L'Homme en or

Sir Henry Merrivale #13

by Carr-J.D

H.M. and the Masked Death.There were only two guests at the Stranhope mansion. Vincent James was a weekend perennial - charming and a little thick. Nick Wood, the other guest, was undoubtedly attractive, but it was odd that no one knew anything else about him. It was odd too that the fabulous Stanhope paintings had been moved from the burglarproof gallery to the main floor. And the Stanhope daughters had the jitters.Then, late at night, came a frightful noise - and a masked man was found on the dining room floor, stabbed by a long, thin fruit knife. That was how things stood when crusty, uproarious, irrepressible H.M. arrived on the scene.From then on things moved as only H.M. can make them move - at break-neck speed - with mystery, humor, terror, and a hair-raising climax that revealed the master hand of a killer.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, 20th Century

Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of John Dickson Carr's great classics but -- so far as my own moderately broad experience of his works goes -- one of his most entertaining: I laughed aloud on several occasions.

Undercover copper Nick Wood has been invited as a guest for the New Year weekend to the home of plutocrat Dwight Stanhope to see if he can expose a particular piece of criminal activity -- a piece of criminal activity that no one has thought to outline to him. Just to add to the difficulties of his task, the other house guest on the premises is Nick's old schoolfellow, the somewhat older Vincent James; Nick doesn't know quite how to behave toward him. And then there's Stanhope's stepdaughter Betty, with whom Nick has to his annoyance fallen immediately in love.

The first night he's there, the house is awoken by a tremendous crash. Downstairs, Stanhope is found clad in a burglar's outfit, seemingly having been stabbed (nonfatally) midway through stealing one of his own paintings -- an El Greco. Clearly he was trying to swindle the insurance company by faking a theft . . . except that it very soon emerges that the picture wasn't insured. And, besides, who could have stabbed him? Even if the perpetrator had thought s/he was stopping a genuine burglar, wouldn't s/he fess up afterward to what was a justifiable attack?

Soon enough Sir Henry Merrivale, the series detective for Carr in his "Carter Dickson" guise, is on the premises . . .

The mystery aspect of the novel is extremely well plotted. There's a gesture toward making the attack an impossible/locked-room crime, and technically I suppose it is; but it doesn't really feel like one and the delights of the bamboozlement lie elsewhere. Betty Stanhope succeeds in being one of the, er, hotter of Carr's pleasingly intelligent heroines, and Nick contributes more to the solution than is, if memory serves, customary in a Henry Merrivale novel.

The humor of Merrivale -- old H.M. -- is a bit hit or miss for me, but here it was decidedly a hit. His grand entrance to the story, typically an excuse for some slapstick, is as funny as they come: if you're young enough to enjoy watching custard-pie fights (and who among us isn't?) you'll have something to roar at here. His other hilarious sequence comes when he stands in as conjurer The Great Kafoozalum for a children's charity gig, a performance bedeviled by the fact that the elderly spinster in charge of the kids, Miss Clutterbuck, insists on announcing in piercing tones after each trick how it was done. (Curiously, when she gets her comeuppance, as inevitably she does, Carr keeps it offstage. I'm not sure quite what was going through his mind here.)

And there's some lovely observation of the kids:

The Commander cleared his throat again.

"What I mean to say is," he pursued, sticking his hands into his pockets and immediately taking them out again, "that at this festal season of the year it is meet that we should wish each other festal greetings: you know what I mean?"

"Hear, hear!" applauded Major Babbage piously.

Miss Clutterbuck also applauded.

The children remained respectfully but stolidly silent.

Most of them had left home with a festal clip over the ear, and instructions to behave themselves or expect reprisals. Under the eye of Miss Clutterbuck, they had trudged half a mile or more through the first real snow of the year, without being so much as allowed to stick each other's heads in it. On arriving at Waldemere, they had been told that there was "a very ill person" upstairs: that they must walk on tiptoe and speak in whispers

This is bad for the mental balance. Toes were beginning to wriggle inside creaky shoes. Fingers tugged at collars, a universal gesture. Under plastered hair, ideas churned. Indeed, anybody but a child psychologist would have seen that this bottling-up presaged signs of explosion in a first-class beano.

A lovely romp of a read. Much recommended.

