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სიკვდილი იალქნის ქვეშ
ჩარლზ პ. სნოუ (1905-1980) არა მხოლოდ მწერალი იყო, მას სხვა გაქანებებიც ჰქონდა და სხვა სფეროებშიც წარმატებული გახლდათ. ინგლისელი მწერალი, ფიზიკოსი და სახელმწიფო მოღვაწე თავის ქვეყანაში უდიდესი პატივისცემით სარგებლობდა. ჩარლზ პერსი სნოუ 1095 წელს ლესტერში დაიბადა. განათლება იქვე, ადგილობრივ კოლეჯში მიიღო, რის შემდეგაც კემბრიჯის უნივერსიტეტი დაამთავრა. 1930 წლიდან პედაგოგიურ მოღვაწეობას ეწეოდა. 1961-64 წლებში კი სენტ-ენდრიუსის უნივერსიტეტში არჩეული რექტორი იყო. სწავლის დამთავრების შემდეგ აქტიურად ჩართო პოლიტიკურ ცხოვრებაში. სხვადასხვა პოსტს იკავებდა დიდი ბრიტანეთის ლეიბორისტულ მთავრობებში. პოლიტიკური და საზოგადოებრივი მოღვაწეობის პარალელურად, სნოუ აქტიურად წერდა და ამ საქმისთვის არასდროს უღალატია. დეტექტივი „სიკვდილი იალქნის ქვეშ“ (1932 წელი) ჩარლზ სნოუს პირველი გამოქვეყნებული ნაწარმოებია, რომელიც დღემდე უდიდესი პოპულარობით სარგებლობს მკითხველებს შორის.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
About the author
C.P. Snow
93 books126 followersKnown British scientist Charles Percy Snow, baron Snow of Leicester, wrote especially his 11-volume series
Strangers and Brothers
(1940-1970).
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 7, 2017
_Death Under Sail_ is a murder mystery of buttonholing tension. But it is not only a top-class and ingenious whodunnit, it is also a superb study of human motivation, a clever and unobtrusive comment on society, and the very best example of watertight craftsmanship.
My take: It's a shame that Snow didn't write more mysteries. This is a terrific example of the Golden Age whodunnit. Kept me guessing till the very end.
The plot of Death Under Sail seems very simple. A small party of friends--five men and two women--plan to spend two weeks sailing on a small boat. Even though they are friends, the boat is small enough that there is danger that they might get on each others nerves. It winds up that this is not the only danger--for before the close quarters have a chance to work on their temperaments, their host, Roger Mills, is murdered while steering the boat--discovered with a bullet through the heart and a jovial smile on his face. How was this possible? And how could it have happened in such a small, restricted space? Mills had many enemies, but he had no thought that one of them would be among his guests. Who among this decent, educated, and charming group of people had a motive for such violence? The boat is brought to land and two detectives soon enter the scene--the suave civil servant and amateur detective Finbow and his counter-part Detective-Sergeant Aloysius Birrell. What follows is a delightful investigation of "civilized" murder.
Written in 1932, Death Under Sail is another fine example of the witty and genteel Golden Age mystery. We have the closed setting (small boat in the middle of a waterway), limited suspects, the refined and gentlemanly amateur detective, and the policeman who needs the amateur to show him the way. Finbow is a delight all by himself. I am, in addition to being a vintage mystery addict, a collector of quotations. I have several pages devoted to Finbow's bon mots--clever little bits on everything from detection itself to human nature. Finbow's thoughts on human nature stem from his interest in psychology and it is psychology that he uses to solve the mystery.
My take: It's a shame that Snow didn't write more mysteries. This is a terrific example of the Golden Age whodunnit. Kept me guessing till the very end.
