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The Hollow Man (Dr. Gideon Fell, #6)

John Dickson Carr

Start date: January 1, 2022

Finish date: January 31, 2022

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The first in our new group challenge, reading books by members of the Detection Club
[close] The first in our new group challenge, reading books by members of the Detection Club

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What Members Thought

Mar 25, 2018 Christine PNW rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I am gobsmacked by this book.

I don't know where I picked up the notion that Carr wrote noir, but I cracked this book open expecting dames and hardboiled, hard drinking private dicks and speakeasies. It's hard to imagine how I could've been less accurate. The Hollow Man had gothic overtones, oblique references to vampires and supernatural happenings, direct references to the ghost story writer M.R. James, and an extremely snowy, almost Victorian, London atmosphere.

In other words, the background s ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2009 Nancy Oakes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-uk, classic-mystery-fiction, crime-fiction

You know pretty much immediately that this is not going to be your average mystery story. A group of friends who meet regularly to discuss odd & diverse supernatural topics such as ghosts & ghost stories are interrupted by a strange man by the name of Pierre Fley who addresses himself to one of the group, a Dr. Charles Grimaud. The stranger discusses a story about three coffins and then tells Grimaud that either Fley or his brother would be calling upon him soon. It is not long afterwards that G You know pretty much immediately that this is not going to be your average mystery story. A group of friends who meet regularly to discuss odd & diverse supernatural topics such as ghosts & ghost stories are interrupted by a strange man by the name of Pierre Fley who addresses himself to one of the group, a Dr. Charles Grimaud. The stranger discusses a story about three coffins and then tells Grimaud that either Fley or his brother would be calling upon him soon. It is not long afterwards that Grimaud is found dead in his study, on the top floor of the house, with the one door locked, the windows too high for an exit, and absolutely no footprints in the snow outside the house. But the kicker is that someone came to the door, was let in, addressed two of the people in the house, and was seen climbing the stairs and entering the study. So...how did it happen? Dr. Gideon Fell is called in, and his investigation makes for one of the best locked-room mysteries I've ever read. It starts off running and does not let up. Most excellent -- a fine challenge to my overtired brain in trying to figure out how the heck this was done.

I will caution you, however, that if you are planning to read any of the following books, Fell, in a very fine discourse upon the subject of crimes in hermetically sealed rooms, tells how various authors plotted some more well-known locked room mysteries. The books are, along with some short stories that I won't mention here (and do read them first before reading this one or they will probably be a disappointment):

Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux
Initials Only, by Anna Katherine Green
The Forty Faces, by Thomas and Mary Hanshew
The Chinese Orange Mystery, by Ellery Queen
The Big Bow Mystery, by Israel Zangwill

I think that fans of modern mystery novels may find Fell and his explanations a bit tedious in places, but if you like these old golden age of mystery classics, then this is probably among the best. Definitely not for cozy readers.

Overall, quite ingenious, well written and well worth the sometimes slog through the five books before this one in the series. I would probably put this as a must-have for serious mystery readers. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Dec 26, 2021 Susan in NC rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: tbr-with-gr-groups, dnf-never-again-author

DNF after the murder and initial interviews, pretty obvious who did it, just a matter of slogging through to figure out the why, and I really don’t care - checked the last page, and I was right. I think this writer is just not for me, after trying two Dr. Fell mysteries, “Plague Court”, and a short story by Carr. I get distracted by his bizarre character descriptions and word choices - after the murder, Inspector Hadley and company interview the victim’s secretary, an obnoxious young man who sou ...more

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Sep 13, 2020 Brenda rated it liked it

A very good locked room mystery.
I would give it 3.5.
The mystery was good, I was off until the end. But I’m good for missing clues.
It was sluggish at times for me and there was a long boring lecture I entirely skipped over.
While I was looking to get the mystery solved it lacked the engrossed, page turning I’d prefer in a good mystery.

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 04, 2025 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, bought-2015, vintage-mystery, mystery, mount-tbr-2025

Eccentric Professor Charles Grimaud, a student of legends and the supernatural, holds court regularly at a local tavern. He and his circle of friends discuss vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and the like--debating their reality and the sources of their legends. One evening a stranger bursts into their gathering speaking in a bizarre, somewhat threatening manner. He talks of men coming up out of their graves. He says that he has come out of the grave.

