The Crooked Hinge

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The Crooked Hinge
Recent paperback edition
Author	John Dickson Carr
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Gideon Fell
Genre(s)	Mystery, Detective, Novel
Publisher	Hamish Hamilton (UK) & Harper (USA)
Publication date	1938
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	To Wake the Dead (1938)
Followed by	The Black Spectacles (1939) (US title: The Problem of the Green Capsule)

The Crooked Hinge is a mystery novel (1938) by detective novelist John Dickson Carr. It combines a seemingly impossible throat-slashing with elements of witchcraft, an automaton modelled on Maelzel's Chess Player, and the story of the Tichborne Claimant.

[edit] Plot introduction

In his ninth outing, Dr. Fell spends July of 1937 at a small village in Kent. John Farnleigh is a wealthy young man married to his childhood love, and a survivor of the Titanic disaster. When another man comes along claiming to be the real John Farnleigh, an inquest is scheduled to determine which individual is the real Farnleigh. Then the first Farnleigh is killed -- his throat is slashed in full view of three people, all of whom claim that they saw no one there. Later, a mysterious automaton reaches out to touch a housemaid, who nearly dies of fright, and a thumbograph (an early toy associated with the taking of fingerprints) disappears from a locked library. Dr. Gideon Fell investigates and reveals the surprising solution to all these questions.

[edit] Literary significance and criticism

This novel was fourth in a list of the top ten "impossible crime" mysteries of all time (created by noted locked-room mystery writer Edward D. Hoch).^[1]

[edit] References

^ Hoch, Edward D., editor. All But Impossible!: An Anthology of Locked Room and Impossible Crime Stories by Members of the Mystery Writers of America. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1981. ISBN 0-89919-045-6

v • d • e Gideon Fell series by John Dickson Carr

Novels:	Hag's Nook • The Mad Hatter Mystery • The Blind Barber • The Eight of Swords • Death-Watch • The Hollow Man (aka The Three Coffins) • The Arabian Nights Murder • To Wake the Dead • The Crooked Hinge • The Black Spectacles (aka The Problem of the Green Capsule) • The Problem of the Wire Cage • The Man Who Could Not Shudder • The Case of the Constant Suicides • Death Turns the Tables • Till Death Do Us Part • He Who Whispers • The Sleeping Sphinx • Below Suspicion • The Dead Man's Knock • In Spite of Thunder • The House at Satan's Elbow • Panic in Box C • Dark of the Moon

Short story collections:	Dr. Fell, Detective, and Other Stories • The Men Who Explained Miracles • Fell and Foul Play