Henri Bencolin is a fictional detective created by

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 ...

. He was Carr's first series detective, appearing in five "locked-room" and "impossible crime" mystery novels in the 1930s, and four short stories that appeared even earlier. In later decades, Carr did not return to the Bencolin character, but instead focused on creating English sleuths.

Biography

Bencolin is a ''

juge d'instruction In an inquisitorial system of law, the examining magistrate (also called investigating magistrate, inquisitorial magistrate, or investigating judge) is a judge who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases m ...

'' (

examining magistrate In an inquisitorial system of law, the examining magistrate (also called investigating magistrate, inquisitorial magistrate, or investigating judge) is a judge who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases m ...

) in the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

judicial system, and occasionally takes private cases. During World War I, he served as a French spymaster. Bencolin has a forbidding appearance. The narrator of the stories, American writer Jeff Marle, describes him as looking "Satanic", and characterizes his manner with witnesses and suspects as sometimes very harsh.

List of stories

Short stories

The short stories in which Bencolin appears were all originally published in the Haverfordian: *"The Shadow of the Goat" *"The Fourth Suspect" *"The End of Justice" *"The Murder In Number Four"

Novels

*''It Walks By Night'' (1930) *''Castle Skull'' (1931 – not published in the UK until c. 1980) *''The Lost Gallows'' (1931) *''The Waxworks Murder'' (1932) *''The Four False Weapons'' (1937)

Spin-off

Bencolin is mentioned in Carr's book ''Poison in Jest'' (1932), but does not appear in it. The novel, however, is narrated by Marle. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bencolin, Henri Book series introduced in 1930 Literary characters introduced in 1930 Fictional French police detectives Fictional male detectives Novel series by featured character