This is an interesting experiment by various members of The Detection Club. John Rhode presents the problem of Death at Hursley Lodge, and four members of the club write their own solutions to the case, as deduced by their respective detectives. (Or rather, by their friends’ detectives; Gladys Mitchell and Helen de Guerry Simpson swapped sleuths, as did Dorothy L. Sayers and Anthony Berkeley.) Milward Kennedy then presents his solution, which is supposed to be the final one. And that final solution I felt was a rip-off, although to be fair Kennedy does freely admit he doesn’t play fair with the reader.

More dedicated fans of the Golden Age of crime fiction may get more out of this, especially those familiar with the sleuths presented in these pages. Because the authors are writing about each other’s detectives, there is some level of parody and in-joking that a casual reader might miss. ( )

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/golden-age-high-jinks-f... ( )

Well, that was a dismal failure. The first chapter, by Rhode, is very well written. He is undervalued. Then Simpson and Mitchel parody each other and Berkeley and Sayers parody each other. Berkeley is by far the best. The conclusion by Kennedy is crap. He organized the project, so blame him. ( )

First a warning - although her name appears in large letters on the cover of the edition I own, Agatha Christie had nothing to do with the original book, but has had a short essay added for this edition (presumably in order to boost sales). This is frankly misleading. Having said that, the book proper is worth reading, if only for its quite unusual premise, which is that it involves four well-known (at the time of original printing in 1933) crime writers pastiching each other's work. So the part of the book involving Lord Peter Wimsey was written by Helen Simpson, and the part involving her detective, the actor Sir John Saumarez, was written by Dorothy Sayers. Similarly Gladys Mitchell and Anthony Berkeley exchanged sleuths. This works surprisingly well, but the effectiveness is somewhat cancelled by the fact that only two of these characters (Wimsey and Mrs. Bradley) are likely to be known to modern readers. The actual plot is somewhat melodramatic (an evil press baron is murdered, and the suspects include an archbishop and a politician) but the main problem is that the separate sections don't really gel with each other. The best part is that involving Mrs. Bradley, which makes one regret that Helen Simpson wrote so few books before her premature death. Martin Edwards, who is the Detection Club's official archivist, provides a real foreword with useful information about the contributors (the other two, John Rhode and Milward Kennedy, set up the plot and provide the denouement respectively). Overall verdict - worth reading at least once, but whether you'll ever want to reread it is somewhat doubtful. ( )