Puzzle Doctor

The Best John Dickson Carr Novel – Round Two

OK, so the results are in for the first round of the great John Dickson Carr – I finished it a day, sorry. Let’s take a look at them before the details of the quarter-finals.

Gideon Fell first of all. No massive surprises here, with The Hollow Man and Till Death Us Do Part taking Group A, The Black Spectacles and The Case Of The Constant Suicides Group B, He Who Whispers and The Crooked Hinge Group C and Group D giving us The Man Who Could Not Shudder and The Mad Hatter Mystery. Surprisingly, the only titles to get no votes were The Dead Man’s Knock and Below Suspicion – The House At Satan’s Elbow got three, although that was in the weakest group.

Over to Sir Henry Merrivale. Again, no great surprises here but a couple of close calls. Group A gives us The Judas Window and Nine – And Death Makes Ten (yay!) and Group B The Reader Is Warned and The Plague Court Murders. Group C had a dead heat, hence Death In Five Boxes and And So To Murder making it through to the next round along with She Died A Lady. Group D was the closest so far, with He Wouldn’t Kill Patience and The Red Widow Murders just pipping The Ten Teacups, which makes me very sad (not).

And the Miscellaneous Titles. Group A gives up The Burning Court and The Nine Wrong Answers, Group B The Emperor’s Snuff-Box and The Waxworks Murder (just), Group C The Four False Weapons and The Devil In Velvet and Group D It Walks By Night and The Bowstring Murders. A surprise casualty was Fire, Burn!, just missing out.

You can see the exact results on the original poll page.

So, on to the quarter-finals. You have until midnight on Sunday for these (as I’m off on holiday next week and want to get the semi-finals started before then).

So, on to the quarter-finals – each a direct head-to-head apart from the one where there was a dead-heat. Polls close for this one on Sunday at midnight (UK time).

Gideon Fell

Sir Henry Merrivale

Miscellaneous Carr

14 comments

  2. Some fascinating results! I am of course devastated about TEN TEACUPS … I just filled my answers in. The last of the Miscellaneous was the cruellest for me. Didn’t go for IT WALKS BY NIGHT …

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  8. Ok, let’s see…
    Fell 1 goes to THM, but it was close.
    For Fell 2, I chose HWW. Mad Hatter is good… Just not THAT good.
    TPotGC wins the third bout.
    The last pairing is rather bland. I guess I’ll go with TMWCNS.

    Merrivale 1 and 2 were easy for me: TJW and SDaL. The third one on the other hand..oh,boy. I picked AstM, but it was close.
    Patience takes M4.

    For misc 1 and 2, I chose TWM and TFFW respectively.
    Misc 3…(tosses a coin)… TESB.
    The last one was easy: TNWA.

    Observations: It seems like the re-release of It Walks By Night is helping the novel quite a bit. It is a good book, though, but most Carr’s are.
    The divisive Death-Watch didn’t make it, showing that it still is pretty polarizing (I’m one of those who consider it a weak entry).
    Ten Teacups out in round 1? Good riddance!

    Mark my words: one day, Patrick Butler will be in the top ten (the day someone makes a “worst of” poll >_<)

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  9. They were all easy picks, but I’m disappointed Captain Cut-Throat didn’t make the cut. What’s wrong with you people?

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  10. A pity I didn’t know about these polls earlier. What I am missing (but maybe they were polled earlier) are “Poison in Jest” and “The Arabian Nights Mystery”

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