The Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson

THERE WILL BE TEN TEACUPS AT NUMBER 4, BERWICK TERRACE, W. 8, ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 31ST, AT 5 P.M. PRECISELY. THE PRESENCE OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE IS RESPECTFULLY REQUESTED.

So begins the captivating 1937 locked-room mystery, The Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson, a pen name of John Dickson Carr, and the latest book in the British Library Crime Classics collection.

It would appear to be a fairly innocuous note that arrives on Chief Inspector Humphrey Masters’ desk with the first post on the stifling Wednesday in question. That is, if it was not for the fact that after receiving an almost identical note in April two years ago, a body with two bullet holes was discovered at the address provided. A murder that has yet to be solved. Cue Sir Henry Merrivale, or H.M., as he is almost exclusively referred. 

The police surround 4, Berwick Terrace. Detective Sergeant Pollard, is situated across the hall from a newly furnished room in an otherwise empty and uninhabited house. At the centre of the room is a table and resting on a rare antique peacock patterned shawl lay ten teacups evenly spaced like the face of a clock. Not a soul could get in or out without being seen. So when Vance Keating enters the house he is most certainly alone in the room when the clock strikes 5 p.m.

Four-fifteen. Four-thirty. Pollard felt his scalp crawl and his wits thicken under the pressure of heat. Still no sound issued from the room, nor was there a sign of any other visitor, while the watcher stood neck-cramped with his eyes on the door. The hand of his wrist-watch crept upwards: a quarter to five. And now good theories began to dissolve when he remembered Masters’s words: “I don’t know whether you can run a secret society without any fuss, but I’m smacking well certain you can’t run one without any members.” He was right. Vance Keating sat alone in the shrine, guarded if ever a man was guarded with police at both the back and the front. Five minutes to five. (43-44)

Like the incident two years before, there is a certain inevitability to what occurs. A man is dead and now the police, with the help of H.M.—who appears to doze off at the most unfortunate times—need to figure out how. None of the clues seem to bring them any closer to a conclusion and none appear to be linked with each other. The similarities are the ten teacups on a table, an antique with a peacock print, a newly furnished room in an otherwise empty and uninhabited house, and a person who has been killed in a way that could not possibly be self-inflicted. Oh, and that both houses were previously owned by Mr. and Mrs. Derwent. There is a sense of ceremony to both scenes, which helps spark the idea a secret society is involved in the murders.

I loved the premise of this book. The beginning had me hooked and did not want to put it down. When I was called away, I kept thinking about it, spinning scenarios in my head of where the plot might go. I fear my dog and husband did not get my full attention for a couple of days!

I never felt like I learned anything about H.M. Perhaps, the reader is not meant to. He is certainly not the focus of this book in the way that some detectives are the central character and the murder is just a way of showing off the detective’s intelligence and little quirks. But there is an absence in the place of H.M. I almost forgot he was in some scenes. It is as though he sits back and takes things in, following the trail to the truth, while not sharing any of his process with us. He often scolds Masters for blundering ahead and showing all of his cards to the suspects. Again, perhaps this absence of a figure is purposeful. After all, he is referred to as H.M. almost exclusively, not a name, just a stand-in for one. Somewhere in the first chapter or two, I had to check the back to make sure I was not getting confused between Humphrey Masters and Sir Henry Merrivale as the two share the same initials. Are they meant to be the ying and yang of each other, together creating law and order? I will be interested to read some of Carter Dickson’s other books featuring H.M. to see if I can glean anything more about him in those.

My only real quibble with this one was the ending. It felt like it dragged on for much too long. The conclusion was complicated, required a lot of explaining, and some aspects crossed over into the unbelievable. And when I say complicated I mean bordering on convoluted—there are footnotes, for goodness sake! Although, I would be lying if I didn’t admit I did sort of love the novelty of the footnotes. I do see why the author chose to spin out the ending, as many mysteries of this sort tend to, but it is not a format that I like. To me this one felt a bit too much like Poirot gathering everyone together in the library to show off how cleaver he is. The only difference is that H.M. managed to do this without a gigantic monologue. For which, I am truly grateful. 

I lied. I actually have another grievance to air. The representation of women in this novel is narrow at best, and sexist at worst. The two woman in this book, whether portrayed as either the whore or the virgin, both have a performativity to them. This is an idea I formed as I was reading the last quarter. But I would like to reread this one and take note of whether there is strong evidence of this in the text, or if it is just an impression I was left with. Off hand, I can think of two such occurrences. One is when Mrs. Derwent, feigns she has been assaulted by Masters, creating a public disturbance.

