The Act of Roger Murgatroyd

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.

For those of you who know your Agatha Christie, or the Golden Age of British crime, the title of this book will speak volumes. It is, as you would expect, a spoof of the great era of crime writing, and, in part, a homage to Christie's exceptional The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. This book involves a British manor house, an amateur sleuth, the usual range of British upper class (and not-so-upper class) characters, and a locked room mystery.

It is rather amusing stuff, with a great meta-analysis feel as our amateur sleuth, Evadne Mount, is a writer of mystery novels herself, with some gentle fun being had at the expense of the genre. Lots of "oh, but when I wrote cheesy murder mystery title..." comments, and a general disdain of locked room show more mysteries, which Miss Mount would never write, oh no. Particular mention also has to be made of the map at the front of the book: completely useless and unnecessary, and then one of the characters gets to complain about completely useless and unnecessary maps at the front of murder mystery novels.

And the crime itself was rather good, I didn't guess whodunnit at all. I'd read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd a few years ago, and it was good having it sort-of-fresh in the back of my mind, but not essential to enjoyment of this book, I would think.

I won't rush out for the next Evadne Mount book, but will happily pick it up when I see it at the library. (And how does one pronounce "Evadne"??) show less

Here's another book I thought I'd like but couldn't get going with. I picked it up at the library to read over Christmas - it's an Agatha Christie pastiche sort of a thing, set in a snowed in manor on Boxing Day. I gave it 50 pages to grab me before I took it back to the library on a snowy February weekend. It delivered on about page 45 and turned into another book I wanted to read to the end without putting it down. It's full of clever word plays and insights into the Christie stereotypes, but mostly I feel like I probably missed a lot of them. I wonder if I'd have been just as happy reading a real Agatha Christie and not worrying about what was going over my head. It was fun alright, but I felt that was mostly because the genre it's show more taking the mickey out of is fun rather than being fun in its own right. show less

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 show more 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. show less

This is supposed to be a send up of Golden Age detective fiction, and I suppose it is, but I have to say I agree with the previous reviewer and think it more enjoyable because it is a whodunnit, rather than because of all the 'send up' going on over ones head.
You develop a fondness for the characters, and I second guessed myself a few times over 'whodidit' so worth a read if you like that sort of thing.

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

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/gilbert-adair-the-act-of-roger-murgatroyd/