Karl Marx Private Eye

by Jim Feast

A rattling good yarn and a suspenseful whodunit, based on real historical events, that brings sixteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes together with Karl Marx and his brilliant daughter Eleanor to solve a cascading series of murders at a Bohemian spa. Karl Marx Private Eye is a page-turner filled with tricky clues, colourful detectives, and an 'exotic' setting. Written in a brilliant parody of Arthur Conan Doyle, this cosy historical mystery will keep readers guessing until its shocking final pages.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 11, 2024

Reviews

[Sparrow .]

I read an actual historical novel, and enjoyed it! Of course, it a) was written by a friend of mine, b) stars the founder of Marxism (though he’s not a private eye, as the title claims), c) is a mystery novel, d) prominently features Jenny, Marx’s indomitable daughter.

And the prose – the tale is set in an archaic sanatorium in Bohemia (August, 1875) – has been tinkered and re-tinkered with, until its intricacies marble the page.

Opening at random:

The water, after the faucet adjustment, had already started flowing into the large basin beneath the jets, which was kept full due to the lovely shimmering effect it produced, sending reflections rippling off the glass walls.

Now Cranky found speech. “Sir, I resent your tone.”

“Excuse me, Herr Winkle,” the girl broke in, moving into a stumbling English, “but we are disallowed to server the restorative beverage –“

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s late in the ‘season’ in 1875, and although there are still plenty of people taking the waters at the Bohemian spa town Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), it is not quite the bustling resort it is a peak season. It’s in this setting that an American industrialist (arms manufacturer) and his wife’s maid are found brutally murdered one morning. There seems to be a fairly competent local police unit, a political context presenting several suspects, an additional layer where the comparatively new, young, wife inherits all, and talk of shady figures around the town linked to previous but much less serious crime. Although a suspect is quickly detained, there remain several loose ends.

Among those in town we find the two most interesting members of the Marx family from Soho – paterfamilias Karl and daughter, Eleanor, travelling incognito as father & daughter Arbuthnot, Karl’s views on European political change making him not entirely welcome in the Austro-Hungarian Empire – and the teenage scion of the well to do English Holmes family, the unusually named Sherlock. Collectively, but largely independently they are not convinced by the police decision and delve further into the killing, each for their own reason, and each with their own approach and set of insights linked to that outlook.

It should sparkle – the ingénue Holmes developing his style and approach, Karl, the meticulous structural thinker with journalist’s insight, Eleanor, an equally meticulous political and economic analyst, but with a more humanistic and feminist sense of the world than her father, with Feast treating fictional and historical biographies with equal respect. There’s political intrigue, domestic discontent, a cerebral, philosophically sharp if idealist, police officer, several well-crafted red herrings and characters who it becomes clear are not all they seem to be, and conflicting crime-scene evidence.

It should sparkle, but it didn’t quite, for me at least. Part of my problem was that the three lines of inquiry never clearly come together – Karl’s concern at being exposed keeps him closed, but then the reserved 60ish German émigré and the precocious teenage English lad are not likely to be close anyway – so when the killer is finally exposed it feels a little forced, and more to do with Holmes and Eleanor than Karl (perhaps I had higher expectations given the title). But in addition, Feast’s writing style was, for me, a little flat – I kept going because I wanted to know who-did-it, not because the narrative-as-presented drew me in me all that much; it was rather entertaining, rather than all that engaging. That said, I do quite like that among the books advertised in this cosy crime novel is Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme - a bit of visionary thinking with my holiday who-done-it.

All in all, pleasantly diverting.

[Ελένη Καραχανίδη]

Σίγουρα στο 🔝 10 με τα βιβλία που σκέφτηκα διψήφιο αριθμό φορών να κάνω dnf..Ή τριψήφιο; το συνέχιζα πάντα καθώς είχα μια διαρκή ελπίδα ότι κάπως θα σωθεί. πράγμα που στα δικά μ κριτήρια ουδέποτε συνέβη. Δυστυχώς. Παρόλα αυτά τουλάχιστον το ολοκλήρωσα.

[Geo Ski · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️
Ένα συνονθύλευμα από πρόσωπα, ιστορίες, καταστάσεις. Ένα μπερδεμένο κουβάρι που ούτε η πλοκή είχε νόημα, ούτε το ιστορικό κομμάτι. Είχε μια καλή ιδέα αλλά δεν την αξιοποίησε.

[Charles Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much expected to enjoy Jim Feast’s Karl Marx: Private Eye—I didn’t expect to be utterly delighted by it.
What makes Karl Marx: Private Eye such a delight to read is how wide it ranges in tone, mood, form. Jim Feast has a keen eye for details, essential in any murder mystery, doubly so in a murder mystery that is also historical fiction.
A large part of the joy of reading this mystery novel comes from Feast’s evident delight in indulging the inherent playfulness of language.There is a lightness to Feast’s prose that helps move the plot and characters around quickly. Puns confuse the devil, it is said, and Feast proves adept in using them to spice and leaven his narrative.
Even before a teenage tenderfoot named Sherlock Holmes enters the story, I was hooked.
Linked in with this and expanding on this strength of Feast’s is the evident amount of careful, granular research on daily life and diction of the 19th century. Without spoiling the tightly-coiled plot, it is safe to say that the after-shocks of the Paris Commune spread far wider than one might expect.

This is the great strength of historical fiction done well—or in Feast’s case—impeccably, delightfully.

[Pete Dolack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book with a title like "Karl Marx Private Eye" could easily have been a cheap gimmick, and perhaps would have been in the hands of a lesser author. But Jim Feast's novel, although featuring a fictionalized Marx, is instead an enjoyable story. Marx, his daughter Eleanor and assorted other characters work together (and sometimes against one another) to solve a series of murders in a spa town. The Paris Commune, or more specifically the Commune's aftermath, is not absent here and adds to the mounting mysteries.

Some basic knowledge of the Commune is helpful here, although I suppose anyone intrigued by the title likely already has that background. The fictional Marx here is very much based on the real Marx as is the political background that weaves through the narrative. So is Marx not only one of the world's great political economists and philosophers but also a detective? A fun read to find out.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confession time: the only Jewish character in this mystery is Karl Marx, who considered himself an atheist. That would make his daughter, Eleanor, another character in the novel, Jewish by patrilineal descent. Since nothing connected to Judaism happens in Jim Feast’s “Karl Marx, Private Eye” (PM Press), why did I ask for a review copy? How could I resist a book that calls Marx a private eye and includes a 16-year-old Sherlock Holmes? Yes, that Sherlock Holmes, as in the character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...

[Hans Ostrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing, intricate, literate mystery, with Karl Marx, his daughter Eleanor, and a teenaged Sherlock Holmes all trying to solve a murder or two at a spa in Germany. Lots of radical and reactionary 19th century politics in the background. The plot drags just a bit, but this is an entertaining book from a well read author.

[Kosmas Panagiotis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ούτε μυστικό είχε ο Καρλ Μαρξ σχετικό με την πλοκή, ούτε ο αγγλικός τίτλος Carl Marx private eye έχει καποια σχέση με το βιβλιο. το αστυνομικό μέρος της πλοκής είναι αρκετά μπλεγμένο και χωρίς ιδιαίτερο νόημα, το τέλος έρχεται τόσο απότομα που δεν καταλαβαίνεις πως είναι τέλος, και ο εφηβος Σέρλοκ παρουσιάζεται με χαρακτηριστικά OCD. Δυστυχώς δεν ήταν αντάξιο των προσδοκιών.

[Katerina Karaioannoglou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Αν και μου άρεσε η πολυεπίπεδη περιγραφή από την οπτική του κάθε χαρακτήρα και τα πολυδιάστατα εγκλήματα που θυμίζουν βιβλία της Agatha Christie μου έλειψε η συνολική ανασκόπηση του εγκλήματος στο τέλος που να δένει όλες αυτές τις παράλληλες ιστορίες. Το τέλος ήταν πολύ απότομο σαν να μην έχει ολοκληρωθεί το βιβλίο.

[Raya Paul Gracchus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Feast seems to think because it's inspired by Sherlock Holmes stories it needs to be written in the voice of a 19th century man, but he lacks the skill to do so. Uninformed, uninteresting, uninspired.

[Alexis Passas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Αναφορές στην παρισινή κομμούνα και στους διάφορους φιλοσόφους του 19ου αιώνα σε ύφος παρωδίας με τον Σέρλοκ και τον Μαρξ και ό,τι άλλο θες
Για burlesque δεν διαβάζεται εύκολα
250 σελιδούλες 20 μέρες , το θέμα θα έτρεχε αν έγραφε σωστά ή μετέφραζε ……

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another reviewer on here noted that a book with this title could have easily been a cheap gimmick, but it wasn't. I agree. But I almost wish it had been a gimmick.

This book was fun to read. You can feel the author's genuine joy, his skillful deployment of the genre and the time period. But I wanted a more exaggerated confrontation with Marx, his thought, his legacy, whatever.