The Detective Wore Silk Drawers

Sergeant Cribb #2

by Peter Lovesey

“This entertaining period mystery, set in Victorian England, is lively, lurid, amusing.”— Publishers Weekly “These are humorous novels and the humour is character-based . . . mixed with the absurdities of the English class-system. . . . Cribb was the first of the new-wave Victorian crime-fighters and is arguably still the best.”— Sherlock Holmes Magazine The second Sergeant Cribb mystery is set in the world of Victorian bare-fisted pugilism—an illegal sport. Constable Jago is sent, undercover, to Radstock Hall by Sergeant Cribb, who suspects that when fighters who train there lose, they are murdered.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Victorian, Police

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Peter Harmer Lovesey, also known by his pen name Peter Lear, was a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. He was also one of the world's leading track and field statisticians.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A headless corpse is found on the banks of the Thames, Sgt Cribb is talked into taking a look at it and notices the corpse's hands or knuckles that appear to show markings of having been used in bare-knuckle fighting, which is illegal in Victorian England. Is there a connection? Sgt Cribb begins an investigation and enlists a few people outside his department to join him in this endeavor. Thackery is near retirement and enjoying not being in the field. He provides some humorous commentary about traipsing around the countryside among other things not to his liking. Young Jago is enthusiastic at first until he becomes the undercover "fighter" and is thrown in among the wolves.
Some of the plot seems contrived, overall a typical "who done it" mystery.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 4 out of 5]

The titular detective is poor Constable Henry Jago, a wealthy young man who joined the Metropolitan police to tick off his family. Tall, handsome and an excellent boxer, Jago gets dragged into undercover work, disguised as a bare-knuckle fighter, to find a murderer. Ergo, the need to wear silk drawers (a.k.a. boxing shorts).

Those who read the first in this series, Wobble to Death, will find Sergeant Wally Cribb still persistent, brilliant and coldly indifferent to consequences on his subordinates; they’ll also pity the long-suffering Constable Thackeray who Cribb is still tormenting. Newbies to the series will have no trouble keeping up with the plotline. Author Peter Lovesey perfectly captures the voice of the 19th century detective authors who engineered the genre. Highly recommended.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard so much about the "wit and humour" of this series that I picked this one up.
Meh.
It had a faint odour of Maigret about it, with the curmudgeonly superior who treats his underlings like dirt, and the top man who lives in la-la land most of the time with his unrealistic expectations that shift from day to day. But as a police procedural it was pretty--well, no. We're all used to the commissioners and inspectors who make ducks and drakes of the regulations to get their suspects, but this was less than believable. All that racing around in trains and cabs didn't make it more so, and the loving descriptions of violence of one form and another made me sure I was not a member of the target audience.

I doubt I'll be interested in any others of the series.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

I found Sgt. Cribb too cavalier about Jago's position to be overlooked. The situation (the underground bare-knuckle fighting community) was interesting but this 2nd book in the series (the 3rd one I have read) doesn't inspire me to read more.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

DAME AGATHA CHRISTIE AND HER PEERS
Compared to the extremely dense PD James mystery I just read, "Unnatural Causes", with about 87,000 words, Lovesey's comic touches here, at about 69,000 words, felt just right.
CAST: 3 stars: Constable Thackery immediately notes that the dead man is 'well-built, and his work's thickened his wrists...I'd say that hand's been pickled...And scarred from knuckle fighting." Sergeant Cribb notes that knuckle-fighting has been illegal in Victorian England for some time (in the USA, the government decided NFL-style football illegal in the early 1900s because of dangers to the head) and sorta hands it off to young constable Henry Jago to go undercover. How thoughtful! Jago knows all about the gyms where training of knuckle-fighting goes on. I loved this line from Cribb: "If you've ever felt a mans raw 'uns about your ears, you'll know [about the blows]." I'm not sure of the exact intent of the statement, but it read funny to me. The star of the show is Jago, but Ebony (a black fighter, natch) is about as fascinating. A love interest is around but only for comic touches involving locker room nudity and jokes about large sponges. This is a rather small cast: solid, good, but not great. And it lends itself to a quick, tight read.
ATMOSPHERE: 4: In"Wobble to Death", Lovesey took us deep into "Wobbling", or race/Walking. That sport wasn't as violent as knuckle-fighting, but still Lovesey gets Victorian London, the gyms, and the fighters and trainers and everything seemingly right on target.
PLOT - 3: A dead man is found, a fighter, and the story turns quickly into a routine 'who done it." And Jago does most of the work. It's the 'why' that is fascinating here, and the 'who' that is most interesting.
INVESTIGATION - 2: Again, this is Jago's story. And Lovesey allows Jago to pretty much take over in the wring. But really, not much investigating going on, mostly training and fighting.
RESOLUTION - 3: A nice, impeccable, solid wrap but with no surprises.
SUMMARY: 3.0. Good story but felt a bit derivative of the far superior "Wobble to Death." If you read just one Lovesey, go for "Wobble."