Yes, I have done it. But more! I have a brother w Eccentric Professor Charles Grimaud, a student of legends and the supernatural, holds court regularly at a local tavern. He and his circle of friends discuss vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and the like--debating their reality and the sources of their legends. One evening a stranger bursts into their gathering speaking in a bizarre, somewhat threatening manner. He talks of men coming up out of their graves. He says that he has come out of the grave.

Yes, I have done it. But more! I have a brother who can do much more than I can, and is very dangerous to you. I don't want your life; he does. But if he calls on you...

and later in the conversation

I have a last question for the famous professor. Some one will call on you one evening soon. I also am in danger when I associate with my brother, but I am prepared to run that risk. Some one, I repeat will call on you. Would you rather I did--or shall I send my brother?

The professor tells him to send the brother.

And several nights later someone does call upon the professor. And apparently he did want the professor's life. For when the night is over, Professor Grimaud is dead--shot to death in a locked room by a visitor who vanishes into thin air.

When Dr. Gideon Fell is regaled with the story of the tavern scene and learns that the visitor is expected that very night, he immediately gathers Ted Rampole (teller of the tale) and Superintendent Hadley, his detective friend, and insists that they make tracks for Grimaud's house. They're just in time to be told that there has been the sound of a gunshot and that the visitor is locked in the professor's study--with the professor. They manage to gain entrance and find Grimaud mortally wounded but the visitor is nowhere to be seen. The window is open, but there is a yard full of unmarked snow and no way to go out the window to the roof or another room.

Fell and Hadley and company have just started investigating the first impossible crime when another occurs. This time it is Pierre Fley, the man who confronted Grimaud at the tavern. And he was shot in the middle of a snow-covered street at close range. But three reliable witnesses swear there was nobody else near the stricken man and a voice came out of nowhere that said, "The second bullet is for you." Now our detectives have to figure out how the two men were connected and who wanted them both dead....oh, and, of course, the trifling little matter of how it was all done.

Carr works his locked room/impossible crime magic and comes up with a solution that I had to think about twice. There was one moment where I thought--but if X was going to do what Fell said he was going to do, then why did he need that? So, I had to go back and reread and then the light bulb went off. Oh, yeah. That's why. This is also the book that has the famous "locked room lecture" where Fell tells us straight up that he knows he's in the middle of a detective story and then goes on to explain the various ways to commit a murder in an apparently locked room. Naturally, he doesn't list the ways these two particular impossible crimes were contrived.

I have to admit that I was on the side of Hadley during this particular reading (I read this once before back in the mists of time--but it was long enough ago that all the details had dropped out of my head). I was a bit restless during the Fell lectures and just really wanted to get on with the story. But the impossible crimes are quite good and I enjoyed finding out how it was all done. [Though I have to say I could think of a better way for a certain item to have been hidden that would have been far less disastrous for the person doing the hiding...]. And other than when he was in full lecture mode, I enjoyed Dr. Fell and watching him go to work. This also has one of the better dying words clues among those I've come across. Quite good fun.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 04, 2019 Shabbeer Hassan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: whodunit, mystery, 2019

The master of "locked room mysteries" with Dr. Gideon Fell at its helm, makes it quite enjoyable for an afternoon read!

My Rating - 3/5 ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-mystery, mystery, british-mystery

Despite what some reviewers say, it is possible to read (and like) cozy mysteries and to read (and enjoy) the mysteries of John Dickson Carr. Because I do.

Carr is the master of the locked room mystery and is almost always a delight to read. The few that I have not enjoyed have been those in which he chose to do historical

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2009 Jan C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, 2015, england

This one has a different cover.

Bizarre. One of the classics. A bag of magic tricks. Dr. Fell advises that the resolution was determined by the weight of a picture.

John Dickson Carr is the master of the locked room mystery. This was the sixth in the series.

Peter Lovesey pays homage in Bloodhounds. ...more

1 like · Like · see review