false 3412845 2 Gilbert Adair’s signature heroine, the well-known (and eccentric-looking) mystery novelist Evadne Mount, is the perfect vehicle for his ingenious pastiches of classic Golden Age crime novels. Aficionados enjoyed the first two, <i>The Act of Roger Murgatroyd</i> and <i>A Mysterious Affair of Style</i>; here, the series continues with another piece of wordplay on an Agatha Christie title, <i> And Then There Was No One</i>. With her blue tricorne hat and odd manner, Evadne is a wonderfully comic protagonist -- and mixes elements of Marple and Poirot while being very much her own woman. But while Adair keeps his tongue firmly in cheek (his trademark in these books), he ensures that his novels work on their own terms as clever crime novels in the classic fashion.<p>The small Swiss town of Meiringen is to host a crime fiction festival (mainly because of its proximity to the Reichenbach Falls, where Sherlock Holmes and Morality took a dangerous tumble). But when the unsparing Gustav Slavorigin, a prize-winning novelist who has enthusiastically courted controversy, is found murdered, an arrow in his chest, it’s up to Evadne Mount to start collating clues. <p>As well as the pleasurable parody of the detective story, <i> And Then There Was No One</i> is distinctly post-modern (as one might expect from Gilbert Adair), adding a literary game of hide-and-seek between author and characters that is both ingenious and fun. The real achievement, though, is adding a core of intelligence to a narrative that (on the surface) seems lightweight and soufflé-like; no easy task, and it’s one that Adair pulls off with some skill. --<I>Barry Forshaw</I> 3453105 2008 And Then There Was No One total:7|5:1|4:2|3:2|2:2| 7 23 12 1 5 1 false false Wed Dec 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 17:17:35 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 17:18:29 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 24 13:22:33 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 00:30:04 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 13:22:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jun 12 08:44:03 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 08:44:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jun 10 15:59:28 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 15:59:28 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 03:38:57 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 03:39:48 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sat Jun 20 02:53:13 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 05:48:35 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 02:53:13 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Wed May 13 16:18:39 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 16:18:39 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 29 07:14:14 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 07:14:14 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Apr 19 12:44:23 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 12:44:23 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Apr 07 06:52:04 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 11:36:25 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 06:52:04 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 14:56:10 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 14:56:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Feb 16 04:36:13 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 04:36:28 -0800 2009