John Dickson Carr - Hag's Nook

Hag's Nook is a novel by the prolific John Dickson Carr and the first of twenty-three such books featuring his famous detective Dr. Fell. The novel opens with the young American Tad Rampole who is visiting England and has an introduction to Dr. Fell. At a station on route to Fell's  he meets the attractive young woman Dorothy Starberth who lives in the same village as Fell, and immediately falls for her. The Starberth's are an extremely wealthy family whose ancestors have been governors of the horrific Chatterham Prison, whose inmates were regularly hung from the gallows.

A strange condition of the Starberth's inherited wealth is that at 25 the male heirs must spend the night in a locked room. Their they have to follow some secret instructions in order to qualify for their inheritance. But the night after Tad's arrival, the elder brother of Dorothy dies while trying to follow these instructions. Fell, together with the local chief constable, Tad and others must work out what has happened. In doing so, they find a dangerous well, a disgusting swamp, a lot of rats and some dark secrets.

As with other Fell novels this is a locked room story told in great detail. Fell refuses to give any hints until he has worked out the whole solution to the puzzle, and we follow events through the supporting characters, in this case Tad. The book begins, and Tad experiences his arrival in the village, as a sort of gothic horror. Nameless evil seems to lurk inside Chatterham, defying the sleepy romance of the village. Tad's romancing of Dorothy can be contrasted with the frightening reality of her families bizarre traditions, and sudden death.

Carr was an American and his descriptions of rural England betray a lack of familiarity with the countryside. The nights are full of croaking frogs, a difference that cannot be down simply to the collapse in biodiversity in Britain's rural areas. Descriptions can, at times, be a little over the top. Though there is a satisfyingly pompous butler, who loves melodrama at the movies, and so nice misdirection.

But as with all locked room mysteries, the delight is in the reveal (something Carr made a big point of in Fell's most famous mystery, The Hollow Man). This one is done brilliantly and even though it seems impossible Carr's genius is in making it feel believable.    

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