 First US edition(publ. Harper Brothers) | |
| Author | John Dickson Carr |
|---|---|
| Series | Henri Bencolin |
| Genre | Detective novel |
| Published | 1930 |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
| Media type | |
It Walks By Night, first published in 1930, is the first detective novel by John Dickson Carr. It introduced Carr's series detective Henri Bencolin. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a locked-room mystery. It has been compared to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe.
Synopsis
A closely guarded room in a Paris gambling house, a mangled body on the floor, a severed head staring from the centre of the carpet; someone had entered that room, killed and escaped all within ten minutes.
Ten minutes after the Duc de Saligny entered the card room, the police burst in – and found he had been murdered. Both doors to the card room had been watched yet the murderer had gone in and out without being seen by anyone.
Reception
In a 2019 review in the Times Literary Supplement, Heather O'Donoghue writes that while the setting is "unexpectedly hard-hitting", "the novel itself is not easy reading" and that character development suffers, in part due to the tradition that "the culprit should be the least likely suspect".
References
- ^ O'Donoghue, Heather (6 December 2019). "Curious incidents: Classic crime fiction as social history". Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 8 June 2024 – via Gale General OneFile.
- Sutherland, John (2012). Lives of the Novelists : A History of Fiction in 294 Lives. Yale University Press. pp. 476–477. ISBN 9780300179477.
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