He Who Whispers (1946)
Blurb:
My review:
'This case he was going to talk about was rather special and sensational…”
"It is about the influence of a certain woman on certain lives… Crime and the occult! These were the only hobbies for a man of taste!”
A triumph of plotting, misdirection, atmosphere, tension, and story-telling—certainly one of Carr's masterpieces. It begins with a flashback to France—grim, tense, atmospheric, and effectively terrifying, the reader sees the effect of the enigmatic Fay Seton upon the Brooke family, the tension before the storm, and the memorable impossible crime committed on top of a natural tower—as the narrative states, "To any person of imagination … this narrative of the stout little professor—its sounds and scents and rounded visual detail—had the reality of the living present". The atmosphere builds up, with ominous warnings against Fay Seton, whom the historian hero of the story, Miles Hammond, has employed as a librarian, until it is revealed that she is believed to be "undead … the drainer of bodies and killer of souls": a vampire. Following this revelation, the hero's sister nearly dies of fright in an empty room—nobody could have walked outside the windows, and (horrible idea, this) someone was whispering to her in the dark (hence the splendid title). The solution is one of Carr's most dazzlingly ingenious (and frightening). The characterisation is superb, particularly Fay Seton, who has genuine tragedy and pathos. In short, despite the depressing ending, one of Carr's best.