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Cadbury's Coffin
Fraught with plotting, chicanery, and assignations in mausoleums and arbors, this melodramatic mystery chronicles the attempts of the members of a wealthy, turn-of-the-century family to vie for the affections and effects of skinflint Lycurgus Cadbury
202 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1982
About the author
Glendon Swarthout
51 books100 followersGlendon Fred Swarthout was an American writer. Some of his best known novels were made into films of the same title, Where the Boys Are, The Shootist and They Came To Cordura.
Also wrote under Glendon Fred Swarthout. Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendon_...
Also wrote under Glendon Fred Swarthout. Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendon_...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 9, 2014
Cadbury's Coffin by Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout was a Finalist in 1982 for the Best Juvenile Mystery novella of that year from the Mystery Writers of America.
"Don't bury me alive!" begs Lycurgus Cadbury, the cantankerous, tight-fisted tycoon of the turn-of-the-20th-century factory town of Gilead, New York, as he lies on his deathbed felled, apparently, by a stroke. His impending death, and his Last Will and Testament, cannot but change the lives of many people. These include his closest relatives, two greedy nieces, and Montfort Morgan, a devilish grand-nephew. Then there is his penniless household staff; Josh, the innocent and virtuous choreboy; Verbena, the lovely, scheming scullery maid; a careworn housekeeper, Minnie Pumpley; a dotty houseman, Eli Stamp.
From the night of Mr. Cadbury's fall to the reading of the will, his mansion rattles with family battles, echoes with conflict between relatives and servants, and shudders with bizarre, bone-chilling surprises as the plot is thickened by attempts to see that the old man, once taken to the tomb, is really and truly dead! For the wealthy curmudgeon has devised an intricate scenario which will determine not only if he is dead, but just who is the most deserving recipient of his riches. Cadbury's Coffin is a grand entertainment in the Victorian melodramatic manner, acted out by characters both valiant and villainous, and stuffed to the margins with shivers and mystery. Humor, horror, and romance are woven into the elaborate plot of this superbly crafted and enthralling novella for readers of all ages.
Cadbury's Coffin is the American version of the classic BBC TV series, Upstairs, Downstairs, with a strong flavoring of the Master, Charles Dickens. It would make a dynamite family mystery/suspenser TV-Movie to air every Halloween, what with its G-rated helping of spookiness, and has all the makings of a classic perennial for television, undoubtedly to be filmed in Canada with its turn-of-the-last-century settings. A must-read!
Descriptions of all the adult novels and young adult novellas by the writing Swarthouts, plus movie trailers of the 9 films made from these stories and the screenplays (originals and adaptations), are posted on our literary website -- www.glendonswarthout.com
Book Reviews --
"Here's a book filled with conflict between relatives and servants with bone-chilling surprises from cover to cover." Richmond, Virginia Times Dispatch
"Convincing mystery stories for young adults, featuring young adults as protagonists, are as hard as proverbial hen's teeth to find. So the Swarthouts' new mystery, written with a dramatic Victorian flavor and laced with a subtle humor, is a welcome addition to library shelves...The denouement is impressive. More than a tidy wrap-up of a mystery story's odds and ends, it becomes a multi-layered statement about the ironies of life, the enigmatic nature of human relationships, and the bittersweet passage from adolescence into adulthood." Boston Globe
"Being buried alive so concerns old Lycurgus Cadbury that his custom-built coffin is equipped with a speaking tube, a summoning bell and springs to raise the lid and elevate the body. And buried alive he is--at his own secret request--so he can observe his heirs scheme and squabble during the three days before his Will is read. But in an ironic twist, revealed after 175 entertaining and expertly written pages of Cadbury's Coffin, the stingy tycoon dies due to natural causes. Slick caricatures of a 19th century miser, his greedy relatives and humble servants were created by Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout...Victorian expressions color the prose, which boasts some of the most adroit scene-setting and descriptive narration available in fiction for older children today. Suspense mounts in well-paced episodes containing both horror and humor."
Barbara Pierce Poughkeepsie, New York Journal
""Ruthless relatives, despicable deeds, ingenuous innocents, and rumors of rich rewards propel the amusing narrative, which sports a Victorian setting and style as well as the themes of love, death, and an inheritance. Part farce, part melodrama, and part mystery, the book contains conventions of all three--but with some clever twists. Stingy, self-made millionaire Lycurgus Cadbury--whose fate it is to die or be murdered in nearly every other chapter--leaves his heirs pondering such dilemmas as: When is he 'thoroughly deceased?' and 'how could one murder a dead man?'...The plot turns on two hoaxes; one is perpetrated on the characters, and the other on the reader, who ultimately discovers that this frivolous concoction masks a real mystery and an important idea."
Nancy C. Hammond, the Horn Book magazine
"Don't bury me alive!" begs Lycurgus Cadbury, the cantankerous, tight-fisted tycoon of the turn-of-the-20th-century factory town of Gilead, New York, as he lies on his deathbed felled, apparently, by a stroke. His impending death, and his Last Will and Testament, cannot but change the lives of many people. These include his closest relatives, two greedy nieces, and Montfort Morgan, a devilish grand-nephew. Then there is his penniless household staff; Josh, the innocent and virtuous choreboy; Verbena, the lovely, scheming scullery maid; a careworn housekeeper, Minnie Pumpley; a dotty houseman, Eli Stamp.
