What is the most famous secret room technology?

John dickson carr (1906- 1977), whose pen name is Carter Dixon, was born in Union Town, Pennsylvania, USA. In the late 1920s, Karl went to Paris, France for further study, but immediately returned to China. Two years later, he married an English woman, and he and his wife lived in England for a long time. Karl debuted in 1930s, which happened to be the "golden age" of detective novels. Therefore, he, agatha christie and ellery queen are called "three great masters" of the golden age. Different from those well-developed detective novelists, Carl is good at impossible crime novels such as The Chamber of Secrets and has the reputation of "the king of the Chamber of Secrets".

Karl's earliest work is Nocturnal Walking (1930). The detective in the book is Mr. Henry Benklin, who is a police officer in the Paris Police Department. After writing several detective novels about Becklin, Carl thought that he had lost his vitality, so he rewrote two representative figures in Carl's novels, Dr. Phil and Sir Melville.

Dr Gideon Fair is a chubby lexicographer, but he has never heard of compiling dictionaries. Instead, he is writing an article about drinking customs in ancient England. His costume is funny, he smokes a sepiolite pipe and has a robber-like beard, much like Karl's worship of G.K. chesterton (actually based on chesterton). He is observant, good at analyzing criminals' psychology and solving complex cases, which is an almost perfect combination of creativity, atmosphere, accident and narrative skills. The best work about Phil is Three Coffins (1935). Because of the lecture notes in the secret room, Dr. Phil became the most famous secret room detective in history. Other famous works include Murder on the One Thousand and One Nights (1936), Skew Hinge (1938), The Problem of Green Capsule (1939) and so on.

Sir Henry Merryville is a lawyer and doctor. Carl wrote to Carter Dixon under his pseudonym. Melville is clumsy, but humorous and sometimes even interesting. The most famous case is the window of Judah. There are also unicorn murders (1935), the curse of bronze lamps (1945) and so on.

The level of Karl's later works declined sharply. Although some works are exquisite, they are slow and mysterious. In historical reasoning, only three time travel works in the late forties and fifties are better: The Devil in Velvet (195 1), Fear is the same (1956) and Fire, burn! (1957), non-historical reasoning works are artificial, especially Melville's later detective works.

In Carl's dozens of detective novels, almost all imaginable and unexpected impossible crime have been written. About 50 kinds of secret rooms have been designed, and the ingenious design and conception are amazing, even agatha christie, the queen of detective stories, is amazed. Among them, there are the "golden cage problem" in the snow room, the "unicorn murder" in the island, and the ingenious secret passage, and so on. Reading Karl's works, which combines romantic fantasy and rational thinking, should be a kind of enjoyment.

Carl is also a standard-bearer who advocates the popularization of detective novels by detective novelists. His works are not only full of impossible crimes, but also the scenes are quite gothic. The gloomy castles and mysterious figures ... make the works more suspenseful and even weird. However, it is undeniable that Karl's creative attitude is serious. In his novels, detectives enjoy the same status as readers, never hide anything and avoid misleading readers, which is deeply loved by readers. He wrote 73 kinds of novels and 10 collections of short stories under several pseudonyms in his life, which can be said to be a book.

Carl also won many deserved honors. He was admitted as a member of the British Detective Club (composed of top British detective novel writers, and only two non-British writers were accepted, except Carl and Patricia highsmith). He is also the chairman of the American Detective Writers Association (MWA) and won the edgar allan poe "Master Award" awarded by 1962 MWA. He also won the ellery queen Prize (short story award) awarded by EQMM twice, and was also a member of the famous Baker Street Team (BSI) (it is worth mentioning that his Sir Arthur Conan Doyle won the Edgar Special Award and has a translation by the Writers Publishing House; He also co-authored Sherlock Holmes' sequel "The Achievements of Sherlock Holmes" with Adrian Conan Doyle (translated by Popular Publishing House).

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Speaking of John Dixon Carr, it is still a strange name for most readers in China, but this can only be attributed to the poor vision of the publishing house. Seeing the author's introduction and comments on the internet or in books can't help but itch. Unfortunately, there has been no official Chinese translation for a long time. As far as I can remember, there is only one short version of The Dead is Haunted (the original version is The Case of Constant Suicide, 194 1), and there are two or three short stories by Carl in Woodpecker, Police Magazine and Short Stories Collection. But a drop in the bucket, facing Carl with as many as 80 books, this is enough. Just when I was almost in a hurry to buy one or two original works of Karl to read, Taiwan Facebook Publishing House began to publish Karl's anthology. So I couldn't wait to buy The Witch's Corner and The Eighth Sword (in September, Facebook published its third book, The Arabian Nights Murder).

The gloomy legend of ghosts and gods and the story of prisoners' blood and tears, like a huge shadow cage, linger. It shines on Chatham prison, which has been abandoned for a hundred years. This used to be the gallows where witches were executed. After the prison was built, the cruel management made it look like purgatory. The Stabbs family, who has been the warden for generations and owns a lot of real estate here, also suffered bad luck. According to legend, the heir of the Stubbs family is doomed to die with a broken neck.

