The Floating Admiral

by Agatha Christie

Paperback, 1980

Status

Available

Call number

Fic Mystery Christie

Collections

Publication

Charter (1980), Paperback

Description

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton and nine other writers from the legendary Detection Club collaborate in this fiendishly clever but forgotten crime novel first published 80 years ago. Inspector Rudge does not encounter many cases of murder in the sleepy seaside town of Whynmouth. But when an old sailor lands a rowing boat containing a fresh corpse with a stab wound to the chest, the Inspector's investigation immediately comes up against several obstacles. The vicar, whose boat the body was found in, is clearly withholding information, and the victim's niece has disappeared. There is clearly more to this case than meets the eye - even the identity of the victim is called into doubt. Inspector Rudge begins to wonder just how many people have contributed to this extraordinary crime and whether he will ever unravel it... In 1931, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and ten other crime writers from the newly-formed 'Detection Club' collaborated in publishing a unique crime novel. In a literary game of consequences, each author would write one chapter, leaving G.K. Chesterton to write a typically paradoxical prologue and Anthony Berkeley to tie up all the loose ends. In addition, each of the authors provided their own solution in a sealed envelope, all of which appeared at the end of the book, with Agatha Christie's ingenious conclusion acknowledged at the time to be 'enough to make the book worth buying on its own'. The authors of this novel are: G. K. Chesterton, Canon Victor Whitechurch, G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member librisissimo
A most unusual format. A single story written by many authors, one chapter each. Only a few of the authors are still read today, but all were famous at the time.
LibraryThing member Intemerata
In and of itself, hardly a masterpiece of the detective genre - the narration is rather directionless, and the plot is absurdly convoluted. But that's hardly surprising, and really it's remarkable how well it does hang together given the way it was written. The quality of writing is pretty
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variable, and I can certainly see why it's Christie and Sayers who have endured the best. I also found Sayers' proposed solution the most satisfactory - though Christie's suggestion is rather brilliant in its own way!
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LibraryThing member KimMR

I really did want to like this book a lot. First published in 1931, the premise of the novel is ingenious. Each chapter was written by a different member of the Detection Club, an association of British crime fiction writers. As Dorothy L Sayers explains in the introduction, the idea was that each
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writer tackled the mystery presented in the preceding chapters without knowing what solution the previous authors had in mind. The authors followed two rules: they had to construct their installment with a definite solution in view and they had to deal with all of the difficulties left for consideration in the preceding chapters. Each of the writers had to write their solution and deliver it to the pubisher when they handed in their manuscript. GK Chesterton's prologue was then written last, in order to tie the beginning of the novel to its ending.

It's an ingenious idea and it's easy to imagine what fun (and what problems) the various writers must have had devising their own installment. However, as a work of fiction it is not, in my view, entirely successful. There are several reasons for this. One is that the writers are not all equally skilled. Only three of them, GK Chesterton, Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie, would be familiar to modern readers. It is probably fair to say that the other contributors are not so well known because their writing is not particularly accomplished. Secondly, there is a wealth of detail in the novel, but little in the way of characterisation. Thirdly, the plot is simply not that engaging. To me, the most interesting parts of the book are Sayers' introduction and the different solutions envisaged by the authors, which are included in the volume after the final chapter. This does not make an enthralling mystery.

I've read this book while on holidays, generally at the end of a day filled with lots of activity. This means that my concentration span has not been what it is usually is. This may explain in part my lack of enthusiasm for the novel and my feeling that finishing it was a chore and not something to be wholeheartedly enjoyed. However, I don't think the circumstances under which I read the book wholly account for what I perceive to be its shortcomings.

