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Title: The Hollow Man (Black Dagger Crime) by John Dickson Carr ISBN: 0-7451-8637-8 Publisher: Chivers North Amer Pub. Date: July, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.50

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Another awkward locked-room mystery
Comment: (This book is usually under the title Three Coffins in North America.)

Mr. Carr is undoubtedly a master in making up the spooky atmosphere, however, most of his novels disappoint me at the end. This one is certainly not an exception. Carr wrote in this novel that audience is always disappointed when a magic is explained, I think it just cannot help, especially, when the magic is not at all well performed.

Carr is well known as a master of locked-room mystery. If there is anything really valueable in this novel, it is the locked-room lecture given by Dr. Fell. This lecture is an extensive survey and a classification of locked-rooms ever appearing in literature. Since our host seems not to like my giving lecture here, I will suppress my humble opinion on the locked-room matter.

Now let's take a look at the 2 murders in this novel. Both are characterized by even stronger difficulties than typical locked-room, namely, the inaccessibility of possible escapes. One can play with a lock, but one can't walk out a watched door, or walk in snow without leaving footprints. These make the mysteries really challenging. Yet his hero Dr. Fell was still able to make an awkward explanation.

I say it awkward, because it obviously lacks common. By common sense, I mean: If one tells me that he was attacked by aliens or monsters or even invisible man, I can believe; but if he tells me he carefully did not leave any trace of blood when he walked to a doctor after he received a deadly wound, I have to think twice, especially when there is none whatsoever reason to conceal it; and if he further tells me he did not cry out for help when there was help (such as a cop) in sight, I will tell him to "eat my shorts".

As to writing style, unlike Holmes, Dr. Fell seems to like cooking up theories before gathering data. In this 256-page novel, it is on page 207 that Dr. Fell, upon discovery of new evidence, realizes he was about to make the biggest mistake ever. Although the book does not reveal his previous theories anywhere, doesn't it make his Sherlockian remarks unnecessary and foolish?

In conclusion, I find this novel is readable. Unlike most detective stories nowadays, this one at least can make you reach the last page. Honestly, I have read it twice, 1st time years ago under its American title. The spooky atmosphere cannot make one think clearly.