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Sheridan Haynes #2
Kentish Manor Murders
Asked to give a private performance at an eccentric millionarie's impenetrable castle, actor Sheridan Haynes stumbles upon a real life murder and finds he may be the next victim
Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Julian Symons
259 books68 followersJulian Gustave Symons is primarily remembered as a master of the art of crime writing. However, in his eighty-two years he produced an enormously varied body of work. Social and military history, biography and criticism were all subjects he touched upon with remarkable success, and he held a distinguished reputation in each field.
His novels were consistently highly individual and expertly crafted, raising him above other crime writers of his day. It is for this that he was awarded various prizes, and, in 1982, named as Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America - an honour accorded to only three other English writers before him: Graham Greene, Eric Ambler and Daphne Du Maurier. He succeeded Agatha Christie as the president of Britain's Detection Club, a position he held from 1976 to 1985, and in 1990 he was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writer.
Symons held a number of positions prior to becoming a full-time writer including secretary to an engineering company and advertising copywriter and executive. It was after the end of World War II that he became a free-lance writer and book reviewer and from 1946 to 1956 he wrote a weekly column entitled "Life, People - and Books" for the Manchester Evening News. During the 1950s he was also a regular contributor to Tribune, a left-wing weekly, serving as its literary editor.
He founded and edited 'Twentieth Century Verse', an important little magazine that flourished from 1937 to 1939 and he introduced many young English poets to the public. He has also published two volumes of his own poetry entitled 'Confusions about X', 1939, and 'The Second Man', 1944.
He wrote hie first detective novel, 'The Immaterial Murder Case', long before it was first published in 1945 and this was followed in 1947 by a rare volume entitled 'A Man Called Jones' that features for the first time Inspector Bland, who also appeared in Bland Beginning.
These novles were followed by a whole host of detective novels and he has also written many short stories that were regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In additin there are two British paperback collections of his short stories, Murder! Murder! and Francis Quarles Investigates, which were published in 1961 and 1965 resepctively.
His novels were consistently highly individual and expertly crafted, raising him above other crime writers of his day. It is for this that he was awarded various prizes, and, in 1982, named as Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America - an honour accorded to only three other English writers before him: Graham Greene, Eric Ambler and Daphne Du Maurier. He succeeded Agatha Christie as the president of Britain's Detection Club, a position he held from 1976 to 1985, and in 1990 he was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writer.
Symons held a number of positions prior to becoming a full-time writer including secretary to an engineering company and advertising copywriter and executive. It was after the end of World War II that he became a free-lance writer and book reviewer and from 1946 to 1956 he wrote a weekly column entitled "Life, People - and Books" for the Manchester Evening News. During the 1950s he was also a regular contributor to Tribune, a left-wing weekly, serving as its literary editor.
He founded and edited 'Twentieth Century Verse', an important little magazine that flourished from 1937 to 1939 and he introduced many young English poets to the public. He has also published two volumes of his own poetry entitled 'Confusions about X', 1939, and 'The Second Man', 1944.
He wrote hie first detective novel, 'The Immaterial Murder Case', long before it was first published in 1945 and this was followed in 1947 by a rare volume entitled 'A Man Called Jones' that features for the first time Inspector Bland, who also appeared in Bland Beginning.
These novles were followed by a whole host of detective novels and he has also written many short stories that were regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In additin there are two British paperback collections of his short stories, Murder! Murder! and Francis Quarles Investigates, which were published in 1961 and 1965 resepctively.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 29, 2014
I think the title is the best part of this book. It promised much- a Sherlockian actor, a rich hermit with a shady past and lots of references to the Sherlock Holmes stories. The actuality was an over-complicated plot and very wooden and unsympathetic characters that belonged more in a children's comic book than an adult novel. I had expected better from Julian Symons. At least the book is very short with just 191 pages so I didn't waste too much time persevering with it.
August 30, 2016
This late entry into Julian Symons's body of work is the first I've read of his oeuvre, but unfortunately it is not one which makes me want to read more of his earlier titles. The lacklustre plot revolves around the actor Sheridan Haynes (in his second and final appearance), who has become for many the embodiment of Sherlock Holmes through a successful television series. An aged and decrepit wealthy American, Waymark, wants Haynes to perform a private reading of Conan Doyle's most famous character (sorry, Professor Challenger! qv.), and this planned visit sets in motion a convoluted and generally poorly-imagined story. It was as though in an effort to flesh out what was basically a short story of impersonation and murder, Symons grafted a second plot which was vaguely about drug smuggling onto the first, about an old man and a "lost" Conan Doyle manuscript. Add to that "Americans" who speak some sort of 1930s gangster patois, a vast and ugly mansion where Waymark lives in frail seclusion with a vast staff of uniformed minions straight out of a Bond movie, a ridiculously-named central character (if you're going to create a character named "Sheridan," why the devil does he then have to be called "Sher" for the rest of the book?), and a trip to Copenhagen and Amsterdam in the middle of the book for absolutely no reason at all, and you have... well, you have a shambles. The resolution in ruins on Dartmoor felt as though it belonged to a different book entirely. There were a few redemptive touches, like the mention of John Dickson Carr's biography of Conan Doyle, but these were not enough to save The Kentish Manor Murders, or the disagreeable character of Sheridan Haynes.
Full review to follow.
Full review to follow.
