Murder Must Appetize

by H.R.F. Keating

Murder Must Appetize

Genres: Mystery, Novella, Anthologies

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating was an English writer of crime fiction most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.

H. R. F. KEATING was well versed in the worlds of crime, fiction and nonfiction. He was the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years, as well as serving as the chairman of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors. He won the CWA Gold Dagger Award twice, and in 1996 was awarded the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding service to crime fiction.

Series:
. Inspector Ghote
. Harriet Martens

Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Perfectly Criminal

Reviews

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look! Look! It's a monograph, just like the ones Sherlock Holmes used to write!
A monograph, my dear children, is a short work or a long essay on a single subject written by a single person. This one is about Golden Age detective fiction and I must say Keating enjoyed himself mightily, puffing the authors he liked or knew personally and slating those he didn't. Useful for those who enjoy trawling the Net (I recommend Gutenberg and Gutenberg Australia) for ebooks of the out-of-print, who are legion.

However, who died and left this guy hall-monitor? He was very waspish about a certain lady-author, to the point of not mentioning a single one of her titles. She gets a whole paragraph, while his personal buddies or writers he admires get pages and pages. He also prints spoilers, labelled as such but as "this spoils the book and I don't really care"--because after all you should have already read them all! I personally cross-referenced his name from Ngaio Marsh's autobiography; otherwise I'd never have heard of him at all!

I do wonder how D. L. Sayers would have felt about him mucking about with her title. She probably would have sniffed at it and moved on.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keating Must Pique, it seems -- in my case, bibliographic curiosity, and for others, by the looks of it, dislike for this project. This is not supposed to be a full literary meal, but a charming and idiosyncratic amuse-bouche. Sure, Keating is in well-seasoned Krusty Kurmudgeon mode here, but the nostalgia is strong (now doubled), the commentary entertaining and insightful, and the references intriguing. Cecil Street, Cyril Hare, Cecil Day-Lewis, G. D. H. Cole, Gladys Mitchell, E. C. R. Lorac, Anthony Gilbert, E. R. Punshon, H. C. Bailey, Josephine Bell, just to name a few--how many have YOU read? :-)

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and a half stars: A slim volume that discusses some of the works of "the Golden Age" of mystery writing. Includes short synopsis of (and reveals the killer in some) such detective stories as Sayers' "Murder Must Advertise," "A Question of Proof" by Nicholas Blake, "Greek Tragedy" by G.D.H and Margaret Cole, "Laurels are Poison" by Gladys Mitchell, and others. It analyzes the ways in which the (English) lifestyle between the wars influenced the genre, and includes a guide to many of the authors writing in the period, such as John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, John Rhode, Joesphine Tey, and others. It's a light look at the subject even though it does mention who the killer is in Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Keating says he "doesn't care" if he's giving it away), as an example of how some of the rules of writing mysteries were broken.

[Ludditus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing more than an essay, it would be worth 4 stars if it weren't for the clumsy structure. The first part is a juicy mocking of several Golden Era mystery writers, but then at about 2/3 it suddenly turns to a list of writers and their biographies. The last third is what actually spoils the book.

The ending is as boring as it gets: "Of the twenty-seven authors here discussed, thirteen are women, fourteen men. Nine were Oxford graduates, two Cambridge and four were at other universities. One, Agatha Christie, attended no school."

[Christophe Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just an essay, and a negligible one. Contribution-wise it provides no unique insight, structure-wise it is rambling, and style-wise the witticisms mostly fall flat. Not worth your money or your time.

[Tiana Hadnt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really a 3.5 star book. It's more of an essay than anything else. It's interesting but it rambles a lot in some areas and gets a bit too spoiler specific in others. The Connoisseur's Guide at the end is well worth it for anyone interested in classic Golden Age mysteries. It contains a list of authors that, while out of print, can still be an enjoyable find in a second hand or antiquarian book shop.