British-crime-classics, classic-crime, consultant, historical-novel, law-enforcement, costume-party, closed-circle-mystery, suicide, famous-author***** The reader is quite ready for the woman to become deceased! Then the reader "watches" as it happens at the fancy dress/costume party with a group of friends. Now comes the sleuthing! It does masquerade as suicide quite nicely, but then Sheringham gets a little too full of himself and neatly becomes a candidate for murderer even though he didn't do anything but shoot off his mouth. I really enjoyed this interesting, twisty, ingenious story! I requested and received an EARC from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

An interesting story that is nearly 100 years old. It’s an interesting read just to get a perspective of the British mindset at that time. The first half of the book covers the events of a very dodgy party with a group of middle class friends and associates. Then a corpse turns up like they do in all the middle class parties held in the countryside. An amateur detective tries to divert the evidence from his friend’s brother only to be accused himself. We know who the main suspect is as we see them commit the crime. The remainder of the story certainly shows the difference in society between now and a century ago. The rest of the story reads like a misogynists guide book. The amateur detective truly shows he’s no Poirot and fortunately for all the police for a change are on the ball. A real work of fiction. It’s an interesting slow read that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I wouldn’t say avoid reading it as it’s eye opening as to what was acceptable in the 1930s. More a social history with a humorous twist to the great amateur detective.

I appreciate the British Library Crime Classics as a project, but must admit to having been disappointed with the few titles I've read so far, of which Anthony Berkeley's 'Jumping Jenny' is both the most recent and best. This was the first of Berkeley's novels I've opened, and I was only tangentially familiar with his work beforehand - under the name Frances Iles, he wrote the novel upon which Hitchcock's film 'Suspicion' was based, an interesting but ultimately third-tier work in Hitch's oeuvre. Nonetheless, this was a strong enough tangent to entice me; however, upon finishing, I had mixed feelings. There is a lot to appreciate. The writing is very readable - clear and succinct, easy to follow (important in a mystery) without being dull or simplistic; and with a black humour that might not be to everybody's taste, but which I found (initially at least) quite engaging. The main point of interest is the premise and the way in which the story initially unfolds: when a body turns up hanged at a party, the amateur criminologist and novelist Roger Shermingham, noticing a piece of evidence that could incriminate a friend, decides to meddle in the scene, but this inadvertently turns what initially looked like an open-and-shut case of suicide into something much more suspect - 'quelle surprise'. I think this is a wonderful set-up for a thriller, and the idea of an amoral, meddlesome and something foolish sleuth is something I find very refreshing, especially in comparison with a lot of cosy crime, which is usually very morally straightforward. But the way in which the plot progresses is very frustrating. There is more hypothesising than actual detecting, and a lot of restating of familiar information, which means that rather than deepen, the story has a tendency to go around in circles. Also worth pointing out, because it caught me off-guard, and sat uncomfortably with me throughout the entire read, is that the book is absurdly sexist, even boarding on outright misogyny. The publishers do note that the text should be seen as a record of its times, and that some of the values underwriting the text do not correspond with those we hold today, which is fair enough. However, I consider myself relatively well-read and familiar with other books from the era, and even in comparison, the sexism present here was striking: the mean-spiritedness towards one female character in particular was extremely vitriolic. I don't say this to dissuade others from picking up the book, nor do I think it should dampen their enjoyment if they happen to like the novel; rather, it's just something I think should be flagged.