More from the Detection Club by Warren Bull
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016
More from the Detection Club by Warren Bull
Double Death published in 1939 was a product of Dorothy L. Sayers, Freeman Wills Croft, Valentine Williams, F. Tennyson Jesse, Anthony Armstrong and David Hume. John Chancellor supervised and wrote a preface and a prologue to the book.
The idea for the book came from a newspaper editor who thought it would be a good idea to create a mystery in which each chapter would be written by a different author. The authors above concurred and each independently produced a chapter. In addition, each writer wrote a note outlining his or her ideas to assist the authors who followed. Although the authors did not know the notes would be included, when John Chancellor asked to include them at the end of each chapter, the writers consented.
The mystery was interesting. I thought the characters changed considerably from chapter to chapter. As you might expect, a character seen as virtuous by one writer might embody evil in the eyes of another writer.
For me, the notes were the most interesting part of the book. They offer a view into what the authors planned in their writing. It will come as no surprise that Dorothy L. Sayers set the enterprise on a solid base in the first chapter. She left the options wide open for later writers. Interestingly authors identified different characters as set up by earlier authors to be the murderer. Just about every character was proposed to play the part of the murderer.
I recommend this as a way to take a look at the thinking and plotting of experienced mystery writers.
Verdict of 13, published by the detection club forty years after Double Death, had an entirely different list of authors. H.R.F. Keating, Patricia Highsmith, Christianna Brand, Michael Underwood, Gwendoline Brand, Michael Gilbert, Peter Dickinson, Michael Innes, Celia Fremlin, Julian Symons, Ngaio Marsh, Dick Francis and P.D. James contributed never-before-published short stories for the book. Verdict of 13 is an anthology, which includes stories of detective puzzles and thrillers; a comic tale and a horrific one; realistic yarns and absolute fantasies. What unites the entries is that all of them, one way or another include some kind of a jury. It may be far from the traditional idea of a jury, but it is nonetheless an identifiable as such.
The concept is not as original as the idea for Double Death but I recommend this book highly because the writing is stellar. I am glad the Detection Club is still going strong.
More from the Detection Club by Warren Bull
Double Death published in 1939 was a product of Dorothy L. Sayers, Freeman Wills Croft, Valentine Williams, F. Tennyson Jesse, Anthony Armstrong and David Hume. John Chancellor supervised and wrote a preface and a prologue to the book.
The idea for the book came from a newspaper editor who thought it would be a good idea to create a mystery in which each chapter would be written by a different author. The authors above concurred and each independently produced a chapter. In addition, each writer wrote a note outlining his or her ideas to assist the authors who followed. Although the authors did not know the notes would be included, when John Chancellor asked to include them at the end of each chapter, the writers consented.
The mystery was interesting. I thought the characters changed considerably from chapter to chapter. As you might expect, a character seen as virtuous by one writer might embody evil in the eyes of another writer.
For me, the notes were the most interesting part of the book. They offer a view into what the authors planned in their writing. It will come as no surprise that Dorothy L. Sayers set the enterprise on a solid base in the first chapter. She left the options wide open for later writers. Interestingly authors identified different characters as set up by earlier authors to be the murderer. Just about every character was proposed to play the part of the murderer.
I recommend this as a way to take a look at the thinking and plotting of experienced mystery writers.
Verdict of 13, published by the detection club forty years after Double Death, had an entirely different list of authors. H.R.F. Keating, Patricia Highsmith, Christianna Brand, Michael Underwood, Gwendoline Brand, Michael Gilbert, Peter Dickinson, Michael Innes, Celia Fremlin, Julian Symons, Ngaio Marsh, Dick Francis and P.D. James contributed never-before-published short stories for the book. Verdict of 13 is an anthology, which includes stories of detective puzzles and thrillers; a comic tale and a horrific one; realistic yarns and absolute fantasies. What unites the entries is that all of them, one way or another include some kind of a jury. It may be far from the traditional idea of a jury, but it is nonetheless an identifiable as such.
The concept is not as original as the idea for Double Death but I recommend this book highly because the writing is stellar. I am glad the Detection Club is still going strong.
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