When The British Library and Poisoned Pen Press decided to collaborate to publish British Library Crime Classics, they were so wise in asking Martin Edwards to write the introduction to all of the books. His writing is the perfect introduction to the author, providing just enough background to the book itself to help the reader without spoiling the story. It’s not easy to know when to say that’s enough.
Of course, I’ve read John Dickson Carr’s eerie books before, but I had not read The Lost Gallows. This novel features M. Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and juge d’instruction (examining magistrate), along with an American friend, Jeff Marle and Sir John Landervorne, the former assistant police commissioner at Scotland Yard. Marle is the narrator of this macabre story of disappearing streets, a driverless car, and London, a London so foggy night after night that it adds to the atmosphere in the story.
One evening at the Brimstone Club in London, Bencolin and Marle are told a strange story. A member of the club has been sent a model of a tiny gallows, and another man swears that he was lost in the fog when he saw a gallows with a body hanging from it. Rumor has it that Jack Ketch, the name applied to all hangmen, is stalking victims in London. After Marle is almost run down by a limousine, the men find a corpse behind the wheel. And, an anonymous message to the police claims the gallows and Jack Ketch’s victims can be found on Ruination Street, a street that doesn’t exist.
Carr tells several stories that come together in a story that seems to be filled with insane characters. But, Bencolin recognizes clues as they’re slowly revealed, although most readers won’t catch them, and won’t catch the killer. Bencolin, though, bets Sir John that he can reveal the killer. The ending is as twisted as most of Carr’s unusual endings.
Along with The Lost Gallows, there is also a short story, “The Ends of Justice”. After reading the novel, I almost wish the story had been first in the book. However, readers who appreciate Carr’s writings, with their mysteries and atmosphere, won’t mind. As I said earlier, though, Martin Edwards’ introductions are essential reading before plunging into one of these British classics. You won’t be sorry.
The Lost Gallows by John Dickson Carr. Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press, 2021. ISBN 9781728219882 (paperback), 288p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received an ARC from the publicist, with no promise of review.
Nice. I never read the short story, so I might look for the book in the library to read it. After the first four (there was later a fifth) Bencolin books – IT WALKS BY NIGHT, THE LOST GALLOWS, CASTLE SKULL, THE CORPSE IN THE WAXWORKS – there was a fifth book with Marle alone (or “Watson” or “Hastings,” if you would), POISON IN JEST. This was set in Carr’s native Pennsylvania rather than the Europe of the Bencolin books.
Back in the early 1970s, the Avon Classic Crime Collection was a series of paperbacks easily recognized by the diagonal stripes in the upper left hand corner of the covers. It was an interesting mix of old and newer books, and Carr’s first, IT WALKS BY NIGHT, was one of them. Others included Georges Simenon (MAIGRET AND THE HEADLESS CORPSE and MAIGRET IN VICHY, the only two I still have in my collection), Patrick Quentin (PUZZLE FOR FOOLS), Amanda Cross (IN THE LAST ANALYSIS), W. Somerset Maugham (ASHENDEN), Michael Innes, (ONE MAN SHOW), E.C. Bentley (TRENT’S LAST CASE), Rex Stout (WHERE THERE’S A WILL), C. P. Snow (DEATH UNDER SAIL), Marie Belloc Lowndes (THE LODGER), Emma Lathen (ACCOUNTING FOR MURDER), Dick Francis (DEAD CERT), Vera Caspary (LAURA), and James Hadley Chase (NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH), among others. I used to have them all.
Don’t you hate it, Jeff, when you decide to downsize or clean out a collection? There are several in there that I feel bad that you eliminated – always Rex Stout for one. The ending of this one was not at all what I expected. I started reading Carr when I was in high school, and I always liked the atmosphere he created, and those locked room puzzles.
Somewhere packed away I still have my Emma Lathen/R.B.Dominic books…I think I will look for them to reread – in between reading the newer ones that tickle my fancy i.e. J D Robb.
I wonder if the Emma Lathen books will hold up. You’ll have to let us know, Gram.