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Nigel Strangeways #3
There's Trouble Brewing
Tyrannical businessman Eustace Bunnett and an assortment of employees and local characters become suspects when Nigel Strangeways investigates the murder of a man found dead in one of the vats at Bunnett's Dorset brewery
259 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
43 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Blake
97 books72 followersNicholas Blake is the pseudonym of poet Cecil Day-Lewis C. Day Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1904. He was the son of the Reverend Frank Cecil Day-Lewis and his wife Kathleen (nee Squires). His mother died in 1906, and he and his father moved to London, where he was brought up by his father with the help of an aunt.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
He spent his holidays in Wexford and regarded himself very much as Anglo-Irish, although when the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948 he chose British citizenship.
He was married twice, to Mary King in 1928 and to Jill Balcon in 1951, and during the 1940s he had a long love affair with novelist Rosamond Lehmann. He had four children from his two marriages, with actor Daniel Day-Lewis, documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis and TV critic and writer Sean Day-Lewis being three of his children.
He began work as a schoolmaster, and during World War II he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. After the war he joined Chatto & Windus as a senior editor and director, and then in 1946 he began lecturing at Cambridge University. He later taught poetry at Oxford University, where he was Professor of Poetry from 1951-1956, and from 1962-1963 he was the Norton Professor at Harvard University.
But he was by then earning his living mainly from his writings, having had some poetry published in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and then in 1935 beginning his career as a thriller writer under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake with 'A Question of Proof', which featured his amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, reputedly modelled on W H Auden. He continued the Strangeways series, which finally totalled 16 novels, ending with 'The Morning After Death' in 1966. He also wrote four detective novels which did not feature Strangeways.
He continued to write poetry and became Poet Laureate in 1968, a post he held until his death in 1972. He was also awarded the CBE.
He died from pancreatic cancer on 22 May 1972 at the Hertfordshire home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, where he and his wife were staying. He is buried in Stinsford churchyard, close to the grave of one of his heroes, Thomas Hardy, something that he had arranged before his death.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
August 31, 2017
This is the third Nigel Strangeways mystery, written by Nicholas Blake (pseudonym of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis), and following on from, “A Question of Proof,” and, “Thou Shell of Death”. Although Nigel met his wife, Georgia, in the previous book, she does not figure in this particular story apart from a short appearance at the beginning.
Nigel has been invited to address the Maiden Astbury Literary Society, a Dorset town home to Bunnett's Brewery, run by the objectionable Eustace Bunnett. Nigel is staying at the home of Dr Herbert Cammison, who he vaguely knew from his University days, and his wife Sophie. Although not keen on such literary meetings, Nigel addresses the Literary Society, where he meets the generally disliked, pedantic and controlling Bunnett. It appears that Bunnett's dog, Truffles, had been found dead in one of the vats at the brewery and Nigel is asked to investigate. However, then a body is found in the same vat and it is that of the owner.
Although this is not the best in the series, this is a competent, well written and interesting novel, very much in the Golden Age tradition. Published in 1936, it reads very much like an intellectual puzzle. Nigel is invited to stay and help the enquiry, for virtually everyone has a motive, including the couple he is staying with, and almost nobody has an alibi. There are anonymous letters, disgruntled employees, old love affairs and trouble brewing in this extremely interesting mystery. This is one of my favourite series from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and Nigel Strangeways a delightfully intelligent and donnish figure (his attempts to speak to a young secretary in modern 'film' talk is hilarious). As an amateur sleuth he is one of the best and I am delighted he has been re-released on kindle.
Nigel has been invited to address the Maiden Astbury Literary Society, a Dorset town home to Bunnett's Brewery, run by the objectionable Eustace Bunnett. Nigel is staying at the home of Dr Herbert Cammison, who he vaguely knew from his University days, and his wife Sophie. Although not keen on such literary meetings, Nigel addresses the Literary Society, where he meets the generally disliked, pedantic and controlling Bunnett. It appears that Bunnett's dog, Truffles, had been found dead in one of the vats at the brewery and Nigel is asked to investigate. However, then a body is found in the same vat and it is that of the owner.
Although this is not the best in the series, this is a competent, well written and interesting novel, very much in the Golden Age tradition. Published in 1936, it reads very much like an intellectual puzzle. Nigel is invited to stay and help the enquiry, for virtually everyone has a motive, including the couple he is staying with, and almost nobody has an alibi. There are anonymous letters, disgruntled employees, old love affairs and trouble brewing in this extremely interesting mystery. This is one of my favourite series from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and Nigel Strangeways a delightfully intelligent and donnish figure (his attempts to speak to a young secretary in modern 'film' talk is hilarious). As an amateur sleuth he is one of the best and I am delighted he has been re-released on kindle.
