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| 0743219619
| 9780743219617
| 0743219619
| 3.95
| 19,898
| 1975
| Oct 02, 2001
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really liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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2
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not set
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Jul 02, 2002
not set
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Jan 20, 2025
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| 0008124205
| 9780008124205
| 0008124205
| unknown
| 3.64
| 1,649
| 1945
| Jun 04, 2015
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liked it
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Bruce Montgomery was a talented chap. He graduated from Oxford in 1943, having read modern languages at St. John’s College. For two years, he had been
Bruce Montgomery was a talented chap. He graduated from Oxford in 1943, having read modern languages at St. John’s College. For two years, he had been an organ scholar and choirmaster in Oxford and was a published composer of vocal and choral music; in 1951, he was to write “An Oxford Requiem�. However he was to become even more famous for his light music, composing numerous film scores for English comedies throughout the 50s and 60s. This in particular must have seemed a very long way away from Oxford’s dreaming spires. Perhaps even stranger was his alter-ego as the writer Edmund Crispin. Under this pseudonym he was a well-known editor of a series of rather good Science Fiction anthologies (which is where I first heard of him) and crime anthologies. Moreover he wrote a series of mystery novels featuring Gervase Fen, the amateur detective and Oxford professor of English at St. Christopher’s College, a fictional institution which the author located next to St John’s College. Holy Disorders is the second in this series. It was published in 1945 after Dunkirk, a year after Edmund Crispin's debut novel “The Case of the Gilded Fly�, which had been set during World War II. Oddly his third novel “The Moving Toyshop� (which many cite as their favourite) while written a year later in 1946, was to be set pre-war, in 1938. Our hero Gervase Fen is an engagingly eccentric over the top character: lanky, cheerful and ruddy with a clean shaven face and hair which is always plastered down with water, but with stray hair spiking up from his crown. He often seems to wear an extraordinary hat, and whenever he is surprised or shocked, will quote “Alice in Wonderland�, saying “Oh my fur and whiskers!� The author based this eccentric and absent-minded character on his own tutor, Professor W. G. Moore. The blurb advertises this series as: “As inventive as Agatha Christie, as hilarious as P.G. Wodehouse � discover the delightful detective stories of Edmund Crispin. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best.� I’m not sure I agree on either count, although Philip Larkin’s comment “Beneath a formidable exterior he had unsuspected depths of frivolity� is pretty on the nose. Bruce Montgomery (or Edmund Crispin) himself describes Gervase Fen as: “charming, frivolous, brilliant and badly behaved�. In some ways he is reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation, Sherlock Holmes, especially in his arrogance and lack of consideration for others. Both detectives also sink into a profound gloom after a case is solved. However they differ, in that Sherlock Holmes is energised by developments in a case, whereas Gervase Fen becomes more boisterous when he is on a case but nothing important is happening. When he does find out key information, he then becomes melancholy. No doubt he would be amused to see the way this work is titled on kindle as: Holy Disorders: The intriguing, suspenseful, gripping, dark, humorous and cosy cozy classics detective fiction novel adored by Golden Age crime and modern mystery fans alike (a Gervase Fen Mystery). Apart from the illiterate inclusion of an advertisement functioning as a subtitle, the omission of the Oxford comma and the odd use of capital letters, he would (as I am) no doubt be intrigued by the English qualifier of the American spelling of the adjective “cozy�. “Well I never�, he might muse to himself, “And to think I merely intended the title as a reference to Chaucer …� Gervase Fen has a tendency to involve all those around him in ridiculous situations, as he attempts to solve the mysteries he is pursuing. And this is how Holy Disorders begins. Our viewpoint character is one Geoffrey Vintner, a composer and player of organ music (and therefore clearly based on Bruce Montgomery himself) who lives in London. He has just received a telegram from his old friend Gervase Fen, urging him to hurry down to the small cathedral city of Tolnbridge in Devon, as Denis Brooks, the cathedral organist there is in hospital. He also demands that Geoffrey bring him a butterfly net. This extraordinary request seems par for the course with Gervase Fen, but Geoffrey becomes increasingly annoyed at the difficulties involved in pursuing what he consider to be Gervase’s latest faddish whim. However he does his best, and makes his way to a sports department in a large store, where he is shown their stock of butterfly nets by a shop assistant with the unlikely name of Henry Fielding. This young man patiently bears the inevitable quips about his name, before admitting that he is not very good at his job, and never manages to keep one for very long. Sure enough, it becomes impossible for Fielding to keep this one either. (view spoiler)[An unknown assailant makes an attack on Geoffrey Vintner with a cricket bat, and Fielding somehow manages to rescue him as the assailant flees from the department store (hide spoiler)]. Henry Fielding confesses that he has always secretly wanted to be a spy; he is not very good at anything, or bothered about the job, as he is an aristocrat (actually a minor earl) and has no need of the money. So he is happy when Geoffrey agrees to him tagging along. The two young men agree to go to Tolnbridge together, travelling to the West Country on the train from Paddington. While on the train they meet an odd assortment of passengers, and Geoffrey Vintner (view spoiler)[ has another narrow escape from death when he is clobbered on the head again (hide spoiler)]. By now he is mystified - and cursing the butterfly net, which will not fit anywhere except diagonally across the railway compartment, behind the other - and by now rather disgruntled - passengers� legs. One is a psychoanalyst called Justinian Peace, who seems to have lost what he calls his faith in psychology. Up to this point the book has read like a light farce, but swiftly gets bogged down in detail. Peace treats Geoffrey Vintner and Henry Fielding (and us) to a mind-numbingly boring diversion into the various topical theories. There is also a section on various socialist and other political ideologies, as a gate-crashing passenger who has no ticket holds them captive with his ranting. We can tell that despite his intellectualism, this unwholesome character’s yobbish behaviour might well indicate that the author’s own political leanings are towards the other direction. As we read this, wondering what on Earth this can have to do with the plot, we may remember (if we have read this author before) that he likes to expound on his own interests, whether they have any bearing on the plot or not. Ostensibly it is Geoffrey Vintner who is ruminating on aspects of church organ music, or history theological disputes or scholarly theological tests, but in fact it is Bruce Montgomery peeping out from behind the author. Another of his peccadillos is the random inclusion of obsolete or near-obsolete words. Here are a few examples: “oeillade�, “atrabilious�, “divigation�,“pugency�, “poictesme�, and вپ�. Usually they are near enough to another word which sounds familiar, for the context to baffle. Consulting a dictionary inevitably reveals that it is from another root entirely, with a different meaning. Some might enjoy solving the puzzle, just as they enjoy the tongue-in-cheek academic references, literary allusions, joking asides to the reader and puns; others might shrug and overlook that sentence, passing on without bothering. Others again might find it irksome, as I do, to have to check the spelling (as I listened on audio) before looking the definition up in a dictionary. But then I suspect it works better on the page. This section fills about a third of the book; in fact the entire action takes place over just three days At last we arrive at Tolnbridge, to learn that Denis Brooks, the inoffensive organist, had been violently attacked, for an inexplicable reason, and is in hospital. (view spoiler)[ That very evening his medication is tampered with, and he dies from atropine poisoning. It is revealed later that his murder may have been to silence him after he had seen something in the cathedral. (hide spoiler)] Geoffrey Vintner is invited to be a guest in the cathedral’s clergy-house while he takes over the organist’s duties. Dr Butler, the Precentor has arranged this, and Frances Butler, his elder daughter keeps an eye on things there. She seems to be romantically involved with a young curate, July Savenake. There is another younger daughter, Josephine Butler, who (view spoiler)[has inexplicably destroyed all her father’s papers, and (hide spoiler)] causes other acts of seemingly malicious intent during the novel. Geoffrey is introduced to the rest of the of the somewhat eccentric cathedral personnel. There is Dr Garbin, the morose cathedral Canon who, amusingly for the reader has a pet crow (and a wife called Lenore) although he professes not to know of the connection with Edgar Allan Poe. Dr Spitshuker is another cathedral Canon and Dutton is the young deputy organist. Several of these, as well as the curate July Savernake have regular theological debates, which intrude into the plot for no particular reason. Gervase Fen accept the butterfly net in his breezy, offhand manner, ignoring Geoffrey’s attempts at communicating how tricky it had all been - and how he had been attacked twice on the way. Geoffrey assumes that insects are Gervase Fen’s latest craze, and indeed his new passion for entomology seems to occupy him almost as much as the murder. There is a neat connection at the end, but whether you consider this to be essential to the plot, or a peripheral event, is open to debate. (view spoiler)[There is a second murder in addition to that of Denis Brooks, as that evening Dr Butler, who is inside the cathedral, has been killed by a falling stone slab that marks the entrance to an ancient tomb. Gervase Fen and Geoffrey Vintner are outside the cathedral, and when they hear the mighty crash, they are very dubious as to whether this could have been an accident. (hide spoiler)] Police Inspector Garratt investigates, and does not welcome the intrusion of the amateur detective Gervase Fen. But of course our hero is much more clued up than the police. He works out that there must be (view spoiler)[ more than one person involved, and suspects that an enemy spy ring has been transmitting from the cathedral at night, using a portable wireless transmitter. (hide spoiler)] Other important characters we meet are Harry James, the shifty landlord of the local pub, who seems to know a lot more than he should. There is also Sir John Dallow, the cathedral’s Chancellor, who is an expert in witchcraft with a substantial library and collection of artefacts. He discourses on aspects of witchcraft, and relates 17th century local witch trials to Gervase Fen and Geoffrey Vintner, directing them to passages in various of his old manuscripts. But could there possibly be a connection with Satanic worship in the modern times of 1945? Wouldn't the enemy be far more likely to be Nazis? Most of the mystery fiction from this time revolves at last partly round Nazis. But who in this cast of characters could be involved? In fact, almost anyone. Few of the potential suspects have alibis for the murders, and Gervase Fen eventually closes in on the culprits by a close consideration of the group’s movements and timings. (view spoiler)[Then Gervase Fen and Geoffrey Vintner attend a black mass, and are attacked by the masked celebrant. The gang is eventually revealed to include the young curate July Savernake and the landlord of the local pub, Harry James. Their ringleader is Dr Butler’s daughter, Frances Butler, whom Gervase Fen works out must have callously looked on as her father was murdered. She is unexpectedly revealed as both a Nazi sympathiser and one who practises the Black Arts. She had even tried to brainwash her little sister into worshipping the Devil. Gervase Fen worked out that this must be why Josephine burned her father’s manuscript and stuck to her lie about a policeman giving her a message which got all the other policemen guarding the cathedral out of the way. Geoffrey Vintner meanwhile has fallen in love with Frances, and impetuously asked her to marry him, despite assuming that she and July Savenake were an item. When challenged Frances Butler drives her car into a wall and is killed outright. Sir John Dallow speculates that it may have been in her blood: as a member of a very old local family, the evil of witchcraft may have been passed down to her through the centuries. (hide spoiler)] As in other Gervase Fen mysteries, Gervase assembles the various suspects with the aid of the police at the end, to perform a Poirot-like denouement. Gervase Fen evidently enjoys every minute of this, as he loves to play to an audience. Did I guess the culprit? No, and I don’t think I could have in a million years. There seemed to be no clues, or even hints, and the reveal came out of the blue. Even afterwards the murderer’s motives were not easy to understand, although the reason for the crimes themselves was clear enough. I do not feel this is can be one of the better books in the series, mainly because of the discursive nature of the first third. The middle third was mostly about establishing character, and certainly the reader of my edition made the most of their quirky natures and ways of speech, but the story lacked momentum. It was really only in the final third that I felt the action became exciting. I had a real sense of dread when (view spoiler)[ Henry Fielding was captured and seemed to be killed. Ditto with Gervase Fen himself. (hide spoiler)] Thankfully the police came in satisfactorily at the end - but to scant praise from Gervase Fen. I had suspected one person as a spy for most of the novel, in a double bluff, but my theory was turned on its head. Will I read any more books featuring Gervase Fen, the impossibly arrogant amateur investigator? Probably, but not just yet. Not only is he hugely self-opinionated, but a hero who happily keeps his friends in the dark and ignores their concerns, even to the point of putting them in dire peril, is hard to take. Also a little of Edmund Crispin’s writing style goes a long way. I enjoy a story with plenty of twists and turns, and even red herrings. I don’t mind being led down the garden path, nor do I need to guess the murderer correctly to appreciate the story (although it’s nice on the rare occasions when I do!) But Edmund Crispin meanders far too much, seemingly without even attempting to curb his idiosyncratic enthusiasms. I do wish there had been dramatisations of these stories though. I cannot find any, but think that they would work well, and benefit from the necessary judicious editing. Do I recommend this golden age mystery series? Well Edmund Crispin is not a huge name in the genre, but he does have a cult following. How much you enjoy them will probably depend on how much you enjoy Edmund Crispin’s little quirks, and like his creation Gervase Fen. Also, although Paul Panting is an excellent narrator, I suspect this would be better as a quick read, on the page. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 09, 2025
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Feb 20, 2025
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Jan 09, 2025
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Audiobook
| |||||||||||||
| 1494536226
| 9781494536220
| 1494536226
| 3.81
| 800
| 1942
| May 21, 2019
|
really liked it
|
Tragedy at Law is one of the classics of golden age mystery stories, and has never been out of print ever since it was first published in 1942. Yet th
Tragedy at Law is one of the classics of golden age mystery stories, and has never been out of print ever since it was first published in 1942. Yet the author is not as widely known outside the genre as his peers, such as Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr or Dorothy L. Sayers. In fact general readers may not even have heard of the quirkily named Cyril Hare. Are your lips twitching? I have to admit I suppressed a smile when I first learned the name of the author. But although it may conjure up a children’s character, the pseudonym was reached perfectly logically. It was a combination of “Hare� Court, where he had worked in the chambers of Roland Oliver, and “Cyril� Mansions, Battersea, where he had lived after his marriage. For - as analytical whodunnit aficionados may have astutely noticed with the mention of “chambers� - the author worked for a law firm. He was called to the bar in 1924 and practised in the civil and criminal courts in and around London. Then in 1950, he was appointed as a county court judge in Surrey. With this esteemed reputation, keeping his other life as a writer of mystery detective novels might have felt like a wise move. Tragedy at Law is considered by many to be Cyril Hare’s best novel, and is certainly his best known. It features Inspector Mallett of Scotland Yard who had appeared in three previous novels, in the character’s own series in the late 1930s. However Cyril Hare was starting a new series with his fourth novel, Tragedy at Law, about Francis Pettigrew, a disillusioned barrister who was not very successful. It was to be the first of five novels featuring the amateur detective Pettigrew, of which two would also again feature Inspector Mallett. Francis Pettigrew is not centre stage in this one; in fact he seems to have a very minor role, but one which proves important to the denouement. Apparently this aspect of just happening to elucidate aspects of the crime was to become his defining feature in all five novels of the “Francis Pettigrew Series�. The story instead focuses on a rather pompous and self-important High Court judge, Mr. Justice Barber, as he moves from town to town presiding over cases in the Southern England circuit. To clarify and put this in context, such assizes have not existed since the restructuring of the local courts structure in 1972, when “petty sessions� and “quarter sessions� courts were also abolished. What we now have in England is the Crown Court system. All criminal cases start in the Magistrates� court, but more serious criminal matters are sent to the Crown Court. Appeals from the Crown Court go to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division and potentially the UK Supreme Court. However Tragedy at Law begins in September 1939, right at the start of World War II. It is set before combat started in earnest, when Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, and continues through with a short break to 1940. Thus it is set during the “phoney war�, when, as the feeling of the novel shows, blackouts etc., are a minor inconvenience. There is no rationing yet, and the general public do not appear to feel emotionally involved. We get to know all the officials; the clerk to the court, the judge's marshal, the various barristers and so on, and see that theirs is a very rigid system with rules and rituals firmly in place. Traditions and ceremonies notwithstanding, the judge and his entourage are far from happy. Nobody looks forward to the annual time on the circuit, staying at � if not exactly rat-infested accommodation, then decidedly seedy lodgings which are provided, unless they could afford to pay for an hotel privately. All are male in this enclosed, rather claustrophobic world, except for judge Barber’s wife, Hilda. She is a shrewd, attractive woman who herself is legally trained, and reputed to have been better than her husband, However, in keeping with the era, she has not practised since her marriage. At this time females would routinely be expected to resign from work when they married. Period details such as this are very well observed, and fascinating to read. Ironically, this one was about to change, as the men were called up for war service, and women were then recruited to fill the workforce once more. Oddly, the name Hilda reminded me of another strong-minded legal wife; one created decades later by another barrister-cum-writer John Mortimer. This time the fictional lawyer was a defence counsel called Horace Rumpole of the Old Bailey, who first appeared in print in 1978. Was Hilda Barber, wife of the “Old Shaver� (a nickname bestowed on him by his minions) possibly the inspiration for the later Hilda Rumpole, known as “She Who Must Be Obeyed�? Since Hilda Barber retains a keen interest in law, she stoically puts up with the shabby digs, and everyone else glumly accepts that their own room this year will be a step down from last year’s as a consequence. Naturally the judge and his lady are entitled to the best room (i.e. one where the heater actually works, or where they will not bang their heads on the ceiling when they sit up in bed). Some towns are of course better than others, and some cases are slightly less boring to work on. Reading about all this is anything but boring though. Cyril Hare writes wittily, with a lively style and vivid characterisation. Half way through the novel when no murder had happened, I was surprised to find myself still happily absorbed in the details of life on the circuit; the petty jealousies, resentments and growing tension. We do not hear much about the cases themselves, but have been aware from the start that this will be a mystery within a small community - and could even develop into a locked room murder. At about a quarter of the way through we do become involved in a legal case, when Mr. Justice Barber (view spoiler)[ irresponsibly drives whilst tipsy and knocks down a pedestrian. Since the judge claims at one point that: “the reckless motorist � is better out of this world�, and the pedestrian turns out to be a world-class piano player who then has to have a finger amputated, (hide spoiler)] the judge’s statement seems particularly ironic. The consequences of this would be dire, although at this time there were no regulations as to whether a crime had been committed. Astonishingly, convictions were based on the police officer’s judgement, for instance seeing if the driver smelt of alcoholic drink, testing whether they could walk in a straight line, or could repeat a tongue-twister. These tests were clearly subjective and open to favouritism and prejudice. But in 1965 the alcohol limit was announced, and the words “driving under the influence of alcohol� were introduced to the regulations, to decide whether a driver had committed a criminal offence. In 1967 the breathalyser was introduced, as a way of testing a person’s blood alcohol concentration level at the roadside. (view spoiler)[In the novel, Justice Barber has no insurance, having failed to remember to renew it, because he rarely drives the car himself and only did it this time on a whim. His assistant Derek was too inexperienced to advise against it. The chief constable decides to hush it all up, perhaps because there is no actual crime, and no prosecution is made, although the pianist sues the judge for damages, and (hide spoiler)] the legal juggling and wrangling for costs proceeds through the entire novel. An anonymous letter arrives addressed to Justice Barber, warning him of imminent revenge for some unspecified reason, but he dismisses it as the work of a harmless lunatic. But when a second letter appears, we begin in our minds to connect it with recent events, which have been suppressed. Then the judge receives a (view spoiler)[ welcome gift of a box of his favourite chocolates, but it turns out to be poisoned. (hide spoiler)] His wife Hilda, who has been deliberately economising in the expectation of reduced circumstances, confesses to his young assistant that she is taking the threats seriously. She recruits Derek Marshall (who is, by an amusing coincidence, in fact the marshal of the courts) to help her protect him. Cyril Hare himself had toured as a judge’s marshal during the early years of World War II, and he used these experiences as the basis for Tragedy at Law. Clearly he knew Derek Marshall’s duties very well indeed, as they were also his own. Derek, flattered by the attentions of an older woman in the absence of his fiancée, and enjoying the intrigue of being sworn to secrecy is happy to oblige. More unpleasant or baffling events occur. (view spoiler)[ A dead mouse is sent to the judge, but fortunately forestalled by Derek. Judge Barber falls downstairs and Hilda is attacked. Finally the gas taps in judge Barber’s bedroom are switched on while he is asleep, and by now he is in fear of his life. (hide spoiler)] What we are not sure of is whether these are accidents, practical jokes, a mixture of the two, or since they seem to be increasingly nasty, something more sinister. And is there one person involved or more? There follows a nicely complicated plot, with an ingenious solution. For instance we know there must be some back story with the road accident, and surmise several scenarios, but what transpires is devious but neat and clever, and very much rooted in the law. We anticipate a murder, because of the title, but it is much later on than in any other murder mystery that I have read - on page (view spoiler)[258 out of 288 pages! (hide spoiler)] Yet the tension is upheld masterfully, and the story never drags. There is at least one attempted suicide, plus another body which is (view spoiler)[ a retrospective suicide (hide spoiler)]. Various of the characters know others from many years earlier, and almost from the start, we suspect one clearly telegraphed jobsworth (view spoiler)[ the clerk, Beamish, otherwise known as “Corky� who is a superb darts player (hide spoiler)]. He is a nasty piece of work, who may be indulging in blackmail or worse � but nothing is quite that simple. Interestingly, the barrister and amateur detective Francis Pettigrew (view spoiler)[had once been in love with judge Barber’s wife (hide spoiler)]. Disappointment in love perhaps explains his disillusionment, and the fact that he has never quite succeeded in his profession. It could also explain his remote feeling from the action. For the connecting sleuth in the series, he almost seems to be watching from the sidelines, although it is Pettigrew who will almost inadvertently reveal the obscure legal point which explains the mystery. Writing novels set in an area of life of which the author has specialist knowledge, adds authenticity, and as long as they can write well, makes for an absorbing read. In 1942, the “Times Literary Supplement� said: “Most people may know something about the antagonisms between Bench and Bar, the customs to be observed on circuit, the calm insistence that life is a game of chess (only more so), and the peculiar humour this view engenders � Law is � the breath of life to all persons concerned, and their sole attitude to everything that happens, including death. In consequence, the mystery has this peculiar flavour—dry as Temple dust and yet somehow unctuous. There is urbanity even in its suspense.� P.D. James, the crime writer who had herself worked in the criminal section of the Home Office, and sat in the House of Lords, said that Tragedy at Law “is generally acknowledged to be the best detective story set in that fascinating world� and the Crime Writers Association puts it at no. 85 in “The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time�. Did I guess “whodunnnit�? In fact yes, very early on, which made the other person listening to it with me think I was barmy. Admittedly it was more of a gut feeling, and I could not see a motive, but nothing in the novel completely disproved my hunch. The audio RNIB disc we listened to was read with great skill and near-perfect intonation of voices by Steve Hodson, over 10 hours 48 minutes. For a slow, carefully paced novel it is to both the author and narrator’s credit that it was so entertaining and full of suspense. (I do not tell “whodunnit� or why under my spoiler tags, by the way.) Sadly Cyril Hare was not to produce a great opus of works, although he did write quite a lot of short stories for “Punch� and the “Illustrated London News�. But he was just a month shy of 58 years old when he died of tuberculosis. I certainly hope to read more of his titles, and if you like the sort of mystery which is like a crossword puzzle, and told with a wry charm, this author may be for you too. Inspector Mallett summed it up for me, when he observed: “There seems to have been a lot of unregulated quixotry about this case.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 24, 2024
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Jan 2025
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Sep 24, 2024
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Audio CD
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| B01B98UEQG
| unknown
| 4.50
| 2
| unknown
| unknown
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 05, 2024
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not set
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Sep 05, 2024
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Audio CD
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| 156938259X
| 9781569382592
| 156938259X
| unknown
| 4.08
| 87
| Feb 1999
| Jan 01, 1999
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really liked it
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Masonic Mysteries is an episode from January 1990, from the 4th season of the Inspector Morse television series, which starred John Thaw as Morse and
Masonic Mysteries is an episode from January 1990, from the 4th season of the Inspector Morse television series, which starred John Thaw as Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Many people do not know that most of these mysteries were not actually written by Colin Dexter, but were original screenplays written by various authors. Colin Dexter only wrote 13 Morse novels, plus a few short stories, but there were 8 “Inspector Morse� series, with a total of thirty-three separate stories. Eleven of these were written by Julian Mitchell. I have reviewed all 13 Inspector Morse novels; please see my shelves for the individual novels LINK HERE. I do not usually review the episodes not based on his own stories, although many are very good, and all of them are available as audio books. I’m making the exception here, as Julian Mitchell actually wrote an episode of Inspector Morse once, which so impressed Colin Dexter that he then wrote a novel based on it! (“The Wolvercote Tongue� by Julian Mitchell was broadcast on 25th December 1987, and was developed by Colin Dexter into his 9th Morse novel The Jewel That Was Ours in 1991.) Julian Mitchell did adapt some of Colin Dexter’s own novels, but Masonic Mysteries is one of his original ones, using the characters of Morse and Lewis (and their boss Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Strange). It has a convoluted plot, which is particularly appealing, as we see the vulnerable side of Inspector Morse. In this one Morse is not the most intellectual and intelligent person, who runs rings round everyone else. He is up against a Moriarty-type villain, who seems to outwit him at every move. It is Morse himself who is suspected of murdering (view spoiler)[ a friend, Beryl Newsome, at a rehearsal of the “The Magic Flute�. Foolishly he touches the knife lying by the body, and then a large number of his personal items are found in Beryl’s apartment. It seems inexplicable that all this evidence is at her house, which he swears he has never been inside. This, plus testimony from the other singers about an argument makes things look bad for Morse. He is suspended and DCI Alex Bottomley is put in charge of the case with Lewis to assist him. The incriminating evidence piles up, and things become increasingly worse for Morse. His computer records have been tampered with, and now erroneously show that he had severely beaten up a woman who had been part of an earlier investigation. (hide spoiler)] The incidents continue, such as (view spoiler)[ Morse’s house bursting into flames with him in it, when a policeman was guarding the door ensuring that nobody entered. Also Morse is reported for erratic driving, supposedly under the influence of drink, and then is the beneficiary of a computer scam, where hundreds of thousands of pounds are sent to his current account. When someone scratches masonic symbols all over his much-prized Jaguar Mark II car, Morse begins to wonder if Freemasons may somehow be at the back of it all. (hide spoiler)] This is what the title refers to, and Morse is sure that the answer to the mystery will lie in the libretto of Mozart’s masonic opera “The Magic Flute�. Morse is adamant that he has been deliberately targeted and set up. He begins to look to his past to see who, among the many criminals he arrested, might now be seeking revenge, and who would have the ability to pull off all the baffling feats. It’s an absorbing story, with a second murder and suicide still to come. One bit of trivia from the television episode is that the actress who played the first murder victim is Kevin Whately’s wife, in real life. Both the adaptations and the original screenplays of Inspector Morse episodes were written by notable writers, such as Anthony Minghella, Alma Cullen, Malcolm Bradbury and Daniel Boyle. I feel that Julian Mitchell’s screenplays top the list. He is an English playwright, (an Oxford alumnus, whereas Colin Dexter actually went to Cambridge University!) Perhaps his best known play (and film) is “Another Country�, which I was lucky enough to see at its initial run at a theatre in London’s West End. As well as writing plays and screenplays, Julian Mitchell occasional writes novels. The Inspector Morse series was such an enduring success, that it in turn spawned two more successful series about the characters (“Lɾ� and “EԻdzܰ�), despite Colin Dexter expressly forbidding that any more episodes be written in the Inspector Morse series after his own death. This is a testament not only to the creator’s, actors� and directors� prowess, but also largely I believe, to the excellence of the additional writers such as Julian Mitchell. ...more |
Notes are private!
