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| The Who Dunnit Book Corner |
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Well we had our first Who Dunnit Book Club meeting and it was a great success. In keeping with the theme of a traditional British murder mystery members brought tea and tea time snacks. We sipped tea brewed in china teapots and served in real china cups as we snacked on cucumber sandwiches and scones. One member provided white cotton gloves so we could truly get into character. As I mentioned in previous blogs, The Floating Admiral was written by multiple mystery giants of the day, each one writing only one chapter. Once they finished their chapter they had to write how they would have ended it. For fun I asked members to make their predictions and reveal them the day of the meeting. One member actually came up with Agatha Christie's solution but I must say my favorite one was beautifully written on a pink slip of paper in a sealed envelope. It read quite simply "I don't have a clue".
Most members enjoyed the book but admitted that some authors changed direction quite abruptly from the previous chapter. I admit I enjoyed the chapters by Christie, Sayers and Chesterton the most. We all agreed the chapter that dealt primarily with the movement of the tides on the village river to be a bit overwhelming and confusing. The character of Inspector Rudge remained consistent throughout most of the book but occasionally he seemed less intelligent in some chapters. A great time was spent discussing what we liked most about the book. For some it was the transport to a time long gone now, for others a look at the construction of the mystery novel itself. It is interesting to note that while the Fair Play Rules were only expected to be loosely followed some authors took them more seriously than others. Reportedly Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie had a major falling out over Christie's publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in which she broke one of the cardinal rules of detective fiction. Our next book The Sherlockian by Graham Moore tackles Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Floating Admiral gave us a taste of the Golden Age of Mystery Fiction, The Sherlockian promises to give us a taste of modern day London and Victorian England. See you all on 24 October at 5:30pm.
