The Detection Club v2: When Writers Attempt to Solve a Murder

The super rich island owner is dead. But who did it?

In this concluding volume, Jean Harambat lays it all out. But don’t expect a simple solution. There are seven mystery writers, all with different angles on this.

And they’re not all wrong…

Play Fair With the Clues and the Credits

What’s Going On?

Agatha Christie knows exactly what’s going on. It might sound like she’s making things up out of thin air, but she nails it. And so the murder is solved!

Not exactly.

It’s hard to review this book without spoilers because the focus of the entire thing is discovering the truth behind the death of billionaire Roderick Ghyll. There are theories that can be immediately discounted, ideas that are disproven with new evidence, and truths strewn about that need to be sewn up into one cohesive story.

The entertaining part of the book is just how that’s all done. Again, as with the first volume, this is all character based. We get to see the mystery through the eyes of these entertaining writers with their strong personalities. They’re still playing an odd version of one-upmanship, trying to look like the smartest in the room while constantly disproving it. There’s a very collegial atmosphere in the house — if you went to the type of college where you gave your friends the most grief.

Most importantly, when all is said and done, you can go back to the second half of the first book, primarily, and see it all play out from a different angle. Remember — while the death happened at the end of the first half of the first book, a lot of the evidence came up only during the investigation in the second half. And Harambat is very shrewd with what he shows and when….

It’s all explained here. And while some of it is completely out of the blue with no clues planted at all in the first book, there’s enough here to tie the core mystery together that happened in front of your face. There’s also some material that might charitably be called “red herrings,” but feel a little bit like plot stuffing. (For example, that shadowy person from the first book is suddenly explained and… has nothing to do with anything. Complete diversion.) You’d need to stretch to bring together some of the points, but the facts are all there.

And the biggest question at the end of the book is not hidden at all in the book. That might be the most genius part of it all. Read the book and you’ll see what I mean. It’s all about things that hide in plain sight….

The Best Overlooked Character

I think my favorite character in the series might just be the intentionally overlooked Baroness Emma Orczy, most famous for writing about the Scarlet Pimpernel. (That character is most famous to me for being the basis of Daffy Duck’s “Scarlet Pumpernickel” a couple decades later.) She’s so inconsequential to everything in the book that she provides a welcome respite from the manic antics of the other writers.

She’s just wandering around, adding nothing, looking lost. She inadvertently has some of the funniest lines in the book. She’s not caught up in the craziness with the rest of the writers. She’s old and tired, but a keen observer of other people’s foibles.

I want to see more of her adventures as she sits around while everything burns around her.

The Epilogue

After a brief pause, the story ends at Agatha Christie’s marriage, reunited her with G.K. Chesterton for a quick spin around the dance floor.

Now, maybe I’m missing a moment of historical significance in this scene, but it doesn’t add all that much to the series. It’s always good to see those two personalities coming together and trading barbs, but it’s not “necessary” to the story.

I did a wee bit of research: Chesterton died in 1936. Christie took over leadership of the Detection Club two decades later.

The two, perhaps through their interactions in the Club, also had some influence on each other’s writings. Chesterton includes a sidekick in his most famous series that goes by the name of “Hercule Flambeau”; Christie fans, of course, are familiar with her Hercule Poirot character.

It’s a nice epilogue, but it does feel slightly tacked on.

Recommended?

Yes, it’s a solid ending to a great, witty, character-filled story. And while one or two of the “twists” might break the rules of Detection Club, I’ll forgive it. Harambat covers for it with his dialogue.

If you’re looking for more of this type of work, Jean Harambat’s previous work was the critically well-received World War II story, “Operation Copperhead“. Harambat won the Goscinny Prize in 2018 for his work on it. It’s available in its entirety in four (shorter) albums. It stars Peter Ustinov and David Niven on a top secret mission. It’s based on a true story. I’ve been meaning to read that one for quite a while, but this book has definitely sold me on it.

You can click on the image above to order it from Amazon, or through Izneo here.

My Proposed Sequel(s)

I’d love to see a sequel to this, but set twenty years later with a new group of writers. On the other hand, I have no idea who the writers were at that point, and it’s very likely I’d be familiar with none of them. But if they all had such clear-cut personalities as this group had, it wouldn’t matter.

Heck, let’s see someone do a buddy comedy type comic starring Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clark. Throw in John Campbell as their butler, wind them all up, and watch the sparks fly.

Someone more in tune with that world could likely do an amazing series starring modern Amazon Kindle Romance writers, I’m sure. All the billionaire boyfriends and reverse harem stories would be plenty of grist for the mill…

OK, I’ll stop now. Do give “The Detection Club” a chance, though. It’s a very fun read.