From the night of Mr. Cadbury's fall to the reading of the will, his mansion rattles with family battles, echoes with conflict between relatives and servants, and shudders with bizarre, bone-chilling surprises as the plot is thickened by attempts to see that the old man, once taken to the tomb, is really and truly dead! For the wealthy curmudgeon has devised an intricate scenario which will determine not only if he is dead, but just who is the most deserving recipient of his riches. Cadbury's Coffin is a grand entertainment in the Victorian melodramatic manner, acted out by characters both valiant and villainous, and stuffed to the margins with shivers and mystery. Humor, horror, and romance are woven into the elaborate plot of this superbly crafted and enthralling novella for readers of all ages.
Cadbury's Coffin is the American version of the classic BBC TV series, Upstairs, Downstairs, with a strong flavoring of the Master, Charles Dickens. It would make a dynamite family mystery/suspenser TV-Movie to air every Halloween, what with its G-rated helping of spookiness, and has all the makings of a classic perennial for television, undoubtedly to be filmed in Canada with its turn-of-the-last-century settings. A must-read!
Descriptions of all the adult novels and young adult novellas by the writing Swarthouts, plus movie trailers of the 9 films made from these stories and the screenplays (originals and adaptations), are posted on our literary website -- www.glendonswarthout.com
Book Reviews --
"Here's a book filled with conflict between relatives and servants with bone-chilling surprises from cover to cover." Richmond, Virginia Times Dispatch
"Convincing mystery stories for young adults, featuring young adults as protagonists, are as hard as proverbial hen's teeth to find. So the Swarthouts' new mystery, written with a dramatic Victorian flavor and laced with a subtle humor, is a welcome addition to library shelves...The denouement is impressive. More than a tidy wrap-up of a mystery story's odds and ends, it becomes a multi-layered statement about the ironies of life, the enigmatic nature of human relationships, and the bittersweet passage from adolescence into adulthood." Boston Globe
"Being buried alive so concerns old Lycurgus Cadbury that his custom-built coffin is equipped with a speaking tube, a summoning bell and springs to raise the lid and elevate the body. And buried alive he is--at his own secret request--so he can observe his heirs scheme and squabble during the three days before his Will is read. But in an ironic twist, revealed after 175 entertaining and expertly written pages of Cadbury's Coffin, the stingy tycoon dies due to natural causes. Slick caricatures of a 19th century miser, his greedy relatives and humble servants were created by Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout...Victorian expressions color the prose, which boasts some of the most adroit scene-setting and descriptive narration available in fiction for older children today. Suspense mounts in well-paced episodes containing both horror and humor."
Barbara Pierce Poughkeepsie, New York Journal
""Ruthless relatives, despicable deeds, ingenuous innocents, and rumors of rich rewards propel the amusing narrative, which sports a Victorian setting and style as well as the themes of love, death, and an inheritance. Part farce, part melodrama, and part mystery, the book contains conventions of all three--but with some clever twists. Stingy, self-made millionaire Lycurgus Cadbury--whose fate it is to die or be murdered in nearly every other chapter--leaves his heirs pondering such dilemmas as: When is he 'thoroughly deceased?' and 'how could one murder a dead man?'...The plot turns on two hoaxes; one is perpetrated on the characters, and the other on the reader, who ultimately discovers that this frivolous concoction masks a real mystery and an important idea."
Nancy C. Hammond, the Horn Book magazine
December 29, 2016
I picked this up at a used bookstore because it sounded like it might be amusing, but it ended up being a bit of a disappointment. The story revolves around the death (maybe) of rich old Lycurgus Cadbury who died (or did he?) shortly after expressing a fear of premature burial.
A slightly tongue-in-cheek faux Gothic story of scheming relatives and faithful servants ensues. Some of it was entertaining and clever, but the overall plot was boringly predictable for the first 3/4 of the book. The predictability is partly because of the writing and partly because most chapters begin with a captioned illustration many of which are spoilers for the major action that will happen in that chapter.
There is a nice twist toward the end (not in a clever "everything you think you know is wrong" way; just fate intervening), and the book suddenly turns into a sort of coming-of-age tale that kind of works but also feels a bit disjointed. Overall: there was some cleverness here, but so much of it was boringly predictable (and not in the funny "we all know I'm mocking Gothic tropes" kind of way that I think the author was going for).
A slightly tongue-in-cheek faux Gothic story of scheming relatives and faithful servants ensues. Some of it was entertaining and clever, but the overall plot was boringly predictable for the first 3/4 of the book. The predictability is partly because of the writing and partly because most chapters begin with a captioned illustration many of which are spoilers for the major action that will happen in that chapter.
There is a nice twist toward the end (not in a clever "everything you think you know is wrong" way; just fate intervening), and the book suddenly turns into a sort of coming-of-age tale that kind of works but also feels a bit disjointed. Overall: there was some cleverness here, but so much of it was boringly predictable (and not in the funny "we all know I'm mocking Gothic tropes" kind of way that I think the author was going for).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews