In many ways, one of Carr;s bet books. I only give it 4binstead of 5 because a nice young woman 9not the murder victim) dies in an unpleasant accident. But the opening story is very clever -- Richard Derwent, a theater fencing master, is framed for murder (faked to appear a duel) and convicted by the interest of the wealthy but worthless victim's family. While he is under sentence of death, a wealthy aristocratic heiress, Caroline Ross, is required by her grandfather's will to marry by the age of 25 in order to obtain her inheritance, but not wishing to actually take a husband, arranges to marry Derwent in the condemned cell. But then just before his hanging, he unexpected inherits the title of marquess (technically, he was marquess when tried the first time -- his uncle died of a heart attack and both his cousins will killed at Waterloo, fought the day before, but it took a few days for official news to reach England); he must be tried by the House of Lords, and is found no guilty (for dueling is still accepted by the upper classes), and he is alive and married to Caroline ( to her horrified surprise). Ultimately, he does find out who really murdered the worthless victim and set him up, and ultimately he does truly win Caroline. All that is very satisfying. Unfortunately, Carr feels it necessary to kill off his former lover, a kind young actress named Dolly. Aside from that, it is a splendid exercise in eucatastrophe. ( )

In the 1930s and 1940s John Dickson Carr was a deservedly popular author of contemporary "locked room" mysteries who also wrote one historical swashbuckler. The Bride of Newgate, published in 1950, combines the two genres. It's a romp with a social conscience. The bride of the title is a woman of breathtaking independence and backbone for a novel written in the 1950s. Despising the very thought of being saddled with a husband, she concocts a scheme to marry a convict sentenced to be hanged for murder and appears in his cell with her proposal an hour before he is to swing. Of course, this being a swashbuckling puzzle-style murder mystery, all does not go according to plan.

The Bride of Newgate is one of the earliest novels in the historical mystery genre. Agatha Christie's Death Comes as the End, set in ancient Egypt and published in 1944, preceded it.

More at www.HistoricalNovels.info.