The Burning Court (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: John Dickson Carr
- First Published: 1937
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—occult
- Time of Work: 1929
- Setting: Pennsylvania
- Genres: Long fiction, Fantasy, Magical and occult fantasy
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Murder or homicide, 1920’s, Pennsylvania, Detectives, Mysteries, Reincarnation, Courts or courtrooms
- Locales: Pennsylvania
The Plot
The Burning Court is an unusual novel—a cross between a traditional detective story and an occult horror tale. Without the epilogue, it is a detective novel similar to John Dickson Carr’s other works, in which the murderer is caught and the woman who was wrongly suspected is vindicated. The epilogue unexpectedly brings in the supernatural as the true explanation, turning the story into a horror tale.
Edward Stevens, an editor with a New York publishing house, is working on a book about nineteenth cen-tury murderers when he finds a photograph of Marie...
[The entire page is 927 words long]
