Book Review - John Dickson Carr's The Plague Court Murders
The Plague Court Murders by John Dickson Carr
Published by: American Mystery Classics
Publication Date: 1934
Format: Kindle, 305 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
One night in his club Ken Blake sees fellow member Dean Halliday in extremis. He offers his help and Halliday gladly accepts, provided that Blake keeps an open mind. Halliday's life is falling apart because of a psychical researcher and his medium. Dean's brother died recently and his Aunt, Lady Anne Benning, turned to Roger Darworth to connect to James beyond the veil. Darworth claims that James will not rest until the ghosts of Plague Court are put to rest. Plague Court is a grim property long reputed to be haunted. The Halliday's acquired it in the 18th century but it's name comes from a disgraced hangman, Louis Playge, who was the brother of the steward under the previous owner and died of the black death after viciously attacking the family with a unique knife he used to cut the hanged men down and is rumored to be buried on the property. It is his ghost that supposedly haunts it's halls. Halliday wants to prove that Darworth is a fake. Which is extra hard seeing as Darworth claims to have no abilities of his own and that those lie in his assistant, Joseph. Blake suggests bringing in his friend Chief-Inspector Humphrey Masters who happens to dabble in a bit of ghost hunting in his spare time and loves nothing more than exposing fake mediums and Halliday acquiesces. Masters is particularly pleased given the fact that the Playge Dagger was just stolen from a London museum and he's had his eye on Darworth for years and he's sure the two must be connected when he hears Halliday's tale of woe. When the trio arrives at Plague Court they are surprised to find people in residence. Halliday's Aunt Anne, his fiance Marion Latimer, Marion's brother Ted, and Major Featheron are all sitting in the bleak house holding some sort of vigil. It appears that tonight is the night that Darworth has decided to lay the ghost of Louise Playge to rest. He has sequestered himself in a little stone hut in the back. He's locked in the room from both the inside and the outside. So naturally, when he turns up dead with Louis Playge's dagger in his back everyone is flummoxed. There was no way to enter the structure and what's more, given the expanse of mud surrounding the building without a single footprint the crime is impossible. Which means it's time to call in the experts. It's time to call in Sir Henry Merrivale.
Original published under John Dickson Carr's "impenetrable" pseudonym Carter Dickson one can't say that the author didn't believe in fair play, even in choosing his nom de plume. Which, really, is a relief. I don't like mysteries where the reader can't figure out the killer, and yes, I'm glaring at you Josephine Tey! You can't introduce characters who have never even been introduced or mentioned in the entire book in your solution! That's not fair! Hence, fair play. And I don't want to brag, but I almost had the whole solution, I didn't realize that one person was disguised and I was wrong about which police officer was corrupt, but other than that, I was right there with Sir Henry Merrivale. And Sir Henry Merrivale is the reason I read this book. I was compiling my Christmas reading and I had added the newly reissued Carter Dickson book, The White Priory Murders, to my list when I realized it was the second in the series. Which, because of how I'm built, meant I had to read the first book in the series, The Plague Court Murders. Thankfully my library had a copy and it sounded suitably spooky to pair with my Halloween reading before I moved on to my Christmas reading. So I dove in. And honestly, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly about this book doesn't work. Seances, psychics, locked rooms, all of it is things that I just love. Plus with the bleak history of Plague Court oozing House of Usher vibes, I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't. The narrator, Ken Blake, is problematic. He just wasn't good. He was too bland. Too much a cipher. I just couldn't get a read on him. He was unable to carry the narrative until Sir Henry Merrivale finally arrived over halfway through the book. By that point I wasn't really invested in the story. My interest could not be reinvigorated by Sir Henry's interest. And then there's my main gripe, it is really annoying and every blurb of this book gets it wrong. Plague Court is named after Louis Playge, the disgraced hangman who died of the plague and was supposedly buried on the property. Louis Playge was the brother of George Playge, who was steward to Lord Seagrave, who was the owner of the property that became known was Plague Court. And Thomas Frederick Halliday bought it from Lord Seagrave in 1711. There was never a Playge owner! So why is it called Plague Court? Because of the ghost stories surrounding Louis Playge? Some enduring urban legend? Now THIS is the mystery that I want answered.
The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie