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3
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Aug 20, 2024
Jan 24, 1990
not set
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Sep 05, 2024
Jan 24, 1990
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Sep 05, 2024
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Audio Cassette
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| B00N2IBVBE
| unknown
| 3.65
| 15,616
| Nov 06, 2014
| Oct 06, 2014
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liked it
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“‘Looks as if someone’s sliced her into three,� said Solomon Carter, the police surgeon, chattily. ‘We’re just missing the middle bit.� I must not be s “‘Looks as if someone’s sliced her into three,� said Solomon Carter, the police surgeon, chattily. ‘We’re just missing the middle bit.� I must not be sick, thought Edgar Stephens. That’s what he wants. Stay calm and professional at all times. You’re the policeman after all.� So this was what was meant by the “zig-zag� in the title. It put me in mind of my “jigsaw� tool, which I used at Art college. It was an innocent enough name for what was in fact, a fairly lethal handheld electric band saw. And I had thought this a cute title, perhaps referring to a character’s style preference, such as a girl who liked to wear zig-zags on her clothes. I proceeded with caution � However I need not have worried. The Zig-Zag Girl was evidently going to be written with a light touch. There was a nice bit of humour in this initial scene at the mortuary, and as the dismembered body parts turned up, it always felt remote, as if the body was artificial. Although what was referred to was grisly, it was never explicitly graphic, and it never felt as though we were reading about an actual person. It fitted neatly into the tradition of cosy murder mysteries. And indeed, many avid mystery readers had come to The Zig-Zag Girl after having enjoyed the books about Dr. Ruth Galloway. The Zig-Zag Girl is the first book in the Brighton Mysteries - which are sometimes termed the “Stephens and Mephisto Mysteries� - and now number seven books. The author is quite prolific, with two other ongoing crime series. In addition to the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, there is the Justice Series, as well as four books set in Italy, which she had written initially. Like many youngsters who enjoy reading, the author wrote her own stories, but stopped when she went to university. She read English at King’s College London, then worked in a library, for a magazine, and then as a publicity assistant at HarperCollins, eventually becoming an Editorial Director. Then in 1998, while still working in publishing, she wrote her first published novel The Italian Quarter by Domenica de Rosa. At this point, you may be doing a double take and have a quick look back at the book details. The Zig-Zag Girl is by “Elly Griffiths�, a name now familiar to those who read British crime mysteries. So it might come as a surprise to learn that Elly Griffiths is actually the pseudonym, not Domenica de Rosa. Domenica de Rosa wrote three more books, all about Italy, families and identity, before the novel which started her on a new track. It had a Dr Ruth Galloway as its protagonist, and was called “The Crossing Places�. Apparently the author didn’t think that this new book was significantly different from her others, but her agent said, “This is crime. You need a crime name,� and “Elly Griffiths� was born. The Ruth Galloway books became very popular and in 2014, a new group of people and change of location were introduced. The Zig-Zag Girl has a standard mystery set-up, with a professional detective and an amateur sleuth, but the conjuring aspect is a quirky new take on it. Of this novel the author says: “Magic, murder and a mystery rooted in a murky wartime past. Meet DI Stephens and Max Mephisto.� The Zig-Zag Girl is set in Brighton in 1950, and also a little along the coast, in Hastings. I was impressed by the authentic feel, and wondered how a Londoner conveyed the sense of place quite so effectively. The answer is that although Domenica de Rosa was born in London, her family moved to Brighton when she was five: “I loved Brighton and still do � the town, the surrounding countryside and, most of all, the sea.� It is a sobering thought for me that The Zig-Zag Girl is sometimes filed as “historical fiction�. It makes me feel ancient, just as it does when I discover a much-loved toy from my childhood in a museum. So however old must Domenica de Rosa be, to write with such conviction about the 1950s? The answer lies, of course, in good research. “Elly Griffiths� explains: “For the Stephens and Mephisto books, I got to explore my home town of Brighton. They are set in the 1950s, which doesn’t seem that long ago, and many people were very generous with their time and memories. My grandfather was a music hall comedian so I have drawn very heavily on his experiences and on his collection of playbills.� and also: “The Magic Gang was led by the famous magician Jasper Maskelyne and for details of his war years I am indebted to a fascinating book called The War Magician by David Fisher (Cassell).� Her own creation, Max Mephisto is a magician - or more properly termed a conjuror - an illusionist. Indeed one of the characters later observes: “All life is an illusion …� A thought-provoking saying, but nothing to do with philosophy; with David Hume or Jean-Paul Sartre - or even Eastern philosophy. I’m afraid you will have to read the book to find out just how deep the illusion is. Max Mephisto has a good reputation; he is a top-ranking magician. Before the war his act had been enormously popular, and his name still draws the crowds. But “before the war� is not the Brighton of 1950. The world has changed, and although Max is still on the circuit, touring seaside towns in the company of ventriloquists, sword-swallowers and dancing girls, he is well aware that variety is on the way out. A new-fangled device called the television is the key to the entertainment of the future. We too become immersed in this world of entertainment with its loyalties and petty betrayals; it seems a mixture of tawdry affairs and tinsel. But we are intrigued by the dismembered body parts, and know there must be a reason for carrying out such a peculiar and distinctive crime. So when Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is presented with the body of a girl cut into three, he is reminded of a magic trick, the Zig-Zag Girl. It is an illusion where the magician’s assistant is apparently sawn into three, and had originally been invented by his old friend Max Mephisto. The two men had served together in the war, as part of a special unit called the Magic Men, stationed in Inverness, Scotland. Max Mephisto, the detective feels, has made a success of his life, unlike Edgar himself. What’s more, Max Mephisto is performing in Brighton. It seems a good idea to approach and ask him if he has any thoughts which might help. Initially Max is reluctant to be involved in anything which distracts him from his act. He needs to maintain his position as top of the tree. But when the dead girl turns out to be someone he knew years ago, Max changes his mind, and the two set out to find the killer. As the novel proceeds there is another violent death - and yet another - both as inventively gruesome as the first. What can be going on? The investigation is getting more and more complicated. Are these grisly murders connected? And if so how - and who will be next? What is it about magicians and the special army unit which might have triggered such heartless crimes? Or are Edgar and Max way off beam? I listened to The Zig-Zag Girl as an audio book read by Daniel Philpott, in just over 8 hours. It is an excellent narration, in which the voice actor conjures up a variety of very expressive voices. However, I do think that this novel would be better read on the page, as it is a quick, light read. The ending seemed too protracted on audio. Did I guess “whodunnit�? Yes, and very early on, which is most unusual for me. I also guessed the motivation. This was not due to any clever picking up of clues on my behalf though, but just that it conformed to the type. As the story proceeded, my own version became a little more embellished - although inaccurately! And I did not guess a final twist at all. It is a good foundation for a series. The two main characters of Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto are well defined, and quite different in their outlook, whilst remaining good friends. There is also a wider circle of magic men, an old army officer, various assistants, family members and boarding house landladies, a couple of whom may well feature in later books. And right at the end we realise that a possible love interest may unite the two. Yes, I believe that this was never written as a stand-alone novel, but was planned from the outset as the beginning of a new series. Maybe I’ll never read any more myself, but it’s a competently written and enjoyable cosy mystery, with engaging characters and a solid base for more to come. The critics of British newspapers were quite complimentary: “With a labyrinthine plot, a splendid reveal and superb evocation of the wafer-thin veneer of glamour at the bottom end of showbusiness, this is thoroughly enjoyable.� - The Guardian “…an extremely well-written and well-researched novel.� - Literary Review “Post-war Brighton and its Theatre Royal are beautifully captured in all their seedy glory…subtle, charming and very good.� - Daily Mail ...more |
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| 0143134248
| 9780143134244
| 0143134248
| 3.72
| 3,217
| Mar 23, 2011
| Jun 02, 2020
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Seven Years of Darkness is a fitting title for this murky and claustrophobic Korean thriller written by You-Jeong Jeong in 2015. The Prologue tells us
Seven Years of Darkness is a fitting title for this murky and claustrophobic Korean thriller written by You-Jeong Jeong in 2015. The Prologue tells us: “People would refer to that night’s events as the Seryong Lake Disaster. They would call Dad a crazed murderer. The story was so big that I, too, became famous, as his son. I was eleven years old.� For seven years, Choi Sowon, now a lonely teenager, has lived in the shadow of his father’s shocking crime. For all that time he has been ostracised because his father, Choi Hyonsu is in prison for mass murder. Hyonsu used to be a professional baseball player, but after an injury he had taken to drink. Nevertheless the murder was inexplicable; a seemingly insane act which led to many deaths. Hyonsu was charged with not only (view spoiler)[ killing the young daughter of a neighbour, and also the girl’s father, throwing his own wife (Sowon’s mother) into the river and destroying most of a nearby village - including drowning four police officers - by opening the floodgates of the dam where he was head of security. (hide spoiler)] We learn all this very near the beginning of the novel. But not all is at it seems. This is a dark and disturbing novel, which is full of twists and turns. The setting is the Seryong reservoir, Hansoldung and the small area surrounding it, on the other side of Peryong mountain from the town of Sunchon, in the Chungchong province. Those responsible for maintaining the reservoir and arboretum do not mix with the small community of about a dozen people who live nearby, and Sowon has no friends from either group. For the last seven years he has been passed from relative to relative. Everyone tries to make someone else take responsibility for the boy, as his father Hyonsu’s case weaves its way through the courts. At first Sowon thinks he can make a new start in his new home, but he is pursued by an anonymous sender of newspaper articles. The whispers start so that yet again everyone soon knows about his father’s crimes. Now the final day of execution is nearing, and Ahn Sungwhan (Sowon’s guardian whom he calls Mr Ahn) disappears. Shortly after, Sowon receives a package (view spoiler)[ containing a manuscript penned by Ahn Sungwhan, who had been attempting to make a living as a writer. It purports to tell the true story of what happened at Seryong Lake. (hide spoiler)] Much of the novel is told this way through flashback, to enable us to piece together and make sense of what happened, and to give us the perspective of most of the people involved. As more facts and suppositions are revealed, we also see that being socially ostracised is the least of Sowon’s worries; he is actually in a great deal of danger. Through the manuscript we learn the back story. Ahn Sungwhan, a diver, was working as a security guard at Seryong Lake, a ‘first-tier� reservoir located in the remote Hansoldung village. Dr. Oh Yongje, a dentist owned the arboretum on the reservoir; and Sowon’s father, Choi Hyonsu had just been hired as the new head of security at Seryong Dam (making him Sungwhan’s boss). Seven Years of Darkness concentrates on these three men, as their inner thoughts build resentments and bristling relationships between them. Two of these men are unsympathetic characters, controlled by their anger and brutish, or drunken behaviour. The third becomes a loyal and supportive friend to one of them, although no reason is given for this. Finding anyone to identify with in Seven Years of Darkness is mostly a lost cause, but this character is perhaps one we can feel empathy for. Each of the three men has something to hide about the night of the reservoir disaster. They are all trapped in an elaborate game of cat and mouse, as each tries to uncover what really happened, without revealing their own closely guarded secrets. The females are very much secondary characters. Most prominent are the wives of Hyonsu and Yongje; the aspirational and upwardly mobile Eunju, and Hayong the cowed and bullied wife of the dentist. Each is ruled by their emotions, and lives their life as an adjunct to the males; an aspect I have noticed before in Korean literature. We see their frustrations and fears, and how this impacts on the events. There are two children of similar ages: Sowon and Yongje’s daughter Seryong. I would have liked to see more about their interactions, but they are objectified casualties, and very much secondary to the mind-games between the adults. There is terrorising, domestic violence - some of which is vicious and graphic - and a brief episode of animal cruelty as well as ongoing child abuse (i.e. bullying and brutality, not sexual). There is little let up from this, until one night when things come to a head. The plot is a finely worked web, with the devious spider at the centre signalled very early. We watch how the villain crafts and sets the threads carefully in place so that the designated victims are ensnared. The machinations of the plot are all told through the manuscript, so that we learn of this alongside Sowon, who is trying to fit all the pieces together. Personally I think the novel would have benefitted from exploring Sowon’s perspective rather than simply retelling these past events. I have no sense of how Sowon feels about his predicament. I also feel that the ending was rather rushed. I would have liked more to have been made of the relationship between past and present. The novel is translated into American English by Chi-Young Kim. It is quite a careful translation, with only an occasional lapse of tense or parts of speech (“shined his torch� irked me a few times, too). For those not familiar with name order in South-East Asian names where the surname is at the beginning, the text often helpfully says something like “Dr Ahn� for Ahn Sungwhan, which serves as a reminder. (Incidentally, as you can see, the translator has chosen to switch her name Kim Chi-young (김지�) round, and arrange it using the conventional Western name order.) As another aside, at the end I was surprised to discover that You-Jeong Jeong is a female author. I always maintain that if I can tell the gender of an author, this often acts as a indicator that I will not enjoy the book. I deliberately do not read blurbs immediately before, either, so knew nothing about this one before I began. Yet all the way through, I was conscious of an erroneous feeling that this was a male author. Am I glad I read Seven Years of Darkness? Not really. My experience of Korean literature is limited; I have only read one other book so far by a South Korean author, an eco-thriller which I much preferred. In places it reminded me of American hard-boiled crime thrillers; a genre I do not care for. However there were a few beautiful passages which hinted at an aspect I would have liked to see developed, such as this flash of memory at a critical moment for Hyonsu: “sorghum fields swaying bloodred under the moon, the ocean breeze wafting over the stalks, the glimmer of the lighthouse beyond the mountain at the far edge of the field. A boy walking through the fields, clutching his father’s shoes and a flashlight.� Seven Years in Darkness is very atmospheric in places, such as the description of a night dive through the underwater “drowned� village. There are places where there is a feeling of unreality about the whole thing: “the recurring dream he’d had every night for the last three nights was not a dream; it was reality within a dream and a dream within reality.� There is a sense all through of lost dreams, of thwarted ambitions and momentary decisions which drastically affect and wreck everything which happens afterwards. Although the plot is ostensibly about revealing the truth, we are left in no doubt that this can sometimes be a grey area. You-Jeong Jeong said that this is the core of Seven Years of Darkness: “Fate sometimes sends your life a sweet breeze and warm sunlight, while at other times a gust of misfortune. Sometimes we make the wrong decisions. There is a gray area between fact and truth, which isn’t often talked about. Though uncomfortable and confusing, none of us can escape the gray. This novel is about that gray area, about a man who made a single mistake that ruined his life. It’s about the darkness within people, and the lightness made possible by sacrificing oneself for someone else. I am hopeful that we can say yes to life in spite of it all.� For me though, in the end Seven Years in Darkness is about power, and not about “truth�. Friedrich Nietzsche maintained that there is no such thing as absolute truth: that there is no eternal and unchanging truth. “All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.� We certainly see here that people impose their metaphorical truth on others in the pursuit of power. A strong sense of this comes through to me, rather than You-Jeong Jeong’s idea of light through self-sacrifice. I was rooting for a different ending throughout this book, although that could possibly be my cultural expectation. In some ways Seven Years of Darkness does not conform to the Western prototype for thrillers. As “Crime Time� said: “this powerful tale of family violence, the abuse of drink and the sins of the fathers proves fascinating as it explores a way of life so different from our own and makes powerful statements about South Korean society and mores�. The “Financial Times� calls it “an admirably tough fable about the fragile search for the truth.� The “Los Angeles Times� calls You-Jeong Jeong a “certified international phenomenon � one among the best at writing psychological suspense�. ұԲ’s “Die Zeit� has said You-Jeong Jeong is “rightly compared to Stephen King�, and named Seven Years of Darkness as one of the top ten crime novels of 2015. You-Jeong Jeong is hugely popular in South Korea: the “Queen of Crime� who has written four best-selling psychological suspense thrillers. The author’s work has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Thai and Vietnamese. It remains at my default of 3 stars, but depending on your taste, you may well think that Seven Years of Darkness is a gripping read. ...more |
