Hag's Nook

About “Hag's Nook”

Hag's Nook, first published in 1933, is a detective novel by John Dickson Carr and the first to feature his series detective Gideon Fell. The story follows Tad Rampole, a young American traveling in England. After meeting Dorothy Starberth on a railway platform, Rampole receives a letter of introduction to Dr. Gideon Fell. Both become involved with the Starberth family, which has a long history as governors of Chatterham Prison. The family is haunted by a tradition that "the Starberths die of broken necks." Chatterham is now abandoned, but the eldest son and heir must spend the evening of his 25th birthday there, as required by an ancestral will.