Sir
Charles is holding his annual cricket week at his home Considine
Manor in Sussex. The usual people are there doing the usual
things, until something very unusual occurs – a murder!
A body is found in the billiard room and Lady Considine’s
pearls are missing. Can the dogged Inspector Baddeley discover
whodunit, or will the urbane Anthony Bathurst beat him to
the solution?
Brian
Flynn was one of the less well known authors from the Golden
Age of mysteries. This was his first novel and it dates from
1927, the events in it being set a few years earlier. In his
day he was very popular, and now modern readers can sample
his novels as Dean Street Press is releasing the first ten
in ebook and paperback editions. They have introductions by
their online champion from the blog In Search of the Classic
Mystery Novel and unlike the very rare original copies that
are occasionally on sale these all cost modest prices. So
what is the fuss about? This truly is a classic example of
this type of mystery novel and it comes complete with all
the expected elements (plus some unexpected ones) The house
party, mostly upper class guests, unusual murder weapon, a
trawler load of red herrings, clever detective versus the
police and plenty of “fair play” clues. Anthony
Bathurst is a bit like a less febrile Lord Peter Wimsey, a
man who comes across as being his own biggest fan. His huge
ego did get to grate after a while, but he does not work against
the police but with them, albeit hoping to get there first.
A modern historical novel set in the period would make much
of the recent war and have it cast some obvious long shadows.
This is not a part of this novel as such, but in the overly
jolly, sometimes rather frantic behaviour of some of the characters
there is a feeling of making up for lost time and of having
a good time while they can; very 1920s. I did guess whodunit
towards the end but there are plenty of suspects and I am
keen indeed to read another. If you have read all the usual,
easy to obtain golden age mystery authors and want to sample
something in the same style do check out Dean Street Press
in general, and this book in particular.
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