The Case of the Canterfell Codicil by P.J. FitzsimmonsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not a bad period-setting modern murder mystery, let down by some easily fixable issues with the editing. Most prominently, the author frequently leaves out the vocative comma (the "let's eat Grandma" error), which to me is one of the most basic things that makes an author come across as amateurish. There are also a few Americanisms, like referring to Oxford University as "school" and to someone's "junior year" and giving a "commencement address," but I spotted fewer anachronisms than I expected. There is the use of "alright" as a spelling for "all right" (originated in the 1980s, and still not the most common usage or accepted by major style guides), and giving an English earl of the period of the Wars of the Roses the first name "Elmer," which is distinctively American and only started being used after the American Revolution (so it's an Americanism and an anachronism in one). There are a few vocabulary errors, too: desert/dessert, infer/imply (though even good writers at the actual period this is set in did make that mistake), passed/past, dichotomy/paradox, vindictive/invective. Occasional missing words in sentences, some garbled idioms, and a couple of other punctuation or usage issues round out the collection. It lacks, in other words, the polish I was hoping for, without which it's not a convincing attempt at a 1920s mystery, and I can't bring myself to give it more than three stars, even though it's otherwise sound.
I read a lot of actual 1920s mysteries, and if this was properly edited it wouldn't be a bad one. The main character, Anty Boisjoly (pronounced like Beaujolais), has a role similar to Albert Campion: not strictly speaking a detective, more of a fixer and finder-out for his wide circle of acquaintances. In this case, he's called in by his old rowing coxswain to clear him of a charge of murdering his uncle. He's of the Bertie Wooster class and background, a young man of the upper classes, educated at Eton and Oxford, without a specific occupation, and his observations are amusingly phrased, though they don't have the true Wodehousian sparkle any more than they have the Campion eccentricity. The other obvious comparison is to Lord Peter Wimsey, but he's sadder and more profound and, of course, his writer was an excellent prose stylist. Not that the prose here is terrible, but it's about average for the period it's set in, making it better than average for today. The other difference from all three of these characters is that he's neither an actual idiot like Wooster, nor masquerading as one to put people off their guard, like Campion and Lord Peter.
The other characters are mostly stock, as was the style in most 1920s mysteries, though there are hints of greater depth in some of them; the retired major, for example, isn't just a stereotype. The mystery is tricky and well plotted out (view spoiler), and Anty solves it cleverly. The police inspector, unlike Campion's and Wimsey's police colleagues, is a classic Scotland Yard bungler in the Sherlock Holmes tradition, while the local policeman is a good-natured yokel, leaving the field clear for Anty to shine.
Compared with other modern attempts at classic mystery I've tried, it has some potential - but personally, I can't get past the lack of attention to detail in the editing, and I wouldn't buy another for that reason. But if I ever go back to listening to audiobooks, my library has the series in that format, and I won't be distracted by anything except misused words there.
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