Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

The Poisoned Chocolates Case won the vote for our April read for the category of crime, and comments and reflections are invited on this book.

Please note: Spoilers are now allowed, so please only read if you have finished the book - or don't mind having plot details revealed! See the edited Spoilers topic for explanation.

I am just starting this. I love the way it begins though, with a "Crime Club" meeting :)

My review is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

So much fun!! My review is here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... but Dennis wrote a better one :)

Leslie wrote: "I am just starting this. I love the way it begins though, with a "Crime Club" meeting :)"

I know! Isn't it delightful? I was so ecstatic when it got picked to be read.

Leslie wrote: "So much fun!! My review is here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... but Dennis wrote a better one :)"

Dennis wrote: "My review is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...."

Our reviews do different work, but each does it well. I'm glad to read yours!

This was a very fun read with a very impressive bit of virtuoso mystery design. Why write one solution to your mystery when you can write six, and point out the shortcomings and tricks of all the lesser mystery writers while you're at it?

It would be interesting to read some background to this, because I assume that the various members of the club represent "real" authors (or at least styles of mystery writing).

At the end of the opening, before the 6 writers present their findings, I've come to my own conclusion of who the murderer is and why, but I'll put it in spoilers because Im probably wrong:

(view spoiler)[I think the murderer is Mr Bendicks - I reckon his wife was having an affair with Sir Eustace. Basically, send the chocolates to Eustace - if he ate them, great - but he was around to pass the chocolates on to his wife, so getting his second choice of victim. Having injected the poison, he knew how much he could eat to show symptoms, but without endangering his life, but knew his wife would finish the box. (hide spoiler)]

Phil wrote: "It would be interesting to read some background to this, because I assume that the various members of the club represent "real" authors (or at least styles of mystery writing) ..."

I hadn't thought of that - it would be fun to see which of his contemporaries he was referring to! This was published in 1929, so a quick look at mysteries of the 1920s gives me:
Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes
Agatha Christie - Poirot first appears in 1920, Tommy and Tuppence a bit later
Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey first appears in 1923

and of course from earlier there is Edgar Allan Poe's M. Dupin and Wilkie Collins's Sargent Cuff...

I'd love to have enough literary knowledge to be able to speculate about which writers inspired certain characters. I quite liked the premise of this book - it sells itself quite well to the reader being able to have a guess at a murderer/motive and feeling a part of the action, as it were. My favoured theory was wrong, sadly, but an interesting read nonetheless!

I'm not a big fan of murder mysteries at all. So this read is out of my comfort zone completely.
It is a quirky viewpoint of a murder, exploring 6 scenarios to find the culprit using an amatuer crime club to solve the mystery. Very clever to give 6 accounts which lead to more confusion and speculation.

My favoured theory was wrong too (although a combination of two that were suggested by the members). I did think the ending was a bit of a cop-out, but I did thoroughly enjoy the book, even though it was a bit light-weight for a list like this.