The Judas Window by John Dickson Carr (writing as Carter Dickson).One of the five best locked room mysteries, as selected by 14 established mystery authors and critics (All But Impossible!, 1981. ed. E. Hoch).The Case: Avory Hume is found dead with an arrow through his heart—in a study with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door LOCKED FROM THE INSIDE. In the same room James Caplon Answell lies unconscious, his clothes disordered as though from a struggle.The Attorney for the Defense: That gruff and grumbling old sleuth, Sir Henry Merrivale, who proves himself superb ...
THE FIRST SIR HENRY MERRIVALE MYSTERY. When Dean Halliday becomes convinced that the malevolent ghost of Louis Playge is haunting his family estate in London, he invites Ken Bates and Detective-Inspector Masters along to Plague Court to investigate. Arriving at night, they find his aunt and fianc?e preparing to exorcise the spirit in a s?ance run by psychic Roger Darworth. While Darworth locks himself in a stone house behind Plague Court, the s?ance proceeds, and at the end he is found gruesomely murdered. But who, or what, could have killed him? All the windows and doors were bolted and locked, and no one could have gotten inside. The only one who can solve the crime in this bizarre and chilling tale is locked-room expert Sir Henry Merrivale.‘Very few detective stories baffle me nowadays, but Mr Carr’s always do’ - Agatha Christie
