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A unique anthology for crime aficionados - six 'perfect murder' stories written by the most accomplished crime writers of the 1930s, designed to fox real-life Scotland Yard Superintendent Cornish, who comments on whether or not these crimes could have genuinely been solved. Is the 'perfect murder' possible? Can that crime be committed with such consummate care, with such exacting skill, that it is unsolvable - even to the most astute investigator? In this unique collection, legendary crime writers Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Ronald Knox, Dorothy L. Sayers and Russell Thorndike each attempt to create the unsolvable murder, which Superintendent Cornish of the CID then attempts to unravel... This clever literary battle of wits from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral and Ask a Policeman back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the experts from the Golden Age of detective fiction at their most ingenious.… (more)
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I figured that any collection of stories by such an eminent group of writers ought to be good. Well ... maybe, maybe not! If anything, these stories serve as a reminder of just how much tastes have changed since the 1930s, when character development regularly took a back seat to dry, complicated, puzzle-like plots.
The conceit of this collection of stories is that each writer has been asked to submit a "perfect murders," which is then scrutinized by a C.I.D. Superintendent who passes judgment on whether the murder would, in fact, have been likely to have escaped detection.
"It Didn't Work Out," Margary Allingham's contribution, relates the story of how an obnoxious, boastful old showman is extinguished by his own vanity. Is it murder if you merely taunt someone into doing something stupidly dangerous? I rather liked this tale, perhaps because it's more about personalities than puzzles.
Not so much Father Ronald Knox's "The Fallen Idol," in which a fictional dictator meets his doom in the equivalent of a locked room - an apartment under constant guard. One would need a minute-by-minute timeline to actually puzzle the thing out, plus the main clue relies on a word association experiment, which feels a lot like cheating. Definitely my least favorite of the lot.
"The Policeman Only Taps Once," by Anthony Berkeley, tells the story of a con man who ends up conned into marriage; so outmatched, indeed, is our protagonist by his cannier spouse, she even manages to trick him into murdering himself. It's rather fun watching these two reprehensible souls endeavoring to outwit each other, though I'm still trying to process the fact that - apparently - it used to be a common thing for women to dip their hair in petrol as a beauty treatment. Seriously?
In Russell Thorndike's "Strange Death of Major Scallion," an odious, blackmailing British officer is extinguished by the man he is blackmailing. The elaborateness of the plot is a little hard to swallow, but "death by ant" is definitely a novel approach to murder!
Dorothy's Sayers contribution to the collection, "Blood Sacrifice," was my favorite, and definitely the most psychologically authentic of the lot. Indeed, it's hard to say for certain whether a murder actually occurs, though there is certainly murderous intent. For this reason, I'd easily nominate this as the most "perfect" murder of the lot.
Regrettably, the collection ends on a weak note with Freeman Wills Croft's "The Parcel," in which yet another odious blackmailer meets his doom, this time through the agency of an explosive parcel. Forget any pretense of character development: this one is as dry as a Popular Mechanics article, and relies on no one being able to connect the murder and victim. Anyone who hangs out with the likes of Christie, Allingham and Sayers ought to be able to do better!
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• Margery Allingham: It Didn't Work Out
• Ronald Knox: The Fallen Idol
• Anthony Berkeley: The Policeman Only Taps Once
• Russell Thorndike: Strange Death of Major Scallion
• Dorothy L. Sayers: Blood Sacrifice
• Freeman Wills Crofts: The Parcel