The Corpse in the Waxworks

By: John Dickson Carr

Narrated by: John Telfer

Last night, Mademoiselle Duchêne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musée Augustin waxworks, alive. Today she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum's proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark; a lead that Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and expert of impossible crimes, cannot resist. Surrounded by the eerie noises of the night, Bencolin prepares to enter the ill-fated waxworks. Waiting within, beneath the glass-eyed gaze of a leering waxen satyr, is a gruesome discovery and the first clues of a twisted and ingenious mystery.

First published in 1932 at the height of crime fiction's Golden Age, this macabre and atmospheric dive into the murky underground of Parisian society presents a puzzle delivered at a stunning pace.

©1932, 2021 The Estate of Clarice M. Carr, Introduction Martin Edwards (P)2022 Soundings

I’m very impressed with the quality of writing and performing.

This book is possibly the best of the Bencolin novels I’ve listened to so far. I’ve listened to all but the last one written later in JDC’s career.

The audiobook of the novel was quite theatrical in a Wagnerian sense with crashing thunder and large, almost outsized, settings. This one though is even more theatrical and atmospheric but in an Italian, tragic opera fashion.

I think I’ll save the last Bencolin novel for later, after I’ve sampled some Fell and Merrivale titles. I have The White Priory Murders in my library somewhere. Now that I’ve found how much I enjoy JDC I’ll dig it out and give it a listen.

Hope this is helpful to y’all and enjoy your day!👍

Long, overwrought and in need of some editorial slashing

I’ve never been a fan of Bencolin and this book is a perfect example. I felt the fatigue of every street our hero turned down. But it is a Carr, which makes it better than most of the mysteries out there. The narrator was excellent.