If Paris’s Augustin Waxworks are known at all, it’s for their frighteningly realistic Chamber of Horrors. So when a woman disappears there, and a ghost appears, naturally Henri Bencolin is interested. But a night-time investigation brings more than he bargained for, as a fresh corpse has been added to the roster of horrors. The trail soon leads to the manipulative Etienne Galant, and a secret club for high-class Parisians.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about Carr. I’d been anticipating The Corpse in the Waxworks for a while, firstly as my only new read among Carr’s four early Bencolin books, and secondly as S. T. Joshi in his Critical Study had said it was the best of them. Not to spoil the conclusion, but it’s certainly not my favourite of the four…
The book opens well, with a strong re-introduction to Bencolin, an unusual story from a witness (which has so far been a feature of all the Bencolin books), and the exploration of the atmospheric waxworks. Carr allows his Gothic descriptive talent to reach full flight here. We’re back in Paris, just like in It Walks By Night, and if anything the descriptions are even more evocative, potentially even tipping into over-the-top. Since Bencolin and Jeff Marle travel all over Paris there’s a greater variety of locations, too – the creepy waxworks, the homes of Paris’s elite, the dingy alleys, the mysterious club.
Despite the title of the book, we only visit the waxworks at the very start and the very end of the book. After the initial investigation in and around the waxworks, it becomes clear that Bencolin has more in mind than a simple murder investigation, and we soon meet Etienne Galant. Galant is a sinister, Moriarty-like figure – or perhaps a Blofeld figure since he inevitably appears alongside his white cat! (Of course, this book certainly came before that movie…)
The book builds him up to be a great threat, and through his interactions with Bencolin and others he does seem intimidating. But all the same, a great deal is told about him rather than shown, and the rivalry between him and Bencolin doesn’t live up to the hype it’s given in the book – a contrast to Von Arnheim in Castle Skull, who worked better as a rival.
A photograph from the real Musée Grévin waxworks, which Carr visited while he lived in Paris.
The visit to Galant presages a round of interviews. With two dead, Bencolin must visit two sets of parents. These are well-written scenes – Carr doesn’t forget to give intriguing descriptions of character and place – but they lack forward momentum, which is an unusual thing for a Carr book. At least, it’s not something found in later novels, but I have noticed it fairly often in these early Bencolins. In fact It Walks By Night had a very similar problem.
Interestingly, I think this represents an attempt from Carr to focus on more grounded characters than previous books. (OK, maybe not when it comes to Galant…). He actually does depict scenes of characters affected by grief, and the relationships between a group of ordinary female friends become important to the plot. Despite the secret club, there are no fiends in human form, no mysterious gallows, no skull-shaped castles. I think Carr pulls this off surprisingly well, even though he doesn’t seem at home with it – though make no mistake, this is not gritty realism. It felt more like a hint of Carr’s writing to come.
This change in approach even seems to affect Bencolin. In Castle Skull Carr seemed to want to humanize Bencolin after his previous harshness in The Lost Gallows. Here, Bencolin is oddly melancholic – bemoaning his age, and not seeming quite so omniscient. By which I mean, at two thirds of the way through the book he actually reveals all he knows to Jeff Marle, instead of keeping his secrets. He gives a blow-by-blow account of the waxworks murder, except he doesn’t know who did it! (He soon figures it out, of course). Bencolin has almost been different in every book at this point. I can see that Carr might have been becoming dissatisfied by his first sleuth.
At any rate, Bencolin’s exposition here is the best detection in the book, and helps to pick things up at the end of a less exciting middle. It’s what happens next that does the most to redeem the book, though. After Bencolin has mentioned it so many times, Jeff Marle is finally sent to infiltrate the Club of the Silver Key.
Carr allows himself to return to two of his great strengths, atmospheric description and thriller-like tension. The sequence switches seamlessly between discussions of the case within a tense setting and pure fast-thinking, fast-moving action. The early reveal of a possible solution was also great, because it was the one I had picked, and so I had been fooled again by Carr.
Where is the satyr?
The denouement itself is good, although the solution and the clues to it don’t live up to the standards of Bencolin’s earlier deductions.
This book turned out to be my least favourite of the first four – with my favourite being Castle Skull. Even an average Carr is enjoyable reading, it’s just that this one is more forgettable than most for the middle section.
Other opinions:
Clothes in Books
Fiction Fan Blog
The Grandest Game in the World
The Green Capsule
In Search of the Classic Mystery
The Invisible Event
James Scott Byrnside
“Bencolin is oddly melancholic – bemoaning his age, and not seeming quite so omniscient” — he mellows even further in The Four False Weapons, with Carr having clearly decided that the old man needed some of his sharper corners chipped off.
I still can’t decide which is my favourite of this opening tranche, but I have a feeling it’s probably It Walks by Night. The sheer gaudy absurdity of Castle Skull is massively enjoyable, but it stops the book being good in the normal sense, and The Lost Gallows is great fun and has plenty of energy, but the mystery — like here — fizzles out a little in the closing stages.
TFFW is probably my favourite Bencolin, however one must consider it as a separate entity to these first books. I’d love to know what you make of that one when you get to it.
I think The Lost Gallows must be my second favourite of the bunch… not sure what it is that doesn’t work for me with the Paris ones.
I’m very much looking forward to The Four False Weapons! Though if I keep up with the current direction and pace of reading Carrs, it will take me over 4 years to get to it. I should probably get a bit more of a move on.