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Death-Watch

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Death-Watch

By: John Dickson Carr
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

In the shadowy hallway of clockmaker Johannes Carver's house a policeman is found murdered, the arrow-tipped minute hand of a monumental antique clock embedded in his neck. For Dr Gideon Fell this is the only case that has ever really frightened him, and before he can solve it he must find answers to some seemingly impossible questions. Why was Calvin Boscombe standing near the corpse with a silencer on his gun? Who locked the attic door? And what has become of the 16th-century death-watch?

©1935 The Estate of Clarice M. Carr (P)2019 Oakhill Publishing Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Mystery Traditional Detectives Crime

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A typically tricky puzzle from locked-room maestro John Dickson Carr. Jonathan Keeble is a magnificent Dr Fell.

Dr Fell at his best

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A good narrator with a good range of voices. I found myself getting a bit lost from time to time as theories were expounded and confuted. I think it will take more than one listen to get hold of the entire plot and who really did what to whom. I’ve read many of John Dickson Carr / Carter Dickson books and always enjoyed them so I knew his style. I hadn’t read this particular title before listening to the audiobook so I don’t know whether the one is better than the other. Definitely worth a punt, though.

Convoluted but enjoyable

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It is one of the characteristics of crime fiction that however absorbing it mat be that once finished its value plummets. Furthermore, however much excitement it generated on its first reading, it is v difficult to ever recapture those sensations after the final chapter has been consumed.
Hence doing justice to 'Death Watch' is a stretch; one has to recall the sensations it created the first time round. If you enjoy JDC's work / the Golden Age of Whodunnits, then you'll most likely enjoy it. But if you prefer crime fiction based on police procedure / tough guys / macabre violence a la scandi noir, then avoid this text.
If you want to explore JDC's ouevre at Audible, then I strongly recommend 'The Hollow Man'. Most of JDC's best works are not to be found here, and are not even in print. I found a lot of them only in German or French editions (via the Internet).

One of JDC's better from his best phase 1934-39

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I gave up trying to follow this after a couple of hours going back to try and follow the trail. Honestly rubbish, don’t waste your money

Impossible to follow - truly dreadful

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It became more silly as it went on. I wished I hadn’t bothered really. Hard to distinguish each character.

Convoluted and Daft

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The narrator is very good, but the story itself is dated, far fetched and misogynistic. The behaviour of the police and the other characters is unbelievable. Interesting enough for a free download, but I certainly wouldn’t use a credit on this.

Very dated

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....enjoyed! Thanks to a grandmother who borrowed almost nothing except mystery novels from her local library I had read many of the Golden Age crime writers by the time I was 10 or 11. John Dickson Carr, who also wrote as Carter Dickson, was one of my favourites - not just a master of plot but often very creepy as well. I remember enjoying Death-Watch without recalling it in any detail, so looked forward to renewing the experience. Sadly, 65 years on, I find it unconvincing, laboured, over-wrought and sometimes downright silly. This certainly hasn't been true of most of the audiobooks I've listened to of Carr's contemporaries. It might not be true of his Carter Dickson books, either, so I would be prepared to listen to one of those if it turns up as an audiobook.
None of my disappointment reflects on the narrator - Jonathan Keeble is his usual excellent self.

IT'S NOT ALWAYS WISE TO REVISIT BOOKS YOU ONCE...

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Maybe it is easier to understand when you are reading but I really haven't got a clue who all the people are or why they all live in the same house. I had just really enjoyed another Dickson Carr title, To Wake the Dead, but this made no sense to me. And why has the same narrator got a different accent for Hadley?

Don't understand the scenario

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