Catcher on the Sly

"His whole frame at once -- within the space of a single minute, or even less, shrunk -- crumbled -- absolutely rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome -- of detestable putridity."

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"

About the famous film line "Release the Kraken," why does the Greek Zeus even have control over a Kraken, which is from Scandinavian folklore? It's almost like Saint Seiya with its weird mix of mythologies from all over the world...

Rogan Kincaid, a gambler who knows how to get in trouble and out of trouble with either his wits or fists, travels to The Kraken, a small island off the Carolina coast at the invitation of Jack Frant, a casual acquaintance with amusing tall tales he met a year ago. Jack purchased the island and the mansion on it and has organized a little gathering, with the other guests including his half-brother Lord Evan Tethryn, the previous owners of The Kraken and a local doctor and his granddaughter. On the way to The Kraken though, Rogan is surprised by the storm, and thrown from his boat, but a lucky current brings his beaten body to The Kraken anyway. On the island, he discovers a lot happened at the party in his absence. Rogan first runs into Nancy Garwood, one of the other guests who seems to have trouble remembering what happened, but as the two talk and meet the other people in the house, she starts to remember: during the party Jack Frant tormented his younger brother Evan with stories of the family curse. An ancestor had dabbled with the forbidden art of alchemy and gained the power through the Undine Od to actually curse people to death. Jack had always made fun of Evan, who believed he did indeed have that power, but that night, Jack pushed too hard and Evan actually spoke out the words 'Od rot you, Jack! Od rot you!'. To the horror of everyone present, Jack fell dead on the spot. Rogan is of course not really convinced that Jack was killed by a spoken curse, but when they later go into Jack's room to check the corpse, they find that Jack's body has really decayed almost completely within just a few hours. The police is on its way to The Kraken, but as they are not likely to swallow the curse story, Rogan tries to poke here and there to make sure that he won't be the one to be accused of the crime in Hake Talbot's The Hangman's Handyman (1942).

The Hangman's Handyman was written two years before the much-beloved Rim of the Pit, also starring likeable rogue Rogan Kincaid, but I have to admit I remember next to nothing of that novel! Well, that book also features Rogan Kincaid and impossible murders with a supernatural theme, but I honestly can't recall any details of the murder. Or were there multiple ones? The Hangman's Handyman and Rim of the Pit were the only full-length Kincaid novels Talbot wrote by the way.

The atmosphere of The Hangman's Handyman may feel a bit pulpy at times, but it's definitely oozing character. The opening chapters where Rogan and Nancy start puzzling the events of that evening together based on Nancy's vague memories and the little they get from the other guests serve as a great introduction to the moment when it finally all comes together and the reader learns that the host of the party was cursed to death. References in the family curse story to the water elemental Undine gave me traumatic flashbacks to Oguri Mushitarou's Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken, but the way this ultimately leads to the discovery of the decayed body of Jack is absolutely fantastic. And the mystery itself is unique too of course: how could the corpse of a person who died only a few hours ago be decayed beyond recognition? The police arrives the following morning and obviously, they don't believe Jack was actually cursed to death, but even they start scratching their heads when they find out that the corpse, while unrecognizable, is really wearing all of Jack's clothes and jewelry and switching clothes with rotten corpses is a bit difficult, so it doesn't seem likely there had been a body switch. Talbot throws in a few more mysteries while he slowly makes his way to the finale, including a locked room assault on Kincaid (where's he found strangled in his own locked and bolted bedroom, but no trace of the assailant) and a mysterious visitor on the island, as well as the enigmatic term "Hangman's Handyman."

The Hangman's Handyman seen as a mystery story however, can be quite uneven. The explanation for the locked room assault on Kincaid for example is extremely ordinary and unimaginative, one of the most common solutions to a locked room mystery. Problem is that this also gives the reader very strong indications towards the identity of the culprit, so it's very regrettable that so much depends on a far too familiar execution of the trope. The story also hangs together by quite a number of coincidences (it just so happens five characters couldn't make it to the island due to the storm, but having so many people around certainly would've made the plan harder to perform for the culprit) or simple suspension of disbelief (wait, you're telling me the culprit had that much time to prepare for this crime and they still decided to go with this idea even though their initial motive to go with this idea is only valid if you have little time to consider other options?). The solution to the rotten body of Jack is a bit more interesting. While at the core, the idea is very simple, I do really like the misdirection that allows for this trick: the misdirection works for both the characters in the novel and the reader. It's so wonderfully simple, I can also imagine some readers will instantly pick up on what's being played here, though I have to admit I completely missed it and got caught in the trap. I love the kind of misdirection that goes on here, that invite you to believe something without ever actually stating that fact out loud, luring you into making the (wrong) assumption yourself. And the set-up of the most important clue was rather cleverly hidden too. I think the reader can point out that a lot of the plot is overly complicated for no reason than to be complicated, especially given the preperation time of the culprit: the plot would've made more sense if it'd run on a tighter time schedule, as while ultimately, the truth behind the term Hangman's Handyman does tie in with the motive in a convincing way initially, it doesn't work if you consider how much time the culprit had to come up with other solutions that didn't involve a cursed corpse.

This novel also goes into the backstory of Rogan Kincaid by the way, though I can't recall whether any of this is ever mentioned in Rim of the Pit. Some of it is a bit unbelievable, especially as it also ties into the core mystery plot (Kincaid's interactions with a certain character are used to prove that that character would have also acted like that with another character, but it's still a bit hard to swallow), but perhaps interesting for those with a weakness for the character.

The Hangman's Handyman makes for an entertaining read that especially sells on atmosphere. If you dive into the details of the mystery plot, you'll come across a few interesting ideas, but large portions also feel a bit chaotic or undeveloped, with some concepts lacking originality or simply the necessary story justification. As a complete package, The Hangman's Handyman lacks finesse as mystery, but can be enjoyed quite well as a horror-inspired story.