Nine Times Nine

by Anthony Boucher

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 255
Series: Sister Ursula #1
Rating:

Synopsis:

The man in the yellow robe had put a curse on Wolfe Harrigan—the ancient curse called the Nine Times Nine. And when Matt Duncan looked up from the croquet lawn that afternoon, he saw the man in the yellow robe in Wolfe Harrigan’s study.

When Matt got there, all the doors were locked and all the windows too; all locked from the inside. Harrigan’s sister sat outside the room. She had seen no one come out. But when the door was broken down, there was no man in a yellow robe in the room, and the body of Wolfe Harrigan lay murdered on the floor.

Later the police discovered that at the time of the murder the man in the yellow robe was lecturing to a group of his followers miles away!

A man who could be in two places at once? An astral body? A miracle, perhaps?

Then who better to explain miracles than Sister Ursula, a nun, whose childhood ambition was to become a policewoman.

I probably made a mistake in the timing of reading Anthony Boucher’s Nine Times Nine, as I read Rocket to the Morgue earlier this year during a rough time, and… coincidentally, ended up reading Nine Times Nine at a similar, relatedly rough moment. Boucher definitely has a certain style that I think will now inevitably call up funerals for me!

Which is a bit sad, because it’s not a bad style (not particularly sad or grim, either), there’s just something about it which is very recognisable. Both books I’ve read of his are locked room mysteries, but this one is openly allusive to other locked room mysteries, even directly quoting John Dickson Carr’s work and embedding the reading of it into the attempted resolution of the mystery — as someone who’s read quite a bit of John Dickson Carr’s work, this did make me grin, but might be a bit tedious for someone who hasn’t, regardless of how clever it feels.

I wasn’t enamoured of the relationship between Concha and Matt; it moved in fits and starts, and always felt a lot more serious on her side than his (but in a very juvenile infatuation sort of way even on her side). As in Rocket to the Morgue, I loved the relationship between Leona and Marshall though!

Overall, not bad, with some good atmospheric moments, and of course, gotta love Sister Ursula, the nun who actually solves everything (though one could wish to see more of what she’s thinking and have her more closely involved with the other characters). I’d probably read more of Boucher’s work if it happened to come my way, but I’m not in a hurry.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)