Sunday, November 17, 2013

Three from The Detection Club

THE SCOOP and BEHIND THE SCREEN.
By The Detection Club.
Gollancz.
1983. 184 pages.
THE FLOATING ADMIRAL.
By The Detection Club.
Hodder & Stoughton.
1931. 351 pages.
Martin Edwards (DO YOU WRITE UNDER YOUR OWN NAME?, 27 March 2009) reviews a novella derived from a radio broadcast concocted by the members of The Detection Club:
One great strength is the quality of the writing. In Golden Age detection terms, the authors really were the cream of the crop: Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts, E. C. Bentley and Anthony Berkeley among them. Dorothy L. Sayers kicked off the story and also finished it, and everyone else also wrote two chapters each.
For more about The Detection Club, go here.

The Club also produced THE FLOATING ADMIRAL:
Given that this is a single novel written by thirteen authors without direction, it is surprisingly successful. With the exception of G. K. Chesterton, it is stylistically coherent, and the plot complications arise naturally out of the characters and situation . . . so that the plot is coherent and the murderer's identity, under the skilful handling of Anthony Berkeley, properly inevitable. — Nick Fuller, GAD Wiki
However:
Judged as a decent mystery it is - IMO - a near complete failure - but it remains of great interest to all fans of British GA writing because of the authors involved. — NickH, GAD Wiki
 For more details, go to these spoiler-free Wikipedia articles here and here.

Category: Detective fiction

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