September 9, 2017
This is the third Nigel Strangeways mystery, written by Nicholas Blake (pseudonym of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis), and following on from, “A Question of Proof,” and, “Thou Shell of Death”. Although Nigel met his wife, Georgia, in the previous book, she does not figure in this particular story apart from a short appearance at the beginning.
Nigel has been invited to address the Maiden Astbury Literary Society, a Dorset town home to Bunnett's Brewery, run by the objectionable Eustace Bunnett. Nigel is staying at the home of Dr Herbert Cammison, who he vaguely knew from his University days, and his wife Sophie. Although not keen on such literary meetings, Nigel addresses the Literary Society, where he meets the generally disliked, pedantic and controlling Bunnett. It appears that Bunnett's dog, Truffles, had been found dead in one of the vats at the brewery and Nigel is asked to investigate. However, then a body is found in the same vat and it is that of the owner.
Although this is not the best in the series, this is a competent, well written and interesting novel, very much in the Golden Age tradition. Published in 1936, it reads very much like an intellectual puzzle. Nigel is invited to stay and help the enquiry, for virtually everyone has a motive, including the couple he is staying with, and almost nobody has an alibi. There are anonymous letters, disgruntled employees, old love affairs and trouble brewing in this extremely interesting mystery. This is one of my favourite series from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and Nigel Strangeways a delightfully intelligent and donnish figure (his attempts to speak to a young secretary in modern 'film' talk is hilarious). As an amateur sleuth he is one of the best and I am delighted he has been re-released on kindle.
Nigel has been invited to address the Maiden Astbury Literary Society, a Dorset town home to Bunnett's Brewery, run by the objectionable Eustace Bunnett. Nigel is staying at the home of Dr Herbert Cammison, who he vaguely knew from his University days, and his wife Sophie. Although not keen on such literary meetings, Nigel addresses the Literary Society, where he meets the generally disliked, pedantic and controlling Bunnett. It appears that Bunnett's dog, Truffles, had been found dead in one of the vats at the brewery and Nigel is asked to investigate. However, then a body is found in the same vat and it is that of the owner.
Although this is not the best in the series, this is a competent, well written and interesting novel, very much in the Golden Age tradition. Published in 1936, it reads very much like an intellectual puzzle. Nigel is invited to stay and help the enquiry, for virtually everyone has a motive, including the couple he is staying with, and almost nobody has an alibi. There are anonymous letters, disgruntled employees, old love affairs and trouble brewing in this extremely interesting mystery. This is one of my favourite series from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and Nigel Strangeways a delightfully intelligent and donnish figure (his attempts to speak to a young secretary in modern 'film' talk is hilarious). As an amateur sleuth he is one of the best and I am delighted he has been re-released on kindle.
June 11, 2021
full post is here
http://www.crimesegments.com/2021/06/...
The back-cover blurb of this novel is short but succinct, and reveals that a local brewery owner loses his dog in one of the brewery's vats. It will also go on to reveal that said brewery owner will later be found in the same vat (more on that later). I'm not kidding when I say that my mind immediately flashed to particular episodes of Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse, New Tricks and even Brokenwood in a variation on the theme (a fermentation vat for wine instead of beer). I'm sure there are more that I've missed, but it seems that death in a vat is quite a popular way to go.
Of course, all of the above came long after There's Trouble Brewing, which made its appearance in 1937. This is the second novel I've read by Nicholas Blake after The Beast Must Die , both read out of series order. This book is number three in the series featuring Blake's Nigel Strangeways, and I'll confess to enjoying the other book much, much more, as this one was a bit on the sloggy side for me.
I very much enjoyed the writing otherwise, and only after two books now I have become a fan of Nigel Strangeways. I like his wife Georgia who sadly makes only a brief appearance here -- they are perfect for each other. And who doesn't love a story in which a character is so particularly loathsome that no one's going to be shedding a tear when he or she is dead? With the number of possible suspects and possible motivations that Strangeways uncovers here, it should have been a great read. The thing is though that Blake gives away the show much too early here with a particular remark that I took notice of that colored my thinking, so that by the time Strangeways cottons on to the solution, I'd already been there and was just waiting for our erstwhile detective to catch up. At chapter thirteen where Strangeways is going over the timetable of the case and makes an important discovery, I was just about ready to skip and get to the ending I knew was coming. It's a shame when that happens, really, because this could have been a most intriguing mystery novel otherwise.
May 14, 2025
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It can be profitable, too.
In the 1920's Dorothy Sayer's mysteries featuring whimsical gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey and his strong-minded, independent wife Harriet Vane were so popular that they allowed Sayer to quit her job at an ad agency and write full-time. Critically acclaimed poet Cecil Day-Lewis (Nicholas Blake) decided to put that winning strategy to work for him and created whimsical gentleman detective Nigel Strangeways and his strong-minded, independent wife Georgia. The popular series allowed its author to live comfortably and continue writing the poetry that eventually made him Poet Laureate of England. Who says poets aren't sensible?
