Quick Curtain

by Alan Melville

'Don't talk bunk!' said Mr Douglas. 'You can't carry on with the show with a man dying on stage. Drop the curtain!'

When Douglas B. Douglas—leading light of the London theatre—premieres his new musical extravaganza, Blue Music, he is sure the packed house will be dazzled by the performance. What he couldn't predict is the death of his star, Brandon Baker, on stage in the middle of Act 2. Soon another member of the cast is found dead, and it seems to be a straightforward case of murder followed by suicide.

Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard—who happens to be among the audience—soon discovers otherwise. Together with Derek, his journalist son, Wilson takes charge of proceedings in his own inimitable way.

This is a witty, satirical novel from the golden age of British crime fiction between the world wars. It is long overdue for rediscovery and this new edition includes an informative introduction by Martin Edwards, author of The Golden Age of Murder.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Golden Age Mystery, 20th Century, Detective, British Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Alan Melville was an English broadcaster, writer, actor, raconteur, producer, playwright and wit.

There are multiple authors with this name.

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publicist Douglas B. Douglas was a master at convincing theatergoers that his next show would be a sensation. "Blue Music", a musical comedy operetta, played to audiences in Manchester. The public was willing to pay a reduced ticket price to view rehearsals of the upcoming "successful" show. Londoners sat on camp stools for days to obtain tickets for opening night. Leading man Brandon Baker's Galley Fan Club was beyond excited to see their idol. Stage director Herbert, worked behind the scenes cuing actors, calming nerves and making sure the transitions between acts ran smoothly.

All is well until Act II. After the line....."So! You make love to my woman, eh!", a gunshot rang out. Oh,no! A fake gun was unknowingly replaced by a real one. Brandon Baker fell down, lifeless, on stage in front of a dazed audience. Hilary Foster, the actor who fired the fatal shot seems to have committed suicide.

In attendance opening night were Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard and son, Derek, a journalist. They embarked upon a criminal investigation. Father and son were an oddball team. Inspector Wilson worked from home and did not follow police procedure. The Wilson's banter was witty and humorous. They applied their "theories" to search for the culprit(s).

"Quick Curtain" by Alan Melville was a lighthearted whodunit written in 1934. It was written between the two world wars during the Golden Age of Murder. Lovers of hefty police procedurals or hard boiled crime will not find this read satisfying. Lovers of witty, humorous investigation and vanishing suspects coupled with a theatrical setting will be delighted.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Quick Curtain".

[Anna Catharina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das war überraschend anders, ich hatte einen "normalen" Kriminalroman mit Theatersetting erwartet, aber "Das Publikum war Zeuge" ist sowohl eine Satire auf die (Musik-)Theaterwelt als auch auf das Genre des Kriminalromans. Beide werden vom Autor gnadenlos durch den Kakao gezogen und das auf eine so herrlich lustige Art und Weise, dass ich mich köstlich amüsiert habe. Ich kann gut verstehen, warum Dorothy L. Sayers eine eher verschnupfte Kritik zu diesem Buch geschrieben hat, wo sie doch zeitlebens versucht hat, Kriminalromane aus der seichten Literaturecke zu holen und Standards zu setzen. Das nimmt Alan Melville alles aufs Korn und verkehrt es ins Gegenteil.

Wie gut, dass die British Library und für Deutschland der Ullstein Verlag dieses ganz ungewöhnlich Buch aus der Versenkung geholt haben.

[Tiziana · Rating 4 out of 5]

( English is not my mother tongue, so please forgive me for any grammatical or form errors, thank you )

If you can get through the first chapter ( absolutely boring charaters introduction and longer than necessary), then it will be a pleasent and often funny reading .
I don't suggest it to all Golden Age Mystery fans though and that's the reason why :

This mystery was a nice reading to me as the atmosphere was light and the humor in the dialogues of the two main protagonists brought me back to the atmosphere of old black and white American movies with detective Charlie Chan or Miss Marple played by funny and good actress Margareth Rutheford or the Thin Man films with William Powell and Myrna Loy... they were mysteries but not at all dramatic films, on the contrary, the dialogues and situations played down the real plot and the ironic jokes made the viewer laugh. With this book I felt the same sensations that I felt and still feel with those films.
It's the first classic crime mystery I've read written in this humorous way, it could very well be a modern-day cozy mystery.

