands hurt just thinking about it!