To Wake The Dead (Dr Gideon Fell Book 9)

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To Wake the Dead (Dr. Gideon Fell, #9) by John Dickson Carr

View all 3 comments. Sep 29, Victor rated it really liked it Shelves: Another very puzzling and engrossing mystery by JDC. Though this was not one of the locked room mysteries for which Carr is famous,it's still one enormously convoluted mystery that leaves you suspecting the street dog after you have run out of suspects because of aparent alibies or lack of motive.

Fell lectures and puts forward a full dozen questions ,which must be answered satisfactorily to arrive at the correct solution. I couldn't and I believe very few people would even though all Another very puzzling and engrossing mystery by JDC. I couldn't and I believe very few people would even though all the clues are there. There are a few facts that is unearthed by police machinery that was not on the table but the clues to the facts were there.

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Apart from a sourpuss heroine and another naughty old boy rest of the characters were likable enough. I would rank this above crooked hinge as this was more satisfactory overall while lacking the wonderful atmosphere of the Crooked Hinge.

Read it if you get the chance ,I don't think you will be disappointed if you have read a JDC before. It looks like Christopher Kent has landed himself in a whole lot of trouble. He has just returned to England on the last leg of a journey from South Africa that has resulted from a bet with his friend Dan Reaper. Reaper claims that Kent, a writer who also has a private income, hasn't done a real day's work in his life and that he will wager that Kent won't be able to work his way back to England in time to meet Reaper there on the morning of February 1st.

To Wake the Dead

The only rule--he can't draw on his bank It looks like Christopher Kent has landed himself in a whole lot of trouble. The only rule--he can't draw on his bank and he can't use his own name because he might be able to draw credit on it. January 31st finds Kent in Picadilly--just one day away from winning that wager--but he's not got one penny in his pocket. He hasn't eaten since yesterday's breakfast and he's sure he could make it if he could just get a hot meal inside him. He finds himself outside the Royal Scarlet Hotel where he's scheduled to meet Reaper and comes up with an ingenious idea.

Despite being without funds, he still looks presentable and he's sure that if he just walks boldly into the dining room like he belongs then he can order up a hot breakfast and charge to a room any room and just walk out again. It's all going splendidly until a hotel attendant comes and tells him there's a problem regarding his room. It seems that the previous occupant has called with claims to have lost a valuable bracelet and won't rest until the room is checked.

The attendant doesn't wish to disturb the gentleman's wife who is still sleeping, so would he just go in and check through the drawers and whatnot to see if the bracelet is there. What's a guy to do? If he tells the attendant he's not the husband and reveals why he's cadged a meal, then the bet's off. If he goes along with the attendant and manages to get in the room, how's he to explain himself to the good lady occupying the room? He's still puzzling that last bit out when the attendant uses a master key to get him in the room and he discovers that he's got a far worse problem on his hands.

The good lady is dead--strangled with a towel. And, by the way, she's not just any good lady But Kent doesn't recognize her in the dimly lit room. Kent does what any innocent young man in a John Dickson Carr novel does.

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He sneaks out the side door the suite conveniently comes with another entrance and makes his way to his friend Dr. Gideon Fell's home for advice and help. Fell and Superintendent Hadley who is there to consult Fell on the murder at the Royal Scarlet Hotel seem to believe that he's innocent--provided he can prove when he arrived and his whereabouts the previous evening. Jenny Kent isn't the only one who's dead. Christopher's cousin Rodney Kent was killed in a very similar manner to his wife about two weeks previous at a country house in Northfield.

There are various clues available to Fell and Hadley--from the man in the hotel uniform who was observed at both scenes around the time of the murders to a drawer full of ripped up photographs and one that was not ripped up to a second bracelet belonging to the dead woman. There are also a great many connections to the past--both the past of the dead woman and the past in Northfield.

Carr, as per usual, provides a highly entertaining story with interesting characters. He spreads clues about and displays most of them--but there is a bit of information that isn't revealed properly until it's too late for the reader to beat Fell to the punch. And there is one bit of business that takes a bit of swallowing to believe that oops, can't tell you who didn't, in all those years, discover that oops can't tell you what, either. But--other than those two points--the story is quite good and Fell in fine form.

He tells Hadley that he is not going to lecture on the mystery and then proceeds to do so. He enumerates various questions that, if they can answer them properly, will provide the solution to the crimes. Naturally, Fell is able to answer them all by story's end. Please request permission before reposting. Oct 08, Sam Wilkinson rated it liked it.

Editorial Reviews

The plot itself was interesting, the story fairly good, and most of the characters interesting. However, especially at the end, the characters acted in a very unrealistic manner and it all got a little bit silly. If I'm brutally honest, some of the character's actions seemed rather out of place even from the start.

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I didn't realise this one was 9 in the series, I may see if I can find book 1 to see if the character's odd behaviour is a one off in book 9. Nov 21, Puzzle Doctor rated it liked it.

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Adequate but sub par for Carr. Full review at classicmystery. Jul 11, Cheryl Jensen rated it liked it Shelves: Showing of 7 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

After arriving in England, a man and his wife on vacation from South Africa are murdered several days apart, and in separate locations. The husband goes first, and even though he is murdered in a country manor, a hotel attendant in a natty jacket with silver buttons is spotted leaving the crime scene. The same hotel attendant appears near the wife's death scene in a ritzy London hotel. The fact that the hotel attendant had showed up at the first murder, where he didn't belong was what really baffled me about this mystery.

If I had been the widow, I would have avoided hotels like the plague, especially those where the attendants wore navy jackets with silver buttons. But she didn't, and my favorite suspect was in jail at the time of her murder. Of course, nothing is quite as it seems in a John Dickson Carr mystery. He plays fair and if you assume that there is really no such thing as a 'locked room' you'll soon be hallooing merrily down the murderer's trail.

I suspected everyone in turn, even the murder victims, since Carr made a point of saying that their faces had been smashed in. The narrator of "To Wake the Dead" is a young mystery writer, Christopher Kent, who works his way from South Africa to England after a friend bets him he couldn't travel a step without his rather hefty bank account. He arrives in London well after the murder of his cousin, Rodney and manages to blunder into the hotel room where Rodney's wife has just been killed. There is Carr's signature denouement where the real murderer is exposed, but not before Christopher is almost killed in a very creepy scene in the graveyard next to the manor house.

This is an atmospheric between-the-wars English mystery, full of false suspects and almost-locked rooms. Draw the blinds, pull up a comfy chair in front of the fireplace and try not to spend a lot of time worrying about the hotel attendant with "a hole or something where his eyes ought to be," standing in the shadows behind you. Christopher spends the rest of the novel arguing about the murders with Carr's serial detective, Gideon Fell someone has to and trying to figure out why his Communist girl friend seems to despise him I think he deserves a much nicer fianc?

See all 7 reviews. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. To Wake the Dead Dr. Set up a giveaway. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? Gideon Fell series Book 4 Kindle Edition.