The Problem of the Wire Cage

John Dickson Carr is famous for his puzzling “impossible crime” plots, in which corpses are discovered in scenarios that seem to lack any logical explanation, concealing clues as to how the murder was committed and how the body arrived in its current setting.

Among all of Carr’s ingenious crime scenes, the present case is one of his best known: a dead man is found strangled in the middle of a clay tennis court, just after a storm. In the damp dirt, there is one set of footsteps—his own—leading back to the grass; the court is otherwise untouched. There are no trees above from which the body may have fallen and no other visible means by which it may have been transported to its final resting place. Before determining the perpetrator of the strangulation, the local authorities are first confronted by the utter implausibility of the location—two interlocking questions puzzling enough to stump even the most seasoned inspector.

The bafflement is reaching a harried volley by the time amateur sleuth Dr Gideon Fell gets involved, but he soon shows that the knotted plot is no match for his deductive powers. Before he can serve up a dazzling explanation of whodunnit, though, Fell will have to sort through a confounding set of clues in search of a diabolical killer and a bizarre murder method.

Reissued for the first time this century, The Problem of the Wire Cage is an atmospheric and amusing Golden Age mystery with a memorable puzzle at its centre. It’s sure to please long-time fans of John Dickson Carr and is also a great entry point into his beloved Gideon Fell series.