1983 mystery, sixteenth in the series about Superintendent Henry
Tibbett. Tibbett receives a letter from an obvious crank: a crossword,
to which the answers hint at undetected murders. The resolution of
that is straightforward enough, but it's only the beginning…
The murder mystery story, of course, is essentially an
unrealistic form—but this is Moyes working out how something like it
might plausibly happen, while poking fun at her own profession. So
obviously we need a gathering of mystery writers…
"The fact remains that your plots are ridiculously elaborate and
fanciful. First of all, you maroon a small group of people on an
island or in a snowstorm or some such artificial situation. Then you
produce clues of whimsical erudition—for instance, all your victims
may be ladies named after Shakespearean heroines, so that after the
demise of Juliet Jones and Miranda Brown, we may be fairly sure that
Portia Smith is in for trouble. And—"
"I've never used that one," said Barbara thoughtfully.
"And finally," Harry went on, "your detective assembles all the
suspects and arranges a reenactment of the crime, which unmasks the
villain. Can you imagine that happening in real life?"
"It would be interesting to know," remarked Bill Cartwright, "how a
real detective would react if he found himself faced with a
so-called classic fictional crime."
This time the island is the Isle of Wight, and… well, even to
summarise would be to risk spoilers. There's murder, and lots of
deception for a variety of reasons, and people who think they're much
cleverer than they are. In fact I was rather reminded of the recent
film Glass Onion, though in style rather than in specific events.
Tibbett is not officially on the case, and goes well beyond what a
civilian ought to do. But justice would not be done any other way.
It's glorious fun. I wouldn't particularly recommend it to someone
who's not already a fan of the murder mystery, because some of my
enjoyment came from recognising the small parodies of mystery-story
conventions that Moyes works into quieter moments, but even without
that consideration this is a writer who knows her craft and hits dead
on that line between puzzle-game and character-story that for me is a
signifier of the best murder mysteries.
I think this may be the best book yet from an author I already
regarded as a treasure of the murder mystery genre.
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