This is the third in the series. It's not as memorable as MINUTE FOR MURDER, but it has a lot going for it. The small village where Strangeways goes to visit his old school friend (now the village doctor) is full of interesting characters and the resentment toward the greedy, power-mad owner of the local brewery creates a seething atmosphere that makes a murder almost inevitable. When the victim turns out to be the obnoxious beer magnate, everyone is so happy to be rid of him that it's difficult to get too enthusiastic about finding his murderer.
It's a sometimes grim look at the "good old days" which were only good for the rich and powerful. From his down-trodden wife to his over-worked employees to those whose secrets he used to control them, every life in the village was ruled by the maniacal arrogance and sadistic cruelty of this man. And neither laws nor public opinion could touch him. Small wonder everyone is so happy to be shed of him.
But there are inconsistencies that bother Strangeways and local Inspector Tyler. WHY did the murderer choose to discard the body in such a bizarre way? Was the anonymous letter sent by a well-wisher or by the murderer himself? And where is the victim's popular brother?
I think it's too long and there's too much attention to detail, but then I read old mysteries for their nostalgic charm and insights into life in the past. The real value (to me) is the excellent writing, the cast of off-beat-but-completely-believable characters, and the author's genuine compassion for the less fortunate. In pre-WWII England, life for the rural poor was harsh and presented few opportunities for improvement.
Lovers of classic English mysteries shouldn't miss Blake's books. They're thoughtful, carefully plotted, and full of quirky humor.
In the 1920's Dorothy Sayer's mysteries featuring whimsical gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey and his strong-minded, independent wife Harriet Vane were so popular that they allowed Sayer to quit her job at an ad agency and write full-time. Critically acclaimed poet Cecil Day-Lewis (Nicholas Blake) decided to put that winning strategy to work for him and created whimsical gentleman detective Nigel Strangeways and his strong-minded, independent wife Georgia. The popular series allowed its author to live comfortably and continue writing the poetry that eventually made him Poet Laureate of England. Who says poets aren't sensible?
This is the third in the series. It's not as memorable as MINUTE FOR MURDER, but it has a lot going for it. The small village where Strangeways goes to visit his old school friend (now the village doctor) is full of interesting characters and the resentment toward the greedy, power-mad owner of the local brewery creates a seething atmosphere that makes a murder almost inevitable. When the victim turns out to be the obnoxious beer magnate, everyone is so happy to be rid of him that it's difficult to get too enthusiastic about finding his murderer.
It's a sometimes grim look at the "good old days" which were only good for the rich and powerful. From his down-trodden wife to his over-worked employees to those whose secrets he used to control them, every life in the village was ruled by the maniacal arrogance and sadistic cruelty of this man. And neither laws nor public opinion could touch him. Small wonder everyone is so happy to be shed of him.
But there are inconsistencies that bother Strangeways and local Inspector Tyler. WHY did the murderer choose to discard the body in such a bizarre way? Was the anonymous letter sent by a well-wisher or by the murderer himself? And where is the victim's popular brother?
I think it's too long and there's too much attention to detail, but then I read old mysteries for their nostalgic charm and insights into life in the past. The real value (to me) is the excellent writing, the cast of off-beat-but-completely-believable characters, and the author's genuine compassion for the less fortunate. In pre-WWII England, life for the rural poor was harsh and presented few opportunities for improvement.
Lovers of classic English mysteries shouldn't miss Blake's books. They're thoughtful, carefully plotted, and full of quirky humor.
October 16, 2017
Nicholas Blake and his detective, Nigel Strangeways, were both new to me! I discovered them via a buddy read in the Reading the Detectives Goodread group. I didn't realise it was a buddy read so went and read the entire thing myself. Whoops! I will be looking out for more books by Nicholas Blake.
The highlight was the following exchange which is eerily like a conversation my Latin class had once:
"I don't mean that," said Sophie, a little annoyed by the implication that she was one of those rabidly house-proud women, "I mean, why do you mix yourself up in crime?"
..."Oh something to do, I suppose. It seemed to be the only profession for which a classical education fitted one."
"Now you are laughing at me. I'm quite serious."
"So am I. It does. If ever, in your salad days—as one of my comic uncles calls them—you were compelled to do a Latin unseen, you'll know that it presents an accurate parallel with criminal detection. You have a long sentence, full of inversions; just a jumble of words it looks at first. That is what a crime looks like at first sight, too. The subject is a murdered man; the verb is the modus operandi, the way the crime was committed; the object is the motive. Those are the three essentials of every sentence and every crime. First you find the subject, then you look for the vern, and the two of them lead you to the object. But you have not yet discovered the criminal—the meaning of the whole sentence yet. There are a number of subordinate clauses, which may be clues or red-herrings, and you've got to seperate them from each other in your own mind and reconstruct them to fit and to amplify the meaning of the whole. It's an exercise in analysis and synthesis—the very best training for detectives."
