From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Poisoned Chocolates Case

Anthony Berkeley,

Martin Edwards (Foreword)

Start date: January 1, 2021

Finish date: January 31, 2021

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our January group read.
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What Members Thought

Jun 01, 2022 Anissa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense-crime, 2022, british-library-crime-classics

This was just okay for me. The setup of a club of sleuths being handed a case by Scotland Yard to figure out seemed like just the thing I'd enjoy. Alas, the format of the story with each sleuth giving recitation on who they suspected and the method they used to reach their conclusion wore very quickly. The first two were interesting, the middle three were a real slog and the last was a very good finish. There was a good bit of wit along the way in the form of jibs and jibes from the club members ...more

40 likes · Like · see review

Dec 17, 2020 Susan rated it really liked it

This is the fifth Roger Sheringham book, but works well as a stand-alone mystery. Anthony Berkeley helps set up something very similar to his character's, 'Crime Circle,' and, indeed, Sheringham himself has other parallels to Anthony Berkeley.

In this mystery, Roger Sheringham's Crime Circle involves a famous lawyer, Sir Charles Wildman, a famous dramatist, Mrs Fielder-Flemming, a brilliant novelist, Alicia Dammers, a detective author, Percy Robinson, who published as Morton Harrogate Bradley (Ha ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2021 Frances rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series

This was a big disappointment and I ended up reading the first 2-3 chapters and then skipping to the end. Too wordy, no particularly interesting mystery, and too much repetition. I would not recommend, even for golden age mystery lovers.

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 18, 2016 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing

This is one of the classic detective stories of the Golden Age of British crime fiction. A box of chocolates causes the death of Mrs Joan Bendix and puts her husband in hospital for a short time. No one is ever charged with the crime. The Crimes Circle - a group headed by detective story writer Roger Sheringham - decides to see if they can offer a possible solution. The book consists of the possible solutions and how the available evidence supports them.

Christianna Brand wrote another possible s ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2022 Lady Wesley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery-golden-age-or-similar, fave-favorites, listened, 2021-faves, british-library-crime-classics

Review of the audiobook narrated by Gordon Griffin.

My first Anthony Berkeley book but certainly not my last. Berkeley is amazingly clever, and I certainly could not pick out the supposed solution. However, the one I thought was best was written by Christianna Brand for the 1979 reissue of this 1929 book.

If you like clever, fair-play mysteries, this is a must-read from the Golden Age.

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2011 Abbey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: myst-cosies, myst-set-andor-auth-uk, reviewed, vintage, myst-fems-project-maybe

BOTTOM LINE: Anthony Berkeley's twisty tale of Roger Sheringham and his very own detection club puzzle - a classic, and deservedly so.

Setting: A Club of the best sort, wherein several VIP fans of detection and puzzles meet weekly to solve mysteries proposed by members or invited guests.

Main Characters: Six members of the club, including founder Roger Sheringham, detective deluxe, in the Wimsey mode, all referential and witty, but also truly a bit of an ass at times. A renowned Lady Novelist (Mo BOTTOM LINE: Anthony Berkeley's twisty tale of Roger Sheringham and his very own detection club puzzle - a classic, and deservedly so.

Setting: A Club of the best sort, wherein several VIP fans of detection and puzzles meet weekly to solve mysteries proposed by members or invited guests.

Main Characters: Six members of the club, including founder Roger Sheringham, detective deluxe, in the Wimsey mode, all referential and witty, but also truly a bit of an ass at times. A renowned Lady Novelist (Modern Division), a full of himself popular Mystery Writer, a well-known Lady Playwright, an extremely expensive and quite famous Lawyer, and an extraordinary little man who, somehow, passed all the tests for entrance but nobody can quite remember just how. And for garnish, a Detective Inspector as guest, asking for assistance in what seems an insoluble case.

A wealthy gentleman happens into his club at the moment another member receives a large, complimentary box of chocolates to sample. On hearing that they will simply be tossed aside otherwise, he accepts them as a gift, explaining that he had made a bet with his wife and lost, and had forgotten that tonight he must pay up, and these will do very well.... The chocolates are, indeed, as per the title, poisoned, and his dear little wife bites the dust. Thus is set in motion one of the most famous classic puzzle plots of the 1920s, a period renowned for such things.

And this is a very plush, and posh, variant on that style, with a select number of puzzle solvers, a seemingly unsolvable crime (or was it an accident?), and six gloriously twisted, all quite possible, solutions provided by the club members. Each gathers clues and presents a report over six days, and each one is quite different from the previous one. The reader gets drawn further and further into the belief that each is the correct solution, as all are plausible and well-thought out. Berkeley is quite diabolical in this process, pulling you further and further along, all the while making you understand the people involved in the club almost as much as the people in the case.

Of course almost from the first the reader knows that, in the classic manner, the inoffensive little man saves the day, ultimately, but we get to go on several wild rides before then, all glossed over with gloriously snappy patter and a few not inconsiderable digs at Berkeley’s friends and compatriots in the real Detection Club, which he helped found a few years earlier. It takes a while to “get going”, but this is, overall, a superb, deceptively twisted bon mot of a tale, deservedly on many “best of” lists, and after nearly a century, still a rather delicious treat.
...more

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Oct 08, 2018 Shabbeer Hassan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: whodunit, 2018

A classic tale of misdirection based whodunit, with a unique plot structure.

My Rating - 3.5/5

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Jul 03, 2021 Jane added it · review of another edition

I can’t get into this just now, will try another time

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Feb 17, 2022 Lynnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: golden-age-detective-story, london, read-in-2022, british-library-crime

I've just finished this and found it very entertaining. It's the first time of reading Anthony Berkeley and I shall definitely be reading more.
I also enjoyed the epilogue by Martin Edwards. ...more

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Dec 12, 2017 Tracey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-library-crime-classics

A fantastic golden age mystery. Each member of the Crimes Circle discuses their solution for a poisoning. With a very enjoyable additional epilogue by Martin Edwards.

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