Customer Reviews

The Floating Admiral

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In the early 1930s the cream of British mystery novelists formed an organization named "The Detection Club," the purpose of which was to encourage superior writing in the genre. No sooner was the club founded than its members embarked on a game of sorts: they would write a murder mystery together. The result was THE FLOATING ADMIRAL.

The Gregg Press edition is the most desirable printing of this hard-to-find novel I have encountered, opening with a 1979 essay by Detection Club member Christianna Brand (author of such novels as GREEN FOR DANGER and DEATH IN HIGH HEELS), who recalls the history of the club and sketches memorable portraits of its members. This is followed by the original 1932 introduction by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which she describes the process by which the novel was written: each participating author wrote a chapter in turn, remaining consistent with the plot as created in all previous chapters and with a specific and justifiable solution of their own creation in mind.

The authors who played this literary game create a roster of the finest English mystery novelists of the early 1930s. After a prologue by C.K. Chesterson, creator of the famous "Father Brown" mysteries, there follows chapters by Victor L. Whitechurch; G.D.H. and M. Cole; Henry Wade; Agatha Christie; John Rhodes; Milward Kennedy; Dorothy L. Sayers; Ronald A. Knox; Freeman Wills Crofts; Edgar Jepson; Clemence Dane; and Anthony Berkeley, better known as Anthony Iles.

The story itself concerns Inspector Rudge, a rural officer who is called to the scene of a peculiar murder: the body of Admiral Penistone has been found stabbed to the heart and floating in a small boat on the River Whyn. Not only are the circumstances odd, it soon transpires that there are several people who might have interest in his demise--including his peculiar niece Elma, her possibly undesirable lover, and her missing brother. But although the premise is something of a classic, the novel largely runs aground due to the scattered approach of the participating writers.

This is not to say that any of the authors involved write badly. It is to say, however, that as the novel progresses each writer has considerably more difficulty in lining up the endless parade of clues offered by those who have gone before to create either a cohesive narrative or a reasonable solution. So the end result is like buckshot: a story that seems to fly in so many different directions that it has no long-range strike. Even so, fans of 1930s murder mysteries will prize this novel as a hard-to-find curiosity--and they will be particularly pleased to note that most of the authors involved offered very different solutions to the crime, many of them more interesting than anything in the text itself and all of them collected in a neat appendix.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

As a fan of writers Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, I was intrigued by this book, which includes other authors such as G.K. Chesterton and their fellow members of the Detection Club. This club is a private society made up of British mystery writers. Together, this club decided to try their hand at writing a communal mystery: each author would write a chapter and supply their own solution to the crimes committed. The result is "The Floating Admiral", a mystery which is surprisingly well-paced and just as an ingenius a tale as one would expect from the authors connected with it.

Early one morning, the body of Admiral Penistone is found floating in a boat adrift on the river, a stab wound clear in his chest. Inspector Rudge arrives on the scene to begin his investigation and immediately meets with several obstacles: most importantly that several people who may be involved with the case act in an extremely suspicious manner. The Admiral's niece, who needed her uncle's approval for her marriage, runs off to London after learning of his death. The vicar, with whom the Admiral dined, is certainly withholding information; after all, it was the vicar's boat that the body was found in. Inspector Rudge knows that there is more than meets the eye, and is also convinced that some incident in the Admiral's past is connected to his murder. But how can he prove it when nothing is as it seems? He even begins to wonder if the dead man was the real Admiral Penistone - stranger things had happened.

"The Floating Admiral" is a novelty among mystery stories. The prologue written by G.K. Chesterton seems extremely obtuse until the entire plot is explained at the end. The story coheres well and the events are sustained, in spite of the fourteen authors' hands that stirred the pot. At times, with each proceeding chapter, one can tell that an author is trying to change the course of the story a little unsuccessfully, which can make the characterization uneven. But all in all, each chapter builds to a satisfying climax. There is an appendix provided at the end, in which the authors gave their solution to the mystery: Agatha Christie's solution is most funny, but the real solution worked out by Anthony Berkeley, with all its twists and turns, is icing on the cake. While definitely a bit dated in places (especially with the Admiral's past in China) the nature of the crime and the solution of it stand the test of time.

