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A quiet English town is turned upside down by a grisly murder . . . Private detective and poet Nigel Strangeways has been invited to address the Maiden Astbury literary society in the sleepy and serene Dorset town. But all is not as peaceful as it seems. Local brewer Eustace Bunnett is on the warpath after his beloved dog is found dead in one of the Bunnett's Brewery vats. The grisly crime casts an air of suspicion over the whole town, but no culprit is found. When a body is show more discovered in the very same vat, gruesomely boiled down to its bones, Strangeways is called in to catch the killer and solve this very peculiar mystery in a town more perturbing than picturesque . . . "Blake's resourceful and well-read amateur investigator Nigel Strangeways is a distinctive sleuth." --The Times (London) "The Nicholas Blake books are something quite by themselves in English detective fiction." --Elizabeth Bowen show lessTags
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Originally published in 1937, There’s Trouble Brewing by Nicholas Blake is the third book in the mystery series that features Nigel Strangeways. In this outing a very disagreeable brewery owner appears to have met a very gruesome death by being boiled in a sealed copper vat.
Nigel is in the village to give a literary talk about his most recent book and at first the brewery owner wants him to look into the death of his dog. This dog was apparently thrown into the same copper vat that within days, would see the same fate being dealt to him. With plenty of red herrings, odd clues and lying suspects to comb through both Nigel and the police have much to ponder upon. Eventually Strangeways is able to rearrange the pieces and come up the show more solution.
Well written and interesting, I enjoyed the mystery, although I would have preferred that Truffles, the dog, didn’t have to meet such a gruesome death. But the author did keep the atmosphere fairly light with lots of witty touches which I have come to expect with this author, whose real name is Cecil Day Lewis, Poet Laureate from 1968 to his death in 1972. show less
Nigel is in the village to give a literary talk about his most recent book and at first the brewery owner wants him to look into the death of his dog. This dog was apparently thrown into the same copper vat that within days, would see the same fate being dealt to him. With plenty of red herrings, odd clues and lying suspects to comb through both Nigel and the police have much to ponder upon. Eventually Strangeways is able to rearrange the pieces and come up the show more solution.
Well written and interesting, I enjoyed the mystery, although I would have preferred that Truffles, the dog, didn’t have to meet such a gruesome death. But the author did keep the atmosphere fairly light with lots of witty touches which I have come to expect with this author, whose real name is Cecil Day Lewis, Poet Laureate from 1968 to his death in 1972. show less
Strangeways, our detective, just avoids being too precious to be likable in this outing. A classic old-fashioned cozy—amateur detective, completely odious first victim, most gory details off-stage—this presents a nice puzzle for the armchair detective eager to outsmart the hero.
In this case, the perpetrator is identifiable by a couple of clues and a sort of feeling in the reader. Still, there’s a nicely suspenseful denouement with danger to all.
It’s a bit dated (written in 1937), but that supplies a pleasant and relaxing respite from the trials of today’s world. The characters are fairly well-developed. Recommended for fans of Golden Age mysteries.
In this case, the perpetrator is identifiable by a couple of clues and a sort of feeling in the reader. Still, there’s a nicely suspenseful denouement with danger to all.
It’s a bit dated (written in 1937), but that supplies a pleasant and relaxing respite from the trials of today’s world. The characters are fairly well-developed. Recommended for fans of Golden Age mysteries.
As you will deduce from the title,the scene of crime is a brewery. A body,or rather the bones and false teeth,which are all that remains of a body,are found boiled in a vat.
Private detective,Nigel Strangeways is on hand to assist to official police,and is soon on the somewhat complicated case.
As with all of the books in this most enjoyable series,this is no straightforward job of detection and there are red-herrings aplenty.
Private detective,Nigel Strangeways is on hand to assist to official police,and is soon on the somewhat complicated case.
As with all of the books in this most enjoyable series,this is no straightforward job of detection and there are red-herrings aplenty.
Maybe even 3½ stars. This is perhaps my very favorite type of mystery (British mystery of the 1930s) but I found Nigel Strangeways (the main character) a little more annoying than I had in other Blake mysteries. The mystery itself, set in a beer brewery, was fine.
Maybe a little less than 3.5 stars but more than 3!
This is perhaps my very favorite type of mystery (British mystery of the 1930s) but I found Nigel Strangeways (the main character) a little more annoying than I had in other Blake mysteries. The mystery itself, set in a beer brewery, was fine.
This is perhaps my very favorite type of mystery (British mystery of the 1930s) but I found Nigel Strangeways (the main character) a little more annoying than I had in other Blake mysteries. The mystery itself, set in a beer brewery, was fine.
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El Séptimo Círculo (13)
The Albatross Crime Club (No. 187)
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Common Knowledge
- Alternate titles
- French: Le squelette en habit
- Original publication date
- 1937
- People/Characters
- Nigel Strangeways
- Dedication
- To
Joyce and Teddy - First words
- Every dog, they say, has its day. Whether Truffles would have assented to this proposition during its lifetime is highly doubtful. Not for him the elusive rabbit, the ineffable dung-heap, the hob-nobbing with loose companions... (show all) at street corners that for upper-class dogs represent the illicit high-spots of cloistered lives.
- Quotations
- Yet Truffles, too, had his day. Whether it was adequate compensation for a lifetime of alternate whipping and pampering, I cannot pretend to decide. At least it ended in posthumous fame; and posthumous fame is no doubt the ne... (show all)xt best thing to a happy life. Truffles achieved the ambition of all downtrodden creatures. His pusillanimous and shifty-looking terrier face appeared in every illustrated newspaper in the United Kingdom, ousting from the front page the not altogether dissimilar features of Hitler, the neurotic-bulldog expression of Mussolini, the sealed lips of Mr. Baldwin, and the unconcealed charms of bathing beauties.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"No," he said, "it's been a dirty, untidy case in most ways, even though it does add force to a certain well-worn phrase."
"Namely?"
"There's trouble brewing."
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- Reviews
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- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
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