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Night At The Mocking Widow
''Night at the Mocking Widow'' is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906 – February 27, 1977) was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn. He lived in England for a number of years, and is ..., who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnitfeaturing the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale. Plot summary The English village of Stoke Druid in Somerset has been plagued by a series of vicious anonymous letters written by a poison-pen who becomes known as the "Mocking Widow", after a forty-foot high rocky feature on the outskirts of the village. A middle-aged spinster who has been tormented by the letters' suggestions of sexual immorality commits suicide. Sir Henry Merrivale is offered an incredibly rare volume of memoirs by the village bookseller if he exposes the poison-pen, and accepts. During the investig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906 – February 27, 1977) was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn. He lived in England for a number of years, and is often grouped among "British-style" mystery writers. Most (though not all) of his novels had English settings, especially country villages and estates, and English characters. His two best-known fictional detectives ( Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale) were both English. Carr is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of so-called "Golden Age" mysteries; complex, plot-driven stories in which the puzzle is paramount. He was influenced in this regard by the works of Gaston Leroux and by the Father Brown stories of G. K. Chesterton. He was a master of the so-called locked room mystery, in which a detective solves apparently impossible crimes. The Dr. Fell mystery '' The Hollow Man'' (1935), usually considered Carr's masterp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Merrivale
Sir Henry Merrivale is a fictional amateur detective created by "Carter Dickson", a pen name of John Dickson Carr (1906–1977). Also known as "the Old Man," by his initials "H. M." (a pun on "His Majesty"), or "the Maestro", Merrivale appears in 22 of Carr's locked-room mysteries and "impossible crime" novels of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, as well as in two short stories. Character Merrivale is a fairly serious character in the early novels but is more of a comic figure in the later books, sometimes bordering on the grotesque. Much of the humor surrounding the character derives from his outbursts of temper and his absurdly colourful language. When first introduced as a character, he is described as an older man nearing retirement. In later works, he talks explicitly about his age. In the 1940 novel ''And So to Murder'', set in late 1939, Merrivale refers to himself as being almost 70. In the 1941 novel ''Seeing is Believing'', while dictating his memoirs, he even gives his d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mystery Fiction
Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (such as Sherlock Holmes), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism. Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural mystery in which the solution does not have to be logical and even in which there is no crime involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Detective Fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades. History Ancient Some scholars, such as R. H. Pfeiffer, have suggested that certain ancient and religious texts bear similarities to what would later be called detective fiction. In the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (the Protestant Bible locates this story within the apocrypha), the account told by two witnesses broke down when Daniel cross-examines th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Morrow And Company
William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ... (now News Corp) in 1999. The company is now an imprint of HarperCollins. William Morrow has published many fiction and non-fiction authors, including Ray Bradbury, Michael Chabon, Beverly Cleary, Neil Gaiman, Erle Stanley Gardner, B. H. Liddell Hart, Elmore Leonard, Steven D. Levitt, Steven Pinker, Judith Rossner, and Neal Stephenson. Francis Thayer Hobson was president and later chairman of the board of William Morrow and Company. Morrow authors * Christopher Andersen * Harriet Brown * Karin Slaughter * Harry Browne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinemann (book Publisher)
William Heinemann Ltd., with the imprint Heinemann, was a London publisher founded in 1890 by William Heinemann. Their first published book, 1890's ''The Bondman'', was a huge success in the United Kingdom and launched the company. He was joined in 1893 by Sydney Pawling. Heinemann died in 1920 and Pawling sold the company to Doubleday, having worked with them in the past to publish their works in the United States. Pawling died in 1922 and new management took over. Doubleday sold his interest in 1933. Through the 1920s, the company was well known for publishing works by famous authors that had previously been published as serials. Among these were works by H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, George Moore, Max Beerbohm, and Henry James, among others. This attracted new authors to publish their first editions with the company, including Graham Greene, Edward Upward, J.B. Priestley and Vita Sackville-West. Throughout, the company was also known for its classics an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1950. Events *January 19 – Isaac Asimov's first full-length novel, ''Pebble in the Sky'', is published in the United States by Doubleday. *January 26 – For the film noir ''Gun Crazy'', released on this day in the United States, co-writer Dalton Trumbo is billed as Millard Kaufman, due to the former's inclusion on the Hollywood blacklist. This year Trumbo serves 11 months in prison for Contempt of Congress, in the federal penitentiary in Ashland, Kentucky. *February – Jack Kerouac has his first novel, ''The Town and the City'', published in the United States. *April 8 – J. D. Salinger's wartime short story " For Esmé — with Love and Squalor" is published in ''The New Yorker''. *May 11 – Eugène Ionesco's first play, ''The Bald Soprano'' is first performed, in Paris. *September 10 – George Bernard Shaw is taken to hospital after fracturing a hip falling out of a tree he was pruning. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dell Books
Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books (or "smoochies" as they were known in the slang of the day). During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included '' 1000 Jokes'', launched in 1938. From 1929 to 1974, they published comics under the Dell Comics line, the bulk of which (1938–68) was done in partnership with Western Publishing. In 1943, Dell entered into paperback book publishing with Dell Paperbacks. They also used the book imprints of Dial Press, Delacorte Books, Delacorte Press, Yearling Books, and Laurel Leaf Library. Dell was acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Behind The Crimson Blind
''Behind the Crimson Blind'' is a 1952 mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr (1906–1977), who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnit, featuring the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale. Plot summary Sir Henry Merrivale is on vacation in Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ..., but cannot resist the opportunity to meet the challenge of a world-class criminal known as "Iron Chest", who always carried an ornate iron chest during his thefts. No one knows what Iron Chest really looks like, or how he manages to vanish without a trace after his thefts. After a red-carpet welcome from the local constabulary, Sir Henry becomes friendly with two young English couples resident in Tangier and works closely with them to solve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whodunnit
A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective. Concept A whodunit follows the paradigm of the classical detective story in the sense that it presents crime as a puzzle to be solved through a chain of questions that the detective poses. In a whodunit, however, the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. This engages the readers so that they strive to compete with or outguess the expert investigator. A defining feature of the whodunit narrative is the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poison Pen Letter
A poison pen letter is a letter or note containing unpleasant, abusive, or malicious statements or accusations about the recipient or a third party. It is usually sent anonymously. In the term "poison pen" (or poisoned pen), the word poison is used figuratively, rather than literally. Poison pen letters are usually composed and sent to upset the recipient. They differ from blackmail, which is intended to obtain something from the recipient. In the United Kingdom, Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 covers most cases of poison pen letters. See also * Ransom note effect – A message composed of multiple juxtaposing typefaces * James Forster (poison pen letter writer) * Hate mail * Chain letter * Stalking Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The ter ... Reference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