[Graham Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE GILDED MAN is a fairly run-of-the-mill Merrivale. Rabid fans of Carr will notice that this story was expanded from one of his short stories, although the telling is much different. Also, the paperback edition that I read states on the back cover that this book is unusual because it does not feature a locked room or impossible crime. But it does, though that's not clear until the end.

[Dolceluna ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dwight Stanhope, ricco uomo d'affari, pensa bene di organizzare una truffa ai danni delle assicurazioni e inscena il furto di uno suo dei suoi preziosissimi quadri per ottenere appunto il risarcimento. Ma qualcosa va storto. E Stanhope viene trovato mascherato e con un pugnale infisso nel petto. Saranno Nicholas Wood, agente di polizia, e Henry Merrivale, il mitico Vecchio, istrionico protagonista dei romanzi di Carr, a far luce su questo stranissimo caso. Stranissimo perchè niente è ciò che sembra e tutto, ma veramente tutto, è un'apparenza. A partire dalla storia stessa, che porta il lettore a mettere continuamente in discussione ciò che legge di volta in volta, in un susseguirsi di finzioni a incastro dove, alla fine, nulla di ciò che si pensava fosse accaduto è realmente accaduto: sembra tanto difficile, eppure è così semplice. Anche la trama, per me, è stato un po' come uno specchietto per le allodole: leggendo di un "mascheramento" ho associato il romanzo allo splendido "Delitti da mille e una notte", uno dei gioielli più riusciti di John Dickson Carr. E invece qui ne siamo ben lontani, soprattutto perchè manca un po' di quella atmosfera che a mio avviso dà ai romanzi del maestro quel qualcosa in più che li rende magici e imperdibili...e, soprattutto nella prima parte del romanzo, ci si perde un po' in chiacchere da solotto borghese che strappano qualche sbadiglio, oltre che qualche risata. Tuttavia, proprio perchè in questo romanzo, più che negli altri, nulla è ciò che sembra, la soluzione della camera chiusa è davvero sorprendente e rende onore alla genialità del maestro.
Tre stelle e mezzo.

[Irfan Nurhadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn! Nearly worked out the "how" at the very beginning, but the well-written plot and amazing story got me distracted in finding out the "who".

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as entertaining or ingenious as Carter Dickson's best, but still quite good for a fan.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't normally read mysteries, but this one was knocking around the house and I've been feeling the urge to read something light amongst my Serious Inquiries and Moby Dick reading. What I am trying to impress upon you is that I didn't know anything about the book other than what what written on the back.

For about one quarter of the book we meet a bunch of rich people standing around in a big weird house with a history of scandal all of its own. Our hero and the young thing who's the daughter of the house's owner have moon-eyes for each other (professionally, at a respectful distance, except for when there was spying to be done). Then UH OH MURDER. Probably should have seen that coming from the drawing of the dead guy on the cover. What seems like forever after that, we learn that Our Hero is actually just Some Guy when Sir Henry Merrivale shows up to take that role from him. Which is just as well because that other guy was a real wheel-spinner. Probably. I've forgotten by now.

Anyway, this newcomer must be somebody important, I think to myself, because everybody but me seems to know who he is. It turns out he's kind of delightful. He's nice to the servants and he's nice to children and he wears a big dumb hat so these are all points in his favor.

At the end of the book he solves the mystery (OR DOES HE) (no he does). And he thoughfully reminds us of all the batshit nonsequiturs everybody said at the beginning of the book which then become perfectly normal sequiturs under his insight.

Probably this is just how normal mystery novels work? What do I know. Anyway, if you still have a place in your heart that finds well dressed, polite people swanning about in ridiculous houses diverting, you could do worse? After all, the killer was the one who did a racism.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

They mystery itself is quite fun, and the element of New Year's Eve approaching with an event at the large estate coming up also- a great deal of fun. The two elements in the story that failed for me was the fact that Carter Dickson didn't know anything about El Greco and the fact that he would not have made a painting of a pool in Columbia. (Let's just say the facts of El Greco were -not stretched beyond belief they totally broke down.) Another aspect was that after serious and life threatening wounds to a victim, the person was not taken to a hospital. Completely doesn't make sense to me. I think the snow was supposed to have "locked" everyone into the house, but there was certainly enough time to have removed the man to the hospital- I mean if a doctor can get to the home they could have gotten out in time. So those two elements really took me out of the story. Which was awful, cause it was a great mystery to be solved and one of the funniest bits with Merriavale both entering the story and entertaining! Is it worth the read yes, but you'll have to discard some of big bloopers and logic etc...

