John Dickson CAR – Fire, Burn!

1957
Large print edition, 2002 – 0-7089-4606-2
404p
Rating: ***** **

When I was young I read my way through dozens and dozens of books by John Creasey and for some reason I thought this was one his pseudonyms. I was therefore surprised to find that I was reasonably sure I had never read this book. As it turns out Carr is not one of his pseudonyms though the style is very similar.
In this tale Detective Supt. John Cheviot manages to get into a taxi in the middle of London in the mid 20th century only to find himself transported back to a murder mystery in 1829. Provided you don’t look for realism it is an amusing enough tale.

JOHN DICKSON CARR was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1906. It Walks by Night, his first published detective novel, featuring the Frenchman Henri Bencolin, was published in 1930. Apart from Dr Fell, whose first appearance was in Hag's Nook in 1933, Carr's other series detectives (published under the nom de plume of Carter Dickson) were the barrister Sir Henry Merrivale, who debuted in The Plague Court Murders (1934).