"The Poisoned Chocolates Case"

A few weeks ago, I posted a review of a collection of short stories by the Golden Age master, Anthony Berkeley. It included the story, "The Avenging Chance," which, I noted, was the basis for one of the all-time classic Golden Age mysteries, "The Poisoned Chocolates Case." I lamented the fact that it had gone out of print.

Not any more.

Thanks to the Felony & Mayhem Press, Anthony Berkeley's "The Poisoned Chocolates Case" is back in print, and the subject of this week's review on our Classic Mysteries podcast. And - unlike the chocolates of the title - this book is utterly delectable. Consider: a murder is committed. There are very few clues. The police, baffled, figure it can't hurt anything for a group of amateur detectives (who meet weekly for a social discussion of crime) to try to figure out what happened. The result? Each member of the group carries out a separate investigation - and then produces a tightly reasoned, beautifully laid-out case proving that the crime must have been committed by...

Ah. There's the problem. Each of those brilliantly reasoned explanations points to a different murderer.

You can hear my full podcast review here, but it is, as I said, a Golden Age classic and a masterpiece of fair play, as each "investigator" among the amateurs lays out the evidence as he or she sees it - and the reader will have to be very astute to reach the right conclusion. the writing is first-rate, witty and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

One other interesting point: the Berkeley short story "The Avenging Chance," as I noted, was the basis for the novel - and the conclusion reached in that story is reached in this one too - and then discarded, because it is shown to be incorrect...

If you enjoy fairly clued, game-of-wits puzzle mysteries, you really shouldn't miss this one.