The highlight was the following exchange which is eerily like a conversation my Latin class had once:
"I don't mean that," said Sophie, a little annoyed by the implication that she was one of those rabidly house-proud women, "I mean, why do you mix yourself up in crime?"
..."Oh something to do, I suppose. It seemed to be the only profession for which a classical education fitted one."
"Now you are laughing at me. I'm quite serious."
"So am I. It does. If ever, in your salad days—as one of my comic uncles calls them—you were compelled to do a Latin unseen, you'll know that it presents an accurate parallel with criminal detection. You have a long sentence, full of inversions; just a jumble of words it looks at first. That is what a crime looks like at first sight, too. The subject is a murdered man; the verb is the modus operandi, the way the crime was committed; the object is the motive. Those are the three essentials of every sentence and every crime. First you find the subject, then you look for the vern, and the two of them lead you to the object. But you have not yet discovered the criminal—the meaning of the whole sentence yet. There are a number of subordinate clauses, which may be clues or red-herrings, and you've got to seperate them from each other in your own mind and reconstruct them to fit and to amplify the meaning of the whole. It's an exercise in analysis and synthesis—the very best training for detectives."
July 13, 2025
Entertaing enough to keep my interest. It's fairly easy to guess the main twist, but it is still well written. The owner of a brewery is killed, and there is no shortage of suspects since basically everybody hated the insane ruthless man. Nigel Strangeways, amateur detective, happens to be in town because of a literary function he was talking at and gets on the case to help an old school chum.
Recommended if you are a fan of these older mysteries, this one is from 1937, and it does have a few creaking parts. Namely the ending bits and Strangeways going through all the different scenarios take forever.
Recommended if you are a fan of these older mysteries, this one is from 1937, and it does have a few creaking parts. Namely the ending bits and Strangeways going through all the different scenarios take forever.
June 7, 2017
Most definitely not one of the best of the Nigel Strangeways series. The characterisation was not good and the plot was weak, so much so that I knew the identity of the murderer from fairly early on in the book.
May 11, 2025
A rather tortured plot, though I did spot the huge discrepancy at the beginning which provided the twist at the end. They never firmly established the identity of the first body, and sure enough, this managed to turn the murderer / victim axis upside down.
A lot of theorising which was a little too repetitive with too many similar but slightly differing scenarios offered one after the other.
The novel really came alive with the dialogue and most of the humour was in the interactions between Strangeways and the locals. I suspect the author was having a fine joke at the expense of those who criticise modern poetry in the early scenes.
A lot of theorising which was a little too repetitive with too many similar but slightly differing scenarios offered one after the other.
The novel really came alive with the dialogue and most of the humour was in the interactions between Strangeways and the locals. I suspect the author was having a fine joke at the expense of those who criticise modern poetry in the early scenes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2013
Written in 1928, with an unusual murder technique, and some moderately engaging characters. But the modern reader of mysteries has seen this plot trick dozens of times, so in 2013 there isn't much surprise. The explanation is elaborately, but somewhat tiresomely worked out in every detail. The most engaging character is unfortunately killed off half-way through, and Nigel Strangeways seems little more than annoying. I'm sorry to say that his new and much more appealing wife, Georgia, has no appearances after the first chapter.
February 8, 2016
Carefree early Nigel Strangeways, with good contributions from Georgia, the suspects, his friends, and the local police. I guessed it, but it didn't much matter. Only problem with it were all those timetables.
December 17, 2022
1930s - UK, Dorset: fictional small town Maiden Astbury
first published 1937
EVERY DOG, THEY say, has its day. Whether Truffles would have assented to this proposition during his lifetime is highly doubtful. Not for him the elusive rabbit, the ineffable dungheap, the hob-nobbing with loose companions at street corners that for upper-class dogs represent the illicit high-spots of cloistered lives. Truffles, like everything else that Eustace Bunnett had to do with, was kept very much at heel. One might have supposed that a wife, a brother, a brewery and a town council would have provided Mr. Bunnett with sufficient exercise for his lust for power. But that would be to underestimate both the late (though far from lamented) Eustace Bunnett and that most insidious of human vices of which Edmund Burke said so justly, ‘Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue.’ No, Truffles had a dog’s life, in every possible sense of the phrase. Even the natural and almost boundless servility of his species must have been pretty heavily strained by the demands of his master.
Nostalgischer altmodischer Krimi. Mich verblüfft immer wieder, wie viel Zeit und Ruhe und Geduld die Leser, äh, Lesenden, vor 100 Jahren gehabt haben müssen: Wie Strangeway wieder und wieder ausführlich seine verschiedenen Hypothesen, deren Pro und Contra, die unterschiedlichen Verdächtigen und so weiter und so weiter ausführlich durchdenkt und erklärt... das könnte sich ein zeitgenössischer Autor nicht erlauben, ohne sein Buch vom Lektorat auf die Hälfte geschrumpft zu bekommen 😂
Anderes hat sich allerdings in 100 Jahren nicht geändert, im Gegenteil, leider:
‘For the price of a few battleships, we could give you a healthy nation. We have the knowledge, the skill, the material resources; but those in power prefer to use them for destroying their competitors and safeguarding their own profits.’