July 12, 2009
I love British mysteries, and Symons is supposed to be a master of the genre. The idea of this book- an actor famous for playing Sherlock Holmes also solves mysteries- but this one never got off the ground. So much time is spent setting the stage and introducing the characters that the murder happens in the last quarter of the book, and then it's a race to the end, with a lot of very convenient plot devices that allow our hero to solve the crime. I've read other titles by Symons that are much better. He's just off his game here.
October 31, 2022
An enjoyable read "starring" an actor who played Sherlock Holmes for years, an incredibly wealthy recluse, and a hitherto unknown handwritten Conan Doyle book.
January 16, 2022
This the the second Sheridan Haynes novel after Three Pipe Problem. I was looking forward to seeing the character again, but this book was very slow. The character of Sheridan is there, but it felt like he was just a bystander to the story which didn't interest me at all.
October 27, 2024
Actor Sheridan Haynes, who has become famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in a popular TV series has been asked to give a private reading for the reclusive Warren Waymark, known as the Mogul - an enormously wealthy eccentric who lives in seclusion at the estate he's dubbed Castle Baskerville, and who is a renowned collector and authority on all things Holmes.
Haynes and his clever wife, Val visit the castle to meet with Waymark and make preparations for the performance, where their meetings with Waymark take place in such darkened rooms that they begin to wonder whether they are meeting with the actualy Waymark, or an imposter.
Before the performance, Haynes goes off to Denmark to fulfill a Sherlockian engagement where he is offered the role of go-between in a negotiation between an undisclosed party and Waymark for a recently discovered, unpublished Conan Doyle/Holmes adventure titled "The Kentish Manor Murders."
Is the manuscript genuine, is the recluse actually Waymark and what is behind the mysterious - and fatal - accidents that surround Haynes?
Now this all sounds like a great idea for a mystery, and the main characters are well drawn and quite deserving of a series. (This was the 2nd of two Sheridan Haynes novels) I especially liked Val's very pragmatic assessment of the "lost" manuscript - but unfortunately the core mystery gets lost in an overabundance of characters and a convoluted plot that it just seems to run out of steam by the end. A wonderful idea for a book, but the execution was only so-so.
Haynes and his clever wife, Val visit the castle to meet with Waymark and make preparations for the performance, where their meetings with Waymark take place in such darkened rooms that they begin to wonder whether they are meeting with the actualy Waymark, or an imposter.
Before the performance, Haynes goes off to Denmark to fulfill a Sherlockian engagement where he is offered the role of go-between in a negotiation between an undisclosed party and Waymark for a recently discovered, unpublished Conan Doyle/Holmes adventure titled "The Kentish Manor Murders."
Is the manuscript genuine, is the recluse actually Waymark and what is behind the mysterious - and fatal - accidents that surround Haynes?
Now this all sounds like a great idea for a mystery, and the main characters are well drawn and quite deserving of a series. (This was the 2nd of two Sheridan Haynes novels) I especially liked Val's very pragmatic assessment of the "lost" manuscript - but unfortunately the core mystery gets lost in an overabundance of characters and a convoluted plot that it just seems to run out of steam by the end. A wonderful idea for a book, but the execution was only so-so.
November 27, 2020
A truly awful reading experience. The inside cover says much about Symons's status as a crime writer, and though this is the only book of his I've read (and must be the last), it beggars belief that the creator of such abject rubbish as this has managed to develop a career within the genre.
At one stage I thought I'd got hold of a dud copy in which the pages were in the wrong order! And I persisted only to have my own opinions confirmed that there was no way that something as bad as this could redeem itself with a good ending - which, by the way, it wasn't.
Dreadful. If you have a choice, read something else instead.
At one stage I thought I'd got hold of a dud copy in which the pages were in the wrong order! And I persisted only to have my own opinions confirmed that there was no way that something as bad as this could redeem itself with a good ending - which, by the way, it wasn't.
Dreadful. If you have a choice, read something else instead.
November 8, 2018
Jokseenkin vaatimaton tarina Julian Symonsilta.
July 30, 2021
Actor portraying Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery. Disappointing -- to up to usual Julian Symons standards.
July 3, 2012
Ova knjiga je primjer kako prevodilac (izvjesna Nataša Ozmec) može do neprepoznatljivosti i nečitljivosti iskasapiti vjerojatno odličan tekst. U ekipi koja je knjigu pripremala nije naveden ni lektor ni urednik. Sve skupa izgleda kao da je netko zabunom objavio google-translate verziju.
"... je li to u redu?
"To vrlo mnogo nije u redu, Peter." (str. 112)
---
"Lavender, želim da znaš da cijenim tvoju pomoć ovih proteklih dvanaest mjeseci. Je li dvanaest mjeseci?"
"Bit će dvanaest krajem listopada, točno." (str. 125)
Užas živi.
"... je li to u redu?
"To vrlo mnogo nije u redu, Peter." (str. 112)
---
"Lavender, želim da znaš da cijenim tvoju pomoć ovih proteklih dvanaest mjeseci. Je li dvanaest mjeseci?"
"Bit će dvanaest krajem listopada, točno." (str. 125)
Užas živi.
April 24, 2008
This was a fun short read. The mystery was fairly complicated and seemed to end abruptly, but was still entertaining. I would recommend to a fellow mystery lover if you need a short distraction.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews