Tag Archives: Anthony Berkeley

Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley

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Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley was first published in 1933 but it has been reprinted by British Library. I borrowed a copy from my local library. This one is number nine in a ten book series featuring Roger Sheringham, an amateur criminologist and crime fiction author. The introduction is by Martin Edwards, as ever, don’t read it until you’ve read the book!

It begins with a fancy dress party with the theme of famous murderers and their victims. Most of the male guests can get away with just wearing normal clothes. Ronald Stratton is the party host and he has erected a ‘decorative’ gallows on a flat roof, a part of the house that guests can access if they want a breath of fresh air, he thinks it will add to the ambience. Ronald has strung up three straw filled dummies from the gallows, he has a macabre sense of humour.

The party atmosphere is marred by the presence of Ena Stratton who just has to be the centre of attention, she says and does outrageous things and embarrasses her long-suffering husband and his relatives, whilst she downs enough whisky to fell most people. She makes everyone feel extremely uncomfortable, especially when she harps on at her usual theme of committing suicide.

This is a fairly unusual plot as the reader knows who has committed the murder, but the guests don’t, and Sheringham tries to concoct evidence to puzzle the police, which causes a lot of trouble and stress all round.

I really liked this one which is full of tension towards the end and has a good twist. I love the twee house on the cover.

The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley

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The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley was first published in 1929 but I read the recent British Library Crime Classics reprint. It has an introduction by Martin Edwards.

The book begins at a gathering of the Crime Circle, a club for crime fiction writers, and Chief Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard has gone there to ask the writers for their help. The Scotland Yard detectives are stumped over a case of murder by poisoning and Moresby hopes that the writers might be able to give them some new ideas as to who the culprit might be.

This of course involves each of the writers in turn explaining how they think the murder was committed and by whom. They all come up with different ideas of course, but which one is correct?

This isn’t my favourite style of writing as it can become a bit tedious at times with the constant repetition of facts in the case. I found myself being more interested in who the fictional detectives were based on in reality. I think that Dorothy L. Sayers was very easy to spot, but I’m not so sure about the other two female writers.

In 1979 the writer Christianna Brand wrote yet another solution to this murder puzzle and that chapter is included in this book, and Martin Edwards has the last word with his epilogue.

If you’re interested you can read about Anthony Berkeley in an interesting article by Martin Edwards here