Book of the Month: February 2020

It has been quite a busy month for me, so my reading took a bit of a hit. That said I still managed to squeeze 13 reads in, though one was a comic book. The quality for this months reads has been quite mixed, with books from familiar faces not turning out to be quite as good as anticipated. Although, John Bude did surprise me with the depth of his style in Death in White Pyjamas (1944). This month also saw me ranking the work of Ethel Lina White, as well as taking a look at two non-fiction title, which looked at the deaths in Shakespeare’s plays and the history of Cluedo.

When it came to deciding which book to bestow the accolade of Book of the Month upon, I finally chose…

This was a new author to me, brought to my attention by Stark House. Dead Weight has wonderfully unconventional aspects to its solution and I think Fenisong selects an unusual social milieu. Whilst Deadlock includes an interesting variation of the manipulative philanthropist theme. I hope further reprints of this author will be forthcoming, so Curtis Evans better get cracking with the writing the introductions!

I also thought I would mention here an event I attended in Durham earlier this week, which was a talk given by Victoria Stewart entitled:

“What is your country, may I ask?”: Displaced Persons, Holocaust Survivors, and the Persistence of Fascism in 1940s and 1950s British Detective Fiction

It was an interesting talk to listen to, with Victoria covering a range of detective novels from the well-known (N or M?), to the more obscure Blue Murder and Toper’s End. I was even brave enough to ask a couple of questions at the end and more importantly, mentally stopped myself from answering other people’s questions! It was great talking with Victoria after the event doing the usual classic crime enthusiast game of ‘Have you read…?’

Victoria Stewart’s Crime Writings in Interwar Britain, was published in 2017 and is a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

… nearly forgot but below are the answers to quiz I included in my post on The Story of Cluedo.

1. Tudor Close
2. Dr Black
3. Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Reverend Green, Mrs Peacock (added after the patent) and Mrs White.

Bonus Question Answers:

Mr Brown, Mr Gold, Miss Grey and Mrs Silver did not make the final cut.

Nurse White and Colonel Yellow were the original names for Mrs White and Colonel Mustard. It is said that Pratt had started with the name Yellow to a poke at senior military figures, who weren’t on the front lines.

4. Bottle of poison, hypodermic syringe, Axe, Cudgel, Bomb and Poker were all removed from the game. The final line up was: Dagger, Rope, Revolver, Candlestick, Spanner and Lead Piping.

Bonus Question Answer: Bottle of Poison

5. 9
6. Waddingtons
7. Murder!
8. A) Clue – The Great Detective Game B) Mr Green, as Robert Barton, (key figure at Parker Brothers, who produced the game in America), felt the American public would not want a reverend suspected of murder. C) Mr Boddy
9. A) Fraulein Ming B) Miss Flame
10. A) Colonel Yellowbeak B) Madame Curry
11. Dr Lemon
12. A) Capitan Celeste B) Baronesse von Blauw
13. All of these are editions you can now buy.
14. Clue – The Movie

Bonus Questions Answers: A) 1954 B) New England C) The ending was novel, for the time, as it offered three different endings. Cinemas would only show one, but the different versions were available at different venues.

15. C – Judi Dench did not take part.

How many did you get right?