The Case of the Canterfell Codicil (2020) by P. J. Fitzsimmons

This is the first Anty Boisjoly mystery, a series which was recommended to me by a blog reader. I had less reading time last week and was feeling rather frazzled, so I felt it was a good opportunity to indulge in some comic crime fiction.

Synopsis

‘There’s a literary niche for all tastes including those who think that either Dorothy L Sayers wasn’t funny enough or that PG Wodehouse didn’t feature anywhere near as many baffling murders as he could have. The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is a classic, cosy, locked-room mystery written in the style of an homage to PG Wodehouse. The result, for those familiar with Wodehouse or Jerome K Jerome and Ruth Rendell or Dorothy L Sayers, is either an inexcusable offence to several beloved canons, or a hilarious, fast-paced, manor house murder mystery. In The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph.’

Overall Thoughts

Today’s book under review gets off to a strong start, ticking lots of boxes for things which make an enjoyable first chapter:

• The author unleashes the mystery plot from the get-go, tantalising us with this short telegram message sent to Anty Boisjoly: ‘COME AT ONCE – (STOP) – UNCLE SEB. DEAD – (STOP) – DEFENESTRATED BY UNSEEN HAND – (STOP) – FIDDLES’. However, this is not at the expense of the comic writing style, nor of the setting up of the main characters.
• The reader is also given a fun introduction to the series amateur sleuth, Boisjoly. This character parodies some elements of P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster (school chum network with bizarre nicknames, the solving of domestic and relationship problems etc.), but the Wooster parallels are not overused. Not least, Boisjoly is in ‘between valets, the most recent of an unbroken string of disasters ending with fire in [his] flat that could be seen from Hampstead.’ I didn’t mind this so much as a Jeeves-esque valet would have perhaps made the allusion too strong and may have hampered the plot. Series characters with their specific characteristics can lure readers in but can be plot restricting at times and there is something pleasing with how the author resolves Boisjoly’s lack of valet at the end of the book. Overall though Boisjoly is a fun character, the reader can easily relax into reading about.
• One parallel, however, which is present from the very beginning is the Wodehouse comedic tone and manner of crafting dialogue. This is a short example from chapter 1 after the telegram has been delivered:
  • “May I offer you my condolences sir.” Carnaby made his eyebrows bow solemnly, as only a club steward can. “You may, Carnaby, so long as you don’t mind me pocketing them for later consumption […]”
• I was also amused when Boisjoly thinks a man’s moustache ‘look[s] like an act of petty vandalism’.

• Whilst the book does not have a Jeeves, the writer does offer instead a sharp contrast to Boisjoly in the guise of Iver Wittersham, who is very much a cold bucket of water in the face of Boisjoly’s light-hearted and friendly manner. The contrast provides a good strain of comedy throughout the story, but entertainingly begins with them meeting on a train, in which Boisjoly belittles policemen, only to discover at the end of the journey that Witterham is the police officer who has been sent to investigate the case.  A predictable joke maybe, but a good one, nevertheless. One query I did have about the rest of the books in the series is whether the later entries see Wittersham and Boisjoly interact more during their investigations, as I felt once the two characters arrive at Canterfell Hall, they don’t spend that much time together – the one-sided adversarial nature of their relationship keeping them apart.

The first locked room mystery is classical in its components: the victim was on the 2^nd floor of a tower; the key is in the lock on the inside and the room’s only window has a sheer drop. Interestingly, the “how” of this case is revealed about halfway through the story. I must admit my initial reaction was a degree of dissatisfaction, not with the unusual nature of the solution itself, but more to do with how it was revealed to us and with the clues that precede it. I don’t often do this, but this was an occasion where I was flicking back through the previous pages to look up the various “clues” posited by Boisjoly. There is one aspect, unless I missed an obvious pointer, which is only vaguely suggested by one word (for the reader, as Boisjoly has prior knowledge as it were). Giving it a lot of thought I think the signs are there, but you really need to be on the right wavelength to catch all of them and to interpret them properly. So yes, it is a weird one in that it is maybe the way in which the solution came out and at what point in the book it came out caused the “this came out of the blue” reaction, even though as I said backtracking through the pages you can find evidence for it. Maybe I am used to solutions being built up to in different ways. Personally, there is one part of the solution, the one-word bit, which needed to be included in the text a different way, as noting that one piece of information is crucial to tying the other pieces of information in.

The story contains subplots as well, including a seemingly impossible robbery and Boisjoly wading in to help his friend Fiddles in a matter of romance. The solution for the former felt like it was told to you, rather than something that you were given time to work out. The romance subplot worked much better for me, and I felt the author’s handling of it was creative. One of my favourite moments in this story is when Boisjoly recalls the time he successfully disguised his father’s inebriated state from his mother, with a parlour game he made up on the spot and roped local neighbours into. This was a very well-crafted comic scene and just thinking about it, makes me chuckle.

My little grey cells were more on the money with the second death, although I did wonder if this incident was made easier to solve, in order to enable Boisjoly to identify the guilty party behind it all, as the defenestration of Fiddles’ uncle Sebastian is rather a hard nut to crack in terms of whodunnit. The “who” of the case has some dissatisfying aspects to it and I feel [NEXT PART IN ROT13 CODE TO AVOID SPOILING THE ENDING] gung gur gjb punenpgref erfcbafvoyr jrer n ovg crevcureny, pbzcnerq gb bgure punenpgref jub jrer sbphfrq ba. Zberbire, V qba’g guvax gur vqrn bs gjb crbcyr orvat vaibyirq vf nf jryy pyhrq nf vg pbhyq unir orra. Vg vf na nffhzcgvba lbh engure arrq gb znxr. V guvax Ntngun Puevfgvr unf hfrq gur zheqrevat qhb pbaprcg orggre. Gjb bgure dhnyzf V unq nobhg gur raqvat ner gung V sryg gur “gjvfg” haarprffnevyl bire-pbaarpgrq gur pnfr gb Obvfwbyl’f bja yvsr naq gung vg perngrq n wneevat abgr sbe n pbzvp pevzr abiry. Zberbire, vg vf abg uhtryl fngvfslvat jura lbh ner gbyq gung gur qbqqrel inyrg unq xabja gung bar bs gur pevzvanyf jnf tbvat haqre n snyfr anzr, ohg unq abg zragvbarq vg orpnhfr gurl gubhtug gung vg jnf na reebe ba gurve bja cneg.

So, in summary this book has fun characters and consistently enjoyable comedy with the Jeeves and Wooster parody/vibe not overdone. I think I had some qualms about the puzzle aspects and about how some of the clues are disseminated, but I would certainly give this series a further try, and I would be keen to get recommendations from readers on which book to try next.

Rating: 4/5

And before I close Mewlton (an origami cat) has a book-related joke to share with you…

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