When it comes to mystery fiction, I am a sucker for a good challenge. As many of my readers know, my favorite type of story is the puzzle mystery, where the author provides liberal, rational and fair - if very well hidden - clues which should give me a chance to solve the mystery with, or even ahead of, the detective. The fact that I can rarely do so is undoubtedly a character flaw on my part, but it doesn't keep me from relishing the challenge.
And so it is with "Policeman in Armour
Here's the situation: a former judge, Sir Raymond Everett, is stabbed to death in his English country house. All the evidence appears to point to the dead man's niece - it seems impossible that anyone else could have entered Everett's bedroom without her knowledge. Chief Inspector Beale, however, is not convinced, even though his superiors want him to arrest the young woman. He becomes - not exactly a knight in shining armor, but rather, as the title has it, a Policeman in Armour." And his investigation turns up some very interesting complications.
What sells the book to me, however, as I said, is the challenge, issued to the reader quite directly from the author. Before we reach the final summing-up, the final twists and turns of the plot, Penny challenges us head-on:
"Who stabbed Sir Raymond Everett? How was the murder carried out? These are not unfair questions, the answers being discoverable from the foregoing evidence. It is hoped that at least one reader in ten will give five minutes’ attention to the matter, and more than one in a hundred do so with satisfactory results. There is not much point in setting a problem that nobody can solve except the setter and his puppets."
I will admit that he fooled me. The clues are, indeed, there - when you know where to look. And that's what makes these stories so irresistable to me; I always vow that I won't be fooled that way again...and yet I almost always am. Will you be the one in ten? Or, better yet, the one in a hundred? Good luck!
Les - Oh, I've been wanting to read that one and just....never did. I'm glad you put it back on my radar because like you, I like the sort of intellectual challenge where one has to be on one's mettle to figure it all out. And I don't mind it if I don't get there in time. Which is a good thing because I usually don't...
Posted by: Margot Kinberg | October 28, 2012 at 08:00 PM
Believe me, Margot, I'm exactly the same way. I talk a lot about enjoying the challenge...and still end up mystified... ;-)
Posted by: Les Blatt | October 28, 2012 at 08:01 PM