Nine Wrong Answers

by John Dickson Carr

Book Overview

Carr's forte is the rational crime problem costumed as an eerie tale of the seemingly supernatural. This tale set in London is an elaborate puzzle that concerns a large inheritance and contains a wonderful scene at Sherlock Holmes' rooms on Baker Street.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786701749
• ISBN13: 9780786701742
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Master of Misdirection

This is a non-series novel by Carr, but, while the reader will miss Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale, the characters of this book will fascinate. It is one of Carr's most ingenious plots. And while there are no locked rooms, the mystery and its solution are absolutely brilliant - and, I suspect, will completely fool the reader, despite the author's rigorous adherence to fair play. Carr was a genius at misdirection, of course, and he is at his absolute best here in that regard. There is more than enough action, and the device of the "nine wrong answers" is wonderful. Highly recommended (and when will an enterprising publisher get this back in print?).

A Real Page Turner of a Book

I finished this book in one sitting. I could not put it down. It starts off fast and doesn't slow down until the final page. I've read a lot of Carr's books and got to know his style somewhat so I was almost right about some of the answers but all the twists are guaranteed to outsmart practically any reader. The little footnotes at strategic points (The Nine Wrong Answers) keep you on track to some degree and true to Carr fashion, the real clues are there to spot if you're observant enough. I have to admit I took this one as a challenge and spent ages thinking about what I'd read, going back over sections and re-reading bits to glean more information. Readers of Carr who enjoy his detectives will perhaps be disappointed in this one as the "detective" in this case is the reader him/herself. However, I had no hesitation in giving this five stars, it was a stunner of a book.

One Right Answer

One of the most consistently entertaining later Carrs, reminiscent of classic Hitchcock. Bill Dawson, a young Englishman working in America, is employed by a fellow expatriate to impersonate him for six months in order to inherit his splendidly sadistic uncle's fortune; the nephew is poisoned, and suspicion falls upon Dawson, who travels to Britain to avenge the murder. Full of excitement and tension, with just a touch of diffuseness in the shift from England to America-splendid scenes at the B.B.C. and in Uncle Gaylord's flat. Smash surprise solution given, very aptly, in Sherlock Holmes's rooms. Catch this Carr!

Right up my alley

This is one of the better mysteries I have read lately. Although it was a bit melodramatic sometimes - the love story was a bit too contrived and coincidental- the story reads like an old movie. There are bits of mystery, some horror elements, and sort of a game between the reader and the author in which the author- through footnotes- dissuades the reader why the the obvious assumption is wrong - hence, the nine wrong answers. This was a definite page turner as I was never sure where the story was going. The characters are scary and the book has a forboding atmosphere, but this is an original!

One of the best books J.D.Carr has written.

In this book, the reader has the possibility to solve the problems using his or her own cleverness. When important turning points appear, Carr comes up with an answer that most people would think of, and show that it is one of nine wrong answers. This is a brilliant way to keep the reader interested, and mixed with Carr's excellent writing it constitutes one of the greatest books in its genre - it's classic crime! It would be a 10 if it wasn't for Agatha Christies "And Then There Were None"...