The Plague Court Murders

A Sir Henry Merrivale Mystery

By: John Dickson Carr, Michael Dirda (Introduction by)

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Hardcover | 2 February 2021

At a Glance

Hardcover
416 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.3 x 14.2 x 2.8

Hardcover

$61.25

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Plague Court is old and crumbling, long neglected after its lord, hangman's assistant Louis Playge, fell victim to the black death hundreds of years before. Famously haunted by Playge's ghost, the property finally has a new owner and banishing the spirit is the first order of business. And when the medium employed with this task is found stabbed to death in a locked stone hut on the grounds, surrounded by an untouched circle of mud, the other guests at Plague Court have every reason to fear an act of supernatural violence-for who among them would be diabolical and calculating enough to orchestrate such an impossible execution?

Enter Sir Henry Merrivale, an amateur sleuth of many talents with deductive powers strong enough to unspool even the most baffling crimes. But in the creepy, atmospheric setting of Plague Court, where every indication suggests intervention from the afterlife, he encounters a seemingly-illogical murder scene unlike anything he's ever encountered before...

Reissued for the first time in thirty years, The Plague Court Murders is the first novel in the Sir Henry Merrivale series. Originally published under the name Carter Dickson, it is a masterful example of the "impossible crime" novel for which John Dickson Carr is known.

Industry Reviews

"Recommended for Golden Age mystery fans, this is one of those books that requires the reader's total immersion and is best approached in an easy chair with a good, strong cuppa at hand." -- Booklist
"The post-17th-century atmosphere in the first half of the tale is thick enough to cut with a dagger [...] Like its own creepy backstory, the hero's 86-year-old debut has now become a treasured chapter in criminal history." -- Kirkus
"A genuine baffler, placed in an eerie, ghostly setting." -- New York Times
"The macabre setup is bolstered by the author's superior gift at creating atmosphere. This entry in the American Mystery Classic series begs rereading to note how artfully Carr misdirects readers even while planting all the vital clues in plain sight." -- Publishers Weekly
"Excellent." -- Saturday Review

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