Overall, I'm glad I read the novel because of its place in the history of British Golden Age crime fiction. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is not interested in the genre from a historical perspective.
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LibraryThing member Romonko
This book was a collaborative effort by a number of great Golden Age detective story sleuths. Each of the 12 chapters are written by a different author, and each chapter is built upon the happenings in the preceeding one. The list of authors that contributed to this unique book is as follows: G. K.
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Chesterton, Canon Victor Whitechurch, G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley. The book is a good example of the Golden Age detective story in many respects, but I found it a bit disjointed because of the number of authors. Of course I personally have a few favourites in this list, so I particularly enjoyed G.K. Chesterton's, Agatha Christie's, Dorothy L. Sayers', and Anthony Berkeley's submissions in the book. Anthony Berkeley did a nice job of tying up the loose ends at the end and pulling all the various story threads together into a nice package. The book begins with a dead admiral found floating in a boat on a local river. And Inspector Rudge is left with the task of trying to determine who killed him and why did the killer put him in a drifting boat. I liked Rudge. He's your typical dogged British police inspector, and although he appears to plod at times, he does get there in the end. The book was fun to read because of the collaboration. A pretty good example of good old Golden Age detective story writing.
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LibraryThing member antiquary
Ab oddity; a mystery in which each chaper was written by a dierent member f the DEtectun Cub. Not a good coherent ystery, but ce to have the controbtions frm some class authors.
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Eh. The mystery, as a mystery, is kind of meh. I didn't particularly like any of the characters, including the detective. And it was a nice police procedural, showing his discoveries step by step - until the last author turned him into a know-it-all, as he lied (ok, implied completely false things)
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to his superiors in detail. Then tada! accused a completely different person, and claimed he'd never mentioned _who_ it was he was making that detailed case against. At that point I wasn't interested enough to go back and see what he'd actually said. So the more interesting part of the book is the gimmick, where each author got the preceding part of the book and had to decide who'd done what and write their part aiming the reader (and the next author) in the direction of that solution. It was interesting reading the solutions in the back. Dorothy Sayers did by far the most complex and complete dissection of the answer - and she got a lot of it right, everything but the actual murder (who was where, motivations, etc). But she got the murder itself completely wrong, far more complicated than it in fact was (or rather, more complicated than the final author let it be). I'm pleased I read it, but I doubt I'll ever reread - not worth the time.
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LibraryThing member PuddinTame
This is an interesting experiment in collaborative writing. Thirteen members of the Detection Club, a society for professional mystery writers to which new members must be elected, decided in produce a mystery story with each member writing a chapter. If I understand the process correctly, each
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writer had to take into account the previous chapters, which becomes more and more complicated as the mystery progresses. The last writer, Anthony Berkeley, had to solve the mystery taking into account the situation as set up by the other authors. In addition, many of the writers contributed a suggest solution, apparently based on the book as it stood after their chapter. The results were published in 1932, and have been reprinted several times. It was entertaining to see how they overlapped and differed.

I think that the result could have been a decent book except that two of the authors, Ronald A. Knox and Anthony Berkeley, wrote long, rather boring chapters. Knox''s chapter, "Thirty-nine Articles of Doubt", an obviously play on the Anglican church's Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, which were historically its defining beliefs. As Knox uses them, they are the questions that Inspector Rudge has about the case, but I found the resulting thirty-seven pages of him listing his ideas with no action extremely boring.

Anthony Berkeley's sixty-three page denouement was also excessive. He puts a number of theories forward before settling on the "real" one, and I got both bored and confused by it.

A not-quite-successful effort, but it may interest mystery fans with an interest in the genre's history.
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LibraryThing member smik
This novel tends to prove that having a lot of famous authors doesn't necessarily make for a better novel.

As the novel develops, each author adds various plot elements such as "discoveries", new characters, and red herrings, so that by the last chapter the stage is very cluttered indeed. It was
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Anthony Berkeley's job to pull it all together at the end and to "make sense of the mess". The reader isn't really given a lot of help in deciding which things to eliminate from consideration and by the end we have two bodies, and a police Inspector who appears to be totally confused. The result is that the final chapter is more like a novella, very long, and final plot is very complicated.

It does help that the narrator, David Timson, is so good and provides a sense of continuity with his voice, as well as distinguishing cleverly between characters. I'd like to be able to say that I recognised the various styles of the authors, but I'm not sure that I did. You are told at the beginning of each chapter who has been responsible for this chapter.

I have talked to fellow readers about this concept, particularly in relation to teams of writers responsible for novels. Just recently we came across an Australian novel written by 5 authors, and two writers in a team like Nicci French, Michael Stanley, and Charles Todd are quite common.
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LibraryThing member smik
This novel tends to prove that having a lot of famous authors doesn't necessarily make for a better novel. As the novel develops, each author adds various plot elements such as "discoveries", new characters, and red herrings, so that by the last chapter the stage is very cluttered indeed. It was
Show More
Anthony Berkeley's job to pull it all together at the end and to "make sense of the mess". The reader isn't really given a lot of help in deciding which things to eliminate from consideration and by the end we have two bodies, and a police Inspector who appears to be totally confused. The result is that the final chapter is more like a novella, very long, and final plot is very complicated. It does help that the narrator, David Timson, is so good and provides a sense of continuity with his voice, as well as distinguishing cleverly between characters. I'd like to be able to say that I recognised the various styles of the authors, but I'm not sure that I did. You are told at the beginning of each chapter who has been responsible for this chapter. I have talked to fellow readers about this concept, particularly in relation to teams of writers responsible for novels. Just recently we came across an Australian novel written by 5 authors, and two writers in a team like Nicci French, Michael Stanley, and Charles Todd are quite common.
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LibraryThing member Matke
An interesting experiment in group writing that rather fails as a detective story. Members of The Detection Club got together in 1931 on a cooperative project to raise fund for the organization. Each athor writes a chapter of a murder mystery, and each one must be consistent with any clues or plot
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points developed in the previous chapter.
This is a difficult, I might say impossible feat to pull off. That is, the authors liv up to the agreement, but since each in puts their spin on the story, the reader is presented with a messy plot and characters whose motives and actions are wildly incoherent.
All that said, it’s a bit entertaining to see the different writing styles juxtaposed. I felt a distinct sense of relief when reading the chapters by Christie and Sayers: here, I thought, are polished, witty professionals at work. The final chapter, “Cleaning Up the Mess,” shows Anthony Berkeley’s amazing way with a plot. Oh, and the chapter by John Rhode was the best of the rest.
I’m not sorry I read it, but it’s only for fanatics of the Golden Age of detection.
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LibraryThing member TheEllieMo
Enjoyed this one; I liked the character development, no mean feat when the book is written by a dozen different authors! I want to see Inspector Rudge in more books!
LibraryThing member BrokenTune
What an interesting and fun experiment this must have been for the members of the Detection Club to write a mystery - in full compliance with club rules - where one author built on the previous chapters but without having a collective idea about what the plot should be.