“The point is,” growled Masters, “that all the time the commotion was going on, either out of devilment or to give her time to think what she was going to say, that woman was lying back pretending to cry, and laughing at me through her fingers.” (117)

One of the problems here is that we never do get Mrs. Derwent’s side of the story. We are expected to take Masters’ version of events as truth without question because he is a police officer.

There also seems to be something performative about the victim’s fiancée, Frances Gale, stamping her foot like a child when she doesn’t get her way with the police. But I cannot for the life of me find the place in the text where this occurs, so I may be forcing an interpretation without textual evidence. Something to look out for on a reread, for sure.

Of course, the books republished in this collection are bound to be a product of their time. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of each of them, making it clear that the British Library are in no way endorsing any of the problematic views portrayed in these books by republishing them. 

With this series British Library Publishing aims to offer a new readership a chance to read some of the rare books of the British Library's collections in an affordable paperback format, to enjoy their merits and to look back into the world of the twentieth century as portrayed by its writers.

These books are a snapshot of a time when the publishing industry was not questioning how underrepresented groups were being stereotyped and generally cast in a negative light. One cannot be sure that the author was knowingly portraying women in this light. It seems likely that the author too would be a product of his time, as are we all, for that matter.

There are other aspects of this book, specifically the conclusion, that I would love to go into, but the majority read mysteries for the plot and I would hate to spoil the experience for anyone, and as this is a book review, not an academic essay, I will refrain. However, I might have to do a full on spoiler-y discussion of this at some future date. If you have read this one, please get in touch. I would love to chat about it, but let’s keep the comments below spoiler free. Reach out via the contact form on this site, (which you can find at the top right of this page), or email me at carosbookcase@gmail.com.

The final verdict? Despite its convoluted ending, I would reread this one, not just to analyse the text, but because I enjoyed the first three quarters of this book so much. The premise ignited my imagination in a way that I have not experienced from a book in a long time. I recommend giving this locked-room mystery a try. Enjoy figuring out how, why, and whodunnit, and revel in the novelty (or do I mean oddity?) of those footnotes.

Thank you to British Library Publishing for kindly sending me a copy of The Ten Teacups for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.

Coming up next will be a review of Murder as a Fine Art by Carol Carnac a.k.a. E.C.R. Lorac, pictured below, along with a couple more titles in this collection that I was lucky enough to receive from the publisher. After enjoying her book Murder in Vienna, I am especially excited to read more of her work. If you are interested, you can find my review of that one here.

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What I Got for Christmas!

My good friend, Gina, has done it again! She sent me the very best book and book-related gifts for Christmas. Gina shares her beautiful book collection at babsbelovedbooks.blogspot.com and you can also find her on Instagram. If you are not already following her, please do. She has fabulous taste in books and she also happens to be the loveliest person.

Her package arrived back in December—well before Christmas, might I add—but as no one would mistake me for being a punctual person, it has taken me until now to get my act together. I quickly realised  that I could not just share a few photos of these gifts on Instagram and leave it at that. Each gift was so perfect that I had to say a little something about each one, and in some cases more than a little something.

Let’s talk about the books first…

I have been wanting to read more of Monica Dickens’ books since inhaling Mariana a few years ago. I really love historical fiction and children’s books, so I’m doubly excited to read The Great Fire, which is about 12-year-old Peter, who was orphaned during the Great Plague only to have to face more hardship in the Great Fire of London in 1666. This is a very slim book. So I’m saving it for the perfect quiet evening.

Two Joans at the Abbey is the thirtieth—yes, you read that correctly—book in Elsie J. Oxenham’s Abbey Girls series. This series ran from 1914 to 1959 with 38 books in all. Being a fan of Antonia Forest, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, and Margaret Biggs, I’ve been dying to branch out to other authors of girls boarding school stories. All I really know about this series is that the girls learn folk dancing, and as a former ballet dancer, that is basically all I need to know going into this series. And yes, it probably isn’t the best idea to read a title so far in as my first foray into the series. But if I like this one I will be sure to start from the beginning, or with the earliest book I can get my hands on.

