This is the first Anthony Berkeley book i have ever read, and I enjoyed it a lot. I am a fan of the cozy mystery, and the Golden Age of Crime novelists but somehow had not heard of Berkeley before, although I have at least heard of Francis Iles, one of the pseudonyms that he has used. Guess I have been missing out, because this was a very innovative story that piled on twist after twist to keep me totally engrossed.

The story revolves around a murder case which has baffled the police, and its taken up by the Crimes Circle, a club that Sheringham has started. The approach they take, though, is not of working together to solve the crime, rather its a competition to see which one of them is able to solve it. Let the Murder Olympics begin!

Almost the entire novel is basically each of the members giving the speech thats usually at the end of a cozy mystery, where the detective explains his/her reasoning to the reader and the key characters in the story. Each of the Crime Circle members present a pretty good case based on their deductions, which the next member then starts breaking down based on their own deduction. Of course, to successfully be able to build and then break the same crime down, there have to be some details that are kept from the reader but that's not unusual in mysteries. Overall, I highly enjoyed The Poisoned Chocolates Case and I will definitely read more of Berkeley's books.

Oh god this awful drivel... all the characters are pompous windbags and stuffed to the brim filled with their own pride of themselves. I despise Roger Sheringham and find both the little meek man stupid and afraid of his own shadow. This is terrible stuff. It really should go back to being unpublished

It shows (...) how easy it is to prove whatever you want, through a process, conscious or unconscious, of selection.

Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know which one is poisoned!

Ingenious on many levels, this novel pokes fun at the public delight in murder cases through the fictitious Crime Circle, a group of amateur crime solvers who meet to try and resolve a real-life murder. Each is given a chance to voice their theory, and each amateur sleuth's complacent hypothesis is deconstructed.

Realising perhaps that the most satisfying part of a murder mystery is the grand reveal at the end, The Poisoned Chocolates Case is almost entirely composed of grand reveals, each given a distinct flavour depending on the character voicing the denunciation. There are multiple references to real-life murder cases so that the book becomes practically educational.

More than a chocolate box, this novel is a puzzle box, and most satisfying it is too!

A short story’s worth of content dragged out into one of the most wordy, long-winded, dull mysteries I’ve ever come across.