Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6473 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Daily Mail
'[A] knowing and affectionate send-up of a classic whodunit ... it's undeniable fun.'

The Times
'A mystery as intriguing as those in the best of the stories he is spoofing.'

Synopsis
Boxing Day circa 1935. A snowed-in manor on the very edge of Dartmoor. A Christmas house-party. And overhead, in the attic, the dead body of Raymond Gentry, gossip columnist and blackmailer, shot through the heart. But the attic door is locked from the inside, its sole window is traversed by thick iron bars and, naturally, there is no sign of a murderer or a murder weapon. Fortunately (though, for the murderer, unfortunately), one of the guests is the formidable Evadne Mount, the bestselling author of countless classic whodunits. In fact, were she not its presiding sleuth, THE ACT OF ROGER MURGATROYD is exactly the type of whodunit she herself might have written.

Customer Reviews

Gilbert dunnit
The story opens in a snowbound country house located on the edge of Dartmoor on Boxing Day 1935. The body of Raymond Gentry, an effete gossip columnist, has been found in the attic of ffolkes Manor. The attic door was locked from the inside and the sole window has solid iron bars which permit no access. All the assembled guests have their reasons for wanting him dead and so they are all suspects for the crime. A retired police officer who lives a short distance from the manor is drafted in to undertake the investigation. Also in residence is Evadne Mount, renowned crime writer who relishes the opportunity to not only take on the role of amateur sleuth in a reflection of her own invented character Alexis Baddeley, but to also draw out the amusing implications of such a scenario. The other guests include the vicar and his wife, the local doctor and his wife, a grand theatrical dame and the lord of the manor, his wife, his daughter and the daughter's hapless male friend. Plus of course a supporting cast of butlers and cooks and so on. The stage is set for a classic who, and how, dunnit. Along the way the author has great fun deploying all the expected devices of the classic era detective mystery.

In his cheeky and highly enjoyable 'entertainment', Gilbert Adair puts into practice some of the points about murder mystery novels, specifically those by Agatha Christie, which he made in his short essay A Mysterious Affair of Style (in his book Myths and Memories). This persuasively argues that there are only really two characters involved in any such book; the author and the reader. The author concealing clues and using red herrings to confound the reader; the reader attempting to unpick the significant from the insignificant and work out who the murderer is before his or her identity is revealed by Poirot or Miss Marple (or in this instance Evadne Mount). In effect author and reader are engaged in a kind of coital act, each alert to the other's tricks and devices in attempt to tease each other to a mutually satisfyng conclusion.

Adair's knowingness is finely judged and adroitly managed. By using Evadne Mount as his mouthpiece, he is able to make amusing observations about the tropes and tricks of crime writing without being too irritatingly arch or post modernly self satisfied. For example, Mount's delicious description of the requirement for cold and freezing weather to add to the feeling of cosiness and security to those `trapped' indoors works within the context of the story but also has a recognisable kinship to Adair's essays of cultural criticism in Surfing the Zeitgeist and The Postmodernist always Rings Twice.

Another even more overt example is where Mount notes how she edits or expands passages towards the end of her books to ensure that the revelation of the murderer's name appears over the page so that the reader does not inadvertently catch sight of it before they reach the relevant passage. This is surely the kind of thing all fans of crime novels have always contemplated. Adair is of course compelled to follow her example and does so with aplomb; certainly I was not up to the task of working out who the perpetrator was nor how the crime was committed.

The playful, parodic approach extends to the use of words and phrases which once were once innocent but are now loaded with different meanings and the fact that many of the characters voice very politically incorrect views about the working class and foreigners. The book therefore replicates not only the virtues and pleasures of the work of classic crime era novelists but also some of their more insalubrious features too.

One additional point of interest for anyone who may remember Adair as the columnist Heurtebise in the old Sight and Sound magazine (i.e. longstanding film fans) is to be found in the names that he has given his characters here. The Reverend is called Wattis, the actress is Rutherford, the doctor is Rolfe, the crime writer Mount, the estate manager Farrar, and in passing we hear of Tomelty, Grenfell, and so on. If these are unfamiliar then google the names Richard Wattis, Margaret Rutherford (who of course played Miss Marple), Guy Rolfe, Peggy Mount, David Farrar, Joseph Tomelty, Joyce Grenfell, and you'll get the idea. Stalwarts all of the British film industry, and to those familiar with them they will automatically summon up mental images, not necessarily appropriate, of the characters who share their names.

In conclusion then, this is an extremely enjoyable Agatha Christie pastiche that works as an ingenious, entertaining and wholly satisfying murder mystery in it's own right.

A classic dark and stormy night - and day
This is lots of fun and as comfy as a well-stuffed sofa.

It does rely too much on the characters holding court for pages on end which does seem a bit lazy on the author's part as it doesn't create much tension in a murder mystery.

Whilst it's not a patch on "proper" whodunnits and is sometimes a bit overwritten as Adair tries to get the right register for the characters' speech, Roger Murgatroyd is a like a commute: you know where you'e going, you recognise everyone on the bus or train with you and all the stops along the way are familiar, just sit back and enjoy.

Intermittently entertaining...
...but ultimately annoying and unconvincing. As a mystery in its own right, the book fails.