The Eight of Swords

The Eight of Swords
1st US edition
Author(s)	John Dickson Carr
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Gideon Fell
Genre(s)	Mystery, Detective novel
Publisher	Hamish Hamilton (UK) & Harper (USA)
Publication date	1934
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	220 pp (Collier Books, paperback edition, 1962)
Preceded by	The Blind Barber (1934)
Followed by	Death-Watch (1935)

The Eight of Swords, first published in 1934, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr featuring his series detective Gideon Fell. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit.

Plot summary

Mr. Septimus Depping is found dead in his Gloucestershire country house, shot with his own gun and holding a card from the Tarot deck, the eight of swords, which stands for "condemning justice". Among those present is an Anglican bishop who is an expert in criminology, and sees wanted criminals in every parlourmaid, and Henry Morgan, who writes exciting mystery novels under two different names. Mr. Depping turns out to have been an American criminal, and Gideon Fell must penetrate the secrets of his American associates as well as his British life in retirement in order to bring home the crime to the unlikely criminal.

Novels by John Dickson Carr

Sir Henry Merrivale series

Novels	The Plague Court Murders (1934) · The White Priory Murders (1934) · The Red Widow Murders (1935) · The Unicorn Murders (1935) · The Punch and Judy Murders (1936) · The Ten Teacups (1937) · The Judas Window (1938) · Death in Five Boxes (1938) · The Reader is Warned (1939) · And So to Murder (1940) · Murder in the Submarine Zone (1940) · Seeing is Believing (1941) · The Gilded Man (1942) · She Died a Lady (1943) · He Wouldn't Kill Patience (1944) · The Curse of the Bronze Lamp (1945) · My Late Wives (1946) · The Skeleton in the Clock (1948) · A Graveyard to Let (1949) · Night at the Mocking Widow (1950) · Behind the Crimson Blind (1952) · The Cavalier's Cup (1953) ·

Short stories	Merrivale, March and Murder (1991)

Gideon Fell series

Novels	Hag's Nook (1933) · The Mad Hatter Mystery (1933) · The Blind Barber (1934) · The Eight of Swords (1934) · Death-Watch (1935) · The Hollow Man (1935) · The Arabian Nights Murder (1936) · To Wake the Dead (1938) · The Crooked Hinge (1938) · The Black Spectacles (1939) · The Problem of the Wire Cage (1939) · The Man Who Could Not Shudder (1940) · The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941) · Death Turns the Tables (1941) · Till Death Do Us Part (1944) · He Who Whispers (1946) · The Sleeping Sphinx (1947) · Below Suspicion (1949) · The Dead Man's Knock (1958) · In Spite of Thunder (1960) · The House at Satan's Elbow (1965) · Panic in Box C (1966) · Dark of the Moon (1968)

Short story collections	Dr. Fell, Detective, and Other Stories (1947) · The Men Who Explained Miracles (1963) · Fell and Foul Play (1991)

The Henri Bencolin series

Novels	It Walks By Night (1930) • Castle Skull (1931) • The Lost Gallows (1931) • The Waxworks Murder (1932) • The Four False Weapons (1937)

Short stories	"The Shadow of the Goat" • "The Fourth Suspect" • "The End of Justice" • "Murder In Number Four"

Other novels

As John Dickson Carr	Poison In Jest (1932) • The Burning Court (1937) • The Emperor's Snuff-Box (1942) • The Bride of Newgate (1950) • The Devil in Velvet (1951) • The Nine Wrong Answers (1952) • Captain Cut-Throat (1955) • Patrick Butler for the Defense (1956) • Fire, Burn! (1957) • Scandal at High Chimneys: A Victorian Melodrama (1959) • The Witch of the Low Tide: An Edwardian Melodrama (1961) • The Demoniacs (1962) • Most Secret (1964) • Papa La-Bas (1968) • The Ghosts' High Noon (1970) • Deadly Hall (1971) • The Hungry Goblin: A Victorian Detective Novel (1972)

As Carter Dickson	The Bowstring Murders (1934) • Fear Is the Same (1956)