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| 1572704772
| 9781572704770
| 1572704772
| 3.98
| 82,393
| Jun 1941
| Jan 01, 2005
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really liked it
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Would you read a mystery novel which you had read before? Often the answer is no, and particularly if it is a murder mystery. What is the point, one m
Would you read a mystery novel which you had read before? Often the answer is no, and particularly if it is a murder mystery. What is the point, one might quite reasonably think, if you already know “whoddunit�. Yet some of the classic murder mysteries are read over and over again. Perhaps it is a strange sort of comfort reading, knowing what will happen in advance. Evil Under the Sun is one such. I’m not sure how many times I have read it, and seen and listened to various dramatisations. This time I listened to a reading of the text, by arguably the best ever Poirot, David Suchet. I enjoyed trying to pick up the clues, and occasionally noticing a red herring, alongside our favourite Belgian detective. Incidentally, David Suchet was excellent! As it was a DAISY disc it had no visual cover, so I did not know who the narrator was until nearing the end, I thought to look it up. This shows how convincing he was at all the different voices, and also at having a neutral, non-distracting narrative tone. It was recorded in 1986 and is 6 hours and 23 minutes of great entertainment. Evil Under the Sun is a popular one to dramatise, although directors sometimes take a liberty with the location and make it more exotic than it actually is. Agatha Christie set her novel in a hotel on Burgh Island, just off the coast of Devon. Perhaps there is a bit of wish fulfillment here ... The year was 1941, and Agatha Christie was working for three half days and Saturday mornings in the dispensary at University College London Hospital. While World War II was raging through Europe, Agatha Christie was helping the war effort as best she could - and also publishing at least one novel a year, often two. The Blitz was on, and she had to write in the evenings in the blackout, aware all the time that the bombing could come nearer. During her afternoons she would also fill in for any missing members of staff who had been affected, or whose loved ones had been affected by the bombing. No wonder she fantasised a little about a holiday in her home county, in a grand hotel where she had been happy. So Agatha Christie sends Hercule on holiday too, for a quiet holiday at a secluded hotel; a welcome escape from the Blitz. Of course, it will not stay quiet for long, and with the mix of guests being how they are, the sparks soon begin to fly, and Poirot thinks that murder is inevitable. The setting is perfect for a variation on the “locked room� mystery, in that Burgh island is inaccessible from the mainland when the tide is in. It does have extensive grounds, but none of the select company venture out from there. The island is - as it still is - virtually cut off from the outside world. Its seclusion is seen as part of its attractive exclusivity. We suspect very early on that we know who will be murdered. Hercule Poirot detects sexual tension in the seaside air, and is sure there will be a crime of passion. On this luxury retreat, everyone could be a suspect. Altogether there are perhaps a dozen players; perhaps not a great number by Agatha Christie standards, but each and every one has a motive for killing the designated victim. Each of them is a great cameo role. There is an American couple, with a fussy wife and long-suffering husband (affectionately drawn, so as not to alienate her American readership.) There is a priggish and overly pious Reverend, and a hearty, athletic spinster. There is a glamorous film star whom nobody likes much, but who nevertheless flirts with all the men, to their evident pleasure. There is her writer husband, her quiet step-daughter, and a former lover of her husband. There is a bluff retired army officer, and an ex-teacher. As they follow various holiday pursuits, chatting, and engaging in banter and more serious arguments, we get a good impression of their characters. Despite the circumstances the novel was written in, this is a light and amusing read, with a baffling explanation. In case you are wondering whether you have read it, I will just say that a bronzed body is found (view spoiler)[ face-down and strangled (hide spoiler)] on one of the secluded beaches, but nobody seems to have been able to sail around the cove at the right time to commit the crime. Not everything is as it seems � but is it ever, in an Agatha Christie story? The novel follows the same themes as her earlier short story, “Triangle at Rhodes� (1936), where Poirot fills the role of (view spoiler)[liaison between two marriages (hide spoiler)]. When it was first published in June 1941 ‘The Guardian� wrote: “Is it going too far to call Mrs Agatha Christie one of the most remarkable writers of the day?� The ‘Daily Telegraph� enthused that its author: “had never written anything better than Evil Under the Sun, which is detective story writing at its best.� ‘The New York Times� was more cautious: “The murder is an elaborately planned affair � a little too much so for credibility, in view of the many possibilities of a slip-up somewhere along the way � but Poirot’s reasoning is flawless, as it always is� and ‘The Scotsman� wrote: “All of these [surprising discoveries in the book’s solution] the reader may best be left to encounter for himself in the assurance that the quest will prove as piquant as any this skilful writer has offered.� These original reviews were perhaps not as eulogistic as they sometimes were, but it has been perennially popular. Not surprising, as we have a heady mix of swindling, concealed past crimes, drugs, religious mania, black magic and of course the all important ingredient, lust. It’s quite a cocktail. Look out for the red herrings, and try to work out what will be significant about a clock, a wristwatch and an empty bottle. This popular novel has been adapted multiple times. My personal favourite is the TV adaptation from 2001, starring David Suchet, although this made perhaps the most alterations to the story. To fit in with the series, it included Inspector Japp, Colonel Hastings, and Miss Lemon, none of whom appear in the original novel. It was filmed on location at Bigbury Beach in Devon. An earlier feature film was made in 1981, which was the second one to star Peter Ustinov as Poirot. Again, changes were made to the plot and additionally the setting was moved from Devon to the Adriatic. In 1999 there was a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the story, with John Moffat as Poirot: a role he reprised for other adaptations. There is even a graphic novel of the story published in 2013. I’ve enjoyed all of these more than once, except the latter, which I have yet to track down. It’s a fun read, so when you need a gentle pick-me-up to tax those little grey cells, why not give Dame Agatha’s 24th novel starring Hercule Poirot a try? A final few words from 1941? How about ‘The Observer’’s disjointedly enthusiastic review: “Best Agatha Christie since ‘Ten Little [Indians]� � and one can’t say much more than that � ‘Evil Under the Sun� has luxury summer hotel, closed-circle setting, Poirot in white trousers. Victim: (view spoiler)[redhead actress man-mad (hide spoiler)]. Smashing solution, after clouds of dust thrown in your eyes, ought to catch you right out. Light as a soufflé.� ...more |
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Jul 01, 2024
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Audio CD
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| B0DMJJ55K8
| unknown
| 3.51
| 3,468
| 1944
| Nov 2012
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liked it
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The Case of the Gilded Fly is a golden age English mystery novel by Edmund Crispin, the first of a series of nine featuring the detecting don, Gervase
The Case of the Gilded Fly is a golden age English mystery novel by Edmund Crispin, the first of a series of nine featuring the detecting don, Gervase Fen. Edmund Crispin is a pseudonym for Bruce Montgomery, who apparently based his eccentric and absent-minded amateur detective on his tutor Professor W. G. Moore. Gervase Fen is also a Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford; a fellow of St Christopher’s College, a fictional institution which Edmund Crispin located next to St John’s College. I had already read one novel featuring Gervase Fen, so decided that the logical place to start would be with this one from 1944, which I had heard was a locked-room mystery. To be honest, this story was an odd fish to introduce Gervase Fen. The first chapter took place on a train approaching Oxford (although as the author pointed out, there was still a good half hour to go between Didcot and Oxford). Its purpose was clear: to introduce us to a mind-numbingly Agatha Christie-length list of characters, most of whom we would forget after the first half dozen. Gervase Fen was included in the company, but unless you had read another in the series, you would forget him. Perhaps at this point Edmund Crispin had not realised that he would wrote any more mystery novels � and certainly not that Gervase Fen would prove to be such a popular amateur detective. Once having arrived in Oxford, the chapter ended. We then learnt a little more about some of the characters via a theatrical group (perhaps Edmund Crispin was involved in OUDS) and this reminded me of a J.B. Priestley novel - also very much of its time - but Edmund Crispin’s writing was nowhere near as engaging. In fact by the end of chapter 4 I was beginning to get bored with this audio book, but decided to trust the author to bring a little wit into his writing soon. Either that, or at least give us a body! It had been made pretty clear who most people would prefer to be out of the way. Now I began to recognise the author’s style, when Gervase Fen came centre stage. But at this point the writing style became most peculiar. We had the words, ‼ǰپDz� (now that’s a word I’d heard before but couldn’t quite recall its meaning offhand), ※ܰٴǰ� and “lDzdz� all within a couple of paragraphs. Perhaps it was to set the tone for Gervase Fen’s educated erudition, or perhaps to show that he was impossibly ensconced in the ivory towers of Oxford’s acadaemia - except for one small thing. These words did not drip from Gervase Fen’s cultured tongue, but were part of the omniscient narration. Very odd. Want some more? How about “constatation�, “acerbly�, “sempiternal� (I quite like this one, although to have another word than “everlasting� meaning “of never-ending duration� seems a bit redundant). And I confess that I drew a complete blank with “valavant shaft�. An Ancient Greek arrow-wielding hero, perhaps? The context did not help much. And in case you are wondering, there are no typos here (except perhaps with the valavant shaft). All of them are as they appear in the dictionary, even though sometimes they may look like a different word with an entirely different root and meaning. Even more peculiar was chapter 5, which consisted almost entirely of a pastiche M.R. Jamesian ghost story, told by an M.R. Jamesian old codger to boot, and very good it was too! Well worth publishing on its own merits. I had no idea if this story could ever have any relevance to the murder mystery tableau we had just been privy to (unlike the ancient fellow relating what he claimed to be his college reminiscences and his captive audience) but the oddity of it all was intriguing enough for me to want to carry on. And you probably want to know a bit about the story itself, which is after all why people choose to read a mystery novel, and not for its erudition! If you have been good enough to stay with me this far, you might be beginning to understand my frustration. So � we are in Oxford, in October 1940, and the action centres around the local repertory theatre and the university. The brilliant new playwright Robert Warner has chosen the Oxford rep. for the première of his new play, and has arrived with his leading lady - and mistress - Rachel West. Also in the cast are Yseut Haskell, (whose name the narrator of my audio book had terrible difficulty pronouncing! “Just say ‘Isolde!’� I wanted to shout at him), a flamboyant, promiscuous and spitefully cruel young woman, and her quiet half-sister Helen. Most of the action is seen through the eyes of Nigel Blake, a journalist who used to be a student of Gervase Fen. We also meet Nicholas Barclay, a university drop-out with independent means, and Donald Fellowes, an introverted organist and choirmaster at St. Christopher’s College who is hopelessly infatuated with Yseut. (Interestingly, Edmund Crispin was the organ scholar and choirmaster at St. John’s College, and went on to be a prolific composer of film music. Perhaps he saw some of himself in Donald Fellowes.) Also featured is Jean Whitelegge, the secretary of the theatre club who is in turn attracted to the shy Donald Fellowes. This small intimate group with their petty jealousies and squabbles are all present at a party, (view spoiler)[ during the course of which a drunken Yseut threatens Robert Warner with the host’s revolver. About a year earlier the two had had a brief affair, but it had been Robert Warner rather than Yseut who had ended it. (hide spoiler)] By now, we have decided who deserves to get murdered in this story, because they have so many enemies. (view spoiler)[ Sure enough Yseut has been shot, with the very weapon she had been brandishing the night before. On her finger is an unusual Egyptian-style gilded ring bearing a winged insect (the “gilded fly� of the title). (hide spoiler)] As it seems to have been impossible for anyone to have entered the room unobserved, the police suspect suicide. But Gervase Fen, (who is deferred to by the police, just as gentlemen amateur detectives often are in period fiction of this type) declares that it is murder, but will not explain his reasons. The investigation proceeds with many red herrings, and there is a budding romance (view spoiler)[ between Nigel Blake and Helen Haskell. Then unexpectedly just a few hours before the play is due to open, Donald Fellowes is murdered in the organ loft of his college chapel during evensong. (hide spoiler)] As everyone expects, the play is a literary masterpiece and an enormous success. Gervase Fen with the help of the police assembles all the suspects and, in true Hercule Poirot fashion, prepares to announce the identity of the murderer. (view spoiler)[ So much has made of the play’s triumph that we begin to think it is too good to be true. Sure enough, before Gervase Fen has accused him, Robert Warner pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot anyone who follows him. He attempts to escape across the stage but the safety curtain falls on him, crushing and killing him. (hide spoiler)] The final chapter is a little reprise of the first, with the remaining characters travelling the return journey, a few brief weeks later. To be honest, I wouldn’t start with this one. The structure is a bit odd, and having to dive for a dictionary all the time is irritating. These words are so seldom used that I can’t help but think it is a bit of intellectual posturing on the part of the author. It was written in his final year as an undergraduate at St John’s College, Oxford, over just ten days in 1943. He was friendly with Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis, and according to the former, he spent ten days of his Easter vacation writing in an intensive burst of activity “with his J nib and silver pen-holder�. Did I guess the murderer? Yes, although only for the motive; I could not see the method, which proved a little fantastic: (view spoiler)[ a gun shot through at least two open windows across the quad, and hitting its target (hide spoiler)]. Apparently Edmund Crispin often wrote somewhat unbelievable solutions. What about the title? Well gilded fly references Shakespeare’s “King Lear�: “the small gilded fly does lecher in my sight�. It is quite obvious who the lecherous person is, (view spoiler)[Yseut, although the ring itself is a bit of a red herring (hide spoiler)]. Just as with all Edmund Crispin’s novels, there are frequent references to English literature, poetry and classics. It can be fun spotting these, but again it is not what most people expect from a detective novel. A year after its publication in England, The Case of the Gilded Fly was published as “Obsequies at Oxford� in the United States. This arguably gives a better idea of the contents, although I personally prefer the original title. I was tempted to rate this as two stars, but on reflection that judgement would probably be just as much a reflection of my reverse snobbery as Edmund Crispin’s writing demonstrates a posturing intellectualism. Perhaps it is better to forgive the excesses of youth, given that he went on to write such critically acclaimed examples of the genre. I shall keep it at my default of three stars. Would you enjoy it? Well in The Case of the Gilded Fly Edmund Crispin was emulating his favourite crime writers, John Dickson Carr, Gladys Mitchell and Michael Innes. In summing up his style after his death, one critic wrote that Edmund Crispin’s novels were never meant to be realistic, but were: “simply an entertainment for educated readers, in which a backbone consisting of ingenious, perfectly serious, detective puzzles was most engagingly adorned with academic wit and precise good writing�. That seems spot-on to me. If you enjoy books written in a humorous, literary and sometimes even farcical style, you may well enjoy those of Edmund Crispin. The edition I listened to was narrated by Paul Panting. ...more |
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Jun 03, 2024
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Jul 16, 2024
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Jun 03, 2024
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Audiobook