Super spannend war es nicht, die offenbar als toller Überraschungseffekt geplante Pointe war mir schon sehr früh klar. Obwohl noch die eine oder andere Leiche auftaucht, ist es vor allem intellektuelles Rätselraten und arg konstruiert (dabei jedoch leider nicht so recht kompliziert). Aber für Zeitkolorit und Entspannung ein schönes Buch (verhilft zum Einschlafen 😂 bei nächtlichem Aufwachen), und der leicht ironische Stil macht Spaß:
He fidgeted with his notes and began to scrutinise the audience. Lower-middlebrow, he decided, was the prevailing tendency:
lower-middlebrow 😂 🤣🤭
Das Wortspiel des Buchtitels habe ich erst in diesem letzten Absatz 🤦♀️verstanden...
‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s been a dirty, untidy case in most ways, even though it does add force to a certain well-worn phrase.’
‘Namely?’
‘There’s trouble brewing.’
Dem Vernehmen nach haben spätere Bücher der Reihe besser und glaubwürdiger gestaltete Handlungen - ich bin gespannt und bleibe auf jeden Fall dran!
first published 1937
EVERY DOG, THEY say, has its day. Whether Truffles would have assented to this proposition during his lifetime is highly doubtful. Not for him the elusive rabbit, the ineffable dungheap, the hob-nobbing with loose companions at street corners that for upper-class dogs represent the illicit high-spots of cloistered lives. Truffles, like everything else that Eustace Bunnett had to do with, was kept very much at heel. One might have supposed that a wife, a brother, a brewery and a town council would have provided Mr. Bunnett with sufficient exercise for his lust for power. But that would be to underestimate both the late (though far from lamented) Eustace Bunnett and that most insidious of human vices of which Edmund Burke said so justly, ‘Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue.’ No, Truffles had a dog’s life, in every possible sense of the phrase. Even the natural and almost boundless servility of his species must have been pretty heavily strained by the demands of his master.
Nostalgischer altmodischer Krimi. Mich verblüfft immer wieder, wie viel Zeit und Ruhe und Geduld die Leser, äh, Lesenden, vor 100 Jahren gehabt haben müssen: Wie Strangeway wieder und wieder ausführlich seine verschiedenen Hypothesen, deren Pro und Contra, die unterschiedlichen Verdächtigen und so weiter und so weiter ausführlich durchdenkt und erklärt... das könnte sich ein zeitgenössischer Autor nicht erlauben, ohne sein Buch vom Lektorat auf die Hälfte geschrumpft zu bekommen 😂
Anderes hat sich allerdings in 100 Jahren nicht geändert, im Gegenteil, leider:
‘For the price of a few battleships, we could give you a healthy nation. We have the knowledge, the skill, the material resources; but those in power prefer to use them for destroying their competitors and safeguarding their own profits.’
Super spannend war es nicht, die offenbar als toller Überraschungseffekt geplante Pointe war mir schon sehr früh klar. Obwohl noch die eine oder andere Leiche auftaucht, ist es vor allem intellektuelles Rätselraten und arg konstruiert (dabei jedoch leider nicht so recht kompliziert). Aber für Zeitkolorit und Entspannung ein schönes Buch (verhilft zum Einschlafen 😂 bei nächtlichem Aufwachen), und der leicht ironische Stil macht Spaß:
He fidgeted with his notes and began to scrutinise the audience. Lower-middlebrow, he decided, was the prevailing tendency:
lower-middlebrow 😂 🤣🤭
Das Wortspiel des Buchtitels habe ich erst in diesem letzten Absatz 🤦♀️verstanden...
‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s been a dirty, untidy case in most ways, even though it does add force to a certain well-worn phrase.’
‘Namely?’
‘There’s trouble brewing.’
Dem Vernehmen nach haben spätere Bücher der Reihe besser und glaubwürdiger gestaltete Handlungen - ich bin gespannt und bleibe auf jeden Fall dran!
June 3, 2022
An invitation to address a Dorset literary society about his book on poetry delivers Nigel Strangeways into the middle of a fresh murder mystery.
A local bullying brewery owner who seems to hold everyone in town under his thumb meets with a revolting end. One very large problem is the sheer number of possible suspects, thanks to the man's notoriety as a nasty piece of work. But for Nigel, the biggest question is why the body was disposed of the way it was... boiled to mere bones in his own brewery's copper vat. What made that action necessary? What was the murderer trying to hide?
