Death at the Dog [Paperback]

Joanna Cannan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

Young Inspector Northeast falls under the spell of an unconventional older woman novelist who is the chief suspect in a village murder. "The Dog" of the title is a pub, which is modeled after the pub in Oxfordshire frequented by the author during the Second World War. Set in the late fall of 1939 during the first anxious months of World War II, this is a fine example of the classic English detective novel. It marked the second and final appearance for Northeast. First published in 1941.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Worthy of being discussed in the same breath with an Agatha Christie or a Josephine Tey...anyone who enjoys Golden Age mysteries will surely enjoy this one."

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Rue Morgue Press (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915230232
• ISBN-13: 978-0915230235
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting reprint from Golden Age of mysteries, May 20, 1999

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death at the Dog (Paperback)

A Colorado mystery bookstore, The Rue Morgue, has been on a mission to reprint long-forgotten mysteries of the 1930s and 1940s, and their latest is "Death at The Dog," a tale of a murder in a rural British pub. World War II has just started and the first hints of change to their quiet life have started to appear: blackouts, army mobilization, and those older men left behind wondering how they can get into the war before its over. When the hated local squire is found dead in the corner after a night of drinking, an alert doctor discovers he had been injected with nicotine, and Scotland Yard inspector Guy Northeast is called in to investigate. The plotting is intricate and fair in the Golden Age tradition. But "Death" is only 156 pages long, which means there's not an ounce of fat on the story, but also no room for a depth of characterization and viewpoint that powers Sayers and Christie's works. But Cannan slowly builds interest in Northeast, and he becomes a compelling character. After the mystery is solved, it's not so much the story we remember, but the yearning, sad figure of Inspector Northeast. One would like to know what became of him.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's O.K., but just barely., June 15, 2007

By 

J. Lesley "(Judy)" (Midsouth, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death at the Dog (Paperback)

I had previously read another story by Joanna Cannan, THEY RANG UP THE POLICE, and gave it 5++ enthusiastic stars. My expectation was that this book would give me the same delightful reading experience. Sadly, this was not to be.

Even though both stories featured the same detective, Inspector Guy Northeast, the resulting stories are very, very different. Someone had killed the local Squire while he sat in his customary corner seat in the local pub, The Dog. The lounge and public bar were filled with people and yet no one knew 1.) that he had been murdered and 2.) how anyone could have done it. The murder takes place very early on in the book and there are numerous people in the pub at the time of the crime. I had a hard time keeping all the characters identified in my mind. I got very confused as to who each one was, why they were there, and what they were doing. Inspector Northeast was no longer an untried policeman. He had solved at least one murder case before (see th first paragraph) and was dispatched from London to help the local officials get this one solved. It was a bit of a stretch for the author to have made the crime take place in the same county as before (Loamshire) and the local policemen remain just the same, and to have them welcome Northeast with open arms when they were so thoroughly against him in the other novel. But, that is the way it was set up so that is what we had to go with.

I didn't actually like this story. I wanted it to be over. I didn't like any of the characters and especially not the lead female. Why would three men have been so completely smitten with that person? It made no sense to me at all. She was totally unlovely in my opinion and very much a departure from the typical heroine I have come to expect from English mystery stories written in the 1940's. Maybe that would have been acceptable but I didn't like any of the male characters either. Each character in this book was presented in such a shallow manner that I never got to know them very well and what I knew, I didn't like.

The murder weapon I spotted very quickly. It was done-to-death in books written about this time. The method of looking into the pub is a total puzzle unless you have been to England and looked at those items and wondered what in the world they are. And it was never made completely clear to me as to how the fatal blow was struck. I don't want to give away the method so I can't be any more specific, but I've read the book and I'm not sure I could describe it to you even now.

This book left me with a brooding, dark feeling. I didn't like anything about it, really, and would not recommend it to any of my friends. I gave it 3 stars because I do like the older, period mysteries better and I'm grateful to Rue Morgue Press for reprinting so many of the old stories. My stars are essentially for the publisher, not the book.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An unconvincing plot, March 8, 2000

By 

David A. Farnham (Roanoke, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death at the Dog (Paperback)

This is a reprint of a long-forgotten mystery which would better have been left forgotten. The book's two strong points are its sense of atmosphere and the character of the detective. Its drawbacks are (1) the murder method is extremely dubious--cyanide does NOT kill instantly with the victim making no sound, (2) the chief female character, supposedly a mature woman, acts in such an adolescent manner as to engender a desire to kick her rather than any sympathy and (3) the solution is more or less sprung on the reader.