The Ten Teacups (1937) by Carter Dickson

☕ Although I'm a fan of simple but ingenious murder mysteries - such as what Agatha Christie had often delivered - every now and then I could also enjoy the impossible and intricate ones. The Ten Teacups was one of those. Moreover, it's written by John Dickson Carr - whose pen name of Carter Dickson was too obvious to be hidden from public. And this was my first introduction to Sir Henry Merrivale, the brain of this murder-series, who was accompanied by Chief Inspector Humphrey Master from Scotland Yard, and the young and bright Detective-Sergeant Bob Pollard. Merrivale is an old barrister and head of military intelligent of war office in England. 

☕ The mystery begins with an anonymous letter that Masters received, bearing the message that "There will be ten teacups at number 4, Berwick Terrace, W.8, on Wednesday, July 31st, at 5 p.m. Precisely. The presence of the Metropolitan Police is respectfully requested." Masters' immediate action is to consult Sir Henry Merrivale (or HM, as people usually call him), because the letter reminded Masters of another similar letter the Scotland Yard had received two years previously, which ended on an unsolved locked-room murder mystery. The police had then found ten teacups (empty) laid on the table near the body. This time, though, Masters is more prepared; he instructed his men to watch the house (number 4, Berwick Terrace, which was an empty house on-sale), and Sergeant Pollard to get the key from the agent, and hide himself inside. Despite of these precautions, Vance Keating was dead after having been shot twice, and ten teacups were found near his body, although the police never saw any other person entering the house.

☕ The most interesting part of a locked-room mystery is always the technicality of the murder. How was it performed while there's no one possibly inside the room? But here, the police were also struck by the similarity of it with the previous ten teacups mystery. Were the two connected, or even committed by the same murderer? One thing that they could connect was that both the houses were belonged to the same person. And this man, along with his wife, are the victim's friends. They are the suspects, along with three other friends. What puzzled HM and Masters at the early stages, was why had the murderer not brought the ten teacups with him when he left the place? Were they meant to be a symbol, perhaps? Was there even a ten-teacups-secret society perhaps? What ensued from these, were a combination of theories, interviews, and some actions in the end - the theories (presented by HM) are rather the dominant part compared to the rest.

☕ All in all, this was a solid intricate and impossible locked-room murder mystery. The one which, when you passed one solution, and then the second one, you would forget the previous one. I could remember the murderer, all right. Though I have expected Dickson Carr had given the murderer's more "stage" to elaborate on their motive, rather than reading HM's long-stretch of denouement - a dry explanation that made you a bit sleepy. And my problem with these impossible locked-room mysteries is the technicality. I couldn't possibly know, for instance, whether if you pointed a particular type of gun to a particular angle, it would produce a shot at a certain point, could I? No, it is much simpler to follow the technicality of how human psychology works than these weapons and what not. Nonetheless, this had been a quite entertaining one, though the solution was not what I have expected.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026

hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook

The Black Spectacles (1939) by John Dickson Carr

🕶 The story opens with Marcus Chesney, a wealthy man and the owner of Sodbury Cross, who was on holiday to Greece. He was accompanied by her niece Marjorie Wills, his brother Doctor Joseph (Joe) Chesney and a few friends. Marjorie's fiance completed the group, he's a photographer called Geoege something (I forgot). Inspector Elliot from Scotland Yard was also on the same tour, and he intently watched how things get awkward with the family as soon "poisoner" was mentioned. From here we get to know that Marjorie Wills had been suspected to have poisoned some chocolates in the local shop, causing death of one little boy.

🕶 Inspector Elliot was involved in this case, and while discussing the matter with the Superintendent and Chief Constable, a news came that Marcus Chesney has just been murdered, apparently, in front of eyewitnesses. Marcus held a conviction that eyewitnesses are mostly unreliable; they wouldn't relate accurately of what they had seen. He also solved To proof his theory, he staged a test for the family and friends - all who had accompanied him to Greece. George was tasked to film the whole procedure, while Joe Chesney couldn't attend due to his being summoned by a patient.

🕶 Marcus was helped by someone who was masked and disguised, who would given Marcus a green capsule, supposedly, to contain poison. You guest correctly if you think the capsule did contained poison, and thus, a staged murder became a real one. But if the other three persons were all spectators, who, then, was the murderer?

🕶 While the story unfolds, we get to notice that Inspector Elliot is not going to be the star investigator. Especially when it's clear that he was infatuated with Marjorie, and he let his emotion clouded his logical mind. He consulted Doctor Gideon Fell, and the latter it was who would become the mystery solver.

🕶 This was my first Carr, and I was thoroughly impressed. No wonder too, since The Black Spectacles is daubed to be Carr's masterpiece. The plot is genius, with minimum suspect, and lack of clear motive. There are two cases of poisoning too, the chocolate poisoning seems to be a random case. No one could predict who's going to buy the poisoned chocolate among the harmless others. So, what's the motive? And Marcus' murder, is it to prevent him revealing the chocolate poisoner? Or something else? On the whole, it's an ingenious mystery, a perfect read for true murder mystery/detective novels lovers, highlighted the psychological aspect. One slight problem for me is the lengthy explanation from Doctor Fell on the psychological theory; it's interesting, but a bit too long to be entertaining.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2