Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1207221 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 265 pages

From the Author
For a complete embarrassment . . .
If you'd like to find out more about An Embarrassment of Corpses and its lead characters, please visit the book's website at: http://www.concentric.net/~Alanbee.

(Then come back here and order it!)

Customer Reviews

Inventive and Original
As the story begins the body of Sir Hargreves Random is found floating in one of the fountains of Trafalgar Square. He is discovered by fellow children's author Oliver Swithin, who joins forces with his Police Inspector Uncle to try to uncover whether this was an unfortunate accident or murder. The very next day another murder victim is discovered, and then the same the day after that. The victims are being killed in increasingly strange ways and each has a mysterious symbol left by the body, so there is little doubt that the murders are linked. But who is the murderer and what is his/her motivation for killing this apparently disparate group of victims?

The word-play alone makes this book witty and original, but the cast of characters is something else! Even if a character appears for a couple of pages, they are drawn vividly and given some interior life; I particularly likes Underwood Tooth a man who has been ignored his whole life so decides to become a private investigator, but no-one replies to his advert!

The only slight moan that towards the end of the book a few of the pages are bound in the wrong order (my friend has a copy and says the same thing.) Otherwise a great read with a few lesser known London facts thrown in.

A real charmer
After a night of snark-hunting, Sir Harry Random, a well-known children's author, turns up dead in a fountain in Trafalger Square. His body is found by his friend Oliver Swithin, a fellow snark-hunter and part-time children's author who has created one of the most malevolent characters in all of children's literature, the ferret Finsbury. Sir Harry is but the first in a series of corpses, all of whom seem to be the work of a zodiac serial killer. Oliver's uncle Mallard is a Detective Superintendent in the New Scotland Yard whose attractive young assistant Effie Strongitharm is a budding love interest of Oliver's. The story of their search for the murderer is a cleverly written and twisting tale, fast-paced and most of all, FUN!

Funniest mystery I've read in years
I have seldom laughed so hard reading a mystery novel. It was also, I thought, an excellent mystery. It kept me guessing & I didn't arrive at the solution before the characters did, as I usually do. Everything made sense in the end, the characters were well-drawn, very clever, witty, sexy, and sometimes satisfyingly over the top (Hoo, Watt, & Eidenau - now really!) When can I get Beechy's next book?