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From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 42, Dated 22 Oct 2011 |
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Murder They Wrote
This serial novel between 14 writers like Agatha Christie and GK Chesterton makes for a superb puzzle mystery, finds Zac O’yeah
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Many herrings Agatha Christie
Photo: Getty Images |
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I’VE BEEN wanting to lay my hands on this book for a while but the fact that it was originally published in 1932 made the chances of finding it slim. But suddenly here it is — in a beautifully-designed Indian hardcover edition.
The corpse of Admiral Penistone floats in already in Chapter One, as it should in a classical detective novel, although it is mysteriously drifting upriver. Inspector Rudge uncovers puzzling clues (and the mandatory red herrings) while interviewing a dodgy vicar who was the admiral’s neighbour across the river, an apparently frigid niece who may be a lesbian (if not a man dressed as a woman), a suspect business traveller and so on. Nothing unfamiliar so far. What makes The Floating Admiral unique is that it is a collaborative effort — a so-called ‘serial novel’ written by several authors, including some of the foremost names of early 20th century British detective fiction such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, GK Chesterton and Ronald Knox. This novel could, therefore, be said to mark the zenith of the Golden Age of puzzle mysteries.
Few other genres would allow for this kind of a literary relay race — I’ve only heard of two others, both American and in the more hardboiled vein: The Black Moon (1989) that counted Ed Gorman among its co-authors, and Naked Came the Manatee (1996), written by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen among others. This is how it works. Each writer is entrusted with the task of writing a chapter to bring the plot forward, starting with the discovery of the corpse. Where one author signs off, the next carries on. To prove that their writings aren’t random, each author also provides a sealed envelope with the proposed solution to the crime. (The contents of these envelopes have been added as a fascinating appendix.)
The novel illustrates the parlour game nature of the puzzle mystery; the difference being that these top writers perform the game in plain view of the reader. So one author might ask — why is the manila rope used for mooring the boat cut instead of being untied? The next might suggest that the tide holds a key to that and several other mysteries, only to find that yet another author notices the rope wasn’t only cut but that two feet and three inches of it are missing! What that means is again left to the next writer to deal with.
While this may sound like the makings of a terribly inconsistent novel or a post-modern jigsaw puzzle where the pieces not only don’t fit but barely make sense, the amazing fact is that while reading this book, one barely thinks of the shift from one author to the next. (Except when one is tempted to refer to the many possible solutions laid out in the appendix.)
At some point, I began to pity the author who was supposed to pull off the final chapter and wrap up the staggering investigation, what with all the bizarre clues entered into the game. But, in the end, all is neatly tied up by Anthony Berkeley, in a chapter aptly titled ‘Clearing Up the Mess’!
O’Yeah is the author of Once Upon A Time in Scandinavistan
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