Dress Down Sunday: The ‘Woman’s Touch’ Clue & John Dickson Carr

LOOKING AT WHAT GOES ON UNDER THE CLOTHES 


The Clue of the Red Wig

by John Dickson Carr

short story, from collection (The Third Bullet) published 1954



Clue of the Red Wig


[a big story is being conveyed to a news editor]

‘…About 11 o’clock a policeman on his rounds found Hazel Loring dead in the garden with practically no clothes on - ’

What?’ shouted MacGrath, and the sleep was struck from his eyes.

‘Well only a brassiere and a pair of step-ins. She was sitting on a bench, dead as Cleopatra, with the rest of her clothes folded up on the bench beside her.’

‘In this weather?’

‘Yes. The policeman saw her go into the garden an hour before.’

[Later in the investigation: a reporter, Jacqueline, is relaying some facts:]

‘It is certain she undressed herself, and was not undressed by anybody. Her maid [says] that Miss Loring has a special way of folding stockings, like… ah, zut!... would you like me to take off mine and show you?’

‘No, no!’

‘Orright, I only ask. But it is special. Also the way of folding the dress.’


commentary: In a recent entry on Kathleen Moore Knight’s Exit a Star I mentioned that my friend Noah Stewart had recently done a tremendous post on specific gambits in Golden Age detective stories – The Distinctive Garment Gambit as it might be – and Lucy Fisher pointed out that one he could add to the list is the ‘woman’s touch’ clue. Christine Poulson, and Lucy, and I were agreeing how much we liked an observation that only another woman was likely to make, something a man wouldn’t notice. Lucy mentioned Legally Blonde – the Reese Witherspoon movie where the trainee lawyer makes important deductions from shoes and hairstyles. And we think Noah should add it to his list.

In the form of clothes deduction, it is the lifeblood of this blog – nothing I like better than an anomaly in what the victim is wearing, or in this case not wearing. One of the very first entries, way back in 2012, was Miss Marple commenting knowledgeably on a dead woman’s dress.

It is often a female writer who uses these clues, but John Dickson Carr, whom I always say is much more in tune with women than most of his male contemporaries, has an honourable presence. In the recently-featured Four False Weapons, a bedtime routine is cleverly interpreted.

Here he produces a reporter, Jacqueline Dubois, who is impossibly stage-French, and terrifies the men with her ruthlessness and sexuality. It is overdone, and her Franglais is very silly, but actually she is still a hoot and a half. I don’t know of Carr using her in any other story, but I would love to have read more of her. And the story itself is intriguing – the dead woman is a celebrity in a way that resonates with modern life. Nowadays she would have YouTube and Instagram accounts, and her concerns would be exactly the same.

This collection, The Third Bullet, contains seven stories, of very varying quality. I thought the title story was the weakest, as well as being the longest: a true locked room mystery but very dull, and a complete lack of interest when the murderer was revealed. This one I really enjoyed, and a couple of others: the star of the show is The House in Goblin Wood, famed as being probably Carr’s best story. It is indeed a masterpiece: memorable, brilliantly clever, and chilling.

The picture is from Kristine’s photostream.

Step-ins a perpetual subject of interest on the blog. See this post for example, which has links to others.























Comments

  1. Those are such interesting clues, Moira - those sometimes-subtle clues that only a woman might notice about another woman's clothes. As you say, Agatha Christie uses those sorts of clues in a few of her stories, and they can work very well. And I loved that scene in Legally Blonde. It all makes me think about how many little habits we have that we don't even think about most of the time... As to this collection, I've always liked Carr's plotting, so this one sounds like an interesting collection.

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    1. I enjoyed the collection a lot, Margot, and I also say kudos to Carr for seeing the point of the women's clues.

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  2. Yes, I thought this story would be right up your alley.

    "He would not kill Patience" contains a clue that might be said to have something of a woman's touch about it, though not as completely as in this story.

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    1. Did you recommend it to me? I can never remember who did! I have read Patience, a while back, and am trying to think: was it to do with a household appliance?

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  3. Oh yes, I love these kind of clues - must try and work one into a story myself one day!

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    1. Oh yes you should. And of course you recommended to me that short story A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell - on the blog here http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-jury-of-her-peers-by-susan-glaspell.html - which is a very early example of the woman's clue.

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  4. There is a private eye novel about a call girl service and murders in the Montreal high rise apartment complex where the business is housed that has excellent examples of women's clothing and make-up and attitudes about appearance as primary clues to the mystery plot. The private eye's girlfriend who is a go-go dancer is the one who points him to these clues. It's one of the most alarming examples of an almost feminist private eye novel written by a man. I wrote about this aspect in the book in my blog post and also in the intro in the new reprint of the book. If interested the book is called BLONDES ARE MY TROUBLE, it's by Canadian writer Douglas Sanderson (who also wrote as "Martin Brett").

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    1. Thanks John - it does sound exactly up my street, so I have been off and downloaded it. I hope your intro is on the Kindle edition.

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  5. I didn't think you were a massive fan of short stories?

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    1. I'm not, but I was curious about one of the stories in the book, Goblin's Wood, having heard it was the best of Carr's works - felt I had to read it. And then read the rest of the book and on the whole enjoyed. But I never actively seek out short stories.

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  6. After I have read more novels by John Dickson Carr (and I have quite a few here to try) I will try to find some short stories that he wrote.

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    1. As I say to Col above, I am not usually a big fan, but Carr seems pretty good at them. I would read more by him.

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