( __ WARNING : SPOILER !!!!!__)
A negative point, which certainly will not please many lovers of the classic crime is that the mystery is not so mysterious and there are no sensational twists ... only your curiosity to know how and why will lead you to continue reading. When will you finally think .. that's all? Here comes a sudden turning point (although at one point I had assumed it and the detective promptly denied me )...THE REAL SPOILER: the detective and his son didn't understand anything, they got everything completely wrong...
The truth will be revealed by one confession letter and other 3 people letters, after an innocent man was arrested and formally accused and after the detective son reported in the newspaper ... totally crazy!
Have you ever read a mystery crime where the protagonists investigate and end up turning out to be losers who have done everything wrong?
I was appalled, but basically it was fun.
The author managed to get out of the usual cliché ... bizarre, unusual but I liked it .. of course it's always a matter of taste and I think many would not like it :-)

[Judy Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital galley of this novel.

I have read many short stories written to satirize the detective story but never a full length novel attempting that feat. As I began to read this one I wondered if I could continue since Alan Melville is taking on the detective story and the theatre world with this single novel. Those are two of my great loves and I didn't know if I would get enjoyment out of watching someone poking fun at them both. I will admit to having to encourage myself to continue reading at first, but quite soon I found that I was enjoying the silliness.

What saves this novel for me is the fact that there is actually a good mystery involved. A murder takes place on stage of an opening night performance. The Scotland Yard police inspector and his journalist son are in the audience so are right on the spot to begin investigating. The conversations between the father and son make for some of the best reading in the novel. Nothing is entirely serious, no clue is ever set in concrete, no motive is ever investigated fully enough. There are mistakes made by the inspector (gasp!) and by his son (another gasp!) and they don't exactly get much of anything right. When one theory proves to be wrong they just move on to another theory and whittle away at it. There is more than one death so the intrepid duo has their hands full throughout the novel trying to tie up all the motives and alibies.

If you are a serious reader of these older re-issued detective stories, give this one a try. I was surprised by how involved I became in the story in spite of not particularly enjoying satire. If Alan Melville ever wrote a serious detective story, I'll bet it was a pip.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Define “witty”...

It's the opening night of the new show at the Grosvenor Theatre – Blue Music, produced by the great theatre impresario Douglas B Douglas and starring perennial juvenile lead and heart-throb Brandon Baker, a combination designed to guarantee box office success. The theatre is filled with the great and the good in the dear seats, and the members of the Brandon Baker Gallery Club in the cheap ones. The scene where Brandon Baker is shot takes on an unexpectedly dramatic twist when it turns out the bullet was real, and he collapses onto the stage, dead. Fortunately Inspector Wilson of the Yard is in the audience, along with his journalist son Derek, so the pair are in prime position to investigate the murder.

This is billed as being “witty”. Wit can wear very thin very quickly if it's not done well. It's not done well. The Wilsons must have a claim on the title of most annoying crime fighting duo in history. Perhaps if they spent less time being “funny”, they might have been better detectives. I found myself speculating as to the mysterious lack of a Mrs Wilson – I concluded that if I were married to one of these and the mother of the other, I'd probably have run off to a different continent leaving no forwarding address, but perhaps the poor lady simply died of tedium after having to listen to them do their cross-talk act at breakfast once too often.

Realism simply doesn't exist in this novel. Inspector Wilson acts like an amateur detective, using his son as his sidekick. They don't interview any suspects or do any real investigation. They simply come up with a theory and then mangle the “facts” to fit. “Facts” is a term that must be used loosely in regard to this novel, since there are glaring continuity errors throughout, such as a man having a wife and children at one appearance and then being an unmarried loner next time he's discussed. One feels that some editor at some point in the 80-odd years since it was first published would have picked up on these issues, but perhaps they were all laughing too hysterically to concentrate.

To be fair, it starts out quite well with some gentle lampooning of the whole business of putting on light musicals. Stars, producers, theatre critics and fans all come in for their share of mockery, but it's done quite affectionately. In his introduction, Martin Edwards tells us that Melville was himself a successful playwright and this shows through in his credible, if caricatured, portrayal of the life of theatricals. It's really the arrival of the Wilson duo that brings the whole thing down – in fact, it's the attempt to make it into a crime novel that fails badly. Had Melville written some other kind of theatre based froth, then it may have come off better, but a crime novel really requires at least some pretence at a proper plot and investigation or it becomes nonsensical – and not in a good way. Edwards tells us that Dorothy L Sayers, a regular reviewer of the work of her contemporaries, had similar reservations as my own, saying Inspector Wilson “does all his detecting from his private house with the sole aid of his journalist son. Light entertainment is Mr Melville's aim, and a fig for procedure!”

