I’m usually quite thrilled by detective novels set in academia. Something about dons and scholars and professors bumping each other off and stealing each other’s work and nursing grudges against each other, while holding forth on philosophy, literature, social sciences, and so on, pleases me to my bloodthirsty, pretentious core. A hit is a very palpable hit (witness my intense love for Dorothy Sayers’ Gaudy Night); a miss, like this novel by Nicholas Blake, makes me downright gloomy.
To be fair, it has quite a serviceable plot. Blake’s detective, Nigel Strangeways, is staying at Cabot University near Boston (a thinly disguised Harvard), where he has become acquainted with the Ahlberg brothers, Chester of the business school, Mark of English literature, and Josiah of classics; Charles Reilly, an Irish poet; and Sukie Tate, Mark’s student and fiancée. Then, Josiah disappears and Strangeways ends up investigating his murder, assisting the police. Josiah wasn’t well-liked, not even by his brothers, so there are several suspects, including Sukie’s brother John, who was forced to drop his classical studies for a year after accusing Josiah of stealing his work. But something just doesn’t work for Blake here; everything seems tired and bit hackneyed, none of the characters are engaging, and the conversation is truly dull. Eventually, after Strangeways enjoys a strange gratuitous sexual interlude that comes completely out of left field, the book climaxes in an ill-advised chase and attack scene that fails to be at all exciting. But you know, by then, I honestly didn’t care. Very disappointing. I’m hoping that this one was a poor piece of work only because it was one of the last two Blake wrote.
Detective novels, detective films will be the death of us, figuratively that is
I’ve been into them a lot myself in the years before, starting from the Holmes period. I must admit I miss that language from those earlier offerings.
Blake is generally so awesome though. I have not read this one (where did you find it?) but Strangeways + academia sounds pleasing enough.
If you haven’t read it, try to get hold of End Of Chapter – it’s also one of the later Strangeways books (I’m reliably informed by better read people that the series goes downhill after his wife Georgia dies) but it’s set in a publishing house and industry jargon is flung around while bodies pile up.
I’ve only read one other Blake (The Worm of Death) and liked that, so was really shocked at how bored I was by this one (found it, by the way, at Blossom, Bangalore’s favourite secondhand bookshop).
There are a whole pile of Blakes that sound good and that I’m keeping an eye out for… must add End of Chapter to the list.
I got a few of mine in Blossom’s as well – I love that place to bits.
The early books (set while Georgia is still alive) are supposed to be the best of the lot. I’ve only read one of them, The Smiler With The Knife, and it was superb.
Also, The Beast Must Die. Blake/Day-Lewis’s masterpiece.
Nicholas Blake is an uneven author. I habe read several of his novels, some are great, others quite horrible. There´s one – less known than “The Beast Must Die” – which I can heartily recommend: “Thou Shell of Death”: great story-line, intriguing characters, wonderful setting.
Thank you for the recommendation! I’ll keep an eye out for that one.
Also, I wish I could read German, as I think your blog looks really interesting and your posts seem truly substantial!