As Nigel looks on in the police investigation, the murder victim's home is burgled; meanwhile, the brother of the victim is nowhere to be found, purportedly off on a sailing vacation, although no ports have been able to share news of his docking anywhere since the murder. When an attempt to break in at the brewery offices is stopped by the night watchman, Nigel begins to fear that some desperate act could be still to come. The murderer is looking for something, and the life of anyone who gets in the way could be forfeit.
This particular entry was less about the mystery and more about the fun of watching Nigel puzzle out the evidence. Some of these tales include Nigel mentally collating all of the evidence and his observations, in a sort of literary version of "The Thin Man" movies' gather-all-the-suspects-together-and-see-whose-buttons-can-be-pushed.
This volume also has an annoying amount of foreshadowing of events to come, for some reason. Several chapters hint at plot twists a few pages ahead.
I read this in an Omnibus treasury, but am re-reading the stories in chronological order, so have to jump from volume to volume. This entry appeared in volume 1.
A local bullying brewery owner who seems to hold everyone in town under his thumb meets with a revolting end. One very large problem is the sheer number of possible suspects, thanks to the man's notoriety as a nasty piece of work. But for Nigel, the biggest question is why the body was disposed of the way it was... boiled to mere bones in his own brewery's copper vat. What made that action necessary? What was the murderer trying to hide?
As Nigel looks on in the police investigation, the murder victim's home is burgled; meanwhile, the brother of the victim is nowhere to be found, purportedly off on a sailing vacation, although no ports have been able to share news of his docking anywhere since the murder. When an attempt to break in at the brewery offices is stopped by the night watchman, Nigel begins to fear that some desperate act could be still to come. The murderer is looking for something, and the life of anyone who gets in the way could be forfeit.
This particular entry was less about the mystery and more about the fun of watching Nigel puzzle out the evidence. Some of these tales include Nigel mentally collating all of the evidence and his observations, in a sort of literary version of "The Thin Man" movies' gather-all-the-suspects-together-and-see-whose-buttons-can-be-pushed.
This volume also has an annoying amount of foreshadowing of events to come, for some reason. Several chapters hint at plot twists a few pages ahead.
I read this in an Omnibus treasury, but am re-reading the stories in chronological order, so have to jump from volume to volume. This entry appeared in volume 1.
April 12, 2020
Nigel Strangeways, piuttosto a malincuore, accetta l'invito della moglie di un suo vecchio compagno di università, ora medico, come ospite d'onore del circolo letterario di un piccolo villaggio nel Dorset. Il suo dovrebbe essere un semplice intervento sulla poesia moderna, ma diventa l'occasione per essere coinvolto in uno strano caso: qualche settimana prima, il cane dell'odioso proprietario del birrificio locale è stato ritrovato all'interno di uno dei calderoni per la bollitura, ridotto ormai alle sole ossa. Il vendicativo Burnett vuole scoprire chi è stato, e per questo ingaggia Strangeways; anche in tale frangente il nostro non vorrebbe accettare, ma i modi di Burnett sono così irritanti che il letterato/investigatore decide di assecondarlo solo per presentargli una parcella piuttosto salata. L'indagine sulla morte del cane lascia presto il posto ad un caso ben più complesso: durante l'ispezione di Strangeways sono i resti di un essere umano ad essere ritrovati in un altro calderone!
Peccato che solo una parte della piuttosto vasta produzione poliziesca di Nicholas Blake, alias Cecil Day-Lewis, sia disponibile in italiano: il suo Nigel Strangeways è un investigatore piuttosto originale e le trame non sono affatto banali, sebbene le soluzioni risultino poi estremamente lineari, di una semplicità quasi disarmante, se non fosse che l'autore ha saputo mescolare bene le carte, lasciandoci poi con un palmo di naso.
Ne Le pentole del diavolo alcuni aspetti della soluzione del caso sono intuibili senza troppe difficoltà, ma allo stesso tempo il lettore può lasciarsi sviare a quelli che sono suoi, per così dire, "preconcetti": un po' come fa la Christie L'assassino di Roger Ackroyd, lo scrittore sfrutta la tendenza di chi legge ad eliminare alcune possibilità; da qui la sorpresa nel momento in cui ci viene offerta la soluzione.
Mi spiace dovermi tenere nel vago, ma si rischia di spoilerare e sarebbe davvero un peccato!
Ancora una volta, lettura consigliata a tutti gli amanti del giallo classico.
Peccato che solo una parte della piuttosto vasta produzione poliziesca di Nicholas Blake, alias Cecil Day-Lewis, sia disponibile in italiano: il suo Nigel Strangeways è un investigatore piuttosto originale e le trame non sono affatto banali, sebbene le soluzioni risultino poi estremamente lineari, di una semplicità quasi disarmante, se non fosse che l'autore ha saputo mescolare bene le carte, lasciandoci poi con un palmo di naso.
