A clever, witty pastiche of intra-war English cozies. ( )

A wonderful pastiche of the Agatha Christie snowed in country house mysteries. At the start of the book Roger Gentry has already been murdered and his body discovered in a locked attic room. Snow is falling heavily and Chief Inspector Trubshaw (retired) of Scotland Yard is summoned from his retirement cottage close by. One of the guests is Evadne Mount, detective story writer, who is determined to solve the mystery. This is a wonderfully fun book which gently pokes fun at a classic genre, and its good mystery as well. ( )

Having fallen into a reading slump, which is somewhat criminal of me, I decided to look for something light, fun, and potentially enjoyable. So, who better an author to sit back with than Gilbert Adair, a man whose novels come laden with lingusitic tricks and twists? And what better a book than The Act Of Roger Murgatroyd (2006), if only because its subtitle is An Entertainment. Oh, I needed entertaining.

Read my full review:
http://booklit.com/blog/2007/12/11/gi... ( )

This book was recommended to my by Stewart, in a comment on my post about the Agatha Christie novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. And he was right, I liked this book very much.

This is a classic mystery novel. A group of people, before the second World War, in a secluded manor. A diverse group of people, with an actress, a novel writer, a Colonel, a doctor, all the usual suspects. A body upstairs, in a locked room. All have a motive, all have something to hide.

Who did it? We actually already know, or do we? It's got the description of an entertainment on the front cover, and that's true. It's really an entertainment, and very entertaining! ( )

It is very early in the morning on Boxing Day and a group of guests are all awake and in shock at Ffolkes Manor on the edge of Dartmoor. The guests have been snowed in, but this is not the reason for the early awakening. The dead body of Raymond Gentry has been found in an attic room. Distressing enough, but the room was locked – from the inside. There is one window with thick bars on it and the only furniture is a chipped table with a rickety chair, and an armchair that had seen better days. There is no sign of the murderer or the murder weapon. Like it or not, each of the guests are a suspect, and each have his or her own reason to kill the totally unpleasant Gentry.

The recently retired Scotland Yard Chief-Inspector Trubshawe lives a mile away he agrees to come to the Manor and carry out an informal investigation until the police can get through the blocked roads. Through his gentle questioning all secrets are eventually revealed including who did it.

Anyone who is a fan of crime fiction is aware of the Golden Age of Crime writing - old manor houses, seemingly impossible murders, upper class suspects and red herrings galore were all presented to the reader so they could guess who had done it. This book is written along those lines – it is even set in the 1930’s. It is an easy to read, enjoyable book that gently pokes fun at the classic detective stories. ( )