[Greg Pettit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this '40s pulp mystery on a whim at a thrift store. I thought it would be a quick, fun read. Instead, it was a dull slog that took way longer to finish than it should have. I suppose the mystery was satisfactory, but there were many tangents that worked to prolong the story without making it more interesting. I bought another in the series at the same time, but I'm far less interested in trying it now.

[SuedePuzzler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice mystery, and well-told. I felt the pace never flagged, even when time is spent on subplots, and the characters are sympathetic. I also liked the humorous scenes, not a given with Carr. There is an unnecessary murder near the end, which slighty disappoints me.

Writing this review I almost convinced myself to give the book 5 stars, but in the end it does not have extra degree of cleverness that Carr's best books have.

This was a re-read.

[Alberto Avanzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

La scrittura e la capacità di creare tensione non sono all'altezza dei migliori Carr, e i siparietti comici con Merrivale che altrove ho amato qui sono un po' sopra le righe. Tuttavia la parte gialla ha una soluzione brillante e originale, anche se sfida un po' la sospensione dell'incredulità del lettore

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some hilarious moments in it where it romps along, but in the end it just felt uneven, which is unusual for Carr/Dickson. I recognized the short story that held the seeds of this novel, but it wasn't a spoiler. This novel exceeded in the fair-play aspect, though: most of the items ticked off by Sir Henry were things I remembered noticing but just wasn't able to put together.

[Keith Boynton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slender and spare – a far cry from Carr's often-baroque contrivances. The story seems to be stuck in neutral for a while, but the last few chapters make up for it - first, with a tour-de-force comic set piece, and then with a neat and somewhat chilling resolution to the centerpiece crime.

[Umer Abbas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A late Carr and not an impossible crime I could nitpick about two points where it failed on fairplay but the rest of the clues are blatant in your face which upon first reading you would not pick up but they are there.

[Puzzle Doctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flawed but hugely entertaining classic mystery. Full review at classicmystery.wordpress.com

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: there were only two guests at the Stranhope mansion. Late at night a masked man was found dead. Then Merrivale arrived.

[Juan Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen relato de Carter Dickson, con un final como siempre impecable.

[Calum Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

B:

A bit of a mess, honestly. But Carr is so original that the novel simply commands your interest. As usual, a great blend of comedy too.

[Katherine Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

讀的是遠流謀店中譯本

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of Carr's best,but certainly very enjoyable.No locked rooms as such this time,just a strange enigma.Why would a wealthy man dress up as a burglar and try to rob his own valuable painting from his own house?Said burglary goes wrong and he is stabbed,but no assailant is apparent.
It is up to HM to sort out the strange goings on inbetween putting on an hysterical magic act to entertain the local children.
As i read this,the premise seemed quite familiar and it appears that this was adapted into a novel from a short story written by Carr a few years earlier,though i had forgotten how that one had ended.
Not an essential read,but great fun nonetheless.

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

FIRST READING 11/29/19: 4 Stars

This book was..."Steady!" ...a good read. Not a five-star Carr but a fun, quick whodunnit, with snappy patter, a great locale (the old theater especially), and quick, simple explanations for everything.

One thing bothered me: did Carr completely invent an El Greco painting? I looked everywhere but couldn’t find The Pool. What a great idea for a painting if so.

[Don’t know if I'd read this once already because the man stealing his own artwork in the middle of the night was very familiar to me*.]

*”Gilded Man” was expanded from a Dr. Fell story called “The Incautious Burglar” collected in “The Men Who Explain Miracles.”

SECOND READING 7/24/24: 5 Stars

“Steady.”

I love this one. Country house whodunnit, a closed circle, atmosphere, melodrama, physical comedy, witty dialogue, a perfect puzzle. By reflex, I almost want to say “I could have used a higher body count” but Carr at his best is a GAD precisionist—each rollicking page has just enough information to tell a wonderful mystery AND to leave enough (uncluttered) clues for those playing the greatest game—more mayhem would only have dragged the novel down. Carr’s climaxes are always stunning and suspenseful, nobody did the—“steady!”—final reveal as well as the master.

RIP JDC