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Despite being American, most of his works were set in England.
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* KarmaHoudini: Subverted in ''The Lost Gallows''. The BigBad of the story has been arrested and his intended victim rescued. Bencolin tells the victim that he will now stand trial for a murder the BigBad was attempting to avenge. The victim replies that he has destroyed the evidence, and will therefore walk away scot-free. [[spoiler: Then, as he's triumphantly gloating, he falls straight into the BigBad's death trap and gets a KarmicDeath.]]
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* ContinuityNod: In ''The Lost Gallows'', Bencolin and Marle are in London to watch the play that Vautrelle was writing in ''It Walks By Night''.
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* AcquittedTooLate: In one of the Bencolin short stories, Bencolin proves that an apparent murder was actually a SpitefulSuicide -- but too late to stop the man who'd been convicted from being hanged.
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changed wording, and added mention of Henri bencolin books in introduction
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His best-known work is probably ''The Hollow Man'' (US title: ''The Three Coffins''), part of his on-going ''Dr. Gideon Fell'' series. He also had a popular series starring the detective Sir Henry Merrivale, written as Carter Dickson. These two series make up a large portion of his work, but he also had a couple of other, smaller, series, and a number of standalone novels and stories.
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His best-known work is probably ''The Hollow Man'' (US title: ''The Three Coffins''), part of his on-going ''Dr. Gideon Fell'' series. He also had a popular series starring the detective Sir Henry Merrivale, written as Carter Dickson. These two series make up a large portion of his work, but he also had a couple of other, smaller, series, smaller series (including the ''Henri Bencolin'' mysteries), and a number of standalone novels and stories.
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added the name of Carter Dickson to Henry Merrivale series
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* Literature/SirHenryMerrivale series
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* Literature/SirHenryMerrivale series
series (written under the pen name of Carter Dickson)
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* GoingCommando: In ''Scandal at High Chimneys'', Cherry (a teenage barmaid and hooker) "made it clear in the most ladylike way that she wore neither pantalettes nor knickerbockers."
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* WretchedHive: The London of ''Scandal at High Chimneys'' - Carr makes a point of showing locations that were fashionable when he was writing (such as Oxford Street and Leicester Square) when they were far less reputable.
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* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Carr wrote one of the greatest examples of this trope in ''The Emperor's Snuff-Box'', in which the killer's guilt is revealed by a small piece of information which obviously showed they had information they could only have known were they the killer, but which is accepted without question. [[spoiler: At the beginning of the book, protagonist Eve Neill is suddenly visited by her ex-husband Ned Atwood in the middle of the night. While they are arguing, Ned looks out of Eve's bedroom window (which has a curtain drawn over it) and claims to see her future father-in-law, Sir Maurice Lawes, handling a "snuff-box thing" when somebody walks into Lawes' study. Later, they both see Sir Maurice with his head bashed in, the snuff-box smashed to bits, and a gloved hand turning off a light. Atwood later falls down a flight of stairs into a coma, causing Eve's testimony to become unsupported. We later learn Sir Maurice had bought the snuff-box earlier that day, showing it off to his family. The snuff-box had the facade of a pocket-watch, and Lawes had written about it in a journal on his study desk. At the book's end, it is revealed that Atwood from the distance he "saw" Sir Maurice with the snuff-box, could not have known it was a snuff-box due to its watch-facade, and that the only way he could have known it was that he had killed Sir Maurice himself, smashed the snuff-box without ever seeing what it looked like, and discerning its nature from seeing the words "snuff-box" written in Sir Maurice's journal. Since Atwood had convinced Neill she had seen Sir Maurice alive herself, she had repeated this testimony and convinced the police for awhile that she had lied and killed him.]]
** ''The Emperor's Snuff-Box'' also has another version of this trope, in which another suspect is found to be lying about [[spoiler: seeing the light through the closed door of Sir Maurice's study when the carpeted floor would not allow light through, in order to hide the fact that they were trying to steal one of Sir Maurice's antiques when they found Sir Maurice already murdered.]]
** ''The Emperor's Snuff-Box'' also has another version of this trope, in which another suspect is found to be lying about [[spoiler: seeing the light through the closed door of Sir Maurice's study when the carpeted floor would not allow light through, in order to hide the fact that they were trying to steal one of Sir Maurice's antiques when they found Sir Maurice already murdered.]]
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* HistoricalDomainCharacter: ''Scandal at High Chimneys'' is a fictional case for real-life detective Jonathan Whicher.
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* HistoricalDomainCharacter: HistoricalDomainCharacter:
** ''Captain Cut-Throat'' has Joseph Fouché, the head of Napoleon's secret police, as the antagonist.
** ''Scandal at High Chimneys'' is a fictional case for real-life detective Jonathan Whicher.
** ''Captain Cut-Throat'' has Joseph Fouché, the head of Napoleon's secret police, as the antagonist.
** ''Scandal at High Chimneys'' is a fictional case for real-life detective Jonathan Whicher.
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* ShownTheirWork: ''Scandal at High Chimneys'' has a historical appendix giving the source works the author used for his descriptions of 1860s London.
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* HistoricalDomainCharacter: ''Scandal at High Chimneys'' is a fictional case for real-life detective Jonathan Whicher.
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* BunnyEarsLaywer: Rossiter in ''Poison in Jest'' appears at first glance to be a bumbling {{cuckoolander}} with delusions of detectivehood, but it's his deductive skills that eventually crack the case.
