The Unicorn Murders

by Carter Dickson, John Dickson Carr

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 270
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating:

Synopsis:

The diplomat Sir George Ramsden is returning to Britain from France with the mysterious “unicorn” in tow. The legendary thief Flamande has declared that he will be on the same flight as Ramsden, in disguise, and that the unicorn will be his. His arch-rival and head of the Sûreté Nationale, Gasquet, has assured the public that he too will be on the plane to thwart his nemesis. Meanwhile, holidaying in Paris, the ex-spy Kenwood Blake runs into Evelyn Cheyne and is swept into a perilous chase ending at the Chateau de l’Ile on a stormy night. Here, Ramsden’s plane has made an emergency landing, and Henry Merrivale has joined the party. When the castle is cut off by the flooding river, the stage is set for a battle of wits between two masters of disguise in Flamande and Gasquet, as a bizarre and seemingly impossible murder among the party casts suspicion in every direction – and the mystery of the unicorn is revealed. Carter Dickson’s brilliantly intricate mystery was first published in Britain in 1936; it remains a testament to his unique talent for wrangling audacious levels of devilishness into a masterpiece.

I’ve had a bit of a rocky time with John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson’s work — at some point things clicked and I started to enjoy it a bit more, but The Unicorn Hunters definitely encapsulates some of the things I really dislike about it. At times it doesn’t even seem to know what genre it wants to play in: spy thriller? spot of romance? murder mystery? gothic novel?

That is part of the fun if you can get on board, of course: it’s a bit overengineered, and it takes some work to keep up and follow Merrivale’s guesses (especially since you’re stuck in Kenneth Blake’s point of view), but it does feel like Carr was having fun referencing all these genres and setting up his twisty plots, and that helped to keep me in the game.

The romance part is mostly an aside, but there are a few moments where the story focuses on that… though, since Kenneth refers to the capable government agent Evelyn as “wench” and acts like she’s an irrational creature who will do anything for her man, that’s not always a good thing. (She seems fairly competent, actually.)

And I haven’t even mentioned the battle of wits between the brilliant detective (Gasquet) and the arch-criminal (Flamande)…

Once I got past the start, where I was annoyed by Kenneth lying in order to hang out with Evelyn, which was obviously going to lead to trouble, I managed to have fun — but I can’t say it’s a favourite, and this is on the lowish end of three stars.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)