This rumor has come true again in this generation of master stingers. Frightened stubbs's parents reluctantly obeyed their wishes and went to Chatham Prison for a vigil to be tested. They also decided to observe outside to avoid accidents. However, is bad luck coming again? Thanks to Dr. Phil's thorough observation, the evil conspiracy hidden behind all these rumors and legends was gradually uncovered. (from the back cover)

This is the story told in Hag's Nook (1933) and the first work of Dr. Gideon Phil. Carl's books are somewhat different. The most important thing is that he is good at using legends to create an atmosphere, which is called Gothic style. Gothic novels also have a certain influence on detective novels. For example, novels of this genre, such as "If I had known this", are mostly gothic, and there are some supernatural detective novels (because gothic novels mostly involve unnatural phenomena such as ghosts). However, Karl's novels are neither stupid novels nor supernatural explanations for readers. His explanation is reasonable and credible, but the appearance (story) is incredible. I admire Carl's narrative ability, the mystery of Chatham prison legend, the gloom of Witch's Corner and the uneasiness of stormy night. Sometimes the description is really scary. Compared with the "female corpse in the library" and the "old rich man who died in the study" that readers are familiar with, how attractive a complicated story is, not to mention the extremely exquisite technique after being caught. Detective novels are called "mystery novels" in the west, and literal translation is mystery novels. Carl's book, whether it is the story itself or the atmosphere created by the story, conforms to this term.

Another thing that surprised me was Dr. Gideon Phil himself. In fact, some people say that the "Sir Melville" series is humorous (unfortunately, the "Melville" series will not be published on Facebook for the time being), but I didn't expect Dr. Phil to be a humorous person. His behavior really made me laugh for a while. I don't usually quote the original text in my comments, but there is an exception here (this is a conversation between a doctor and Lamper in the United States):

"... when I went to your Hoverzin college to give a lecture, maybe the students didn't learn much about English history from me, but they cheered me on, little brother. They cheered when I described these battles. Remember-"Dr. Xu Qi continued, his broad face as red as a brilliant sunset. "I remember teaching them to sing 1 187, the drinking song of the first crusade general Bu Yong's Kadefei army. I personally took the lead in singing. Then they all sang and stamped their feet. A math professor who was mad with anger endured anger and trudged upstairs, clutching his hair with both hands as if it were knotted. This man's self-control is admirable. He said,' Would you please not knock off the blackboard on the classroom wall downstairs?' ? This is a bit inappropriate, uh-huh, uh-huh, quite inappropriate. "No," I said. This song is

In fact, not only Dr. Phil, but also the whole story is interspersed with these interesting scenes. One minute is an interesting conversation between Ranbo and Miss Stuber, and the other minute is the terrible legend of the Witch's Corner. Carl almost made the reader run around, and there was no time to read the story. Who cares what clues you have, but ... how did Dr. Phil come out to catch the killer?

Even though I regard this book as a mystery novel, trying to make my unintelligent brain face the challenge of a master, I am still puzzled until I see the answer (it should be noted that if I simply guess the murderer, it is possible to guess, because there are not many characters in the book, and I also guessed, but the murderer is quite clever, and I failed in this respect).

In the historic Gloucestershire manor house, ghosts are the narrowest, and the legendary troublemakers reappear and disturb people's hearts. Coincidentally, the visiting bishop, contrary to his usual calm image, slipped down from the handrail of the stairs, sat at a lady's feet and grabbed the maid's hair rudely. ...

On that stormy night, the old pedant rented in the manor guest house was shot dead. His Gherardini face was leaning on the desk, and his fingertips were clutching a tarot card with eight watercolor swords.

Is this a joke that goes too far? The mystery left by the murderer on purpose? Or the information that the old pedant tried to reveal before he died? A clever battle is about to be staged! (from the back cover)

This is a brief introduction of the eighth sword (1934). It is more difficult to guess the murderer and his tactics in "One Sword and Eight" than the witch horn. After all, there are many people. Judging from the atmosphere created by the work, I think the sword is not as good as the corner of the witch. The incident between the troublemaker and the bishop has little to do with the actual case, but the stunt is quite big. But the novel is still a standard work, and many complicated clues are dazzling. There are two amateur detectives in the book. One is the bishop mentioned above. This man is not dedicated to serving God, but is interested in criminology and proud of it. One is writing detective stories. This guy really wants to be a famous detective in his works. In this way, it is not difficult for readers to imagine that the famous detective Dr. Phil will lose to anyone?

Although Karl's novels are also third-person narrative techniques, they are different from ordinary detective novels. Even the general detective novels use the third-person narrative, but they are basically based on detectives, and we can see detectives wandering in most cases. Karl's novels are often described from many angles. Readers follow Zhang San in this chapter, and the next chapter may depend on Li Si's performance. On the contrary, Dr. Phil, who should be the protagonist, doesn't appear many times (slightly more than the corner of the witch), but when you see Dr. Phil again, you should pay attention. Maybe he'll start catching killers! In "Murder Ink" edited by Dilys Winn, the owner of the famous detective novel bookstore, there is an article about "Red Scarf Fish", taking Carl's novel as an example. Indeed, Carl is an expert in cooking red scarf fish, so readers should pay attention.

Carl's novels make me linger and fascinate me. I really hope that a publishing house can publish Carl's complete works, so that our reasoning fans can have a good meal. Finally, a sentence from Taiwan Province critic Zhan Hongzhi is used as a conclusion: "(Karl's novels) are not written in a formulaic and standardized way like the best-selling writers later, but each work is unique, original, intricate in layout and peculiar in design. It is the ultimate work of mystery novels, and I am a pivotal figure in the history of mystery novels. "