John Dickson Carr Books in Order

A séance at the decaying Plague Court ends with a medium stabbed inside a locked room, and whispers of an old ghost suddenly seem plausible. Sir Henry Merrivale and Chief Inspector Masters have to separate stage terror from human murder.

A Hollywood star is found beaten to death in a snowbound pavilion, with only one set of footprints leading to the scene. Merrivale faces a classic impossible crime wrapped in romance, jealousy, and theatrical egos.

Guests draw cards to decide who will spend the night in a room said to be haunted by the Red Widow. By morning a man is dead inside the watched, locked room, and Merrivale must explain the impossible.

After an emergency landing near a French château, a mixed company of spies and strangers becomes trapped together. Then one man is killed in full view, as if by a unicorn, and Merrivale must untangle disguise, espionage, and murder.

An undercover visit to Torquay pulls Ken Blake into a tangle of espionage, spiritualism, and sudden death. When one man dies of strychnine and another falls far away at the same time, the case turns beautifully strange.

Two years after an unsolved murder in an empty house, the police are invited to another vacant address for an exact repeat. When a man is shot in a sealed room under watch, Merrivale tackles one of Carr's neatest puzzles.

A note summons Scotland Yard to an empty London house, echoing an older unsolved killing involving ten teacups. When history repeats in another locked room murder, Sir Henry Merrivale takes over.

A young scientist walks into a flat and finds the host dead, the guests unconscious, and every pocket stuffed with bizarre objects. Merrivale must connect poison, empty boxes, and a very carefully staged murder.

A young man wakes drugged inside a locked room beside his future father-in-law, who has been killed with an arrow. Most of the novel becomes a courtroom duel as Merrivale tries to save an apparently doomed defendant.

A man dies in his own home under conditions that make the murder seem impossible. With a missing notebook of murder tricks and talk of killing at a distance, Merrivale has to cut through one of Carr's eeriest setups.

A shy bestselling novelist arrives at a British film studio and is met by sabotage, acid attacks, and rising tension. When someone tries murder in earnest, Merrivale steps into a sharp backstage mystery.

Nine passengers cross the Atlantic in wartime blackout, under the threat of submarines and hidden agendas. When one of them is murdered and the fingerprint fits nobody on board, Merrivale has to solve the shipboard puzzle fast.

Nine passengers cross the Atlantic in wartime blackout, under the threat of German submarines and private secrets. When one of them is murdered and the fingerprint fits nobody aboard, Merrivale must solve the crime before panic spreads.

This collection gathers bizarre mystery stories, several featuring Colonel March of Scotland Yard's odd-cases department. The cases are short, clever, and full of impossible appearances, vanishings, and locked-room style tricks.

During a hypnotism stunt, a woman seems to stab her husband with a dagger that everyone thought was fake. Merrivale and Chief Inspector Masters have to explain how a public performance turned into murder.

A nervous house party, priceless paintings, and a masked intruder set the stage for murder at Waldemere. When the dead burglar turns out to be the host himself, Merrivale faces a case full of nerves, illusion, and family strain.

An adulterous couple appears to walk together to a cliff edge and vanish into a lovers' suicide. But when their bodies are found shot through the heart, Merrivale has to rebuild the truth from a beautiful lie.

A zoo director seems to seal himself inside his study and die by gas, but his daughter knows one thing for certain: he would not have killed his pet snake. Merrivale follows a trail of magicians, reptiles, and wartime nerves.

An ancient Egyptian lamp arrives at an English country house with a curse attached, and a young woman vanishes almost at once. Under the supernatural fuss lies one of Merrivale's most elegant impossible problems.

A young woman brings home an ancient Egyptian lamp said to carry a curse, then vanishes within minutes of entering the hall. Merrivale has to explain the disappearance before a very human murder follows.

Police have long believed Roger Bewlay murdered several wives on their honeymoons and then disappeared. Years later an anonymous play script reopens the case, and Merrivale follows the trail into theatre, disguise, and buried bodies.

A chance meeting revives an old love story and an older death that may not have been accidental at all. As eerie events gather around Fleet House, Merrivale digs into family history and fresh murder.

A millionaire invites Merrivale to witness a miracle, then dives fully clothed into a swimming pool and disappears. The case mixes vanishing-act showmanship with family secrets and the uncomfortable business of inheritance.

A Somerset village is being poisoned by anonymous letters from the so-called Mocking Widow. When the threats turn into an impossible bedroom visitation and then murder, Merrivale has to expose the spite behind the spectacle.

On holiday in Tangier, Merrivale is drawn into the hunt for Iron Chest, a master criminal who steals and vanishes without a trace. The result is a brisk later mystery with sunshine, charm, and a clever central chase.

At an old country hall, a ghostly Cavalier seems to move an heirloom cup and sword inside a locked room. With Chief Inspector Masters on the spot, Merrivale must turn a haunting back into a human trick.

A man spends the night in a haunted room under close watch and is found dead by morning, poisoned without a mark on him. Merrivale must explain both the method and the legend that helped hide it.

This later collection brings together rare Sir Henry Merrivale and Colonel March stories, along with other shorter Carr pieces. It is the place to go if you want the odd corners of the Carter Dickson world.

This omnibus pairs The Plague Court Murders with The Red Widow Murders, two early Merrivale locked-room classics. It is a handy way to read the detective at his creepiest and most impossible.