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| 1445016362
| 9781445016368
| 1445016362
| 4.08
| 12,758
| Aug 1980
| Apr 01, 2012
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liked it
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The first books I read about the mystery-solving medieval monk were a bumper edition of the first three: “A Morbid Taste for Bones�, “One Corpse Too M
The first books I read about the mystery-solving medieval monk were a bumper edition of the first three: “A Morbid Taste for Bones�, “One Corpse Too Many� and this one Monk’s Hood. There are twenty books by Ellis Peters (a pseudonym for Edith Pargeter) about Brother Cadfael, as well as a few later ones about her invented character by other authors. They are collected together in various ways; this is not the edition I read. Several of these novels have also been dramatised for television, with Derek Jacobi in the lead role and a good supporting cast. The dramatisation here though is the first part of a series of 3 radio dramas on one DAISY disc: Brother Cadfael: A BBC Radio Collection of Three Full-Cast Dramatisations. Philip Madoc stars as Cadfael, who used to be a Crusader in the Holy Wars, and also a sailor, but is now a Benedictine monk at the monastery in Shrewsbury. He has skill as their herbalist, and spends his days ministering to his brothers using the medical skills he acquired in the Holy Lands. With his knowledge of the world and wide experience of human nature however, he often finds himself called upon when there is a murder to solve. All the books are historically accurate and set between about 1135 and about 1145, during “The Anarchy�. This was a destructive contest for the crown between King Stephen and Empress Maud. In Monk’s Hood the year is 1138. Brother Cadfael is asked to supply a healing potion for a sick monk—but the monk’s hood oil he uses could kill as well as cure. (view spoiler)[Gervase Bonel, a local landowner is poisoned, and suspicion falls on a young lad who happens to be the son of Cadfael’s old sweetheart from years earlier. Since the victim had recently changed his will to benefit the monastery, instead of this stepson, many people are interested in the outcome. (hide spoiler)] The rich, sonorous timbre of Philip Madoc’s voice is perfect for Brother Cadfael, the stolid but compassionate Welsh monk who used to be a soldier. Other stand-out characters in this story were Prior Robert (Geoffrey Whitehead), the monk who has an eye to becoming the Abbot; Hugh Beringar (Alan Barker), a sympathetic local deputy sheriff; Brother Mark (Ian Targett), a young monk who is Cadfael's bold, sometimes cheeky apprentice; Aelfric (Mark Straker) Edwy Bellecote (Stephen Garlick) and Edwin Gurney (Richard Pearce), three youths on whom suspicion falls at various points; and Richildis Bonel (Pat Heywood), the woman to whom Cadfael was once betrothed. Michael Hordern’s intermittent narration is also excellent. The adaptation was made in 1991 by Bert Coules, one of the BBC’s best writers in my opinion. He has managed to include a perfect balance of plot and description, so that we get a real sense of medieval Shrewsbury and the Welsh borders. The theme tune is played on contemporary instruments. The entire production lasts for 2 and a half hours (5 episodes). It is recommended. Also on this disc are dramatisations of “The Virgin in the Ice� and “Dead Man’s Ransom�. ...more |
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May 29, 2024
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Jun 02, 2024
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May 29, 2024
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MP3 CD
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| 0754053369
| 9780754053361
| 0754053369
| 3.89
| 5,521
| 1930
| Jan 01, 2000
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did not like it
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Mystery Mile is the second in a series of 9 novels (and over 20 short stories) with Albert Campion as the fictional detective. They are from the golde
Mystery Mile is the second in a series of 9 novels (and over 20 short stories) with Albert Campion as the fictional detective. They are from the golden age of English Mysteries, which was at its peak in the 1920s and 1930s, and Mystery Mile was published in 1930. Golden Age English mysteries are mostly “whodunits� involving a particular class of characters; a typical setting might be a secluded English country house. The upper-class inhabitants are generally landed gentry, and often portrayed with gentle humour and a lot of heart. One feature of golden age English Mysteries is to successfully mislead readers, thereby revealing the least likely suspect convincingly as the villain. I had not read any books featuring the detective Albert Campion, but knew the type of read it would be. Mystery Mile is the name of a fictional town on an island off the coast of Suffolk. However, the book begins aboard a cruise ship rather than a country house there. This conforms to the idea of a small group of people in a restricted space, so we are on the lookout for an unusual event and an odd individual who may be our detective. Sure enough, we are introduced to a thin, blond, inoffensive chap wearing horn-rimmed glasses. He is affable, annoying and seems rather unintelligent. We fully expect this to be a deliberate deception, and soon enough learn that he is indeed Albert Campion, an eccentric young man who by his speech is from the top drawer of society. With his easy, dimwitted aristocratic air, incessant use of the current slang, and hints of dubious connections with the criminal world, Albert Campion reminded me irresistibly of a rather fey imitation of Lord Peter Wimsey. It turns out that he was intended as a parody of him! But for me, unlike Dorothy L. Sayers� invention, the humour felt forced, and Albert Campion more of a cold fish. Lord Peter Wimsey’s family and friends are interesting and amusing in their own right, but listening to accounts of Albert Campion’s circle was simply boring. There was too much “telling� rather than showing, and too much meandering about with the plot. The racial stereotypes, (including Americans) are always a hazard with this type of period novel, and these were so crass that they made me wince. Too many of the attempts at whimsy seemed merely odd, or embarrassing. And the episode at the beginning where the mouse (view spoiler)[is electrocuted (hide spoiler)] was bizarre, but too cruel to be done for laughs. There were other ways the danger point could have been made. I realise that I am out of step here, as some readers love this series, and find Albert Campion a witty, ingenious, and resourceful protagonist. However his silly stunts, non-stop flippancy and slapstick humour just jarred with me, rather than feeling endearing. Perhaps Mystery Mile is best read quickly on the page, rather than as an audio book. At any rate, I did not finish it, reading only about 9 chapters. But I doubt whether I shall try another in the foreseeable future. I would prefer to re-read some of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories I had forgotten. This is therefore not a final judgement, but merely a record of the aspects of a partial read which put me off. Apparently there was a TV series with Peter Davison in the title role. He was quite good as detective constable “Dangerous Davies� (whose mild manners mean that he is is anything but) in “The Last Detective�, a TV series (2003-2007) based on Leslie Thomas’s comic novels. Perhaps then if any episodes of “Albert Campion� (1989-1990) ever come my way, I will give them a try. For a comprehensive blurb, the one on the ŷ book page will give you a good idea of what it is all about. I can say that the 9 chapters I read did not indicate any of this plot whatsoever! Perhaps then, the novel would have been more engaging if it had started at chapter 10 � ...more |
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May 20, 2024
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May 25, 2024
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May 20, 2024
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Audio CD
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| B00VMUDCV6
| 3.88
| 43
| unknown
| Apr 16, 2015
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it was amazing
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This review is of a full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins’s Gothic “sensation novel� The Woman in White: a Victorian mystery which was also one of
This review is of a full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins’s Gothic “sensation novel� The Woman in White: a Victorian mystery which was also one of the first detective novels. It was originally published in 1860, although it was set from 1849 to 1850. This adaptation is by Martyn Wade for Radio 4, and was first broadcast in 2001. There are 4 episodes each lasting for an hour, and it was advertised thus: “Toby Stephens and Juliet Aubrey star in a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Wilkie Collins's chilling Gothic drama. A lonely stretch of road on Hampstead Heath is the venue for Walter Hartright's midnight first encounter with a mysteriously distressed figure in white.� As well as Toby Stephens playing the young teacher of drawing, Walter Hartright, other stand-out parts are Juliet Aubrey as Marian Halcombe, Laura's elder intelligent and resourceful half-sister, Emily Bruni as Laura herself, and Edward Petherbridge as her uncle and guardian Frederick Fairlie, a selfish and wealthy hypochondriac land-owner. Jeremy Clyde plays Laura's fiancé the charming and gracious (view spoiler)[ but deceitful (hide spoiler)] baronet, Sir Percival Glyde, and Philip Voss plays Sir Percival's closest friend Count Fosco, whose full name is Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco (and it suits him). This part is a gift to any actor; Count Fosco is a grossly fat, bombastic and eccentric Italian, with a mysterious past. He is urbane, but intelligent and menacing, keeping canaries and mice as pets, on whom he lavishes much tender care and affection. These parts are particularly well cast although all the acting is superb. I was also impressed by the writing in this adaptation. The Woman in White is a novel told from the point of view of multiple narrators through letters and diaries, and has a complicated time frame which is not linear. It does not lend itself easily to adapting, but this one is well balanced, with some narration mostly by Walter Hartright. The only other radio dramatisation I know of was a serial in 12 parts, by Howard Agg in December 1969. Here is the blurb for the 2001 dramatisation: “Toby Stephens stars as Walter Hartright, who tells of his strange encounter with a mysterious woman on London’s Hampstead Heath. Moving on to the north country, we meet heroine Laura Fairlie in Limmeridge House, where master of drawing, Walter, is engaged as an art master to Laura and her half-sister Marian. Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white and Walter falls in love with her. But she is promised to Sir Percival Glyde, thus sparking a chain of sinister events.� There have been quite a few film and TV adaptations: the 5 part miniseries from 2018 is a good one, and like this one, reasonably faithful to the book. It stars Ben Hardy as Walter Hartright, Olivia Vinall as Laura Fairlie, Jessie Buckley as Marian Halcombe, and Charles Dance as Frederick Fairlie. However I do prefer the radio dramatisation. Oddly, at the same time as listening to this I was also watching a TV miniseries of “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall� - another Victorian novel which is partly in an epistolary format - and that also starred Toby Stephens as its heroic young male protagonist! He is obviously making a name for himself as an “everyman� character, who is distinguished by a strong sense of justice. I listened to this on DAISY audio disc, which contains several more BBC dramatisations of Wilkie Collins's works, some of which are familiar, and some new to me. Enjoyable as adaptations are, they can only convey a sense of this extraordinary book. For my review of the text of this 5 star classic novel, please LINK HERE. ...more |
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Mar 20, 2024
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Apr 07, 2024
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Apr 20, 2024
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Audible Audio
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| 0792779916
| 9780792779919
| 0792779916
| unknown
| 3.90
| 15,265
| Aug 05, 1989
| Jun 01, 2011
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it was ok
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I'm definitely out of step with this one. Two people I know in real life rave about this series, and of my friends here who have read it, most give it
I'm definitely out of step with this one. Two people I know in real life rave about this series, and of my friends here who have read it, most give it 4 stars. There is no doubt in my mind that the author knows about Ancient Rome. Details of the houses, the clothes, the streets and markets, the politics and administration abound. Lindsey Davis has evidently studied and researched the period and culture well. The trouble is, far too many details are stuffed in here. After listening to 10 chapters my mind was numbed with all the domestic detail, and I wondered where the story was. Perhaps it would read better on paper. The writing is quite lively, and there were jokes of a sort. One today was that (29 year old) Marcus Didius Falco's father had gone out to play draughts one evening when Marcus was 7, and it must have been a long game because he hadn't come back yet ... but as you can tell they are standard fare and rather weak. Mostly I was just plain bored. I do dislike it when I can tell the gender of an author, and this was rapidly sinking into saga territory for me. So much effort had been put into showing how much like us these people were, with their petty jealousies and dreary routines. And guess what? You've convinced me; it was dull. I've had my fill of Roman dress and lifestyle, am not moved by the writing, far less intrigued by the mystery, and am not interested in any of the characters. Sorry ... I know |
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Apr 15, 2024
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Apr 18, 2024
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Apr 15, 2024
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Audiobook
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| 1835260748
| 9781835260746
| B0CGJD4WXN
| 3.95
| 2,087
| May 06, 2014
| Aug 23, 2023
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None
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not set
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not set
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Mar 30, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B07V2P4MYN
| unknown
| 3.87
| 627,719
| Sep 03, 2020
| Sep 03, 2020
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liked it
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“The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air.� To be honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy The Thursday Murder Club as much as I did. A debu “The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air.� To be honest, I didn’t expect to enjoy The Thursday Murder Club as much as I did. A debut novel by a TV personality was not necessarily going to be my cup of tea, I thought. But over the last few months two of my groups had picked it as a group read, and since one only ever reads English mysteries, I knew they would soon throw out a turkey. I have not watched any of the quiz programmes Richard Osman has created, nor the panel shows he is in, but he seems ubiquitous on current popular British TV, so I have inadvertently caught a few moments here and there. He always seems relaxed, knowledgeable and very erudite. Apparently he studied Politics and Sociology at Trinity College, Cambridge, but loves popular culture. Light-hearted quiz shows and comedy seem to be his natural element, and one in which he is adept. Having said that, Richard Osman is not the sort of smooth compere you might expect when switching on a glitzy new TV show. I trust he would not mind me saying that he is no oil painting! Over six feet tall, with the stereotypical look of a “brain-box�, he not surprisingly began his TV life in the back office, working exclusively in behind-the-camera roles. Nowadays he is not only involved in research, but also creates quiz programmes with new formats such as “PǾԳٱ� and “Richard Osman’s House of Games�, as well as co-presenting and working as an executive producer. Like many people Richard Osman thought there might be a book in him, and decided to write the sort of book he most enjoyed reading himself; a traditional murder mystery. It took him a while before he hit on a good theme, but when he visited an upmarket retirement village, he could see the potential immediately. He invented his own retirement village, set near the fictitious village of Fairhaven in Kent, and called it “Cooper’s Chase�. Modelled on the one he had visited, it boasts a full range of recreational and medical facilities including what one of the residents calls a “contemporary upscale restaurant�. This is said with tongue firmly in cheek of course; a droll, typically English observation. Richard Osman did not tell anyone about his novel, and spent 18 months writing and rewriting drafts, honing the characters which popped into his mind � and still he was not sure. The Irish author Marian Keyes encouraged him at quite an early stage. (This recording is narrated expertly by Lesley Manville, and also includes an interview with Marian Keyes, at his request.) From that interview we hear that Richard Osman found the generation which are now entering retirement homes like these uniquely interesting. Because ordinary working and lower middle class people from their late sixties to early eighties were the first generation to have the opportunity of further education, to travel, and have a variety of occupations, he maintains there is an independence of thought and free spirit which those before and after often do not have. They may not use the current buzz words and vocabulary, but when something is explained, this elderly generation have no difficulty in thinking outside the box. Nor do they care what anyone thinks; a privilege of the elderly worldwide. This all makes for four irresistible and entertaining members of the Thursday murder club. “After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children.