The Hollow Man (The Three Coffins)
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season303 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbOne reader quit a third of the way through; another calls the prose molasses.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 11 reviews from critics and book blogs, 10 credit the plot and none credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne blogger names The Honjin Murders, on the shelf at 192 pages, as its closest match.
The case for it
on the opening chapters
“stack more intrigue into a chapter than most of his revered contemporaries managed”
a book blog on the locked-room lecture
“one of the most iconic chapters in all of detective fiction”
a book blog on a car journey
“a car journey through London reads like a ride in a Hansom cab”
a book blog on the Rampoles
“I enjoyed watching him investigate and also alongside, the Rampoles’ efforts at cracking the case.”
four stars · a book blog
The case against
on Dr Fell’s bluster
“being shouted at by a fat man in a cape”
a book blog on Fell’s lecture
“I don’t feel that any author has the right to give spoilers”
a book blog on the masked stranger
“the fact that nobody seems bothered by the masked stranger”
a book blog on the setting
“the characters one dimensional, and the sense of place pretty lifeless”
a book blog