The Detection Club books are unlike any other ever created. Basically, Agatha Christie and ten other authors (for The Floating Admiral) contribute pieces of a murder mystery without sharing what solutions they were leaning towards until the APPENDIX at the very end. Each author has their own solution and has to work within the framework of all the other clues contributed by the others. More of a game than a murder mystery, it's a fascinating read, but you shouldn't try to read too much of it at one sitting.

This book is written by more than Agatha Christie. So those expecting to read another Agatha Christie Mystery Sorry! But you won't be disappointed. The Floating Admirmal is very interesting in that each chapter is written by an author of mystery in one form or another. This is fun as you see the writings of others. It is cool how each author gets their chapter to flow with the chapter before and after it. Chapter 8 is the hardest chapter to get through and a little boring as it is in list format Where as I feel it would have been more interesting if the inspector was talking to someone. Otherwise smooth sailing afterwards. The story ends with finding out the killer or is he/she really the killer Read on and you decide who the real killer is maybe you have your own ideas as to who killed the admiral and why. A good workout for the brain. Have fun reading and solving this unique mystery

As a charity effort, the authors of THE FLOATING ADMIRAL must have had a whale of a time, but as a detective novel, it's strangely overdone. Well, no wonder, each writer wrote a chapter apiece, and after the first two chapters, each continuer had to supply his or her own solution in a sealed envelope to guarantee that they were actually going somewhere towards a solution. I knew I was in for trouble as soon as Chapter One, by Canon Victor Whitechurch (once apparently a shining star of UK detective writing) set the admiral afloat in some sort of rowboat with a "painter" on it and started talking about how the River Whyn was a tidal river, whatever that was, and thus effected by tides that would take a boat this way or that, depending. And this was on the word of hardened seaman Neddy Ware, now a villager, the man who discovered the corpse.

Adniral Penistone has led a checkered life himself, and has been living secretively with his extremely strange niece Elma Fitzgerald, and her French maid Celie, who has now disappeared, On the other side of the river lives the Vicar with his two adorable little boys, whose antics remind me of Lord Peter Wimsey's boys in the final Wimsey stories. Their mother, Mrs. Mount, is not referred to--but you don't have to be Herodotus to know that her history will become the subject of the rest of the novel. As writer upon writer adds more and more complications, it just gets worse and worse for whoever's picking up the pen next; by the time the book gets around to Dorothy L. Sayers, she has to write an epic solution that involves, apparently, every single character in the book and all of them are guilty. After that, the funniest contribution is by the under-rated Clemence Dane, who announces in her solution that she has no idea who did the murder, and that all she's trying to do is write a chapter in which anyone who succeeds her will be able to prove or disprove anything they want to.

My hat is off to Anthony Berkeley, whose contribution is the finale, and who has so many loose ends to tie together he calls his chapter "Cleaning Up the Mess." His solution isn't great, but it's OK.

The second murder is horribly brutal and because it results in a tragedy for innocent children it seems seedy, grisly in a way I would have thought outside the purlieux of the Detection Club.

Eventhough Christie only wrote one chapter here, this reads and feels exactly like one of her own books. The set up is quite impressive, with the floating admiral of the title found sailing along in an abandonned boat with a dagger in him, which is all explained away by the clever and quite natural conclusion. Despite going on about tide flows and boat paintings and rope cuttings, the characters to this crafty piece are all quite believable, considering several writers made them move and speak. All is well by the end and a satisfying summary to the events beforehand is smoothly explained, so you can skip past the silly alternate outcomes the authors each come up with in an unneccessary, sort of epilogue. They add nothing to the main story but a lot of what ifs. (That said, Christie's solution of the murderer in drag is hilarious...) P.S. Some rather foolish stereotypes can be found in the narrative which doesn't distract from the story. They're just there, like a disturbing sign of the times.

THE FLOATING ADMIRAL sinks under the combined weight of the committee who inflicted this soporific slosh on an already suffering world. Save your money for a Hercule Poirot.