The Burning Court (1937)
Blurb:
My review:
One of the author's best-known, but
not best, books. It opens in stunning fashion with the hero
discovering a photograph of his wife, cited as the Marquise de
Brinvilliers, in a book of famous woman poisoners. Following the
murder by arsenic of a neighbour and the disappearance of his corpse
from a sealed granite crypt, he becomes convinced that she is a
poisoning witch risen from the dead. Carr makes this bizarre plot
quite convincing through an atmosphere which relies far more on
understatement than it does on the thick effects of the Bencolins (or
even Hag's Nook).
Unfortunately, Carr follows a highly logical and convincing solution
with a supernatural one that makes nonsense of the other, yet fills
this one with all manner of logical holes, making the reader uncertain
of what to believe. Thus is a good story and considerable
ingenuity thrown carelessly out of the window.