� Richard Osman found himself harking back to the golden age of mysteries, with no explicit violence and no swearing. Yet the language he uses is contemporary and idiomatic. We get phrases such as “that’s me� or “the long and short of it�; phrases which have no meaningful translation, but which pepper the English language. There are also many references to popular culture, and a lot of English idiosyncrasies, such as Joyce liking to bake cakes: “It was a well-known fact that there were no calories in homemade cakes� and chatting about which shop you would buy them from if you absolutely had to have a shop-made one. (Joyce and Richard Osman thinks it is Marks and Spencer’s. This is probably close to the author’s heart, as he has reported having an eating disorder, which he has to control very carefully.) Oddly, this banal sort of detail never seems to pall, because the writing is so lucid and witty. One resident sums up Coopers Chase: “You can’t move here until you’re over sixty-five and the Waitrose delivery vans clink with wine and repeat prescriptions every time they pass over the cattle grid.� It stands on the site of a former convent, with the graveyard still attached, and has beautiful views over the Kentish weald. But an unwelcome developer is hovering, a brash and vulgar man whom they all dislike (he even owns a red grand piano!) And he is determined to find a legal loophole to allow him to turn the chapel and graveyard into eight new flats. So what is the “Thursday Murder Club�? It is a group of residents, not friends, they would stress, who set out to solve cases they come across, rather than joining in with the latest knitting club, or jigsaws in the lounge. Thursdays is a day when they can all meet, “between Art History and Conversational French� thus without being interrupted by one of the other activities. They decide to investigate unsolved murder cases where (they would say) the Kent police force have been too hopeless to make any prosecutions. Each of these residents is very different, with different backgrounds and from different classes. We do not always know their pasts, and in one case at least - perhaps two - they are rather murky. They are direct, as elderly people usually are. Having no reason not to be, they “speak as they find�. But the skills they have, and the contacts they still know, often prove uniquely helpful. These amateur sleuths set about solving the mystery of a murder which is of interest to each and every resident. As they might say, it was “a bit too close to home�. In fact the plot becomes rather complicated with two or more possible extra murders involved. Perhaps they are related, perhaps not. Perhaps they are recent, or historical, but we know that each will somehow have a personal connection with one of the quartet. We also have a diverse selection of secondary characters such as Donna De Freitas, a police constable who is regretting moving from the city, and feeling undervalued. Then there is her boss, who is frustrated with his life for other reasons. The Thursday Murder Club members run rings round these two, yet because of the skill of the writing, we feel empathy for each and every one of them. There is a local priest, and friends and relatives, both local and far-flung, all of whom have a part to play. One has a son who is a boxer, another a high-flying business-woman, and various spouses alive, deceased, senile or comatose are depicted realistically but with grace and humour. Surprised by the success of this debut novel in 2020, Richard Osman realised that there was potential for a series of The Thursday Murder Club Mysteries. To date there are four in the series, with a fifth book planned for release in 2025. There is also an upcoming film of The Thursday Murder Club in production starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Best. Elizabeth intrigued me. She is clearly widely travelled and yet her past is a mystery. I picked up hints that she might have been (view spoiler)[ a spy (hide spoiler)]. It was always Elizabeth who got things moving. She was described as “the sort of teacher who terrifies you all year then gets you a grade A and cries when you leave�. A surprise casting is Pierce Brosnan as the opinionated and militant ex-Trade Union leader Ron Ritchie, a fervent admirer of “Red Ken� (a former London Mayor) and who has a West Ham tattoo on his neck. Ben Kingsley is cast as Ibrahim Arif, the meticulous Egyptian psychiatrist, who has an eye for detail. The ethnicity is not right here of course � Sir Ben Kingsley was born to an English mother and an Indian Gujarati father. His real name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji. However, Ben Kingsley has shown he can act across various cultures. Everyone’s favourite character, Joyce Meadowcroft, the former nurse, is yet to be cast. Joyce is quietly spoken and with a pleasant demeanour; often to be seen dressed in a lavender blouse and mauve cardigan. She too has hidden depths, as we learn as we read. The novel alternates between an omniscient narrator, and Joyce’s diary. One could say (in the idiom of the novel) that Joyce is “not as green as she is cabbage looking�. She notices a great deal, without appearing to, and is not as naive as she seems. Richard Osman said in the interview that whenever he wasn’t sure how to proceed, he would think to himself, “What would Joyce do?� And if he wondered how she would react to something, or what she would say, he would think of his mother. He talks quite a lot about his mother, who had struggled to brought her two sons up single-handedly after their father left. (His older brother is Mat Osman, bass guitarist with the rock band “Suede�). She then went to teacher training college. Richard Osman clearly admires her tenacity, and puts quite a lot of his mother and the people he knows in the book. Will I read more of these novels? Yes, probably. This first one is a step up from most cosy mysteries, and has a very lively style, although it is perhaps not quite a four star novel. It is just too complicated, with too many twist and turns. At the moment Richard Osman is writing a novel every year, and each has been very popular. The Thursday Murder Club sold 45,000 copies in its first three days on sale and became a Sunday Times number one bestseller. It was the first debut novel ever to be Christmas number one. I probably still won’t watch Richard Osman’s TV quiz programmes. But I do find him a personable and engaging sort of chap, and admire his struggle against various difficulties. His early life was difficult and he has to cope with the eye condition nystagmus, which reduces his vision so that he cannot read an autocue and has to learns his scripts by heart. The interview he gave was interesting, but I did find Marian Keyes far too gushing! Each was full of so much flattery and mutual praise for the other that at one point Richard Osman said, can we make a bargain? Can we agree now that we will never mention this again? Somehow I feel he was probably as embarrassed by it all, as his listeners will be. So I don’t recommend listening to that, unless you enjoy Hollywood type self-congratulation. But I will definitely watch the film when it comes out, with its gently ironic characters. “Many years ago, everybody here would wake early because there was much to do and only so many hours in the day. Now they wake early because there is much to do and only so many days left.� �... because you know that getting out of a garden chair at our age is a military operation. Once you are in one, you can be in it for the day.� “I’m afraid I don’t know WTF. I only discovered LOL from Joyce last week.� On then to “The Man Who Died Twice� from 2021. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 12, 2024
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May 05, 2024
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Feb 12, 2024
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Audible Audio
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| 152913756X
| 9781529137569
| 152913756X
| 3.97
| 38
| unknown
| May 20, 2021
|
it was ok
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A Deadly Habit is the 20th in Simon Brett’s comic mystery series about the world-weary, booze-soaked and often out of work actor Charles Paris. The tr
A Deadly Habit is the 20th in Simon Brett’s comic mystery series about the world-weary, booze-soaked and often out of work actor Charles Paris. The trouble is that when he does get a part, a murder seems to turn up out of nowhere in the theatre where he is working. And this time there are two. This is the dramatisation by Jeremy Front, who has adapted several of these novels so successfully that many people cannot now read a novel about Charles Paris without hearing the lazily languid tones of Bill Nighy, whose voice in these epitomises the jaded middle-aged Charles, where each word drips with bitter irony. I enjoyed the adaptation as I expected, but probably because the format was a familiar one, the acting good, and timing ditto. It is a professional job, but lacks the sparkle of the early novels. After all, the first Charles Paris novel “Cast, in Order of Disappearance� was way back in 1975, but this latest one was written in 2018. Charles is really holding up very well considering his disreputable life-style; he seems to have stayed at the same age for 40 years � Often Jeremy Front has had to iron out some of the contemporary references which mean little today, and I noted in one review that the dramatisation is so different from the book that it is more like a new play. However this one could be a straight adaptation. Like the others, this is in 4 parts, each 30 minutes long, Charles Paris is pleased when his agent tells him he has landed a small part in a new West End play “The Habit of Faith�. (His relationship with his agent Maurice, is a love-hate one we love to follow.) But coming down to Earth, he cannot work out why he would have been cast in a serious play with such a title. To add to the puzzle, he discovers that his good fortune has been orchestrated by someone from his past whom he has never liked very much, the now-famous screen actor Justin Grover. It seems to make no sense at all. Why has the succesful Justin Grover become involved in such a relatively obscure production, and why has he chosen Charles when he could have asked for any number of other actors. The alternative though is for Charles to carry on with his real-life act as cheeky cockney handyman and decorator for his ex-wife Frances. (Frances, as we know is never very far from the scene, and has reluctantly rescued Charles from more than one meltdown. She is a headmistress, but is now attempting a new career as a writer, and flatly refuses to tell Charles anything about it, though she shares information with his agent and his wife). Shocked at a quote she had had for some work she wanted done on the house, Charles gallantly said that he would do it for less. Frances pays him well, he has a comfortable room, he’s begun to live more healthily and even developed muscles. But the stage beckons, and he is after all An Ac-Tor in his bones. Right from the beginning there are problems and arguments, and then a body is discovered (view spoiler)[at the foot of the dressing room stairs. Did they fall, or were they pushed? (hide spoiler)] Of course as one of the last people to have seen the victim alive, Charles Paris is questioned and find himself telling not-the-exact truth to the police. Now he has to discover what really happened for his own good. But things are about to get a lot worse, as he finds out that several of the people involved in the productions have secrets, and scandalous pasts. It’s a droll, witty tale, but the plot is � not quite as jaded as the actor, but not a fresh bright young talent either. Perhaps it is time for Charles Paris to take retirement. Read one of the middle books instead. They are quick reads, and the series is at its peak then. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jan 29, 2024
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Feb 03, 2024
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Jan 29, 2024
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Audio CD
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| B0DM5893WV
| unknown
| 3.68
| 2,038
| 1970
| 2020
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it was ok
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Wobble to Death? What an intriguing title for a crime novel! Was the victim perhaps upended into a huge vat of jelly? Or done to death, wobbling on a h Wobble to Death? What an intriguing title for a crime novel! Was the victim perhaps upended into a huge vat of jelly? Or done to death, wobbling on a highwire trapeze? What about being electrocuted by one of those road drilling machines? That would make the sorry victim wobble for sure � The answer is sadly none of these, and the murder methods employed are far more conventional. The word “wobble� in the title refers to a specific competitive sport, which we now know as speedwalking. Sorry if that’s a letdown. It’s easy to see why the sport was given such an apt appellation. The gait employed in such a race is characteristically ungainly; most odd, in fact unique. In the 1880s these “wobble� races became popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the English crime writer Peter Lovesey also writes non-fiction histories of track and field athletics, he decided to draw on his interest in this to introduce Sergeant Cribb to his reading public via a “wobble� race, setting the story when they were all the rage. Sergeant Cribb is thus a Victorian-era police detective based in London, who proved so popular that he went on to feature in 7 further novels, all of which are sports-related. Wobble to Death is the first novel in the series, and was written in 1970 in the typical whodunnit puzzle style of an earlier Golden Age Mystery. The setting is the Agricultural Hall of Islington, North London in 1879. This is not to be just an ordinary walking race “wobble�, but a bizarre six-day endurance race, arranged by Sol Herriott, who usually organises horse racing events. He has hired Walter Jacobson as his manager - who also has no experience with “pedestrian� events, as these are called. Not only is this wobble to take place over 6 days, but the entrants are drawn from all levels and walks of life; it is open to all. This proves to be a big draw. Also, the anticipation of a degrading spectacle as men gradually become more spent and exhausted as the event continues, means that large crowds descend on the arena every day, from all over London. Plus Sol Herriott has had a brainwave. Instead of the “toffs� being in with the hoi-polloi, he has designed a two-lane track. Thus a select few who do not wish to mingle with the unwashed, may remain separate at all times, whilst keeping their challenge of equal length and duration. The “pedestrians� make their way round the track at their own speed, and each has a dedicated person recording their laps. At the end of each day these are tallied up. This is a neat way to divide up the novel, too. At the beginning we are faced with quite a few names of contestants, and at the end of each day they are listed with their progress. Since there is not one but two murders (as in all the best crime novels) and some drop out through exhaustion, the list narrows down nicely through the 18 chapters of the novel. We also have assistants and trainers, but oddly, only two female characters in the entire novel, and one of these is a mere cameo role. The bookies� favourite is Captain Erskine Chadwick, running both for pride in challenging himself, and for the honour of his regiment. He is aided by Harvey, his batman. Chadwick is independently wealthy, and has bet quite a bit on himself to win, since he is a world class amateur athlete. Notwithstanding, his power of endurance matches the other favourite, Charles Darrell. Darrell comes from a lower class, but he is a professional athlete, so has been put in the same track as Captain Chadwick, to increase the visible competition and attract the crowds. He also has an experienced trainer in Sam Monk. Darrell’s wife Cora sometimes comes to watch - and also to be watched - which she clearly enjoys. She is, in the vernacular of the time, a flashy female, “no better than she ought to be�. Her maid enjoys sharing confidences about her mistress, who is (view spoiler)[ having an affair with Sam Monk, and also, we learn at the end, with someone else too, which proves to be more deadly than she could have possibly imagined (hide spoiler)]. Of the rank and file, a few stood out to me. Feargus O’Flaherty (evidently an Irishman) is also a good pedestrian, and will give it his best shot. There is Peter Chalk; George Williams; Billy Reid with his trainer, his brother, Jack; and a thin weedy chap Francis Mostyn-Smith, who is a doctor in his professional life. The crowd tend to make fun of Mostyn-Smith, because of his physique, so he prefers to run at night, when few are there to watch. Mostyn-Smith is also a well-off competitor, and quick on the uptake. (It’s always good to have a doctor on hand in a murder mystery �) Wobbles like these were different from races today, as the pedestrians could take part whichever hours they liked. They were allowed to take breaks; resting, sleeping, washing and eating what they chose, either in the basic and insanitary double cabins provided, or at hotels or houses outside, if they wished. The story has an omniscient narrator, and although it is true to 1870s London in its setting, dress, details, and social mores, the language is up to date apart from the names of a few Victorian artefacts etc. So when I heard “half-breed� used to refer to someone, just as casually as “doctor�, “Irishman� or “wife�, I was shocked. When did English people ever breed humans? Even slavery had ended in England just over a century earlier, in 1772. This seems to be a sickening aberration on the part of the author, since it was used purely as an indicator, and not to show any one character’s racist point of view, nor to reflect an opinion. The word is not one I had ever heard before, (and do not wish to again) although when this novel was written, it is possible some people still used the word “half-caste�. I am familiar with quite a few English novels written in the late 19th century, and nowhere have I ever read the word “half-breed�. The pedestrian referred to thus was George Williams. “Williams� is a Welsh name, and the city of Liverpool borders Wales. As Liverpool is a main port, traditionally it has always been ethnically diverse, like London. Therefore I deduce that George Williams is of mixed race, probably from this locale with one black parent and one white. Still, the half dozen times it occurred in the novel, I found this word very jarring and offensive. Moving on, we have a motley collection of “proven pedestrians� starting off at 1am on a November Monday morning. It does not take long before one of them is dead. (view spoiler)[On Tuesday, one of the main contenders for the title is suspected to have died from tetanus, due to walking around on the filthy track with no shoes, and thus picking up the infection from blisters on his feet. His trainer is mortified, and apparently commits suicide because he feels so guilty. He even leaves a note to explain. (hide spoiler)] However