The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr

JetBlackDragonfly

1 day ago

2 min read

This thriller is one of John Dickson Carr's famous locked-room mysteries, set against a backdrop of historic witchcraft. The twisted plot had me a little bored, but I agree on its classic status.

Edward Stevens has a rural home in Pennsylvania Dutch country, which he shares with his wife, Marie. Mark Despard, of the large estate next door, invites his friend Stevens over to discuss the recent death of his wealthy father, Miles Despard. At the funeral, the body was sealed in a wooden coffin and lowered into the family crypt, the entrance sealed with concrete. Now, there is talk that he was poisoned with arsenic, a rumor begun by the cook saying she saw a woman enter his locked bedroom the night he died, wearing period costume and feeding him from a silver goblet before walking through a wall—her head seemingly unattached. Preposterous, until you remember the Despards attended a masquerade that night, causing Mark to suspect his wife, Lucy, who was costumed after a painting of their ancestor, the Marquise de Brinvilliers. With effort, they open the crypt and coffin to find it empty except for a string tied in nine knots, the same as was found under the man's pillow.

The word witchcraft is spoken, as their ancestor Marquise de Brinvilliers was a noted Parisian poisoner who was beheaded in 1676. Her full name was Marie D'Aubray—the same as a woman who was guillotined for poisonings in 1861—and the same as Steven's own wife! Stevens is a publisher of Gaudan Cross, a reclusive author of historic murder trials, and his new book contains a chapter on the women poisoners, who wore a distinctive gold and ruby bracelet—as does Steven's wife. Could his Marie be one of the non-dead witches who survive through time?

Mark and Steven puzzle over every angle with Dr. Partington and Dr. Welden; then again when Lucy and Mark's sister Edith arrive; then again when Captain Brennan of the police arrives; and again when interviewing the nurse Miss Corbett. It becomes a little boring until author and witchcraft expert Gaudan Cross coincidentally arrives to sum it all up, despite not being present for the past 150 pages. This was quite popular and contains a famous ending. An unusual tale I found dry to read, but the plot is solid.

1937 / Paperback / 218 pages