So I guess it comes down to whether the reader finds this kind of arch humour entertaining. Some will, I'm sure, and will therefore be better able to overlook the major flaws in the plot and structure. Sadly I found myself getting progressively more irritated and bored as it went along and was frankly delighted to make it to the deeply unsatisfactory and rather silly end. Not an author I will be pursuing further, I'm afraid. Sometimes authors become “forgotten” for a reason...

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[BrokenTune · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the satire of the theatre society, mystery genre and adoring public was interesting, I didn't find this to be an enjoyable read at all. Seriously, Tey picked up a similar approach in A Shilling for Candles and worked it so much better that, by comparison, this fell totally flat for me - from the slapstick take on Holmes and Watson to the mock resolution of the murder.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the British Library Crime Classics series mysteries from the Golden Age that have been forgotten are finding a new readership. Mysteries like Quick Curtain (1934) by Alan Melville. As Martin Edwards mentions in his excellent introduction, Melville's book is a delightfully witty detective novel and Melville's "aim was to have fun with the genre." Dorothy L. Sayers took him to task in her review for not following police procedure, but, honestly--and I love Sayers's novel--Sayers doesn't stick that closely to procedure herself. Would Scotland Yard really let Lord Peter Wimsey go bargin' round hunting for clues as an amateur? Probably not. But it makes for lovely stories. As does Melville's use of Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard and his journalist son (who plays both side-kick and devil's advocate to his father). They have a bantering relationship where each wants to prove to the other how smart they are and to reach the solution first. They make light of the other's ideas, but underneath it all is a bedrock of affection that keeps them together.

Melville also uses his experience in the theatre world to give us a murder set beyond the footlights of the London stage. Douglas B. Douglas is ready to accept the accolades that should follow the opening of his latest musical extravaganza, Blue Music. He is sure the newspapers will be filled with rave reviews of the performances of his stars Brandon Baker and Gwen Astle. What he doesn't expect is that Brandon Baker will feature in a news story of a very different sort--as the victim of an apparent murder-suicide. In the middle of Act 2, Baker's character is meant to be "shot" by his on-stage rival played by J. Hilary Foster. The gun is supposed to be empty (with the gunshot sound produced off-stage), but Baker falls dead from a very real bullet.

Inspector Wilson and his son Derek are in the audience and Wilson takes command of the situation. Foster has disappeared and when the actor is traced to his dressing room he is found hanging by the neck. Wilson is prepared to call it murder followed by suicide in a fit of remorse, but there is no suicide note and there are a few other oddities as well--like the position of the bullet when it's dug out of the proscenium wall and the woman who shows up at the inquest and the funeral and who claims to have been Baker's wife. Pretty soon father and son are following a trail that will lead to a country inn and another dead body. They will both make several mistakes along the way to a final solution.

This book is a lot of fun. Very clever plotting and lots of twists and turns to keep the pace moving and the reader on their toes. The best part of the book is the relationship between Wilson and his son--making for a highly entertaining read overall

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. While the mystery plot itself has next to no substance, Quick Curtain is very funny. I actually laughed out loud several times. The mystery actually just seems like an excuse for the author to have fun, with the hyper-witty narration mercilessly satirizing every aspect of the theatre, and the hyper-witty banter between Inspector Wilson and his son as they investigate. The whole thing weighs about as much as cotton candy, yet there's enough erudition in the humor, with its play on words and literary references, to keep it from being sheer nonsense.

I might have been a little more indulgent toward the mystery plot itself if it didn't have a couple of fairly glaring continuity errors—most notably, the the significant changes to one character's backstory between Chapter Nine and Chapter Twelve. I almost have a hunch that a subplot was cut and two supporting characters merged together (you'll probably know what I mean if you read it), but it really should have been fixed before going to press.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 2 out of 5]

Humor is so dependent on personal taste. I understand why others would see this as witty and clever, but most of the time the humor irritated me. I didn't think it succeeded as humor or as a detective story. The plotting was just strange, with the professional detective and his son just manufacturing one theory after another, without much of any logic or work.

I did like the theater setting and I'm a sucker for Golden Age mysteries, so it wasn't a waste of time. I was just hoping for more. I kept thinking of how much better it could have been.

[Nadja · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this was not for me. Some of the dialogue and remarks about the theatre world were funny, but in general this was not an entertaining read. The writing style was exhausting and boring. However, the ending of the story was unexpected and surprising.

