Review: Mystery At Lynden Sands

Mystery At Lynden Sands by J.J. Connington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the third Sir Clinton Driffield novel, Sir Clinton is accompanied both by his Watson from the first book (his friend Wendover, a JP who represents the sound British county chap who's a stickler for the done thing), and his inspector from the second book, who tends to play Scotland Yard bungler to Sir Clinton's Sherlock Holmes, though he's sound enough at basic police work. He can collect evidence and notice evidence, he's just not that good at stringing it together into a narrative, which is where Sir Clinton shines.

The motive for the first murder seemed pretty obvious to me, and gave a clear suspect from the start, though Sir Clinton tries to make out late in the book that it could have pointed two different ways. The main mystery, though, involved gunshots, multiple sets of footprints later washed away by the tide, several different people believing that something had taken place which had not, tyre tracks, eavesdropping, and bigamous marriages, and had me completely confused until Sir Clinton cleared it all up neatly. He's still a bit of a know-it-all; it would be nice to see him confounded, or making a mistake, from time to time just to humanize him (or having a non-professional relationship with anyone besides Wendover, who, because he's drafted as the Watson, ends up still being a professional relationship). But the crimes and solutions are clever, and if you enjoy Freeman Wills Crofts and/or R. Austin Freeman, with their puzzle-solving detectives who don't have much personality, this is another author for you.

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Review: Lord Emsworth and Others

Lord Emsworth and Others by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Short stories, in which, mostly, people win who don't always win. This is a bit of a theme for Wodehouse; he was always one for the underdog.

In the opening story, "The Crime Wave at Blandings," Lord Emsworth's despised former secretary, the Efficient Baxter, is shot with an airgun multiple times by multiple people, and another of Lord Emsworth's many nieces gets to marry the man of her choice because Lord Emsworth, emboldened by circumstances, uncharacteristically stands up to his sisters. It's prime Blandings Castle material.

We then get stories from those tireless raconteurs Mr. Mulliner and the Oldest Member (of a golf club; these are golf stories, but you don't have to be a golfer to enjoy them, since they're really about the struggles of young people in love). I'd say these stories are about average for Mulliner and Oldest Member stories: good, but not great.

Finally, we get three stories in which Ukridge uncharacteristically makes money out of his perpetual schemes, though not without the usual vicissitudes. The boxer he intermittently manages, Battling Billson, even wins a fight for once. His reluctant friend, "Corky" Corcoran, who narrates the Ukridge stories, in this case is mostly narrated to, as Ukridge recounts his triumphs and disasters. I enjoy Ukridge's inexpert con games and his eccentric costume and personality, and these three stories are well up to standard.

The cover illustration to the Everyman edition presumably is meant to be the Efficient Baxter, but with none of the features of his stated appearance (for example, his spectacles). Everyman have done an excellent job of copy editing, but I question their art direction.

The book cheered me up when I needed that, and what more can you ask from a collection of comic short stories?

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