The plot of Death Under Sail seems very simple. A small party of friends--five men and two women--plan to spend two weeks sailing on a small boat. Even though they are friends, the boat is small enough that there is danger that they might get on each others nerves. It winds up that this is not the only danger--for before the close quarters have a chance to work on their temperaments, their host, Roger Mills, is murdered while steering the boat--discovered with a bullet through the heart and a jovial smile on his face. How was this possible? And how could it have happened in such a small, restricted space? Mills had many enemies, but he had no thought that one of them would be among his guests. Who among this decent, educated, and charming group of people had a motive for such violence? The boat is brought to land and two detectives soon enter the scene--the suave civil servant and amateur detective Finbow and his counter-part Detective-Sergeant Aloysius Birrell. What follows is a delightful investigation of "civilized" murder.
Written in 1932, Death Under Sail is another fine example of the witty and genteel Golden Age mystery. We have the closed setting (small boat in the middle of a waterway), limited suspects, the refined and gentlemanly amateur detective, and the policeman who needs the amateur to show him the way. Finbow is a delight all by himself. I am, in addition to being a vintage mystery addict, a collector of quotations. I have several pages devoted to Finbow's bon mots--clever little bits on everything from detection itself to human nature. Finbow's thoughts on human nature stem from his interest in psychology and it is psychology that he uses to solve the mystery.
June 5, 2020
Very enjoyable whodunnit set in the Norfolk Broads.
August 20, 2020
I think part of the reason I really enjoyed this book was that I grew up on the Norfolk Broads, so hearing the names of places I knew well and reading the descriptions of the scenery of the Broads really added something.
Personal reminiscences aside, this was a very enjoyable detective story. Set on a boat, with a small, tightly closed circle, you’re very much kept guessing. I loved the characters, particularly the narrator and detective, Finbow - I was really cheering him on when he finally told the puritanical housekeeper to shut up!
I think the characters and gentle humour really make this book. It’s has a good plot, but some of the detective leaps were a little bit of a stretch for me, that didn’t take too much away though.
Personal reminiscences aside, this was a very enjoyable detective story. Set on a boat, with a small, tightly closed circle, you’re very much kept guessing. I loved the characters, particularly the narrator and detective, Finbow - I was really cheering him on when he finally told the puritanical housekeeper to shut up!
I think the characters and gentle humour really make this book. It’s has a good plot, but some of the detective leaps were a little bit of a stretch for me, that didn’t take too much away though.
January 26, 2020
B+: A bit reaching in some of its deductions, but well paced and twisty up until the very end. I also really liked Finbow as a sleuth. It's a shame that Snow didn't make a series of him.
September 15, 2024
Hidden motives…
When Ian Capel arrives to join a group a friends for a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads, everyone seems to be having a good time. Successful Harley Street physician Dr Roger Mills is playing host and captain, and his boisterous good nature sets the tone for the party. At least, that’s how it looks. But next morning Roger is found dead, shot while at the tiller, and suspicion begins to tear the group apart. Lovely Avice is the most obvious suspect, since Roger was her cousin and his death puts her in line for a large inheritance. Ian, captivated by Avice’s charms, is convinced she cannot be guilty, so he turns to an old friend of his, Finbow, who has a reputation as an amateur solver of crimes…
As is often the case with early mysteries – this one is from 1932 – the reader has to be willing to accept that the police will happily leave a murder investigation in the hands of a gifted amateur. There is a policeman involved, the local sergeant, but he is there as a comedy character and is ridiculed throughout for his lack of intelligence and quaint moral ideas. So long as you can accept that, then Finbow makes an enjoyable detective with Ian as his Watson. At first I found them a rather irritating pair, but they grew on me as the book progressed and I ended up liking them both.
