A Golden Age mystery


A perfect murder.
An unsolved case.
Six amateur detectives.
Six different ways.
Six different explanations.
Six different solutions.
Which one will be able to solve the case?

A most enjoyable crime novel first published in 1929. The true interest of the story lies in the fact that it points up the problems with much Golden Age crime literature, which are puzzles more than anything else, with the ingenious solutions often not standing up to close examination.

The crime at the centre of the mystery is the poisoning of a young wife via the medium of a box of chocolates which appears to have been intended for somone else entirely. The police are apparently baffled, as per normal, and a Crime Club consisting of six people who have an interest in true crime deciding they can solve the problem. The members consist of Roger Sheringham (Berkeleys usual detective) a less serious Wimsey-type who is Chairman of the group, a male barrister, a female playwright, a female writer of 'serious' novels', a male detective story writer and a nervous little chap who seems to be a hanger on of sorts (but who does appear in other Berkeley novels). Each in turn produces a solution, based on their own outlook and experiences of life, and each in turn completely convinces the others that they are correct only to be shot down in turn by the next, equally convincing, answer. I have to say the one slight drawback I found in this book is

Spoiler

there is no definitive solution - the reader is left thinking that the final solution must be the correct one but that has been true of all the solutions. Basically, the story just ends with no answer

.

The original novel is expanded here by two extra chapters. The first, written by author Christianna Brand in 1979, is very short and (IMO) simply extends the issue I have with the ending as per the spoiler. The final chapter was written by Martin Edwards, the editor of many of the British Library titles, especially for this volume. I would say it offers a more usual and, probably, a more likely solution to the puzzle.

I enjoyed this immensely and would recommend it with no reservations

This is the second book I've read by Anthony Berkeley, and again I couldn't guess who did it, right down to the last page! This book is very much an armchair mystery, it being entirely told by various characters in the form of monologues/various theories. Not boring at all however!

An interesting and well-written experimental sort of detective novel.
Roger Sheringham has established a small club for people interested in criminology. His latest idea is for them all to investigate a recent unsolved crime ("The Poisoned Chocolates Case") during the course of one week. On successive evenings, each member will then take the floor to share his or her conclusions in hopes that somewhere along the line they will solve it and hand it back over to the police.

What follows is a fairly amusing indictment of traditional detective stories. In many such books, the reader is primed to accept that the detective's deduction on any given fact is the only possible conclusion. But in this book there are as many deductions as there are people, and all of them plausible in their own way.
The only flaw in this structure is that when you finally reach the "real" solution, you are still left with a nagging feeling that it's only one of many possibilities...
Which maybe was the point.
And indeed a couple of other authors wrote additional solutions in later years, which are evidently part of the newest edition of the book. It might be worth tracking down just to check out those other solutions.


A few excerpts to show off the occasional flashes of humor:

Roger sped to the rescue. The combatants reminded him of a bull and a gadfly, and that is a contest which it is often good fun to watch. But the Crimes Circle had been founded to investigate the crimes of others, not to provide opportunities for new ones.


The motion was carried unanimously. Mrs. Fielder-Flemming would have liked to vote against it, but she had never yet belonged to any committee where all motions were not carried unanimously and habit was too strong for her.


"A friend of Mrs. Bendix's then. At least," amended Mrs. Fielder-Flemming in some confusion, remembering that real friends seldom murder each other, "she thought of him as a friend. Dear me, this is getting very interesting, Alicia."

Anthony Berkeley plays with the all knowing detective trope where the seemingly unconnected facts are pieced together to reveal the murderer. (Who then confesses all).

But here six amateur detectives (plus two epilogues) each present their case for who the murderer is. This should have been the very last of the amateur detective genre.

Other reviews will give a synopsis either with or without spoilers.

I found there were too many possible solutions. After the first three explanations I had hear enough.

Fun mystery novel that presents an unsolved case to the members of a detective club. They all work independently to solve the case and present their solutions. The way each character took the facts and created a theory out of them was an interesting exercise. However, by the time the last chapter was underway, I was pretty sure I knew who did it. Great plane reading material!

The Hook - After being quite delighted with my first Anthony Berkeley classic mystery, Trial and Error, I wondered if another would be as entertaining. Read on.

The Line - ”To make no bones about it, the Bendixes had apparently succeeded in achieving that eighth wonder of the modern world, a happy marriage.

The Sinker - In Berkeley’s short story The Avenging Chance a club member receives an anonymous sample box of chocolates, and in turn it is given to a friend who then dies from poisoning. In a parallel to Berkeley’s own founding of The Detection Club, an invitation only group of renowned mystery authors, fictional character Roger Sharingham establishes his own Crimes Circle. This group of six meets to share food and to discuss the non-appetizing subject of murder. In addition to Sharingham, whose first book has just been accepted by a publisher, the group consists of an established novelist, a detective-story writer, a barrister, a dramatist, and one mild mannered man who somehow passed their test.

It was not enough for the would-be member to profess an adoration for murder and let it go at that; he or she had got to prove that they were capable of worthily wearing their criminological spurs.”

Sharingham, in an effort to liven up the group visits Scotland Yard with a proposal to help them solve an actual murder that has them stymied. Though highly out of the ordinary, they see no harm and possibly some good in allowing the group to use their detection skills in hopes of finding the culprit. The case involves the death of Mrs. Bendix, poisoned by a tainted box of chocolates given to her by her husband as the prize in a bet. Sir Eustace, a member of Graham Bendix’s club receives the liqueur-chocolates anonymously with a note to sample them as they would appeal to a man of his taste. ”Do they think I’m a blasted chorus-girl, fumed Sir Eustace, a choleric man, “to write ‘em testimonials about their blasted chocolates? Blast ‘em!” and so offers the chocolates to Bendix who though he could easily afford the cost accepts the box as the trouble to get them is worth the time saved. Sharingham’s idea is that each of the six will use their own method of investigation to bring a solution to the group for scrutiny.

Over the next few weeks each of The Crimes Circle members with skill and reasoning present their conclusions of the guilty party to the group. All seem well thought out and logical. But only one is right.

”Artistic proof is, like artistic anything else, simply a matter of selection. If you know what to put in and what to leave out you can prove anything you like, quite conclusively.”

Will you be able to nail the murderer?

With the fair play that is paramount to The Detection Club, with cunning and humor, The Poisoned Chocolates Case is the great Golden Age Puzzle it is professed to be. I loved it.