





You can tell it’s been a tough couple of weeks, because I’ve reverted to my reading Happy Place — Carter Dickson, Max Afford, and now Norman Berrow (there was a traumatic Ngaio Marsh experience in there, too, but the less said about that the better). My entirely non-chronological sampling of this delightful Kiwi — probably the most purely joyous GAD author I read — continues apace, since this is the preceding title to Murder in the Melody (1940), the last Berrow I read…no, I have no idea why I’m doing it like this. I’ll make sure his debut The Smokers of Hashish (1934) is the next Berrow I pick up. Just bear with me, eh? It’s been a tough couple of weeks.
This, then, is the first of four novels to feature Michael and Fleur Revel, who head out on a road trip, call into a small local hotel for the night, and find themselves confronting a dead body and the vanishing of another guest. It is full of the sort of casual asides Berrow does so well — a waitress whose apron is “starched practically bullet proof”, a grandfather clock ringing the change of hour after every other clock in the vicinity “holding his breath and hoping that no-one had heard, or, if he had been heard, that no-one had noticed how late he’d been” — before we’re presented with what appears to be the central problem of the piece: a dead man in a bathtub, with malice undecided.
“He was not drowned, he was not asphyxiated, he was not doped. Neither was he slugged, nor shot, nor stabbed, nor strangled, nor any other thing that is murderous. He just died. And if the cause of death was heart-failure, there was no traceable reason for the failure.”
Out of sheer curiosity, how far have you progressed in the reading of the French novel “Le Meurtre de ….” (I have forgotten the final words) by some “obscure French author” ? 🙂
LikeLike
So far, nul points.
LikeLike
1. I have tried to get into the one Fleur and Michael Revel novel I have THREE times . . . I fear it’s more of the same as this one.
2. I just received The Bishop’s Sword, which means I still have two Lancelot mysteries to read. I might stick with that for as long as it lasts.
3. I hear you, brother: the past few weeks – nay, months! – have been hard on me for a number of reasons, and reading has been difficult. I can’t tell you how many classic mysteries I’ve started and faltered on – and one five hundred-plus page modern mystery I’m stuck on – and MORE that have made me question my abilities to blog and my place in the universe. I’m starting to think moving to the U.K. and living in the sound studio where you guys pod might be my best bet.
4. Which Marsh did you get stuck in???
LikeLike
1. I enjoyed Murder in the Melody more, which I think benefited from a cleaner plot focus, This isn’t sure what it wants to be, and brothetr do you feel it. Dare I ask which one is causing you difficulties?
2. The Bishop’s Sword was my first Berrow, and as such I retain a huge fondness for it. The impossibilities are all easy to solve, but the way he integrates them into the plot is exquisite.
3. Don’t ever doubt your ability to blog or your place in the universe, Brad. Both are already assured in plenty of ways.
4. It was Off with His Head, a.k.a. Death of a Fool. Got another podcast episode coming on Saturday, wherein I reveal my 15 favourite Paul Hal…I mean impossible crime novels, and I thought I’d see if Marsh might make a late charge onto the list somewhere. Turns out, nope.
LikeLike
1. It’s Words Have Wings. The first chapters are charming, as you say, but something is annoying and it all seems to be . . . silly.
2. I look forward to it. I also still have Footprints of Satan, so I’m in a good place, Berrow-wise.
3. Can you call me every morning with affirmations like this one?
4. I don’t suppose Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is going to make it on your list either . . . 😦
5. Did you know that Firefox says you have configured your website incorrectly. Now THEY’RE not letting me on. So here I am, back to using Safari because my school computer doesn’t have Chrome. Why is technology so durned fussy, dagnabbit???
LikeLike
Apologies, Brad, as well as having to suffer the indignity of Safari, you poor man, this also somehow ended up in my spam folder…
I like Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, and have never said otherwise. It’s not one of my 15, no, but it seems an unjustly-maligned book to my mind. That said, I like all the Christie impossible crime novels I’ve read thus far — my thinking says they’re The Sittaford Mystery (1931), Murder in Mesopotamia (1936), Appointment With Death (1938), Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (1938, clearly an impossible year for Dame A), And Then There Were None (1939), and The Pale Horse (1961) — and not just because they contain impossibilities. She does something great with each of them, and while one of the above is on my list, another cam within a whisker of taking its place…
LikeLike
1. It’s Words Have Wings. The first chapters are charming, as you say, but charming becomes annoying and it all seems so . . . silly.
2, I look forward to it. I also still have Footprints of Satan ,so I’m in a good place, Berrow-wise.
3. Can you call me every morning with affirmations like this one?
4. I don’t suppose Hercule Poirot’s Christmas is going to make it on your list either . . . 😦
5. Did you know that Firefox says you have configured your website incorrectly? Now they’re not letting me on your site. So here I am, back to using Safari because my school computer doesn’t have Chrome. This may result in a duplicate message, which I trust you have the intelligence I lack to handle. Why is technology so durned fussy, dagnabbit?!?
LikeLike
there was a traumatic Ngaio Marsh experience in there, too, but the less said about that the better
I’ve just suffered through one of her books as well so you have my sympathies!
LikeLike
In fairness, I have enjoyed a couple of hers quite a lot — Death in a White Tie and Overture to Death — but Off with His Head was too much for me at this advanced stage in life…
LikeLike