Carter Dickson is actually John Dickson Carr, an American author (who is regarded as a brilliant honorary British murder mystery author) who wrote dozens of books, plays, short stories, and non-fiction books as John Dickson Carr, Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbain. He's widely regarded as having written the absolute best "locked room" murder mysteries, setting the standard that no one since has matched. And, The Judas Window is regarded as being the best of his best.
Dickson has four heroes: Henri Bencolin, Dr. Gideon Fell, Sir Henry Merrivale and Colonal March. The Judas Window features Sir Henry Merrivale, a public criminal defender in London. And, for the benefit of his American readers, Carr explains the English system for assigning defense lawyers: those with money can hire a private "solicitor" who are expensive but (in theory) better as they will have more time for your case, and those eligible for legal aid (poor, in other words) will be assigned a legal aid solicitor through the Public Defender Service. All this sounds like the system in the US. What's different is the distinction between solicitors and barristers: in the US, any attorney (an attorney is a licensed lawyer) can go to court if that's where the case ends up but in England, a client has a soliciter who handles the "day-to-day" parts of your case (processing briefs, as far as I can tell) and a barrister if your case actually goes to court (that is, you don't admit guilt). And barristers are considered a cut above ALL soliciters whether private or public, and are assigned randomly (yeah, I don't really believe that given what I've seen on Rumpole) and so (in theory) you could end up with the best barrister in the land arguing your case even if you don't have two pence to rub together--or, if you are stinking rich, which is what happens here. The client in question, James Answell, has been accused of killing his soon-to-be father-in-law, Avory Hume, when they met for the first time to discuss the upcoming wedding between James and Avory's daughter, Mary. And, of course, they are in a room with windows locked on the inside and a door that has been bolted on the inside--and the only fingerprints on the murder weapon and the door bolt are James'. And worst of all, James' version of events is ridiculous: he claims Hume drugged his drink and he was unconscious when Hume was being stabbed in the chest with an arrow taken off the wall of the room they are both locked in.
On top of this implausible and impossible murder is a very cleverly written novel. The murder of Hume is described in a very brief prologue which ends with James losing consciousness. Then chapter one begins with the start of James' trial. His barrister is Sir Henry Merrivale who is famously crotchety and brilliant. His appearance isn't described, but I imagined him dressing and talking like a peevish Mark Twain, which is ridiculous because the book was written in 1938. Yet, it works. Because Merrivale is so brilliant (and secretive) we (the reader) need someone to tell us what is going on. The people who do that are Ken and Evelyn Black, friends of Merrivale who have worked with him (or, more accurately, beside him, following his orders in his six other cases that have been novelized), who are attending the trial. At all the right moments they ask each other questions and so thereby create a reason for the other to explain to us what is going on or why what just happened is important.
The mystery is unraveled and then re-raveled over and over as each witness is called to testify and is then examined and cross-examined. It's a great way to present information as it comes out out of order and so it's nearly impossible to keep track of the events in question. So, blessedly, Carr has supplied us with: a map of the house showing us all the relevant rooms, windows, doors and paths outside; a minute-by-minute timeline leading up to the death of Hume and then a second minute-by-minute time line of everything that happens after Hume is dead but before the police show up and get into the study where the murder took place. In addition to James and (dead) Avory Hume, we have Spencer Hume, Avory's brother, who is a physician and has access to drugs that can sedate someone yet leave no trace; Reginald Answell, James' cousin who dated Mary last year and took some salacious photos of her and then used them to blackmail her father; Dyer, the butler/chauffer who let James into the house and overheard him "fight" with Hume; Amelia Jordan, Hume's personal secretary and busybody who "takes to bed" and spends the next few weeks heavily sedated after seeing her employer's dead body; and, finally, Fleming, a neighbor, who is told to visit exactly when James is in the study with Hume, thereby providing an excellent witness to testify that no one else arrived or left the house before or after the murder.
If things aren't bad enough for James, after insisting he is innocent as a newborn babe, he suddenly does a 180, and announces (as he is being taken from the courtroom at the end of Day 1) that he did it all and he'd do it again! Of course it turns out that he (wrongly) assumed that, if he isn't found guilty his bride to be, Mary, would be found guilty and he confessed to protect her. So, not only does our hero Merrivale has a terrible case, he now has to convince a jury that unanimously believes his client has confessed to the crime. Yet, unsurprisingly, our hero comes through and James is acquitted. This isn't giving anything away as we know he's innocent because we were there in the study with him when he lost consciousness and then, a mere five minutes later, woke up to find Hume dead and the murder weapon in his hand.
This really is an excellent murder mystery which came out right smack in the middle of the "Golden Era" of British murder mysteries. Not only is it a cracker story but the writing is wonderful: not a wasted word and it gallops at an incredible pace. It really is unput-downable. And best of all, as with all good fiction, the just are rewarded and the bad are punished. My only regret is that I read this book ahead of the six other Merrivale mysteries as Merrivale refers to his previous victories when gloating to Ken and Evelyn about how amazing he is.
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