Carnage on the Committee [Hardcover]

Ruth Dudley Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2004

Latest in Ruth Dudley Edwards's hilarious series of crime novels lampooning the British EstablishmentWhen the chairperson of the prestigious Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize dies in suspicious circumstances, Robert Amiss (the token sane member of the judging panel) wastes no time in summoning Baroness 'Jack' Troutbeck to step into the breach. Speculation that a killer may be targeting the judges worries the baroness not in the slightest -- it's the prospect of immersing herself in modern literature that fills her with dread. But noblesse must oblige, even when it means joining the ranks of the superciliati sitting in judgement of the literati. With the baroness at the helm, the judges resume the task of whittling away at the short-list. But the killer, too, has resumed and is whittling away at the judges one by one ...In deplorable taste and wickedly funny, this, the tenth in the Robert Amiss series, will consolidate the author's reputation for scurrilous humour.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This blithe series puts itself on the side of the angels by merrily, and staunchly, subverting every tenet of political correctness' Independent'Sprightly, saucy and ingenious' Sunday Times'Dudley Edwards is an equal-opportunities satirist. She's rude to every persuasion.' Daily Telegraph'[Ruth Dudley Edwards] writes ebullient novels frilled with entertaining eccentrics' The Times'No one is writing wittier mystery fiction in Britain today that Ruth Dudley Edwards' Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News

About the Author

Ruth Dudley Edwards was born in Dublin and now lives in London. A historian and prize-winning biographer, her most recent non-fiction includes the authorized history of The Economist, a portrait of the British Foreign Office, written with its co-operation, and The Faithful Tribe, a portrait of the Orange Order.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002326736
• ISBN-13: 978-0002326735
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,404,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, so delightfully politically incorrect., July 11, 2010

By 

Jill Meyer (United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Carnage on the Committee (Robert Amiss Mysteries) (Paperback)

Irish author and scholar Ruth Dudley Edwards does not write fiction for the faint-hearted reader. Her mysteries all feature English civil-servant Robert Amiss, as well as a cast of supporting characters. Her best known supporting character is Lady Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, a booze guzzling, cigar-smoking, bi-sexual, un-"PC", head of a woman's college at Cambridge. Jack Troutbeck says what she thinks, and what she thinks is often at odds with Britain's "New Labour", which was in power when Dudley Edwards wrote and published "Carnage on the Committee".

The "committee" is the "Knapper-Warburton Committee", a Booker-like committee, whose nine members - including Robert Amiss - are charged with getting together to select one novel as that year's honoree of the prize. And the clever Dudley Edwards has made the eight members caricatures of the prevailing literary elite who people the real prize selection committees. Several murders occur and Robert Amiss enlists Jack Troutbeck's help by taking over the committee's chairmanship, left vacant by one of the murder victims. Dudley Edwards does not stint in poking fun at the pompousness of the literary insiders nor at the worthlessness of the books under consideration for the Knapper-Warburton. There are several laugh-out-loud scenes, for those who enjoy the un-PCness with which Dudley Edwards writes. Dudley Edwards has long satirized the British Establishment - brilliantly in "Publish and be Murdered", another Amiss/Troutbeck mystery, set a the "Wrangler", a suspiciously "Economist"-like magazine.

But if Dudley Edwards satirizes, she also points out truths. Her two page piece in her latest book, "Murdering Americans", gives the most beautiful explanation of America and her place in history and in the world I've ever read. Please seek out Dudley Edwards' fiction. She writes wonderfully, and often has some wonderful "truths" in her work.