in time neither of these reasons is shown to be the case, although the victims are dead nonetheless. Sergeant Cribb from Scotland Yard is called in. He is: “tall, spare in frame, too spry in his movements ever to put on much weight. His head � was burdened with an overlong nose � and heavy eyebrows …� An authoritative presence, Sergeant Cribb also sports stylish “Piccadilly Weepers�, which are long, bushy but carefully combed side whiskers, of a type most fashionable in the mid to late 1800s in London, (and I’m sure you will have seen in period dramas such as Sherlock Holmes). The sergeant is aided by Constable Thackeray: “� a burly, middle-aged man with a fine grey beard …�. He takes notes assiduously, but it is clear that Constable Thackeray lacks the quick wits of his superior officer; his brain power seems as stolid as his build. The interactions between the two are amusing to read. Sergeant Cribb suspects poisoning at first, in various ways, but this is another case of the 1870s being very different from modern times (or even 1970, when this novel was written). All sort of drugs were allowed. Strychnine, for example was routinely given in small doses, as a stimulant for energy, in a tonic. (view spoiler)[One of the wobblers was killed by an overdose of strychnine deliberately added to his tonic. (hide spoiler)] There were all sort of dirty tactics employed by unscrupulous trainers too, against the opposition, such as (view spoiler)[ putting ground walnut shells in boots, to make the pedestrians� feet sore. Harvey did this. (hide spoiler)] There follows a series of revelations and red herrings. As I say, the novel is paced well, and Sergeant Cribb and his sidekick know that they must solve the crime(s) within the 6 six days of the wobble, or else the contestants will diperse all over London, and even further afield. We follow them down blind alleys galore. It is a shame that I did not enjoy this more, but 2 stars on ŷ means "it was OK", and this is what I felt overall. The penultimate chapter (17) involved an exciting chase through North London, after (view spoiler)[ Jacobson, who had stolen the cash for the wobble (hide spoiler)]. I did feel this was observed well, with many authentic features I recognised both from life, and details of the time from Charles Dickens’s later novels. However, mostly I found the writing to lack verve and wit. I learned about wobbles, for sure, and some likely facts and figures. The top prize for this 6 days wobble was £500; the winning prizes varied between £500 and £5, the basic prize for completing the course - which not everyone did. By the end there only seemed to be 9 who actually won any money. Bearing in mind that this wobble was held in a huge arena which has evidently previously been used by farm animals, not everyone was hardened to the basic living conditions, never mind the pedestrian wobble itself. The cabins were filthy, the camp beds ditto, and although gas was laid on both for heating and for cooking, this presented its own dangers. Another interesting fact was that although most wobbles were set for distances of 50m., 100m., or 150 miles in total, because in this arena the pedestrians wobbled round and round the track in the Agricultural Hall of Islington, it was anticipated that the winner would walk at least 500 miles, setting their paces at 90-100 miles per day! However, the daily descriptions of the race, and interaction between the pedestrians was � pedestrian (sorry!) Moreover, I did not feel it was possible to work out the murderer (not that I'm ever very good at that!); it was sprung on us in the last chapter, and even Sergeant Cribb admitted that (view spoiler)[ how and where the murderer obtained the strychnine, a record of which must be held by pharmacists, (hide spoiler)] was a mystery to him! And as for the motive � We may believe that someone would be upright enough to (view spoiler)[want to marry the person they are having an affair with. But can we believe that in order to do this, they would happily murder that person's spouse? Not only that but then they go on to commit a second murder, to cover it up? (hide spoiler)] No, I’m sorry but this is not psychologically plausible, or consistent with such a moral world view. Nevertheless the critics seemed to enjoy it: “Here are true Victorians, not pious frauds of legend. A first-rate story of sustained thrill.� - John Dickson Carr “First prize-winner, and a worthy one � excellently done.� - Edmund Crispin: Sunday Times “Brilliantly evocative � It is long since I came across so original a setting.� - Cyril Ray: The Spectator “A brilliant reconstruction.� Maurice Richardson: The Observer Wobble to Death is listed in the Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Mystery Novels, and won the Macmillan/Panther First Crime Novel Prize of £1000 in 1970, from about 250 entries. A piece of trivia which might make you smile concerns the actress Barbara Windsor. This Cockney sparrow grew up from humble origins, but was always very bright, and once won a mathematics competition out of the whole of London. Nevertheless, despite the fact that she was very intelligent it was her well endowed figure which people remarked on. Her most popular roles were in the increasingly lewd “Carry On� films, carrying on the comic tradition of 19th century English music hall and bawdy seaside postcards. Barbara Windsor was known to be a good sport, and a crowd-pleaser, so perhaps it was predictable that on publication day for Wobble to Death, a 24-hour charity “wobble� was staged around Sloane Square, started by Barbara Windsor jointly with the author. I may try to track down some later ones in the series. I also understand there was also a TV series made between 1980 and 1981, with Alan Dobie as Sergeant Cribb. In the end though, I do think the best thing about this crime book is its title. And you're not likely to forget what a wobble is now, are you? ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jan 2024
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Jan 18, 2024
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Jan 01, 2024
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Audiobook
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| 0854564748
| 9780854564743
| 0854564748
| 3.97
| 71,873
| Nov 04, 1957
| Dec 01, 1989
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really liked it
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4:50 from Paddington is the 8th novel by Agatha Christie to feature her genteel amateur sleuth, Miss Marple. It was first published in 1957, and might
4:50 from Paddington is the 8th novel by Agatha Christie to feature her genteel amateur sleuth, Miss Marple. It was first published in 1957, and might well have been the first novel I read by Agatha Christie. I remember the day when I was first allowed through the double doors from the children’s library to the main adult library. I was perhaps 14. The libraries which still have special children’s tickets now, seem to specify ages of 5 to between 13-16, but many libraries now incorporate both adult and children’s sections within one library. Nevertheless, the thrill of that day remains with me. What would I choose? In fact I chose one book by Agatha Christie and a Sherlock Holmes one by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (only to discover when I got home that a visiting relative told me one was much better than the other, but refused to tell me which! I now think he was being a little snooty about Dame Agatha �) Did he have good reason? Well this is not her best crime novel, although it is certainly enjoyable. It features a murder on a train, one of Agatha Christie’s favourite devices, since it is a variant on the locked room mystery, with the added spice of locomotion. British fans of her books would have a good idea of what was about to occur when they read the title 4:50 from Paddington, as Paddington is one of the largest railway terminal stations in London. Their appetites would be whetted for a murder mystery similar to “Murder on the Orient Express� - two decades earlier, and with Hercule Poirot as detective - in 1934. However an international reading audience of 1957 may not have been as conversant with London railway stations as they are now, so the author’s American publishers decided not to risk this title, but instead call it “What Mrs. McGillycuddy Saw!, complete with arresting exclamation mark. Instead of heightening the intrigue for British audiences though, this title may well have conjured up sleazy ”What the Butler Saw!� seaside coin-in-the-slot Victorian peepshows, or French farces. At any rate Collins publishers decided on discretion, and later British editions always have the original title 4:50 from Paddington. The story begins in a gripping way, with the murder taking place very early on. Mrs. Elspeth McGillicuddy is on the train from London, setting off to visit her friend Miss Jane Marple in St. Mary Mead. At one point on the track her train passes another, running in the same direction. We know from one of the titles, (and by the genre we are reading) the sort of thing she is likely to see which would merit an exclamation mark in 1957. These were times well before the almost mandatory use of exclamation marks in current textspeech. Mrs. McGillycuddy is of course horrified, and reports this to various officials, but after taking a look at her lurid reading material, and noting her age, they put her down as a dotty old lady having a vivid dream as she indulged herself having a snooze for forty winks. However, Miss Marple knows that her friend is an honest woman - and has no imagination at all - so that what she reports as having seen must be the literal truth. She insists that the police follow this up, which they do to the best of their ability, but since there is no evidence to bear out what Mrs. McGillycuddy was so sure she had seen, (view spoiler)[i.e. no body, nor any evidence of a man having strangled a woman (hide spoiler)] they inevitably come to the same conclusion as the railway guards and officials. Mrs. McGillycuddy has gone off on holiday abroad by now, but Miss Marple is still cogitating. She is feeling the effects of old age by now, and is no longer as sprightly as she once was, although her mental acuity remains as sharp as ever. Miss Marple has quizzed her friend closely, and knows exactly which train she took. (view spoiler)[She analyses the possibilities on a map, and takes several rides by train to determine where the body must be. There is only one possible contender: the grounds of Rutherford Hall. (hide spoiler)] Those who have ever travelled by train in Britain or Europe may wonder about the likely topography of the route taken by the 4:50 from Paddington. Agatha Christie herself researched this quite closely before she wrote her novel. The Paddington line serves the stations to Devon. However there must be a possibility of two parallel tracks at some point on the line, unless we are to believe that the entire scene was some sort of mirrored reflection (which is not beyond the bounds of possibility; this author has used this device before after all.) There must also be somewhere for (view spoiler)[ the murderer to tip out the body from the train without being seen, and for the body to lie hidden until it could be retrieved (hide spoiler)]. Agatha Christie found all this in the real life Abney Hall, the splendid Victorian mansion belonging to the Watts family. Agatha Christie spent many Christmasses and holidays there with her best friend and sister-in-law Nan Watts. So she transposed this hall and its environs to Devon, and fictionalised it as the slightly down-at-heel “Rutherford Hall�. The lodge has since been demolished, and only the gates are left standing, but the description of Rutherford Hall in the opening chapters fits this perfectly. In addition, a Victorian map of the estate of Abney Hall show the proximity of two railway lines; the London and the North West lines. One of these has since been lifted for economic reasons, but when Agatha Christie originally wrote the novel, they were there, adjacent to Abney Hall. In 1961, four years after the book was first published, MGM decided to begin a series of Miss Marple films, kicking off with 4:50 from Paddington, which they renamed “Murder, She Said.� It had a strong cast, led by Margaret Rutherford, despite the fact that Agatha Christie herself said that although Margaret Rutherford was a “fine actress�, she bore no resemblance to her own idea of Miss Marple. Agatha Christie had seen her own ideal incarnation of Miss Marple; a young woman at the time, but who would be perfect in the future when she eventually grew older. It was a young woman playing a maid on the London stage, and her name was Joan Hickson. And of course Joan Hickson did indeed go on to play Miss Marple for the BBC, not only in a dramatisation of 4:50 from Paddington in 1987, but also in dramatisations of every short story and novel Agatha Christie wrote with Miss Marple in; the entire canon. Plus Joan Hickson actually had a small part in this first 1961 film “Murder, She Said�, playing Mrs. Kidder. The 1987 adaptation with Joan Hickson is my preferred one, and I have watched it many times, even though it differs from the novel itself in a few key places. Sometimes this is to enable a smooth continuation of the television series, such as adding Inspector Duckham and the recurring characters from the BBC television series, Inspector Slack and Sergeant Lake, and making Detective-Inspector Dermot Craddock, Miss Marple’s godson rather than Sir Henry Clithering’s. There is no (view spoiler)[ poisoning of the family, and Alfred is still alive at the end, although suffering from a terminal illness that Dr. Quimper had apparently misdiagnosed deliberately. Anna Stravinka’s real name is revealed as “Martine Isabelle Perrault�, although in the novel, her real name is unknown. Thus the twist where James Stoddard-West’s mother is Martine is deleted from the script for the dramatisation, and the real Martine is not seen. (hide spoiler)] Both of these threads are inventions of the 1987 BBC film, plus there is one which is lifted straight from the 1961 film: (view spoiler)[ Harold is murdered in what appears to be a hunting accident, and not by poisoned tablets. This was explained as being because Dr. Quimper suspected that Harold knew who the victim was, as Harold had a deep passion for dancing, and collected posters of the same ballet troupe she was in. (hide spoiler)]. The two young boys also feature more largely in the adaptation, (view spoiler)[ even being there shortly after the discovery of the body in the sarcophagus (hide spoiler)], and at the end, Miss Marple openly expresses her views about an upcoming marriage, which she does not do in the novel. However, none of these minor story changes affect the plot line adversely in my opinion, and it is surely to its advantage that Miss Marple is played by the author’s own personal choice of actor. The BBC also dramatised the novel as a single 90-minute episode for radio, which was first broadcast in March 1997. June Whitfield played Miss Marple, and went on to act the part in further dramatisations; I feel she acts the part authentically. There is one remaining dramatisation, by ITV in 2004 for the series “Marple� starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. When it was shown in the US, the title was changed to “What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!� This adaptation contains several major changes from the novel, which diverge from the novel so much that it is almost a completely different story! I shan’t bother to enumerate them, since the entire series of “Marple� seems to be staged differently from Agatha Christie’s intention, with the actors playing their parts in such a droll, knowing way that the entire production seems camp. Some viewers like this, but it is not in keeping, in my view. Margaret Rutherford also played her role for laughs, although she was well received enough to reprise it for 3 further films of Agatha Christie’s novels. I very much enjoyed it at the time � not quite as early as 1961, as at that time English local cinemas used to show films which had been released a few years before. I had never read an Agatha Christie novel, but I knew the name, so accordingly in the long school holiday one summer, still entitled to a child’s 6d. ticket, I took the bus (or perhaps walked) on my own to the local cinema to see “Murder She Said!� I loved it, ripply pink curtains rising over the black and white screen and all, and from then on determined that I would visit the cinema as often as I could. Again, such solitary pleasures are probably denied to today’s children, in a world full of fears for them, both real and imaginary. My rating of four stars is in part an affection for this novel, rather than an objective rating. In fairness it probably should stay at my default of three stars. There are huge coincidences, for instance knowing a detective inspector at Scotland Yard personally (Dermot Craddock, who first met Miss Marple in “A Murder is Announced� and was also to work with her in "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side"). Not only that, but also in this case she has a great-nephew, David, who works for British Railways. Also, is it likely that Miss Marple, in these class-ridden novels, would know just the right sort of person to (view spoiler)[ be a maid of all work at Rutherford Hall (hide spoiler)]? We are expected to believe that she and her brothers are all academic highflyers, and that she (view spoiler)[ Lucy Eyelesbarrow (hide spoiler)] is a veritable mathematical genius, yet prefers to work hard at short-term grinding domestic labour, in order to have the money to go on holidays abroad. This seems to be a carefully contrived plot device, rather than a realistic and believable portrait of a young woman of the time. And (sorry Dame Agatha!) a couple of the changes in the 1987 film do seem to make the plot more plausible. A fellow crime writer of the time, Anthony Berkeley Cox, (who wrote under the pen name of Francis Iles), wrote in “The Guardian� newspaper that he was disappointed. He admitted to a liking for the “sprightly stories� of Agatha Christie, but also looked for: “detection: genuine, steady, logical detection, taking us step by step nearer to the heart of the mystery. Unfortunately it is that quality that is missing in 4.50 from Paddington. The police never seem to find out a single thing, and even Miss Marples (sic) lies low and says nuffin� to the point until the final dramatic exposure. There is the usual small gallery of interesting and perfectly credible characters and nothing could be easier to read. But please, Mrs Christie, a little more of that incomparable detection next time.� And the current mystery writer Robert Barnard seems to agree, saying that it: “settles down into a good old family murder. Contains one of Christie’s few sympathetic independent women. Miss Marple apparently solves the crime by divine guidance, for there is very little in the way of clues or logical deduction.� Nevertheless it is an entertaining read, with plenty of engaging characters, and a murderer who is cleverly disguised for almost the entire story. I have no doubt that I will choose it again, should I need a comfort mystery read (or watch) when I have the ’flu. As the critic of the “Times Literary Supplement� in 1957 said: “Miss Christie never harrows her readers, being content to intrigue and amuse them.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 03, 2023
