Deadly Hall

Deadly Hall is one of the very late John Dickson Carr novels, with the formula in late comfortable form. The setting is a 19th-century Mississippi River estate. The death is the kind of locked-room or near-impossible event that Carr made his career on. The detective figure is a careful reasoner in the Gideon Fell tradition.

Carr by this point is writing in his particular slow voice, with extensive dialogue and considerable patience for setup. The puzzle resolves with the kind of mechanical satisfaction that the form rewards. The historical period is rendered with affection.

Three stars. Recommended only to John Dickson Carr completists. New readers should start with The Hollow Man or The Three Coffins, which is one of the canonical impossible-crime novels.