|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
In 1932, the Detection Club of Great Britain published a serial novel called THE FLOATING ADMIRAL. Each chapter was written by a distinguished member of the club. MALICE DOMESTIC and Berkley have organized another house party at an English manor house complete with the requisite eccentric characters and crumbling country estate. After an introduction by Anne Perry, Simon Brett, president of the Detection Club of the UK, gets us off the mark by introducing the characters and setting the stage. His chapter ends when Sir Gerard Hawksmoor, quietly engrossed in reading a book in the library about the ancient topography of Salisbury Plain, is startled by the sound of a female scream coming from the garden. He exits the library by the doors to the garden and heads toward the fountain, from whence came the scream. No one is there but he smells cigar smoke ". . . of the kind favoured by the dock-workers of Rio de Janeiro." He sees that the statues guarding the pool have lost one of their members, and upon looking into the fountain, sees that Neptune has fallen in, and the purple sash of the "flashy foreigner" Enrique da Silva's spurious decoration has been used to tie American Admiral Cornelius Brandon to the statue. The following chapters are written by (in order) Sharan Newman, Francine Mathews, Walter Satterthwait, Margaret Coel, Carolyn Hart, Carolyn Wheat, Dorothy Cannell, Deborah Crombie, Alexandra Ripley, Eileen Dreyer, Jan Burke and Sarah Smith. Edward Marston tries to make sense of the whole thing in his final chapter, just as Anne Perry attempted to explain the raison d'être for writing the thing in the first place. If you are in the mood for a perfect spoof on the tradition English country house mystery, in which each author does follow the basic rules but twists the facts to suit his/her style, and to make things as difficult as possible for the author to follow, then try THE SUNKEN SAILOR. It's great fun and an excellent way to be introduced to the style of 14 different mystery writers.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, March 2004
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
