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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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
As much as I loved seeing
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.
This type of book is almost impossible to pull off successfully. The Detection Club does as well as any group of authors might have.
The puzzle they set for each other
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.
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
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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Fic Mystery Christie |