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very contemporary in feel, though you are reminded of the period when clothing and modesty pops up. Here Sgt. Cribb is taken to a headless body and by hook and crook he finagles a way to get a your policeman to go undercover to discover the murderer of the corpse and ultimately shut down other crimes as well.

The hardest part of reading this was reading the bare fisted fighting which is brutality as entertainment. That aside, a nice quick read for those who don’t mind that and interesting characters. I had picked the murderer of a second murder, not that it mattered but I caught on to enough clues to figure that out... but then it came to proving it- much to Cribb and Thackery’s credit.

[T.G. Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was mentioned by W. Russel Gray in his essay "For Whom the Bell Tolled: The Decline of British Prize Fighting in the Victorian Era" as an example of a well-researched fiction book on the subject. In addition to reading the essay, I'd also done my own research into British prize fighting, specifically its history and rules. Peter Lovesey's The Detective Wore Silk Drawers confirmed what I already knew and introduced me to a plethora of new elements for me to explore further.

As a mystery, it leaves a couple of questions with implied answers which I found a little frustrating but that is personal preference rather than a flaw in the writing. There was also one scene that, I thought, wasn't needed as it wasn't resolved or even mentioned at the mystery's resolution. Whilst it served a purpose in terms of the plot, I thought it could've served the same purpose without including this particular incident. I don't want to mention what that incident is as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book.

Overall, the parts of the book I enjoyed most were the humour and the faithful recreation of British prize fighting. I'll definitely be looking into the other Sergeant Cribb books in the future.

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 bk 147. The world of boxing (fisticuffs not boxing gloves) is shown in all of its gruesome gloriousness in this second Sergeant Cribb mystery. While his boss is worried about the unsolved crime count in his district, Sgt. Cribb is more worried about the headless bodies showing up - with physical proof of involvement in the illegal world of fighting with fists, not gloves. Selecting a young police constable, an amateur boxer to send in undercover, he and his partner ride the rails seeking out the boxing venues and and clues. Well written, but very violent.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this tale of Victorian London detectives. Sergeant Cribb is contacted about a headless corpse, and he goes about trying to find who it is and who killed him. He figures the man was in the illegal bare knuckle fighting trade, so he sends an amateur fighting constable undercover into this illicit world. Info comes up, but blundering head first seems to be how they figure most of the elements.

Recommended if the subject and era interests you. The writing and atmosphere are good, but it's lacking overall as a detective novel in that again, it's more blundering than deducing.

[Lockpick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nechci knize křivdit, bylo to docela čtivé, ta viktoriánská éra je přitažlivá a umím si to představit jako pěkné televizní zpracování a lá Hercule Poirot. Ale děj je dost přímočarý, předvídatelný, s postavami jsem se nesblížil a konec, jakkoli měl působit humorně, vyzněl do prázdna.

[deni Tomgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

First finished. Book of 2016. I used to enjoy Sgt Cribb on TV in the late seventies, also Peter Lovesey went to school with an aunt of my husbands, so thought I'd give it a try. I enjoyed it very much but felt the ending was a little woolly.
A bare knuckle fighter is washed up on the embankment headless, and Sergeant Cribb sends a young constable undercover to gather information. Poor chap, Henry Jago, is recruited, a champion boxer though not in the banned bare knuckle sport he is able to survive to tell the tale and help Cribb and his DC Edward Thackeray to crack the case.
A nice holiday read, and think there's a couple more in the house.

[Brian G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read. This is the second in a series but can be read as a standalone
Sgt Cribb is investigating a headless corpse washed up on the banks of the Thames. This leads to going undercover in an illegal bare-knuckle fighting group.
The detail in this short book (173 pages) is amazing, it draws you right into Victorian London and it's underbelly. The brutality of the fighting is graphically portrayed. These are not "cozy" mysteries
The characters are all well drawn too.
The mystery almost takes second place to the setting like the first book in the series.

A really interesting read - 4 stars

[Ed · Rating 1 out of 5]

After the promising first book in the Sgt Cribb series, this second book in the series was a real disappointment. Felt as if it were thrown together in an afternoon. Sketchily drawn characters, stilted, flat dialogue. It seemed like an afterthought of a book.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Hodnocení se týká tří Loveseyových knih.)