Last year, I read All Sorts of Lives: Katherine Mansfield and the Art of Risking Everything. In it, Claire Harman explores the life of Katherine Mansfield through the lens of ten of her short stories. In tandem, I read the stories being discussed, all of which can be found in the collection Wild Places: Selected Stories. I had not read anything by Mansfield before this, though of course I had heard of her in relation to Virginia Woolf, as Mansfield is a contemporary of Woolf and their stream of conscious style is often compared. Interestingly, I found one story of Mansfield’s, “The Garden Party”, reminded me of Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, which was published three years later. I’m sure I’m not the first person to make this connection and this is in no way intended as a slam on Woolf. I have read and appreciated all of Woolf’s novels, minus The Waves, which, being a tad intimidated by it, I have yet to read. It is just fun to spot these connections and speculate on them. I do not think it is a stretch to imagine that Woolf may have been inspired by Mansfield’s writing. Anyway, after finishing All Sorts of Lives and the corresponding short stories, I was pleased to find Mansfield’s “Carnations” included in Stories for Summer and Days By the Pool, a collection of short stories in the British Library Women Writers series that came out in June 2024. Published in 1920, Bliss and Other Stories is Katherine Mansfield’s second short story collection. I’m beyond excited to dive in. I’ve already read the first three, “Prelude”, “Je Ne Parle Pas Français”, and “Bliss”, but I will certainly be reading them again.

Rosamunde Pilcher is a favourite author of mine. The only reason I have never done an in-depth review of any of her books on the blog is because she is already so popular that I doubt my ability to say anything about her writing that has not already been said. Her heartwarming stories are usually set in Cornwall or Scotland. In Voices in Summer, the main character convalesces in Cornwall after an operation, while her husband goes on his annual fishing trip to Scotland and Wild Mountain Thyme begins with a trip to Scotland. I haven’t read either of these, so I’m very excited to add them to the growing number of Rosamunde Pilcher books I have on my shelves.

Young Mrs. Savage by D.E. Stevenson is another one set in Scotland. Widowed during the war, Dinah is raising four children on her own, while battling with memories of her troubled marriage. Despite her hardships, she is quick to dismiss offers of pity. But when her twin bother, Dan, sends her on a trip with the children to stay with their former Nannie at their old family home, she puts herself in the way of adventure. In my experience, D.E. Stevenson’s books are a delight. I do not expect this one will be any different. 

I recently purchased another edition of Elizabeth Goudge’s biography The Joy of the Snow from Girls Gone By Publishers. They republish rare and out-of-print books by authors of girls’ school stories. If you are looking for a copy of The Joy of Snow, as of this going up Girls Gone By still have copies in stock, but as they are a small independent publisher, they do small print runs which sell out fast. If you have already checked Blackwell's or your local bookstore, the publisher may still have stock and you can order directly from them. I was particularly interested in reading the additional material that edition boasted, the introduction, and letters written by Goudge that had not been published before. But I was beyond pleased when Gina sent me a vintage edition. There is something so special about reading from a book with a past. This one has a gift inscription from someone thanking their friend for "a delightful house party". How lovely!

Many of you might remember my failed attempt at reading the original 56 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, last year. It was basically the project that inspired me to start a blog in the first place. But reading and reviewing one Nancy Drew book per week—two if I had both the original text and revised text books on my shelf—proved to be too time consuming. I should have done a test run of the first few books before I started the project, so I could fail privately first and then adjust the project before going public with it. Oh, hindsight! 

I do hope to get back to reviewing these, eventually. Although, I have to admit that many of the revised texts, were so bad that I was dreading writing the reviews and having to spend even more time with them. The original text Nancys are much more to my taste and we mostly have Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson’s writing to thank for that. She wrote 23 of the first 30 original text Nancy Drew books. Unfortunately, along with making Nancy Drew a more passive character, the revised texts also cut out much of the scene setting and description. But Wirt Benson didn’t just write Nancy Drew books. She penned 135 books in her lifetime, under various pen names, including Mildred Benson and Mildred A. Wirt. 

Kristie at College came out in 1960, having been first published a year earlier under the title Quarry Ghost. I believe Quarry Ghost is the American edition, as the copy of Kristie at College that Gina gave me is from UK publisher The Children’s Press. The book is about a skin-diving journalism student who gets herself involved in some controversy around a missing dinosaur relic. There is no mention of a ghost on the blurb of my edition, so I will be interested to see which title feels more appropriate to the story. 

Penny Parker was Wirt Benson’s favourite series to write. She said that Penny Parker was a better Nancy Drew than Nancy Drew. I was hesitantly optimistic when I picked up Tale of the Witch Doll, the first book in the Penny Parker series. If I didn’t already have a number of books on my shelves and even more on my wishlist I would have read every book in the series immediately after finishing that first one. How lucky am I that I get to read the second book, The Vanishing Houseboat, in this gorgeous first edition?! If you are interested in reading this series, Wildside Press has republished all of the titles in very affordable paperbacks that you can find on the Wildside Press website, your local bookstore, and other online booksellers.

