Warm, funny, entertaining murder!

The Famished Parson

by George Bellairs

 

I’m not a fan of the ‘if you like that, then you’ll love this’ type review but I can think of no better shorthand evaluation than to say this puts me in mind of a post-war Midsomer Murders.
Well, that may have put off half of those reading this review, but it may encourage the other half to try a Bellairs novel.

I know it has been said before but so much of modern crime fiction really does revolve around horrific descriptions of mutilation and murder and the twisted serial killers involved. Don’t get me wrong, I do ‘enjoy’ this type of fiction but how nice to pick up a book that doesn’t demand a constitution of iron to read but still is very much a crime novel.

The murder and discovery of the body may be grisly but the focus is not put on the graphic details. The murder is in fact almost incidental, being a device around which to construct a number of puzzles. The main point of the novel is the solving of these clever and entertaining puzzles.

Set in a relatively recent but much more genteel time that now sadly feels like another country, it is very much a novel of its time but is none the worse for that. In fact, how pleasing it is to be able to read a novel set seventy years ago not written by a modern author with a cynical view of the past, imagining how people should have thought, interacted, and reacted to events. Listening to a voice contemporary with the age is for me one of the most interesting and occasionally surprising aspects of this book. However, at its heart, this is still a warm, funny and entertaining story with gentle plotting and gentle (if occasionally black) humour adding to the cosy, reminiscent feel of the book.

This was my first George Bellairs novel and I stumbled across it simply when looking for something worth reading on Kindle Unlimited (quite a task…) Since then, I have found George Bellairs popping up quite a bit in different places and like him enough to already have posted a "review" on this blog.  And I love the covers :)  Defintely worth taking a month free on Unlimited.  Just don't forget to cancel!

Not exactly Classic Crime, but...

The Twyford Code

by Janice Hallett

 

Okay, so just published hardly qualifies as 'Classic Crime' but ‘The Twyford Code’ is for its time (right now!) quite an unusual book.  It has more in common with ‘Golden Age’ crime writing (hence including it here) than anything more modern such as the obvious comparison of ‘The Da Vinci Code’.  With the basis of the book being the exploration of what is possibly a code which may point to a treasure or a terrible secret, it is not surprising to find it is full of codes and hints and clues and red herrings and half-truths and outright lies enough to satisfy the most ardent of Classic Crime puzzle fans, of which I am one.  
But it is a little bit more than that in that it is composed in a very modern way.  There have been many novels written in the first person or diary format which can be very affecting and intriguing but in a thriller this can tend to fall down at a number of points in the action.  For example, and to name no names, it is hard to believe in the diarist locking themselves in a room, frantically scribbling down their thoughts whilst the ‘bad guy’ breaks down the door…  ‘The Twyford Code’ gets around this in a very clever and believable way, utilising contemporary technology to create a conceit of a diary format (vital to the plot) to be presented in a way that holds up entirely to the end of the novel.

The novel doesn’t just tell you the story, the reader is carried along with the story, desperately trying to follow and crack the codes and puzzles which form the story but also looking out for other hidden clues and puzzles which may reveal the whole story.  To repeat, this really is not ‘The ‘Da Vinci Code’!
But it is not just about the puzzles; this is a great thriller which doesn’t let up from the start and has a complex backstory revealed throughout.  And it is funny – not full of jokes but there is a lot of humour all the way through the book.
This novel is going to get compared to Richard Osman and any number of current ‘light’ crime novelists, because that is the way the publishing industry works, but honestly, and without denigrating its competition, it is a good step or two above the rest.