Snažím se to střídat a kombinovat novinky se zapomenutými věcmi v knihovně. Někdy je pak vyřadím… někdy se koukám, že ty věci mají pořád něco do sebe.

U Petera Loveseye mě zarazilo hlavně to, že u nás vyšlo pouze Třikrát seržant Cribb, protože tohle mělo všechny předpoklady stát se čtenářským hitem. Je to klasická detektivka staré školy, která sice nepřináší zrovna šokující zvraty (u Detektiva v lamé šortkách jsou třeba jen dva možní pachatelé a jeden z nich to vážně je), ale všechny tři příběhy se nejen dobře čtou a jsou nejen psané s nadhledem a ironií, ale jsou i šikovně zarámované tak, aby měl čtenář pocit tempa (v prvním příběhu tvoří odpočet cesta lodí po Temži, v druhém blížící se boxerský zápas a ve třetím poprava) - plus do toho jsou ještě prvky z policejní praxe, kde stoupá po žebříčku ne ten lepší detektiv, ale ten, kdo umí šéfům líp lézt do zadku.

Co je na tom ale nejzajímavější, je doba, ve které se to odehrává – viktoriánská Anglie. Doba, kdy se už začala rodit naše moderní civilizace, ale ještě se v tom trochu plácala. Každý z příběhů se točí kolem nějakého interesantního tématu.

První, Tři muži ve člunu (o mrtvole nemluvě) (Swing, Swing Together) se odehrává krátce poté, co vyšla legendární kniha Jerome Klapky Jeroma… a jak už to bývá zvykem, veškeré obyvatelstvo Anglie najednou projevilo zájem o cestování na lodích a rozhodlo se vydat po stopách slavné trojice. K velké radosti hostinských a velkému utrpení správců zdymadel. A jasně, dojde i k vraždě. Tenhle díl se nese asi v nejkomediálnějším duchu, dokonce i názvy kapitola evokují legendární knihu.

Detektiv v lamé šortkách (The Detective Wore Silk Drawers) je z doby, kdy byly zakázány pěstní zápasy bez rukavic, což je bráno jako konec boxu. Nikdo nechápe, jak by se někdo mohl chtít dívat, jak do sebe mlátí dva lidi s rukama obalenýma molitanem a nestříká z nich krev – vždyť to nemůže nikoho bavit. Tady Cribb hraje spíš vedlejší roli a větší důraz je na postavu, která je nasazená do nelegálních boxerských zápasů, aby se zjistilo, kdo za tím stojí. Hodně zajímavý nápad, kde je opravdu ta detektivní část trochu stranou.

No a do třetice jsou tu Voskové figuríny (Waxwork), ve které jde o souboj s časem odtikávajícím do popravy. A točí se to kolem fotografování, vězeňství a muzea voskových figur. Celá ta rovina s katem, který si jede do Londýna obhlídnout svou další zakázku… a zkusit se dostat mezi exponáty do muzea, je správně mimochodná.

I když je tohle asi nejúspěšnější Loveseyova řada (aspoň soudím podle toho, že vznikl i televizní seriál, tak se autor později přesunul do současnosti. Asi už se mu nechtělo dohledávat všechny ty historické detaily, což je škoda. Příjemně odsýpající detektivky v kombinaci se zajímavou dobou jsou vážně perfektní kombo.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sergeant Cribb is a Scotland Yard detective in London of the 1880s.

A decapitated body washes up on the shore of the Thames in his district. The victim appears to have been a bare-knuckles fighter, a sport that had been outlawed several years ago but which continued to flourish illegally.

He investigates with the help of his grumpy assistant Constable Thackery and an eager young Constable, Henry Jago, who has dabbled in legal boxing with gloves.

They infiltrate the seedy world of illegal boxing. Lovesey describes the barbaric fights held in makeshift temporary rings set up in fields outside of London. The sites changed all the time and the boxing aficionados would learn of the location hours ahead of time and take special trains. (Kind of an early form of organizing an illegal rave.)There was a constant fear of the police breaking up the fights. The call of "Look out! The Blues!" would clear the field.

The fighters would go twenty or more rounds and fight until they dropped. Fighters often died and were routinely maimed for life.

