Unexpected Night

Well, that was a tedious reminder why I don't read detective fiction, and especially 'Golden Age' detective fiction. When I saw the Henry Gamadge - no idea how to pronounce the name, I was going with 'Gamij' - novels recommended on Threads, I was reminded of my Nero Wolfe era, when I collected nearly the whole 'corpus' of books. Only trouble is, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are both strong characters who can carry the most convoluted of murder mysteries. Henry Gamadge is not - in fact, why does he even take charge of the events in this book? He's just an 'expert' on old books and documents, and just because he's acquainted with the family and a guest at the hotel, he's suddenly in charge, bossing the sheriff's office around!

Too much show more exposition and dialogue, flat characters, and an abundance of semi-colons that I would have struck out with a red pen, if I'd been reading a physical copy. Oh, and a romance between first cousins - no thanks! show less

Certainly not my favorite mystery, or even my favorite whodunit, but this book provides the first appearance of Henry Gamadge, who is one of my favorite literary (amateur) detectives, so for that it gets a pass in my book.

We get to see Gamadge not in New York, where he lives and where many of the later books take place, but on vacation in Maine, so we don't meet the other members of his household, only hear briefly about them. We get a little sense of Gamadge's character, and his fine qualities as a busybody. The setup is quite interesting, with family money all destined for one young, charming, and extraordinarily ill scion, provided he lives to his 21st birthday, and otherwise to distant European relatives. The circumstances of the show more death provide no shortage clues. But the resolution is abrupt and felt a little clumsy; I'd have appreciated a few more pages at the end to wind things up.

So: if you're not familiar with Gamadge, I wouldn't start with this one. But if you've read others and you're hooked on this character, by all means give this a read. It's fun to read how he started to gain the reputation he has in later books. show less

between 2.5 and 3 stars. i definitely didn't see that ending/solution coming, not by a mile. this was a very well done mystery and a nicely hidden solution. that part was really fun. but i felt very removed from it all, and so not as engaged in the action as i'd like to have been. what was harder for me was picturing almost any of what was happening at any important moment, and (this is all on me) but for some reason i had trouble keeping track of the people when sometimes they were referred to by their last names and sometimes by their first names. so that made it harder for me to follow, but the mystery here really is great. what a trick ending.

This book was my first experience with Henry Gamadge, and I like it.
A good story (though there is a high body count), intriguing cast of characters (though I did resort to keeping a who's-who list), and a likable amateur detective (one character humorously considers Gamadge a suspect because Gamadge always seems to be there when there's a vital clue or action or conversation).
This, from late in the book, during a conversation between the family lawyer and Gamadge, when Gamadge says something that surprises Ormville, who thought they were on the same page in assessing suspects: Mr. Ormville sat back in his chair and contemplated Gamadge with the air of one who has stroked the house cat, and had his thumb bitten.

Henry Gamadge came to the seaside resort for a little golf and relaxation. Instead, he found himself involved in a suspicious death of a young man who had come into his inheritance just shortly before his death. Too bad for the young man but it may be good for one branch of the family. That fortune may pass to them.

How did the young invalided man wind up at the base of a cliff? Who among the legatees could have caused his death? A person who has been forced to live a very sheltered life, on the brink of his possible independence is suddenly denied it. Has his protective family been waiting for this moment?

Gamadge may be a known authority on rare manuscripts, but he is also known for his amateur sleuthing. This is a case that puts those show more talents to the test.

Elizabeth Daly is one of the Golden Age writers and does a good job of creating puzzles and their solutions. She only wrote sixteen Gamadge books and I plan to read them all. She is up there with Christie and Sayers. show less

I got as 3/4 of the way through before reconciling myself to the fact that I wasn't having a good time.

British? Check! Golden Age Mystery? Check! Agatha Christie says 2 thumbs up? Check! And yet ... so many problems ...

1: I felt the characters were names rather than characters, and wouldn't have been able to tell you one thing about any of them that made them interesting (other than the victim, who suffers from Not Being Believably Human, something many of the other named personages suffer from).

2: The plot just sort of oozed rather than flowed (or being diverted into channels) ... very little sense of who the detective is (the policeman? the amateur?) or why anything is happening while it is happening. Feels written under the show more influence!

Which basically adds up to boring and unbelievable, so yes, I'm stopping. Perhaps she finds her feet with a later volume? But this first introduction to the world of Henry Gamadage was very disappointing.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less

A fun read. Really has the flavor of the classic British cozy mysteries. Good detective. Clever solution. I look forward to finding more Elizabeth Daly.