Ne Le pentole del diavolo alcuni aspetti della soluzione del caso sono intuibili senza troppe difficoltà, ma allo stesso tempo il lettore può lasciarsi sviare a quelli che sono suoi, per così dire, "preconcetti": un po' come fa la Christie L'assassino di Roger Ackroyd, lo scrittore sfrutta la tendenza di chi legge ad eliminare alcune possibilità; da qui la sorpresa nel momento in cui ci viene offerta la soluzione.
Mi spiace dovermi tenere nel vago, ma si rischia di spoilerare e sarebbe davvero un peccato!
Ancora una volta, lettura consigliata a tutti gli amanti del giallo classico.
May 29, 2023
1937. Nigel Strangeways, author, poet and amateur detective is invited to give a literary society talk at a Dorset village by the wife of a GP that Strangeways happened to be with at Oxford. He is reluctant but his wife persuades him to accept for a bet as to the physical characteristics of the secretary, so he travels to stay with the doctor and his very attractive (you lost the bet Nige, but still…) wife. While there he’s asked by Mr Bunnett, an unpleasant local brewer, to investigate the killing of his dog and, being at a loose end, Strangeways agrees to stay in the pleasant company of the doctor and his wife. When the dissolved body of Bunnett is found in the brewery’s copper boiler things take a more serious turn and the amateur sleuth discovers that many of the locals and employees of the brewer have motive for killing him.
The investigation is handled in stolid police procedure style and as the facts of the case are revealed it soon became annoyingly obvious to me what had actually happened which made the second half of the book - rife with speculation - rather tedious (why didn’t they ask the question obvious to any fan of Agatha Christie’s stories?) until the otherwise quick-witted Strangeways sees the light. One question that remained unanswered was why the attractive young married couples in the book insisted on sleeping in separate beds?
The investigation is handled in stolid police procedure style and as the facts of the case are revealed it soon became annoyingly obvious to me what had actually happened which made the second half of the book - rife with speculation - rather tedious (why didn’t they ask the question obvious to any fan of Agatha Christie’s stories?) until the otherwise quick-witted Strangeways sees the light. One question that remained unanswered was why the attractive young married couples in the book insisted on sleeping in separate beds?
April 3, 2024
One of the lesser-known writers from the Golden Age of mystery, possibly because the pseudonym Nicholas Blake hides the award-winning poet Cecil Day-Lewis. His protagonist Nigel Strangeways, belongs squarely in the tradition of the well-educated, well-connected, eccentric, sometimes maddeningly vague amateur detective with a talent for looking at crime from a more creative angle than the flat-footed coppers. This particular story starts with Nigel being invited to give a talk to a village literary society. He only accepts the invitation because it gives him a chance to catch up with an old college friend. One of the attendees, the disagreeable brewery owner Mr. Eustace Bunnett, asks him to look into the strange death of his dog, who had been boiled to death in a brewery vat. But within 24 hours, Mr. Bunnett himself is found in that same vat, reduced to a skeleton, rags and false teeth.
It seems that the entire village loathed Eustace Bunnett, and there is no shortage of suspects, including Nigel's host and hostess.
I did tumble onto the solution to the mystery early into the story and so for me the best pleasure was not the puzzle, but the secondary characters: the village bobby, the flighty secretary, the hard-working village doctor.
It seems that the entire village loathed Eustace Bunnett, and there is no shortage of suspects, including Nigel's host and hostess.
I did tumble onto the solution to the mystery early into the story and so for me the best pleasure was not the puzzle, but the secondary characters: the village bobby, the flighty secretary, the hard-working village doctor.
August 10, 2018
Nicholas Blake nos tiene acostumbrados a que, mientras leemos sus novelas, pasemos un buen rato. Y Los Toneles de la muerte, también publicada por El Séptimo Círculo, no escapa a esta regla.
Escrita en un tono ligero e irónico, incluyendo dosis de humor, nos encontramos con un nuevo caso protagonizado por Nigel Strangeways, el torpe y simpático intelectual devenido en sagaz detective.
Comprometido pese a su voluntad a investigar el misterioso caso de un perro que apareció muerto en la caldera de una cervecería, se encuentra, al revisar ésta, con un nuevo cadaver calcinado, el del malhumorado, egoísta y prepotente dueño del perro y de la cervecería.
Así, comienza una investigación en la que simpatiza más con los sospechosos que con la víctima.
Nuevas muertes se producen hasta que, mezclando intuición y deducción, va despejando sus dudas y logra dar con el culpable.
https://sobrevolandolecturas.blogspot...
Escrita en un tono ligero e irónico, incluyendo dosis de humor, nos encontramos con un nuevo caso protagonizado por Nigel Strangeways, el torpe y simpático intelectual devenido en sagaz detective.
Comprometido pese a su voluntad a investigar el misterioso caso de un perro que apareció muerto en la caldera de una cervecería, se encuentra, al revisar ésta, con un nuevo cadaver calcinado, el del malhumorado, egoísta y prepotente dueño del perro y de la cervecería.
