The Crooked Hinge

The Crooked Hinge is a mystery novel (1938) by detective novelist John Dickson Carr. It combines a seemingly impossible throat-slashing with elements of witchcraft, an automaton modelled on Maelzel's Chess Player, and the story of the Tichborne Claimant. It was dedicated to fellow author Dorothy Sayers "in friendship and esteem".

The Crooked Hinge

First US edition
Author	John Dickson Carr
Language	English
Series	Gideon Fell
Genre	Mystery fiction, Detective fiction
Publisher	Hamish Hamilton (UK) & Harper (US)
Publication date	1938
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Preceded by	To Wake the Dead (1938)
Followed by	The Black Spectacles (1939) (US title: The Problem of the Green Capsule)

In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, this novel was voted as the fourth best locked room mystery of all time. The Hollow Man also by John Dickson Carr was voted the best.^[1]

Plot introduction

In his ninth outing, Dr. Fell spends July 1937 at a small village in Kent. John Farnleigh is a wealthy young man married to his childhood love, and a survivor of the Titanic disaster. When another man comes along claiming to be the real John Farnleigh, an inquest is scheduled to determine which individual is the real Farnleigh. Then the first Farnleigh is killed—his throat is slashed in full view of three people, all of whom claim that they saw no one there. Later, a mysterious automaton reaches out to touch a housemaid, who nearly dies of fright, and a thumbograph (an early toy associated with the taking of fingerprints) disappears from a locked library. Dr. Gideon Fell investigates and reveals the surprising solution to all these questions.

Literary significance and criticism

This novel was fourth in a list of the top ten "impossible crime" mysteries of all time (created by noted locked-room mystery writer Edward D. Hoch).^[2]