Castle Skull

infobox Book |
name = Castle Skull
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = John Dickson Carr
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Henri Bencolin
genre = Mystery, Detective novel
publisher = Harper (USA)
release_date = 1931
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 142 pp (Berkley Medallion F960 paperback edition, 1964)
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Castle Skull", first published in 1931, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr which features Carr's series detective Henri Bencolin. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit.

Plot summary

Maleger is a stage magician whose feats of magic are so mysterious and hideous, and his stage presence so evil, that his act frightens unwary children and many adults. In 1912, he purchases the famous "Schloss Schadel" -- Castle Skull, on the banks of the Rhine, and transforms the ruin into a nightmare that is appropriate for its terrifying history (including scenes of torture, insanity and suicide). Twenty years later, one of Maleger's few friends is seen running about the battlements of Castle Skull -- he has been shot three times in the chest, but was still alive when the murderer poured kerosene on him and ignited it. Maleger was traveling alone on the train to his castle; several days later, his body was fished out of the Rhine. Maleger's friend Jérôme D'Aunay, a Belgian financier, hires Parisian detective Henri Bencolin and his associate Jeff Marle to investigate these deaths and the strange goings-on at a house party staying at a villa across the river from Castle Skull.