Así, comienza una investigación en la que simpatiza más con los sospechosos que con la víctima.
Nuevas muertes se producen hasta que, mezclando intuición y deducción, va despejando sus dudas y logra dar con el culpable.
https://sobrevolandolecturas.blogspot...
December 9, 2018
This is an entirely unsatisfactory British mystery, with the fundamental concept (which brother was murdered, which was the murderer) blindingly obvious for the last 150 pages (except to the detective Nigel Strangeways), and all the elaborations around the idea (both the false leads and the actual events) being unnecessarily complicated and out of character.
Nicholas Blake is the pen name of C. Day-Lewis, a lesser poet of the Auden-MacNeice era, and father of Daniel Day-Lewis. Apparently the first of the mystery series has Nigel Strangeways modeled on Auden, though the character is developed less eccentrically in subsequent novels. But this might just make that first one worth reading. "There's Trouble Brewing" is no recommendation to read anything more by this author, however.
Nicholas Blake is the pen name of C. Day-Lewis, a lesser poet of the Auden-MacNeice era, and father of Daniel Day-Lewis. Apparently the first of the mystery series has Nigel Strangeways modeled on Auden, though the character is developed less eccentrically in subsequent novels. But this might just make that first one worth reading. "There's Trouble Brewing" is no recommendation to read anything more by this author, however.
October 20, 2019
I read a lot of Blake five or six years back, but couldn't find this one, so when I saw it at the library I decided to read it. It was all right, but I did not particularly enjoy it; there was not very much about the characters or the place, and a lot of repetition, a lot of Nigel thinking over the same things repeatedly, and the solution came to me fairly early in the book, so reading the characters being unable to figure it out was dull. I seem to recall that I liked Blake's later work a lot more than his earlier, so I may pick up with his 1950s mysteries which is where I left off before and see if I like those better.
June 30, 2018
I totally loved this story. The author introduces a lot of characters and each one has an interesting history, even if it is only 2 sentences. After reading it, I looked up the author and apparently he was a Poet Laureate and started this series early in his writing career. Makes sense then that he can do a brief descriptions that give you such an insight into the person. Looking forward to reading/listening to the remainder of the series (there are 16 books total). I listened to the audiobook and it was quite excellent and I recommend it.
November 4, 2019
Discounted | Too obvious | When I was reading the series for free through my Unlimited trial, a couple of the books weren't available. I was able to pick this one up on sale. The author was generally very good at obscuring the solution until the end, but not in this one. It was clear from the very start, which meant the many pages of alibi lists and possible reconstructions--which of course were all false--were a waste. I skimmed those instead of reading them, it felt like an inspector Littlejohn book, with page after page of detailed maybes that turn out to be nothing at all.
July 18, 2021
Private detective Nigel Strangeways is asked by the obnoxious brewery owner Eustace Burnett to discover who killed his dog Truffles who's skeletal body was found in one of the vats. Reluctantly Strangeways takes the case but thinks look up when Burnett is found dead in the same state the following day. I think Strangeways must be an acquired taste because the mystery is quite engrossing unfortunately it is the private eye himself who irritates so much that I feel I have to down vote the book.
March 30, 2019
I found this a very entertaining and well written book. Admittedly, the mystery at its heart and the way it all plays out weren't actually all that mystifying - I pretty much knew what was going on, or at least the direction things were headed in, from quite early on - but none of that bothered me too much as the quality of the writing just carried me along.
January 19, 2024
The mystery is skilfully put together. Nigel Strangeways has personality (especially as voiced in Dyer’s audiobook reading), yet never really stuns with his deductions. Meantimes, he adds a jarring, rather artificial note by soliloquising at length over possible interpretations of the evidence.
September 12, 2017
I am miffed that Georgina appeared in the first few pages and then was away exploring throughout the rest of the narrative.
September 18, 2017
A breezy, light Golden Age mystery; very pleasant lead character.
September 26, 2017
A classic mystery which begins with the inspector being hired to find the murderer of a dog, a very enjoyable read.
May 11, 2019
A good and enjoyable who-done-it. As with the earlier Strangeways mystery yarns, the writing is a couple of notches better than the plot.
September 8, 2020
B–:
The murderer is obvious; the motive, less so. I was not hugely interested in the setting or characters here, but Blake writes very well, and his poetic asides are quite charming.
The murderer is obvious; the motive, less so. I was not hugely interested in the setting or characters here, but Blake writes very well, and his poetic asides are quite charming.
June 24, 2025
The 3rd Nigel Strangeway mystery from 1937 is set in a brewery! Good pace, characters and denouement. What's not to enjoy?
April 13, 2025
Decent crime story with an emphasis on brewing (and coincidentally reading it at the same time as Proof, another thriller about drink). Not Blake at his best, but at least entertaining.
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