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Clubbed to Death

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If the term Gentleman's Club has come to mean in the United States, a strip bar with suspect, sticky stains on the floor, weak drinks and a huge sign that can be seen from the nearest interstate, then it is time to pick up a copy of Clubbed to Death. In the select world of "Club Land" where dignified front doors open to elegant foyers, sumptuous dining rooms and hushed libraries redolent with the whiff of cigars and brandy, one particular club stood out for its interesting ethnos-- a club endowed by it wealthy founder in the spirit of John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester. Wilmot, a noted intimate of King Charles II, libertine and poet, died at the age of 32 of "dissipation", i.e., the effects of alcoholism and syphilis.

But all is not well at the ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced Fanshaw) club. The members in residence are all elderly and eccentric. The servants are treated vilely. And just recently the last Secretary who had been brought in to reform the finances of the club had fallen to his death from the gallery.

Unsatisfied with the coroner's verdict of death by accident, another member of the club had urged Detective Superintendent Jim Milton and Sergeant Ellis Pooley to investigate the matter further. Sergeant Pooley's idea was to send the currently unemployed Robert Amiss into the mouth of the lion disguised as a waiter.

Despite the fact that the subject is murder, there is a quite a bit of hilarity to be found in the dreadful living circumstances that Robert finds himself subjected to, the far from benign club members and the machinations of Scotland Yard as they try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Fans of Ida "Jack" Troutbeck will no doubt be disappointed to find that she does not appear in this mystery, but there's still a lot of fun to be had.

This author writes humorous very British mysteries with wit and fun, and with satire and excellent characterization. Not a "noir."