Lovesey puts together a thrilling mystery story in this world. This is a good solid historical mystery.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not often you come across books about bare knuckled boxing but I've found two this year with the inferior "Excursion Train" by Edward Marsden. Following a number of headless bodies recovered from the Thames, Sergeant Cribb is tasked with discovered the secret world of illegal boxing that was still going strong in Victorian Britain. Cribb brings in Constable Jago, a well off graduate officer to go undercover at Marsten Hall where the sadistic widow Isabel Vibart gets pleasure from someone else's pain. Peter Lovesey's well researched book perfectly captures this brutal world of bare knuckle fighting and the money to be paid to shady trainers and owners. Add in murder and Lovesey provides a compelling and interesting book.

[Alonzo Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sgt Cribb, Scotland Yard, is puzzled by a series of well muscled torsos who are appearing without heads. With a few well placed deductions, he determines that the bodies are of bare-knuckled fighters. He finds an amateur boxer in the police corps, and with a few well placed deductions, gets him installed into the bare knuckled fight game.

This is a cheerful mystery full of blood and gore and a bit of Victorian violence and sadism. The plot does not bear up under any scrutiny and the initial murders that start the whole thing aren’t really solved.

Readable and decent 1880s Victorian atmosphere but simply dumb overall.

[T.R. Ormond · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable Victorian detective story with a difference from the most famous example: Sherlock Holmes is a freelance, consulting detective; Sgt. Cribb works for Scotland Yard.

I thought was a well-researched foray into the later Victorian era. Lovesey is knowledgeable about the era without being overbearing or pedantic about it. The writing was amusing without being silly. It also gave some insight into nineteenth-century sport culture, distinguishing between gloved boxing and illegal bare-fisted knuckle fighting.

Good stuff. Too bad it seems to be out of print in Canada. I picked up my copy at the local used bookstore.

[Susan Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

British Mystery

Another good book in the Sergeant Cribb of Victorian Scotland Yard series. Sergeant Cribb is urged to find new and innovative ways to investigate crime by his boss. So Cribb sends Constable Jago undercover as a fighter and Cribb and his usual assistant, Constable Thackery, attend the illegal bare-knuckles fights in civilian clothes to investigate the brutal murder of a fighter. Can Cribb find the guilty party before Constable Jago is maimed or killed in the ring? An entertaining and quick read mystery.

[Tria · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are few books I abandon or label as DNF. This was one. It's among the earliest of Lovesey's works, which could explain why I liked it so much less than some of the later Cribb books or the Peter Diamond series, as his writing has fortunately developed to something better. I enjoyed Wobble to Death and Abracadaver, so I think it's time to give up reading this series in order and head for Swing, Swing Together, the next Cribb on my Kindle. 1.5 stars (mostly for Lovesey's undoubted descriptive talents).

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the first Sergeant Cribb, but not up to the level of the entire Peter Diamond series. Much lore about bare-knuckle fighting in late 19th century England, how it was outlawed and continued anyway, and how fighters and fans all sneered at fighting with pillowed mittens by Marquess of Queensberry rules. Very little humor, strong characters, some real suspense, but even with a very surprising plot twist I easily solved the mystery without Sergeant Cribb's help.

[Rachael Bannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my usual type of book. I don't normally go for period dramas and I also didn't realise it was the second in a series. It was alright. The bare knuckle fighting part was interesting but I wasn't a massive fan of Detective Cribb. He was a bit too laid back in my opinion to be believable. I don't think I'll read the rest of the series.

[Paul Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly straightforward Police investigation, with a fairly easy solution. What's different is that it is set in Victorian London, with plenty of period detail. Combine that with skilfully created characters and a decent plot. What's not to like?

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative about the history of bare-knuckle prizefighting which Britain had already outlawed prior to the action in this mystery. The novel wasn’t exactly a knockout, but it was pretty well-written story and had engaging characters. Recommended for fans of boxing or of historical mysteries.

[Celeste Hessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Detective Wore Silk Drawers was a pleasure to read. Author Peter Lovesey kept me guessing to the end. He made Sergeant Cribb and sidekicks into believable characters in this well-thought-out mystery about illegal pugilism.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always enjoy this series from Peter Lovesey but this book has very little of Cribb and Thackeray. It focused more on constable Jago who was undercover as a bare fisted prize fighter. Little disappointed.

[Crash Solo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, more about bare knuckle prize fighting and Victorian society than the murder mystery, which was tidied up quickly at the very end. I like Cribb as a detective, he’s got a good personality

[Linda]

Audiobook. Really funny, I enjoyed the book and Sgt. Cribb. British books can be fun

[Laurie Mucha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a big fan of the boxing world. The only likeable character was Jago.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only an average mystery but with interesting characters and a fair bit of humour.

It was interesting seeing the bare knuckle prize fighting scene in the Victorian era.