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* BunnyEarsLaywer: BunnyEarsLawyer: Rossiter in ''Poison in Jest'' appears at first glance to be a bumbling {{cuckoolander}} CloudCuckooLander with delusions of detectivehood, but it's his deductive skills that eventually crack the case.
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* BunnyEarsLaywer: Rossiter in ''Poison in Jest'' appears at first glance to be a bumbling {{cuckoolander}} with delusions of detectivehood, but it's his deductive skills that eventually crack the case.
* CallBack: Jeff Marle, the narrator of ''Poison in Jest'', had previously been TheWatson in the Bencolin novels, and finds himself wishing Bencolin was there to sort out the current mystery too.
* CallBack: Jeff Marle, the narrator of ''Poison in Jest'', had previously been TheWatson in the Bencolin novels, and finds himself wishing Bencolin was there to sort out the current mystery too.
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* FormerlyFriendlyFamily: The Quayles in ''Poison in Jest'' -- flashbacks contrast the happy times Jeff had growing up with them to their present dysfunctional state.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/john_dickson_carr.jpg]]
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* BawdySong: Near the end of ''Castle Skull'', Bencolin and a couple of other characters join in a rendition of one of the more risqué versions of "Mademoiselle from Armentières".
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* {{Bowdlerise}}: ConversationalTroping in ''Castle Skull'':
-->"You read the magazines," I said. \\
"So do I," Sally Reine informed me. "My old man gets heaps of them from the States. I like the detective-story ones, where the characters aren't allowed to swear, and the Chicago gangster cries, '[[GoshDangItToHeck Good gracious!]]' It's nice to see the tough racketeer become a [[BadButt pathological case]] at one sweep of an editor's blue pencil...'
-->"You read the magazines," I said. \\
"So do I," Sally Reine informed me. "My old man gets heaps of them from the States. I like the detective-story ones, where the characters aren't allowed to swear, and the Chicago gangster cries, '[[GoshDangItToHeck Good gracious!]]' It's nice to see the tough racketeer become a [[BadButt pathological case]] at one sweep of an editor's blue pencil...'
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John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) was an American MysteryFiction writer, frequently known as the master of the LockedRoomMystery. Several of his works were published under the pen-name Carter Dickson. (He also had a couple of other pen-names that he used very rarely.)
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John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) (November 30, 1906 – February 27, 1977) was an American MysteryFiction writer, frequently known as the master of the LockedRoomMystery. Several of his works were published under the pen-name Carter Dickson. (He also had a couple of other pen-names that he used very rarely.)
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* FairPlayWhodunnit: His stories always showed you all the clues. The only problem was usually that the murder was ''impossible'' to begin with, so you couldn't figure out ''how'', much less who. Carr's essay "The Greatest Game in the World" makes a key point about what makes a Fair-Play Whodunnit really fair, and good when done right: the key to the case isn't just one clue -- a random word hidden in chapter six -- but a system of interlocking clues that allow the reader to open a tapestry of interpretation that gives a larger picture: that of the truth.
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* FairPlayWhodunnit: FairPlayWhodunnit:
** His stories always showed you all the clues. The only problem was usually that the murder was ''impossible'' to begin with, so you couldn't figure out ''how'', much less who. Carr's essay "The Greatest Game in the World" makes a key point about what makes a Fair-Play Whodunnit really fair, and good when done right: the key to the case isn't just one clue -- a random word hidden in chapter six -- but a system of interlocking clues that allow the reader to open a tapestry of interpretation that gives a larger picture: that of thetruth.truth.
** ''Castle Skull'' was originally published with the last few chapters sealed, and a message just before the seal that the reader now had all the information necessary to solve the mystery.
** His stories always showed you all the clues. The only problem was usually that the murder was ''impossible'' to begin with, so you couldn't figure out ''how'', much less who. Carr's essay "The Greatest Game in the World" makes a key point about what makes a Fair-Play Whodunnit really fair, and good when done right: the key to the case isn't just one clue -- a random word hidden in chapter six -- but a system of interlocking clues that allow the reader to open a tapestry of interpretation that gives a larger picture: that of the
** ''Castle Skull'' was originally published with the last few chapters sealed, and a message just before the seal that the reader now had all the information necessary to solve the mystery.
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* AssholeVictim: By the end of ''Castle Skull'', the reader has learned that the murdered man was unquestionably one.
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* HighClassGlass: In ''Skull Castle'', the German detective Baron von Arnheim sports a monocle which (like Literature/LordPeterWimsey's) is really a powerful magnifier.
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* HighClassGlass: In ''Skull Castle'', ''Castle Skull'', the German detective Baron von Arnheim sports a monocle which (like Literature/LordPeterWimsey's) is really a powerful magnifier.
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* SkeletonMotif: Skull Castle, in the book of the same name, is a German castle that's been deliberately reconstructed to resemble a giant skull.
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* SkeletonMotif: Skull Castle, Castle Skull, in the book of the same name, is a German castle that's been deliberately reconstructed to resemble a giant skull.skull.
* SecretUndergroundPassage: Castle Skull is well-provided with them.
* SecretUndergroundPassage: Castle Skull is well-provided with them.
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* WorthyOpponent: Baron von Arnheim in ''Castle Skull'' is Bencolin's German counterpart, and they're competing to solve the murder. They're never less than polite to each other, and respect each other's abilities; their rivalry dates back to when they were opposing [[TheSpymaster spymasters]] in the First World War.
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* HighClassGlass: In ''Skull Castle'', the German detective Baron von Arnheim sports a monocle which (like Literature/LordPeterWimsey's) is really a powerful magnifier.
