She Died a Lady (1943)
Blurb:
My review:
One of the best of the Merrivales. The plot is simple (compared to earlier Carr works) but effective, and produces a shocking surprise at the end. It is a good period piece, with references to blackouts, wireless and oil. The way in which the bereaved husband goes to pieces at the news of his wife's death, and the entry of H.M. (with Churchillian cigar) are both well handled. The comedy (the wheelchair and Nero—Roman emperors seem to be one of Carr's interests, with Caligula appearing in Poison in Jest) are well done—the H.M. stories are principally farce, while the Fell stories are serious. The multiple solutions are also effective—H.M. seems genuinely pathetic at the end. The true solution is shocking because the characters are real (c.f. Nicholas Blake's Head of a Traveller, 1949). In short, the book is an intelligent romance novel with an impossible crime worked in.