As much as I loved seeing
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each author bringing their individual style to the project, the overall product left me stranded after a few chapters - by the time Ronald Knox summarised all of the clues the preceding chapters had presented to the reader I was lost. After Knox had finished with his list, I had largely lost interest.

However, the solutions that the authors had included in the appendix (not the actual solution to the mystery but the individual solutions that each of the authors predicted) made up for the struggle to finish the book.

And I have to say, Dame Agatha's chapter and solution stole the show for me. She clearly had fun writing her parts for this project and clearly did not take herself seriously in this at all. It was so much fun to watch this.
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LibraryThing member ParadisePorch
Published in 1931, this "serial novel" was written, a chapter each, by the members of the Detection Club. Interesting now more for the style and plotting of each individual author (eg Ronald Knox of "Ten Rules of Detective Fiction" fame collecting, listing & organizing all of the data from all the
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preceding writers at about the halfway point of the book, but not advancing the plot in any substantial way).

This type of book is almost impossible to pull off successfully. The Detection Club does as well as any group of authors might have.
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LibraryThing member RayLynneSH
I love Dorothy Sayers. I’m fond of G.K. Chesterton and Agatha Christie. This game (they were wise not to call it a story), unfortunately, mixed up their talents (and those of several authors I’m less familiar with) in a way that did justice to none of them.

The puzzle they set for each other
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hared off in so many directions, it was impossible for even the great fiction writers represented here to stick to a recognizable narrative arc. Neither did the characters always seem to be the same people from segment to segment.

On the other hand, it was interesting to see what these various authors made of each others’ puzzles, and I was impressed enough with the ending Anthony Berkeley came up with that I’m going to see if I can hunt down more of his work. For me, finding a new author I like makes it worth the read.
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LibraryThing member Overgaard
a bit tedious toward the end but fun to see how each author picked up the challenge in the next chapter
LibraryThing member ChazziFrazz
This is a collaboration of chapters written by already established writers, such as Christie, Chesterton, Sayers and others of the 1930s.

The idea for the book came from a meeting of the Detection Club. A group of well-known mystery writers. A game was proposed where each writer would take up the
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tale from the previous chapter, building on what has been written with an eye to the ending solution.

The book does move along, but the change of authors and their view points is noticeable, but the reading is interesting. Each writer has their style, so the change from chapter to chapter isn’t always smooth, but the objective of an ending is there.

There are additional chapters by some of the earlier chapter authors, giving their solution to the mystery. Interesting to see how each handled the case and what some of the solutions are.

A very different type of read!
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LibraryThing member therebelprince
The Detection Club is a celebrated group of British mystery writers, formed in 1930 during the so-called ‘Golden Age’. In 1931, 14 members of the club – including Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Canon Victor Whitechurch and Dorothy L. Sayers – wrote this collaborative experiment. Each of the
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fourteen chapters was written by one of them, after which a suggested solution was sealed in an envelope, and the book was passed on to the next author for the next chapter. It’s far from perfect, but "The Floating Admiral" is a fascinating read: these 14 authors were experts in their field, and – although the sealed solutions show that many had picked up on at least the general direction of the clues – it’s marvelous to see how these professionals manage to pick up on the existing elements and weave them into a constantly-changing narrative. "The Floating Admiral" is tough to find these days, but if you can, grab it. (Personally, I recommend dating someone whose father collects such books; it’s a no-fail option.)
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Language

Original publication date

1931-12

Physical description

309 p.; 6.7 inches

ISBN

044124095X / 9780441240951

DDC/MDS

Fic Mystery Christie

Rating

(109 ratings; 3.3)
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