In addition to writing under his own name, John Dickson Carr had a number of pen names, including Carter Dickson. I haven’t read any of his novels yet, but I have read and enjoyed a number of his short stories thanks to their inclusion in British Library Crime Classics' short story collections. If you have been on my blog for more thirty seconds you will know that I love their books. It was one of my greatest joys of last year that British Library Publishing sent me my first physical copy of a book for review. I love reading their titles, getting to review them is always something I look forward to, and when I’m not reading or reviewing them, they look very smart on my shelves. Gina has heard me talk about these books a lot, and so being the intuitive person that she is she sent me two titles by John Dickson Carr, The Black Spectacles and He Who Whispers. 

Even more so than the Mildred A. Wirt Benson titles—though I will certainly cherish them—The Skeleton in the Clock has to be the most precious book that Gina sent. There is no denying it’s a gorgeous edition, but it’s so much more than that. This copy is from Gina’s grandmother’s collection. I cannot express what an honour it is that I get to be the caretaker of such a special book. 

As I have the pleasure of adding more vintage books to my shelves, I feel like the guardian of these volumes. I do not feel I own them so much as I am giving them a place to live until they pass on to their next caretaker. 

And now for the other beautiful bits…

The little charm is actually one of an assorted set of The Wind in the Willows inspired stitch markers (for knitting or crocheting) from Beneath the Leaf. Gina had these custom made for me with my love of Mole in mind. And if you’re wondering… yes, I did cry when I found that out. There are ten in all and no two are the same. I wasn’t able to capture all of them together to my liking, but there are a number of similarly beautiful stitch markers, as well as, charm bracelets, necklaces, and earrings in her shop.

Let's take a moment to admire the Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables tea towels. How pretty do they look next to my favourite editions from my Nancy Drew and L.M. Montgomery collection?! I have admired the work of watercolour artist Elizabeth Wade for a while now, and these are exactly what I would have picked out for myself from her designs. And somehow Gina just knew! They look so nice pictured with my most prized books from these series that I’m thinking of hanging them on the wall of my study next to the shelves that house my children’s books. Elizabeth Wade also has prints of her stunning illustrations on her website.

I almost forgot to talk about the Dean Street Press postcards! Each postcard is of a different cover from one of the books they have published. The ones that Gina sent me are Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck, The Ginger Cat Mystery by Robin Forsythe, and Miss Read’s Fresh From the Country. You can see a glimpse of them in the above photo, as well as a The Wind in the Willows inspired calendar. It comes from a shop called Farmhouse Greetings and features the beautiful illustrations of Linda Cook DeVona’s. As someone who is easily distracted every time I check something on my phone—don’t get me started on how much time I waste every time I go to the search page on Instagram—analogue anything is most welcome! I have posted it on the wall next to the desk in my study and I refer to it daily. 

Gina also sent some delicious seasonal gummy candies, which disappeared before I could photograph them. You might say I have a bit of a sweet tooth. 

Oh, and let’s not forget Clark, because Gina certainly didn’t! She picked out the cutest little teddy, who looks like Clark’s teddy twin. They are so cute together! Clark is a lover, not a fighter, so while this little teddy is meant for chewing, Clark prefers to rest his head in his new friend’s lap while they snooze together. 

Gina really is an incredible gift giver. Every time I open something from her I ask, “How did you know?!” She has impeccable taste, and one just has to scroll through her Instagram or visit her blog to see it in action. She is also kind, dependable, caring, and thoughtful. Basically, she is all the good things one wishes people would be, and many of us works in progress aspire to be.

I feel it would be remiss of me if I failed to mention that the little mice and the Emma Bridgewater mug featured in these photos come from a favourite shop of mine, Our House. The mice came with the names Madame Maude and Woolens Wallace, but they are just plain Maudie and Wally around our house. The adorable Year in the Country Nativity mug is an early Valentine’s Day present from my husband. The cutest part is the mouse(?) dressed as a sheep. It’s impossible not to smile while I sip my morning coffee from it. 

Next post, we will be back to the regular scheduled program with a book review of another fabulous short story collection from British Library Crime Classics.

Let's conclude this long and wordy post with one final photo of Clark with his teddy, because I simply cannot resist. 

Happy reading, friends!

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