Sergeant Beef Knows

Sergeant Beef is the former police detective who stars in Leo Bruce's "Case with Four Clowns," which is the subject of this week's podcast review. But, in case you're wondering where he came from, Sergeant Beef first appeared in another excellent mystery by Leo Bruce, "Case For Three Detectives." The difference is that "Case for Three Detectives" is a very funny parody of a traditional detective story - written in the form of a traditional detective story.

In "Case for Three Detectives - which was reviewed here last year - an impossible murder is committed. Sergeant Beef, very much the stolid, apparently unintelligent police detective, is put in charge of the case. But before he can do much of anything, three "gifted" amateurs appear - parodies of Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, Christie's Hercule Poirot and Chesterton's Father Brown. Sergeant Beef finds himself very much in awe of the three GREAT detectives, each of whom proceeds to come up with a truly ingenious (and different) solution to the murder. The only trouble is that each solution is completely wrong. But that's okay - Sergeant Beef, who is nobody's fool, solves the murder - in fact, he has been saying since he arrived on the scene, "I know who done it." And so he does.

It's a very funny book. The parodies are well drawn and quite pointed. Sergeant Beef himself is quite endearing. And it's also a very good "impossible crime" mystery quite capable of standing on its own merits. It should be on your reading list.