Below Suspicion

For most of its 240 pages, this is an entertaining Gothic mystery. It falls down badly at the end, as a lengthy conversation reveals all the answers to questions raised in the story. It is curiously flat and lacking in narrative drive in the last pages, a surprisingly weak denouement from a writer famous for atmosphere and tension in his books. It is nominally a Gideon Fell mystery, but Fell is rarely in it, and the “solution” is unveiled by the main character, Patrick Butler. Butler is not a success as a character, coming across like a minor character in a forties movie melodrama, all arrogance and bluster. One of the weakest Carr novels I've read. Not recommended.