Hag's Nook

Hag's Nook by John Dickson Carr

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"In his detecting debut, larger-than-life lexicographer Dr. Gideon Fell is entertaining young American college graduate Tad Rampole at Yew Cottage, Fell's charming home in the English countryside. Within sight of his study window is the ruin of Chatterham Prison, perched on a precipice known as Hag's Nook. The prison's land belongs to the Starbert family -- whose eldest sons much each spend an hour in the prison's eerie 'Governor's Room' to inherit the family fortune.

Rampole is especially interest in the family, having met you and beautiful Dorothy Starberth on the train from London. He readily agrees when Fell and the local reverend, Thomas Saunders, ask him to accompany them as they watch and wait for 'his hour' in the prison. Martin has every reason to be afraid: more than one Starberth heir has met an untimely end. Will his turn come tonight?'
~~front & back flaps

The prison is where they used to hang witches (& convicts), and the Starberth family curse is that each heir dies of a broken neck.

And so the stage is set for this clever locked room mystery. Dr. Fell notices details, much as Sherlock Holmes does. Those details allow him to see murder where everyone else sees the fulfillment of the family curse, and to solve the mystery pages before the author lets the rest of us in on the secret.

Very well written -- an engaging read.