The Burning Court

Overview:

• Title: The Burning Court
• Author: John Dickson Carr
• Year: 1937
• Type: Novel

Notes:

On the surface, this creepy impossible-crime novel appears to be a typical John Dickson Carr work written at the height of his very considerable powers in the late 1930s; like many of his novels there is an apparent supernatural element that is then explained away in the final chapter. In "The Burning Court", however, there is yet a further turn of the plot: in spite of the non-supernatural explanation given by the detective, it is then revealed in a brief epilogue that the crime really *was* committed by supernatural means. It is perhaps Carr's finest work, which, in spite of the supernatural element, makes it one of the greatest detective novels ever written.

Editions/Publications:

• 1937. The Burning Court (1937, John Dickson Carr Harper & Brothers, Hardcover, Novel)
• 1937. The Burning Court (1937, John Dickson Carr Hamish Hamilton, Hardcover, Novel)
• 1954. The Burning Court (1954, John Dickson Carr Bantam, Catalog ID: #1207, $0.25, 215 pages, Paperback, Novel)
• 1959. Three Detective Novels (1959, John Dickson Carr Harper & Brothers, 508 pages, Hardcover, Collection)

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