Carr, John Dickson - The Punch and Judy Murders / The Magic Lantern Murders (1937)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

One of the best Carter Dicksons, in which humour and the detective story are neatly combined. Ken Blake's pre-nuptial adventures, in which he is chased by the police and eludes them by putting on a series of disguises, are superbly funny, and the plot twists and turns like an anaconda in an epileptic fit. Fortunately, H.M. — more serious than usual, perhaps in contrast to the humour of the rest of the book — is there to disentangle the whole preposterous gallimaufry. Having interviewed the suspects and heard ingenious multiple solutions in the Berkeley-Brand style, H.M. produces a great surprise solution, with which the only flaw is that the villain does not receive his comeuppance. A book as light, as complex, and as hilariously unpredictable as North by Northwest.