Cover 8

The Man Who Could Not Shudder

The Man Who Could Not Shudder

1940

Ratings1

Average rating3

15

Not the best Carr or even the best Fell, but I had no trouble maintaining interest through this “Impossible” murder mystery from 1940. Some of the situations call uncomfortable attention to the moral and scientific attitudes of eighty years ago, but it holds up pretty well if you can put on the mindset of the time when reading. I've read most of the Carr novels with Gideon Fell, and find the Henry Merrivale novels too full of “comedy” for my taste. Having burned through most of Christie and Sayers and lots of Berkeley and all of Tey, I'm kind of down to lesser known Golden Age, so perhaps I give this one a bit of a pass, as it's a reminder of better books.

December 5, 2021