From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Floating Admiral

The Detection Club (Editor),

G.K. Chesterton (Writer - Prologue)

Start date: December 1, 2022

Finish date: December 31, 2022

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of our December poll.
[close] Winner of our December poll.

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Group reads

* Nominations for November 2025 group read
By Judy · 18 posts · 21 views

last updated Sep 05, 2025 03:20PM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 13 posts · 11 views

last updated Sep 03, 2025 12:03PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 17, 2022 Susan in NC rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars - interesting joint effort by the Detection Club. I mostly listened to the audiobook, only turning to the ebook when it got into the weeds with train timetables and information about the tides.

I’ve never been a fan of the overly elaborate mystery puzzle, and found it interesting that the chapters that lost my interest were by unsatisfactory authors we’ve previously read in our (the Reading the Detectives group) Detection Club challenges, or I had come across in short story collections. ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2021

Admiral Penistone's body is found early one morning floating on the river. He has been stabbed to the heart and is adrift in the Vicar's boat. The previous evening he and his niece dined at the Vicar's, but they had used the Admiral's own boat to cross the river and return home. Why was the body found in the Vicar's boat? And where was he originally killed--for there are no blood stains at all in the bottom of the craft. Inspector Rudge is called in to discover whodunnit and why but runs across Admiral Penistone's body is found early one morning floating on the river. He has been stabbed to the heart and is adrift in the Vicar's boat. The previous evening he and his niece dined at the Vicar's, but they had used the Admiral's own boat to cross the river and return home. Why was the body found in the Vicar's boat? And where was he originally killed--for there are no blood stains at all in the bottom of the craft. Inspector Rudge is called in to discover whodunnit and why but runs across a myriad of half-truths, cover-ups, and missing witnesses. The Vicar obviously knows more than he's telling as do the niece and her fiance. Then it seems like everyone disappears on mysterious missions to London--the Vicar, the niece Elma, her fiance, and Sir Wilfred Denny, a neighbor who doesn't seem at first to have much to do with the crime at all. Who is the mysterious woman seen in the area on the night of murder and where has she gone? Why did Elma's French maid leave without collecting her final pay? Then there are the clues: an overcoat worn on a warm night, a second copy of a newspaper, a missing bit of the boat's mooring line, a secret file marked "X," and a missing weapon. Rudge has many (too many it seems to him) lines to follow and none of them seem to be leading anywhere definite. But he will get is man/woman in the end.

One of the first (if not the very first) collaborative detective novels written round-robin style among a group of detective novelists. Fourteen members of the The Detective Club settled down to tackle the mystery story. Each wrote a chapter after being presented with previous chapters from their colleagues and they were tasked with adding to (or in the case of Anthony Berkeley, presenting the solution to) the story without knowing what solution their predecessor/s had in mind. To ensure fair play (no adding things just make it more difficult), each author beyond the initial "setting the stage" chapters were also required to present their own solution to the crime based on the information given so far--including their own chapter.

I could tell while reading this that the club members had a great deal of fun with this. And it was great fun for this reader to watch them playing the game with each other. It understandably is not as smoothly written as it would have been had just one of them put the story together, but it works very well as a collaborative effort. Each author's style seeps in, but overall they manage to keep the tone and characters all of piece. I enjoyed this thoroughly when I first read it back in the 80s and I found it just as engaging reading it now.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Jan C rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was fun.

A progressive mystery where each author continues from the author before.

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Jun 26, 2017 Nanosynergy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-thrillers-espionage, british, fiction, reviewed, 2017read, fiction-1930s

A progressive mystery written by 12 different mystery writers in 1931. Per Amazon summary: "In 1931, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and ten other crime writers from the newly-formed `Detection Club' collaborated in publishing a unique crime novel. In a literary game of consequences, each author would write one chapter, leaving G. K. Chesterton to write a typically paradoxical prologue and Anthony Berkeley to tie up all the loose ends. In addition, each of the authors provided their own solut ...more

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Apr 13, 2017 Elena rated it really liked it · review of another edition

So fun!! How cool is the concept of having these great golden age mystery writers each drawing lots and writing one chapter of the book?!?!! And then each submitting their own solutions to the mystery at the end. Oh, this was just so amazingly fun!! And I listened to the audiobook which had a fantastic narrator: David Timson. Loved it!! ('scuse the gushing, but I couldn't help it, lol...Golden age mysteries, especially written by Agatha Christie, are my thing!!!) 😊😊😊 ...more

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Jan 22, 2021 Laura Anne rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, british-isles

It's interesting to imagine The Detection Club trying to work together, but I found the results to be a slog. I liked the appendix best; a look into the authors' devisings, Agatha's alternate solution, and Clemence Dane's remark, "I am, frankly, in a complete muddle as to what has happened, and have tried to write a chapter that anybody can use to prove anything they like." ...more

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