[Eva Müller · Rating 1 out of 5]

The issues I had with this book were very similar to those I had with Weekend at Thrackley by the same author. It’s not funny enough to be a good parody – of either crime fiction or the theatre world – and doesn’t have a good enough plot to be an enjoyable crime novel. The ‘jokes’ about the theatre world all boil down to one thing: true talent – in writing, acting or singing – is meaningless, only talent-less hacks and horrible actors make ridiculous amounts of money because the audience is too stupid to tell one from the other. Even for a parody that’s a bit shallow. Non-theatre related jokes include hilarities like “No, you can’t go undercover. Everyone will be able to tell that you’re a policeman because of your large feet.” (Have you already died from laughter?) or an extremely infantile scene in which Wilson Jr. goes on a cycling tour despite having no experience and then his behind hurts.



Meanwhile, the crime story features a Scotland Yard detective who witnesses a murder on stage – the ever-popular character is shoot in a scene but then the actor drops actually dead – but can’t be bothered to take a closer look at the prop gun to see if the deadly shoot really came from that gun and if perhaps there is some hint as to how the prop gun turned deadly. Later he meets a woman who introduces herself as the victim’s wife – Wilson wasn’t even aware that he was married – and doesn’t bother asking her a single question. Or her name. Or anything. There’s parody crime novels and then there’s this. Whatever this is. A book-like object as my favourite podcast would call it. But nothing I would recommend you should read.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the hero of a new musical is shot dead during opening night, Inspector Wilson and his journalist son take over the case, since the police are sure that they have their murderer. There's a lot of cross-talk humor, but the conclusions are ultimately unsatisfying.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
BOOK 50 - 1934 - Alan Melville "was a well-known television broadcaster...a playwright, producer, and scriptwriter" reads the back cover. But can he write a crime novel? Dorothy Sayers wrote that Melville "blows the solemn structure of the detective novel sky-high" says the introduction by Martin Edwards.
CAST - 4 stars: Melville provides us, up front, a cast in the form of a programme for "Blue Music: A Musical Comedy Operetta." This listing includes "The Twenty-Four Ballet Whos." Okay, I thought that hilarious, and that's what is in store here. If you didn't laugh at the mention of the "Ballet Whos", right on the first page, this book probably isn't for you. Douglas B. Douglas, the producer, can persuade "the public that something merely mediocre was something simply sensational. Actress Gwen Castle "had married six times, twice into the peerage, had been divorced six times, twice out of the peerage..." Mr. Ivor Watcyns (in charge of book and music) "was young, naughty, witty, spicy, terribly, terribly brilliant." The reviews are unkind, mostly because they'd been written before or during the show, like, "I'll merely mention that the last thing Mr. Baker did [Barker is shot dead on stage early on] was the best thing Mr. Baker did." Melville leaves no one untouched by salicious rumors or sordid reviews. I found the incessant throwaway lines often brilliant and the cast, everyone, just swimmingly (almost nakedly!), fun.
ATMOSPHERE - 5: On stage, there is "The Swimming Pool of the Whittaker's Country House in Florida"; "A Street in Paris", "The Ballroom of the Blue Music Cafe in Budapest", "The Promenade Deck of the S.S. Emporer of India" and more, the plot consisting of stolen pearls and lots of love songs demanding immediate encores right in the middle of the show. Naturally, there are many teas, many high teas, and some sad caviar at a West End establishment. But it's the rotating stage (it's moving as the murder is committed) and various positions of the actors (let's not forget the chorus of 110) are all involved in solving the mystery. And for all this to come together, Melville does construct great stage movements to accompany the murder and the solution. I found this a perfect melding of story and atmosphere. Everything just plain works.
Crime - 3: Rather average. An actor is shot on stage (this is a trope, really, of British Crime Novels), quickly followed by the shooter running down a mountain (that's on stage) and hanging himself in his dressing room (this has also been done a few times). Nothing original here...at first.
Investigation - 3: There really isn't much of one. It's more like folks stumbling around asking questions just for the sake of a good laugh line. Like here:
"If he [a suspect] does anything peculiar...If he tries to slip out silently in the middle of the show-stop him and ask him to show you to the lavatory."
Response:
"Sounds a very delightful way of putting in an evening," says the terribly witty naughty author...who just might do so...
And so it goes: the investigation as laugh lines.
Resolution - 4: Here's the thing: there is a structure, and it is done beautifully. And a number of twists are actually worthy of the deceptive ability of Dame Christie: all is not as it seems. Agatha would be a proud fan of this work, I'm sure.
SUMMARY - 3.8. Yea, I know, there is much here in this book concerning sore behinds and pointed bosoms. And the semi-naked chorus of 55 gals and 55 guys. And an actress who has entertained millions of men in a very short time. But, most surprisingly, it all works, especially when the producer realizes he actually does have a smash hit on his hands, and he reopens as soon as possible: will there be another murder? More semi-nudity around pools? Demand for tickets skyrocket, and when the producer advertises that no matter what might happen, there is to be no refunds, the entire run sales out. And, something different does happen! The Chapter 13 denouement is one of the smartest and most surprising reveals I've come across in crime/murder mysteries. I read this in one sitting. And I'm buying it to read again on those bad days we all have: perhaps I just needed something absolutely ridiculous but often laugh-out-loud funny to read. And I found it.

