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The Three Coffins
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Plot Summary of The Three Coffins
"“The Three Coffins” is a locked room mystery. Professor Charles Grimaud is found murdered in his locked study after having met with Pierre Fley who had previously threatened him.   Fley is gone, there is no way he could have left the room. The door was locked from the inside and there were two people watching from the other side. It was snowing that night and there are no footprints outside the window or on the roof.   There are no other ways to get out of the room. Later Fley is found murdered in a dead end street. He was shot at close range, but there are no prints in the snow around the body.

Dr. Fell, a professorial amateur sleuth, sets out to solve the crime along with an American friend and an Inspector from Scotland Yard. They discover that Grimaud and Fley are not the men's real names, and that they are really brothers. Together with a third they had been imprisoned in Hungary. The had tried to escape and only Grimaud had managed to get away. Fley had found him and was trying to blackmail him. Dr. Fell then goes on to ingeniously figure out how the crime had been managed."

Jack Goodstein, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Three Coffins
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story: - 1930's-1950's
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 90%
Special suspect? - relative
Kind of investigator - amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - scholar
Age: - 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - British
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Genius (really!)
Physique - quite fatty

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status: - servant
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK

Style
Part of a series? Yes
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 2
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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John Dickson Carr Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Jack Goodstein  

SCHOLARS:
Alan J. Bishop  


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