Customer Reviews

Case for Three Detectives (Black Dagger Crime Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When you have a detective novel that starts off with the characters arguing about the believability of detective stories, you know you're in for a self-conscious take on the genre. Many of these sorts of parodies and satires fall flat because they either fail to include an interesting mystery or they've obviously been written by someone who doesn't really know or even like the genre.

Leo Bruce's "Case for Three Detectives" doesn't fail, and for two reasons: 1) Its pastiche of three famous detectives -- Lord Simon Plimsoll (aka Lord Peter Wimsey), Monsieur Amer Picon (aka Hercule Poirot) and Monsignor Smith (aka Father Brown) -- is very funny and very clever, and 2) the author obviously loves the genre and respects its conventions even as he pokes fun at them.

There's a fourth detective involved in this case -- the local police official, Sgt. Beef. Beef represents the seemingly slow-witted officer who always jumps to conclusions in Golden Age whodunnits and is always shown up at the end by the brilliant amateur sleuth. In "Case for Three Detectives," however, the beer-drinking, darts-playing, unpretentious Beef gets some revenge for his literary type, as he gets to show up the three geniuses through use of plain ol' common sense.

With four detectives in this book, you get four different solutions to the crime, all based on the same facts. Each solution is ingenious, in its own way -- although only one can be correct, of course.

There are a lot of inside jokes waiting for readers of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and G.K. Chesterson, and for these readers I give this book four stars. You folks will really get a kick out of this novel on more than one level. Bruce does a wonderful job capturing the voices, attitudes and styles of all three famous detectives.

For those of you who don't like the old-style "puzzle" mysteries, though, and prefer the more modern style of psychological intrigue and suspense, you might not enjoy this book quite as much. I will say, however, that it reads like a shot (you can easily finish it in one sitting) and so the time investment isn't too great, even if you're not too familiar with the mystery style of the 1920s and '30s.

For those of you who miss the Golden Age writers, this book will be a real treat.

(One complaint -- the copyediting of this edition is, well, pretty bad. There are a lot of typos. If you're really bugged by this sort of thing, this edition might distract you a bit. I don't think they're the type of errors that actually slow you up while reading, so they didn't bother me much and thus didn't affect my four-star rating. Your call, though.)

At a harmless party, the discussion turns to real life and detective story murders, and little do we know that before the night is out, the hostess will be "dispatched" in a classic "Locked Room" case. With our narrator tagging behind three famous detectives, (all among the most famous of the the "Golden Age"), we learn how these three come up with three different solutions to the crime. Meanwhile, our intrepid hero, the bulldog-like Sgt. Beef, nonchalantly states he "knows who dunnit" practically from the git go! An amusing, superbly plotted 1935 English mystery with among the most unusual solutions you'll ever find!

One of the few mysteries I've ever re-read. Sgt. Beef is priceless, I wish Bruce had written more.
I suppose it helps to be familiar with the three detectives he's poking fun at, and it also helps to have a sense of humor. Much of the genre at the time was clever but dull, humorless, and plot-driven. Bruce is great with a plot, but is also able to create memorable characters.
If you enjoy Edmund Crispin's books, you'd probably like this.
Anyway, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Would also recommend anything by Anthony Berkeley(but not at the insane prices people are charging here)- he and Bruce are my personal favorites.

A psuedo-tongue-in-cheek whodunit in the tradition of the golden age where all the suspects are gathered in one place during the crime and investigation. I found the three detectives, send ups of Lord Peter Wimsey, H. Poirot and Father Brown sort of unimpressive and didn't really go along for the ride that the author seemed to plan for the reader. The four plausible explanations of the crime were probably an original plot device in the 1930's but may be a bit stale now. It's an okay read for those looking for a light, undemanding British mystery.