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Dec 27, 2023
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Nov 03, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0525541357
| 9780525541356
| B07KNV4RC3
| 3.95
| 126,835
| Nov 25, 2009
| Aug 13, 2019
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really liked it
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“You know what, sometimes it seems to me we’re living in a world that we fabricate for ourselves. We decide what’s good and what isn’t, we draw maps o
“You know what, sometimes it seems to me we’re living in a world that we fabricate for ourselves. We decide what’s good and what isn’t, we draw maps of meanings for ourselves � And then we spend our whole lives struggling with what we have invented for ourselves. The problem is that each of us has our own version of it, so people find it hard to understand each other.� Have you ever seen literary reviews and thought, they must have read a different book from the one I read? That was my experience with Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I knew nothing about it, but the novel was prefaced by glowing reviews such as: “A wry, richly melancholic, philosophical mystery. A compelling and endlessly thought provoking novel, luminous with the strangeness of existence.� Or how about this, from “The Guardian�: “[It] inhabits a rebellious playful register very much her own. A passionate and enchantingly discursive plea for meaningful connectedness, for the acceptance of fluidity, mobility, illusoriness� Or these words, from the LA Review of books: “This astonishing performance is her glittering bravura entry in the literature of ideas. A select few novels possess the wonder of music, and this is one of them. An international mercurial and always generous book, it can be endlessly revisited.� This summing up begins well “Strange, mordantly funny, consoling and wise� but continues “[it] fills the reader’s mind with intimations of a unique consciousness.� What does that even mean? It is tempting to use the author’s own words again, to comment on these literary accolades: “People who wield a pen can be dangerous � such a Person is not him or herself, but an eye that’s constantly watching, and whatever it sees it changes into sentences; in the process it strips reality of its most essential quality—its inexpressibility.� Yes, in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, the protagonist sometimes grapples with esoteric ideas. There is a fair amount of William Blake in the novel, and many references to astrology, but at no time did I ever feel it descended into pretentious waffle like the reviews. They were included in the ebook before the novel, so it was difficult to ignore them. They nearly put me off before I had begun, but I had it on loan for 3 weeks, so I plunged in. What I discovered was a delight. There was an embedded mystery to keep me reading, and an intelligent and quirky narrator: Janina Duszejko. (She hates her first name, so I will do as she wishes, and call her “Duszejko�, or Mrs. Duszejko. Strange that. I hate titles, and my surnames have never seemed to belong to me, but then we are all different.) Looking up the name Duszejko—which she repeatedly insists is not pronounced correctly—I learn that it means creativity, flexible, and studious. It fits this character; no wonder she wishes to use it rather than Janina, in Polish: “God is gracious�. Not that a name is often needed. Duszejko lives near a remote village in the Table Mountains of the Kłodzko Valley, a forested, mountainous region in southwestern Poland, just across the border from the Czech Republic. There are a few houses dotted around among the woods, but those who choose to live here prefer isolation, as she does. So when at the beginning of the novel Duszejko hears a knock on her door, she is startled at the rare occurence. One of her neighbours is dead, she is told. Duszejko, as I said, is not keen on names. She feels that they do not seem to describe the essence of people, so she secretly gives people her own names: “Oddball�, “Big Foot�, “Dizzy�, “Good News�, and for the deer who also live in the woods—and with whom she feels an intense affinity—her “young ladies�. Her “g� who to her grief are no longer there, it took me a while to realise, were her (view spoiler)[two dogs, who had disappeared, but clearly been killed. (hide spoiler)] It is Oddball who tells her the news, and they both go to see what has happened and what, if anything, can be done. Big Foot is dead; with a shard of bone jammed down his throat. Since he is a despicable character who tears up the forest for his own ends, poaches wild game, and treats his pet dog cruelly, Duszejko finds it difficult to feel much regret, but they make him look peaceful as a mark of respect, and she pulls out her moblile phone to call the local police. However: “Soon after an automated Czech voice responded. That’s what happens here. The signal wanders, with no regard for the national borders � its capricious nature is hard to predict.� Phone lines seem to randomly reach the Czech Republic when it is the Polish authorities who need to be contacted. Thus begins the metaphor, in which the Czech-Polish border represents Duszejko’s sense of restriction; of being imprisoned. For a great deal of the novel, these individuals living on the edge of society make their own arrangements. There are historic traces all around of labour camps, and the regulations seem rigid and overwhelming at times. Best to be self-sufficient is their watchword; keep yourself to yourself. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is narrated by the ageing, anarchic astrologer Duszejko, who says philosophically: “For people my age, the places that they truly loved and to which they once belonged are no longer there.� She spends her time devising her charts, translating Blake’s poetry, trying to make sense of existence, fighting her ailments, and haranguing the local hunters for climbing into their hunting stands, and killing the animals she loves so much. “In a pulpit Man places himself above other Creatures and grants himself the right to their life and death.� The antagonism between them is always threatening to bubble over. When one hunter attempts to calm a furious Duszejko, explaining that he and his friends are simply shooting pheasants, she feels: “a surge of Anger, genuine, not to say Divine Anger � There was a fire burning within me, like a neutron star.� I never need to identify with any character in a novel, but I felt a close bond with cranky Duszejko, right from the start, and was hit by the parallels between her life and my own. Or is this just a very skilful author? The translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones incidentally, is superb. Duszejko’s take on life is irresistible: “The best conversations are with yourself. At least there’s no risk of a misunderstanding.� “This is a land of neurotic egotists, each of whom, as soon as he finds himself among others, starts to instruct, criticize, offend, and show off his undoubted superiority.� “Who divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right?� However, to talk of the protagonist Duszejko and her views is only the surface layer of this novel, just as describing this book as a whoddunit, although in part true, would be. There are several deaths, and Duszejko increasingly believes with each that the animals are (view spoiler)[taking revenge, that they are the murderers (hide spoiler)]. (This was not really a spoiler, but you might prefer to read it for yourself!) There even seems to be evidence which makes this feasible, since mysteriously (view spoiler)[one victim is found in a well, with deerprints marking the snow all around him, but no other prints (hide spoiler)]. Of course this does not further Duszejko’s reliablity in the eyes of the authorities, who cannot see past their stereotypical ideas of ageing women and of those living in the cottages above the village in self-imposed isolation, as: “Old eccentrics. Pathetic hippies.� The village has a macho hunting culture; the killing of a deer is mere sport, an attitude which Duszejko considers despicable. “Anger always leaves a large void behind it, into which a flood of sorrow pours instantly, and keeps on flowing like a great river, without beginning or end.� “But the truth is, anyone who feels anger and does not take action merely spreads the infection.� Duszejko used to be a bridge engineer, and then a teacher, and now? She lives minimally as a recluse, studying astrological charts in order to make sense out of chaos. “How could we possibly understand it all?� � � I cannot be someone other than I am. How awful.� She is deeply troubled about the world, and also chronically sick, although this is never defined, but is rather merely another thing she is resigned to, with melancholy but no self-pity. Would it help to summarise the plot? I feel that would only do this novel a disservice. You could read this as a devious mystery, with a satisfying twist, but it is about much more than the story. As the author said: “just writing a book to know who is the killer is wasting paper and time.� Using an extract of Blake’s work to begin each chapter, the text is like a series of coded messages where we grasp towards some impression we have of a meaning, but which is essentially undecipherable. I’m not usually at a loss to describe a book, but do feel myself in danger of descending into pretenious twaddle here, so perhaps I was being unfair to those reviewers. We have 17 chapters where each brief title is followed by a couplet from various of Blake’s writings. Here are the first three; I have added the unnamed sources: 1. Now Pay Attention “Once meek, and in a perilous path, The just man kept his course along The vale of death.� (—The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: The Argument) In this chapter we get to know our uncompromising protagonist. 2. Testosterone Autism “A dog starvd at his Masters Gate Predicts the ruin of the State.� (—Auguries of Innocence) We begin to see that each character in their separate dwelling is a loner, cocooned by their own beliefs. “The prison is not outside, but inside each of us. Perhaps we simply don’t know how to live without it.� None of the inhabitants relates to the others, and they relate variously to the animals around them. The way we treat—or mistreat—animals informs the way we view those fellow humans whom we consider beneath us. “From nature’s point of view no creatures are useful or not useful. That’s just a foolish distinction applied by people.� The hunters seem connected with the neighbouring Czechoslovakia. Furthermore, we are becoming aware of Duszejko’s consciousness of both political and gender repression, which she sees as mirroring Blake’s sense of how the different aspects of society are interrelated. Throughout the novel, Duszejko’s intelligence is evident to us, but not a glimmer of it passes others� preconceived ideas of her; nor does she care. “That’s what I dislike most of all in people—cold irony. It’s a very cowardly attitude to mock or belittle everything, never be committed to anything, not feel tied to anything.� 3. Perpetual Light “Whate’er is born of mortal birth Must be consumed with the earth.� (—“To Tirzah� from Songs of Innocence and of Experience) Duszejko is committed to astrology, and gaining an understanding both of the universe and the detail, through drawing her complex and precise charts. She ponders on Perpetual Light, or Existence, or Darkness and the truths she sees in the poetry of William Blake’s esoteric poetry, which she translates with an old friend who used to be her pupil: “I see everything as if in a dark mirror, as if through smoked glass. I view the world in the same way as others look at the Sun in eclipse. Thus I see the Earth in eclipse. I see us moving about blindly in eternal Gloom, like the May bugs trapped in a box by a cruel child. It’s easy to harm and injure us, to smash up our intricately assembled, bizarre existence. I interpret everything as abnormal, terrible and threatening. I see nothing but Catastrophes. But as the Fall is the beginning, can we possibly fall even lower?� Although it was written in 2009, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was not translated into English until 2018, although there had been a film in 2017. I assume that much of the book is unfilmable, and wonder if English readers are missing some nuances. Is the Blake verbatim? It seems to be. Yet there is one episode where Duszejko and her friend are working on translating a passage of Blake. “How wonderful—to translate from one language to another, and by so doing to bring people closer to one another—what a beautiful idea.� They exchange various suggestions, where a particular verse is rendered in English which has been translated from the Polish, but which had originally been translated from English. The subtle differences and shades of meaning must have been remarkably difficult to translate back and forth, but it works well. The author Olga Tokarczuk, an outspoken feminist and intellectual, is a controversial figure in her home country. She has been castigated as a “tǷɾԾ�: an ancient term for a traitor. After the film came out, one journalist wrote that it was “a deeply anti-Christian film that promoted eco-terrorism�. They seem to have looked through a distorting lens. To get to the core of his book, perhaps we should simply look at the title, and remember what the visionary William Blake meant by it: “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.� This is the beginning of Proverbs of Hell, from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell�. This poem goes on to demonstrate the importance of questioning accepted social ideals, as this is the only manner by which new knowledge can be produced. Ultimately this is what Janina Duszejko, a unique individual, spends her life doing. “I grew up in a beautiful era, now sadly in the past. In it there was great readiness for change, and a talent for creating revolutionary visions. Nowadays no one still has the courage to think up anything new. All they ever talk about, round the clock, is how things already are, they just keep rolling out the same old ideas. Reality has grown old and gone senile; after all, it is definitely subject to the same laws as every living organism—it ages. Just like the cells of the body, its tiniest components—the senses, succumb to apoptosis. Apoptosis is natural death, brought about by the tiredness and exhaustion of matter. In Greek this word means ‘the dropping of petals.� The world has dropped its petals.� “We have a view of the world, but Animals have a sense of the world, do you see?� ...more |
Notes are private!
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Apr 24, 2023
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May 30, 2023
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Apr 24, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 1408889560
| 9781408889565
| 1408889560
| 3.80
| 440,432
| Feb 08, 2018
| Sep 2022
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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Apr 21, 2023
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Hardcover
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Bionic Jean
>
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mystery-crime
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really liked it
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Jul 02, 2002
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Jan 20, 2025
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| 3.64
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liked it
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Feb 20, 2025
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really liked it
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Jan 2025
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Sep 24, 2024
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not set
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Sep 05, 2024
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really liked it
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Sep 05, 2024
Jan 24, 1990
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liked it
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Sep 11, 2024
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| 3.72
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liked it
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Aug 23, 2024
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really liked it
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Aug 13, 2024
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Jul 16, 2024
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Jun 02, 2024
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did not like it
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May 25, 2024
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| 3.88
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it was amazing
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Apr 07, 2024
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it was ok
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Apr 18, 2024
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Apr 15, 2024
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Mar 30, 2024
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| 3.87
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May 05, 2024
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Feb 12, 2024
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| 3.97
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it was ok
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Feb 03, 2024
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Jan 29, 2024
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| 3.68
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it was ok
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Jan 18, 2024
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| 3.97
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really liked it
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Dec 27, 2023
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Nov 03, 2023
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| 3.95
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May 30, 2023
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| 3.80
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Apr 21, 2023
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