[Zoe Radley · Rating 1 out of 5]

its quite awful... some of it is funny I grant you... I know what it is trying to do and that is make a little stab at all the mysteriousness in detecting and a tongue in cheek to all detective stories but... it doesn't even do that justice. The father and son thing doesn't work and it just feels flat and tired I don't think this should have seen the light of day. A bit disappointed really.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd detective story set in the theatre. The star of a musical comedy is shot dead onstage and inspector Watkins and his journalist son Derek investigate. The author tries very hard to be funny - much too hard. Apparently he was a theatre man himself, but the book conveys no affection for the theatre, or any really interesting details about theatrical life. The unrelentingly facetious tone becomes tiresome very quickly. Apparently this author only wrote one whodunnit, which is a mercy. The attempt to combine mystery with humour fails on both counts.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would say 2.5 right in the middle. While I love humor and mysteries this one felt very disjointed. I know there was slang being used and I got some of it and missed some (due to the language use being older English slang.) Also would have liked for the Dad Son team to be a bit less bumbling at times and more intelligent. The main crux for me in terms of putting a damper on the plot happened in the first chapters around the inquest and funeral. (Won't say more, but that move certainly dampened the story.) Toward the end, it did pick up and the humor actually helped the story along.

Overall my thoughts are: this would have been better as a movie than a book, if you like Benny Hill this is for you, when Melville hits right it's great and when not it muddles the story.

Will be reading the other book by him, and see how that goes.

[Rose A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable vintage whodunnit. Loved the theatrical setting, the banter between the father and son detective team and the cynical, almost Wodehousian humour. Not as clever twists as a Christie but the setting and amusing style made up for that plenty!

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is another one in the excellent British Library Crime Classics series. It is a comic crime novel and it actually works very well. Often comedy just doesn't work when mixed with crime but the author does manage to keep up the humour right to the end. If you want realistic police procedure you won't find it here but it is an entertaining read and the theatrical world is satirised very cleverly.

A musical is staged in which the leading man has to be apparently killed. Unfortunately this scene turns out to be rather more realistic than was intended by the producer or the actors concerned. There is a Scotland Yard detective in the audience by the name of Wilson with his son Derek who is a journalist. This duo proceed to investigate the crime in their own inimitable fashion with more than a few mistakes on the way.

Realistic it isn't but it is well plotted with some very nice twists and turns and I found the humour very much to my taste and I laughed out loud at several descriptions and incidents. If you like curiosities in the crime fiction genre then try this. In my opinion it has stood the test of time very well.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic mystery from the 1930s but with a twist — a large dose of humor.

A leading producer in the Londer Theater premieres a new musical, "Blue Music," before a packed audience. But shortly into the second act, the story goes awry: one of the actors is murdered on stage and a second actor hangs himself.

Enter Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard, who happens to be in the audience with his journalist son Derek. The duo quickly dive into an investigation, disagreeing with the common take on the case that the second actor killed the first and hung himself in remorse.

For one thing, it appears that the bullet was fired from a different direction ... And the Wilsons take off, searching for clues and a satisfactory conclusion.

Light, delightful reading by a new-to-me writer, Alan Melville (1910-1983), a well-known television broadcaster, playwright, producer and scriptwriter.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1934 and now republished in the British Library Crime Classics series, this has aged fairly well.

The murder of an actor on stage is quickly followed by the death of another of the cast, but Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard - plucked out of the audience to investigate - isn't satisfied that the case is as straightforward as it looks. The book tries to be witty and generally succeeds, although occasionally seems to be trying a bit too hard. There's scarcely a nod to actual police procedure, but then it's not trying to be a police procedural. And I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending, although it's definitely clever and well-plotted. All in all, it's pretty good: a solid 4 out of 5.

[EuroHackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This novel is incredibly funny - the wit is sharp and acidic, the skewering of the Business of Show Business incredibly on point. If, indeed, this included "several thinly veiled personal attacks" as alleged by Dorothy L. Sayers in her contemporary review, I definitely want to know who the author was aiming for. We are all the gossipy postmistress Miss Prune, for all that we try to deny it.

The featured father-son duo of Wilsons (Father, the Scotland Yard inspector; Son, the 'investigative journalist' who writes for a tabloid gossip rag) is positioned somewhere between Holmes & Watson and the Queens. Its sort of like Ellery Queen writing a too-clever-by-half send-up of the genre that cemented his name in literary and pulp history.

This was a solid 4-star read for me until the final chapter, which deflated all of the sails that had been blowing about in the previous twelve. It was a step too far IMO, blowing the conclusions to smithereens (even though there are so many more plot holes than the ones featured in Chapter 13). Sometimes pushing your baby off the cliff is the right thing to do, and sometimes its just needless savagery - in my opinion, Chapter 13 is needless savagery.

A pity that the author didn't write more amusing detective stories in the course of his career, as both this and Death of Anton are worthy of their reprints as Classic Crime novels.

[KayKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first chapter of "Quick Curtain" is interesting with an unusual commencement, a prelude before the deaths occur. A thoroughly well-written mystery taken as a whole; the unique slow beginning, though, did take me me few attempts to get through.

The plot is very simple- Two stage actors are found dead on the night of a premier performance. One is shot dead by a prop revolver and the "killer" committed suicide because of the unfortunate accident of killing his peer. Among the audience are our detectives, a father-and-son-duo from Scotland Yard and from the press. Something sinister and evil is behind the case, or is it really?

"Quick Curtain" is full of humor that makes it a fun, leisure read. It is an one of a kind mystery literature from the golden age detective fiction era. There are few unexpected humorous twists and the author's supreme writing skill holds my curiosity throughout. The plot itself is far from an exceptional one but the author's wittiness and his unconventional style help to establish "Quick Curtain" an unique mystery read, something turns out to be extraordinary out from a plain, simple plot.

The cover arts of the British Library Crime Classic series are always something to-die-for, and this one is no exception. The cover does capture the essence of such a witty and fine crime story. Thank you, Poisoned Pen Press, for bringing another old school but a real gem back on the market. I appreciate the publisher's generosity for letting me to preview "Quick Curtain" for my opinion via Netgallery.

[Toshi Parmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wannabe Holmes and Watson try and emulate the duo while claiming to circumvent the tropes associated with them. They fail miserably in both endeavours—ultimately the trope catches up to the pair, and just as they are reluctantly accepting but thoroughly relishing it, their detections are revealed as up to no good.
Moreover, Melville had me nodding like a fool till the very last (except the confusingly explained bullet theory). He spared nobody in this novel. The reader, along with his protagonists, have their convictions and hubris destroyed when he reveals, in the ultimate chapter, that this indeed is a quintessential crime novel with twists and turns that are as ridiculous as they are entertaining.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my third golden age mystery by Alan Melville, and all of them follow a certain pattern: they are light on mystery, heavy on humor, and provide a satirical glimpse into a part of British society in the 1930s.

This time we are looking at the theater, the world of actors, promotors, and spectacle. And there is no one bigger in producing a spectacle than Douglas B. Douglas, promoter extraordinaire. But even he realizes the show must stop when his leading actor is killed on stage at the start of the second act, followed closely by a suicide of the suspected murderer. Inspector Wilson of Scotland Yard, along with his journalist son Derek, were on the scene and soon come to the conclusion that the murder wasn't as straightforward as everyone thinks.

Let the hijinks begin! Mr. Melville plays fast and loose with police procedures, so don't expect any scientific method here. Stop pointing out the mistakes and inconsistencies, don't fret about how an inspector's son can do all that Derek does, just enjoy the banter and the ride.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast, fun read. The dry humor, nostalgia and theatre element were appealing to me, as was the relationship between the father/son crime solving duo. The unending cluelessness of the village dwellers was a little over the top but was well balanced by our masquerading sleuth. Maybe not to everyone’s taste but I quite enjoyed it!

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for a six hour flight

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: it was the premier of Douglas Douglas's new musical, 'Blue Music,' and it was going very well, and then the star died on stage in Act 2.

[Lavinia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,75

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review: http://perfectretort.blogspot.com/202...

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the beginning and middle of the story but the ending was super unsatisfactory 😢