A Shot in the Dark

I'd only heard of Lynne Truss from her bestselling grammar book, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, and was surprised to see her trying her hand at crime fiction. Nevertheless, I was happy to receive an advance electronic copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
A Shot in the Dark is cleverly told in a tongue-in-cheek, humorous style. The characters are fun: bungling cops, colorful criminals, a foul-smelling victim whom no one will miss. The setting is 1957 Brighton, a seaside resort whose chief of police, Inspector Steine, believes he rid the place of all criminal activity six years earlier. Steine refuses to tarnish his reputation by admitting that crime still happens right under his nose even though his lieutenant, Sergeant Brunswick, keeps show more taking reports about a spate of burglaries. Brunswick learns that all the victims had been visited by a red-haired woman taking an opinion poll earlier in the day, for which she rewarded them with tickets to a variety show performance at the Hippodrome that evening. (The burglaries happened while they were out.) He wonders if there's a connection, but Inspector Steine insists it must be a coincidence. Steine's bubble is further threatened by the arrival of Constable Twitten, a precocious young officer who has been transferred from station to station because he annoys his superiors with his cleverness.
Then a famous and feared film critic is shot to death during the opening performance of a play he'd already made up his mind to pan. Less than an hour later, the play's director is found brutally sliced with an antique sword at his boarding house. Although Steine is content to declare both crimes solved after a forged suicide letter from the director turns up, Twitten insists on continuing to investigate.
Despite the farcical tone and predictable behavior of most of the characters, this is a pretty well-constructed mystery, with surprising plot twists unfolding until the end. An entertaining read! show less

Ahh, where to begin?...This is definitely not your usual cozy mystery - mystery for sure, but way more farcical with a grand touch of Keystone Cops.

The setting is Brighton, 1957. A bumbling Police Inspector is still basking in his presumed glory days of 1951 regarding an event which in his mind, eliminated all organized crime in the community. He just wants everyone to get along and peaceably go about their business. Of course, that's the perfect environment for covert organized crime. Enter newly minted policeman, Officer Twitten. He's bright, eager and cannot seem to avoid trouncing on the corns of his superiors. Murders are most foul and there's at least two yet to be solved, much to the Inspector Steine's chagrin.

I have to admit, show more with the Keystone Cops scenarios, the vaudeville theater show and general language, the period described felt more like the 1920s/1930s than 1957. Regardless, if a cozy mystery with a grand swath of farce is your cup of tea, then this book is definitely for you.

I am grateful to author Lynne Truss, Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc and Netgalley for having provided a free advanced reader e-copy of this book. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.

#netgalley, #AShotintheDark #LynneTruss #BloomsburyPub show less

I'm a fan of Lynn Truss' writing, though I haven't read all of it, and when this was announced it went on my wishlist because it's Lynn Truss *and* a mystery.

It was only after I'd finished reading it that I discovered it's a novelisation of something she'd written for BBC Radio 4, so there are those out there who may already be familiar with Constable Twitten, Sergeant Brunswick, and Inspector Steine. These people might be better able to describe this book; the closest I was able to come for my husband was to say it's a little bit like 'Allo 'Allo, but not really. For those not acquainted with British television, I have no parallel to offer. Maybe Hogan's Heroes without Hogan and his heroes?

Set in Brighton in the 50's, this is a show more comedic mystery; it says so right on the tin. Inspector Steine is basking in the reflected glory of the Middle Street Massacre of 1951, where the two criminal gangs of Brighton gathered one day for a showdown, and every single gang member killed in the subsequent shootout. A shootout that only happened because Inspector Steine and his men stopped along the way to the scene for an ice cream. Now, he believes there is no more crime in Brighton, and is deeply offended by Sergeant Brunswick's insistence that there is. Constable Twitten in new on the scene and brings a level of precociousness and obnoxiousness to the station house that threatens to unravel Steine.

If there's a straight man in this trio, it's Sergeant Brunswick, but even he has his quirky weaknesses, including one for the variety shows and another for a 19 year old seductress who likes to play the criminal element against the law for kicks.

The mystery beings when a theatre critic from London arrives to view the preview showing of a new play called A Shilling in the Meter. There's animosity between the playwright and the critic, but as the reader soon finds out there's animosity between the critic and pretty much everybody - even those that don't know him, due to an unfortunate body odour issue. So it's no surprise to anybody except Twitten when the critic is shot and killed in the theater on opening night. What happens from here is an intricately plotted, but convoluted mystery involving several deaths, both murderous and accidental.

The story is hilarious as only the British can really be, I think; it's a style of humor that won't work for everybody, especially those that don't care for an air of silliness, not even the staid, stiff-upper-lip kind. I enjoyed it, though I didn't love it; there's a genius in Truss' plotting, and in her solution to several character problems. The humor skirted the edges of whack-a-doodle at times, and the police are played for laughs, but Truss made it work for me.

I'm not sure who, if anyone, I'd recommend this book to. It's bound to be one of those that people either enjoy or get fed up with. I'll gladly read another if she writes it; I found the characters charming even when they were being dim, and the story made for a nice break from reality. show less

I loved this book right up until the end, but ultimately was disappointed with the finale (I won't say more because I don't want to be a spoiler!) Well-written and fast-moving, this book was a delight to read. I loved the tone, the vocabulary, and the interesting cast of characters populating this Brighton book, and will likely pick the next installment to see how things go for the brilliant yet unlucky Constable Twitten.

This book features bumbling coppers, equally inept mafiosa, and a new constable who comes to Brighton newly minted and college educated. The head of the Brighton police presence allowed forty-five mafiosa to die in a shoot-out while he and his team enjoyed a bit of ice cream with raspberry sauce. When the shooting was done, there were no survivors, and many of the dead men had been shot in the back, but that doesn’t deter the Inspector from taking the credit for cleaning up Brighton. When the new Constable, Twitten, begins investigating the murder of A.S. Crystal, a theater critic, other people begin dying.

It is likely that most readers will either love this book or hate it. It is written in a style reminiscent of the 1930s with a show more staccato cadence, incompetent police, a hero and has nearly incompetent sidekick. There isn’t a lot of subtlety to either the writing or plotting of this book. But if you’re looking for something different in your cozies, give this book a try. show less

Inspector Steine (pronounced Steen) solved the Middle Street Massacre in 1951, still glorying in its resolution 6 years later when Constable Twitten enters the Brighton police force. Theatre Critic A.S. Crystal knows a secret concerning the unsolved 1945 Aldersgate Stick-Up case and goes to the theatre intending to share his secret with the constable when Crystal himself is shot in his seat. Constable Twitten and partner Sgt. Jim Brunswick set out to solve the decades-old case while the Inspector busies himself with the new one. When I requested this one, I expected it to be a police procedural. The book contains some humor, although not necessarily the most enjoyable variety of that. While it was that, it was a bit too "noir" for my show more personal taste in detective fiction. I prefer books more like Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. The seedy elements in the book simply failed to work for me, but I'm certain others would enjoy the book more than I did. If you enjoy noir and hard-boiled detective stories, you will probably enjoy this one. If you prefer your books to contain a little less seediness, you will probably want to avoid this one. I received an advance e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

It's late 1950s and Inspector Steine enjoys his live in Brighton by the sea. No criminals, no crime, no stress. When a new and ambitious constable turns up and investigates a series of burglaries when burglary turns into murder things get very messy.

It's interesting but in certain ways I felt like it was just too clever for its own good. I'd still like to read more but I'm not really rushing out to read them.