It’s clear from the start that only someone who was aboard the boat could have done the deed. That means there are six suspects, most of whom have been friends with each other for years. Ian is older than the rest of the group – a man in his sixties when the rest are in their twenties or thirties. Why he should be part of this group is never explained, and niggled me a little – he seemed an unlikely companion for all these bright young things. Avice is Roger’s cousin, but she was also the object of his passion – he had been proposing to her regularly for years despite her repeated rebuffs. Now Avice is engaged to Christopher, and surprisingly Roger seemed to have accepted this with good grace. Christopher has just been offered a job in colonial Malay, which will give him enough of an income to marry on, which he seems more enthusiastic about than Avice. Then there’s William, a medical man who was something of a protégé of the slightly older and already successful Roger. The two of them had recently collaborated on a well received research paper. Lastly there’s Philip, a young man with enough wealth to allow him to lead a life of leisure, and his new girlfriend, Tonia, the only stranger to the group. Finbow will have to work out which of them may have had a motive to kill Roger, and he does this by holding a series of seemingly casual conversations with them individually or as a group, wheedling out their true feelings about Roger with some nifty psychological games.
This was Snow’s only mystery novel, before he turned to writing straight fiction. He wrote it when he was young, and I felt that showed in his characterisation of Ian, the older man, whose thoughts and feelings never rang true to me. The younger characters are much better – they are modern for their time, mostly too young to have been active in WW1 but still affected by its aftermath and the social changes that are happening around them.
Finbow thinks he’s wittier than he is, and his method of detection seemed to me more like lucky guesses than the psychological understanding he would claim. He plays the usual ‘tec game of keeping things from Ian, hence from the reader, though to be fair we see and hear everything he does – it is his interpretations that he keeps to himself. Of course it turns out that everyone had some kind of motive for killing Roger, and we suspect each in turn. I found the final solution quite satisfying, though I don’t think it could really be described as fair play.
Overall, this was a short and well-paced read that started out rather underwhelmingly and then grew on me as it went on. All the main characters are well drawn, though I could have lived without the comedy policeman and housekeeper – more examples of mocking the working classes, a favourite hobby of the Golden Age writers. The writing is very good and the plot is intriguing, although the detection element is less convincing. The ending is oddly abrupt – it basically finishes with the reveal and I felt I wanted an extra short chapter telling us what happened to the innocent people afterwards. I guess that’s a sign that Snow had made me feel interested in them beyond the mystery, which suggests his straight fiction may be worth exploring!
When Ian Capel arrives to join a group a friends for a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads, everyone seems to be having a good time. Successful Harley Street physician Dr Roger Mills is playing host and captain, and his boisterous good nature sets the tone for the party. At least, that’s how it looks. But next morning Roger is found dead, shot while at the tiller, and suspicion begins to tear the group apart. Lovely Avice is the most obvious suspect, since Roger was her cousin and his death puts her in line for a large inheritance. Ian, captivated by Avice’s charms, is convinced she cannot be guilty, so he turns to an old friend of his, Finbow, who has a reputation as an amateur solver of crimes…
As is often the case with early mysteries – this one is from 1932 – the reader has to be willing to accept that the police will happily leave a murder investigation in the hands of a gifted amateur. There is a policeman involved, the local sergeant, but he is there as a comedy character and is ridiculed throughout for his lack of intelligence and quaint moral ideas. So long as you can accept that, then Finbow makes an enjoyable detective with Ian as his Watson. At first I found them a rather irritating pair, but they grew on me as the book progressed and I ended up liking them both.
It’s clear from the start that only someone who was aboard the boat could have done the deed. That means there are six suspects, most of whom have been friends with each other for years. Ian is older than the rest of the group – a man in his sixties when the rest are in their twenties or thirties. Why he should be part of this group is never explained, and niggled me a little – he seemed an unlikely companion for all these bright young things. Avice is Roger’s cousin, but she was also the object of his passion – he had been proposing to her regularly for years despite her repeated rebuffs. Now Avice is engaged to Christopher, and surprisingly Roger seemed to have accepted this with good grace. Christopher has just been offered a job in colonial Malay, which will give him enough of an income to marry on, which he seems more enthusiastic about than Avice. Then there’s William, a medical man who was something of a protégé of the slightly older and already successful Roger. The two of them had recently collaborated on a well received research paper. Lastly there’s Philip, a young man with enough wealth to allow him to lead a life of leisure, and his new girlfriend, Tonia, the only stranger to the group. Finbow will have to work out which of them may have had a motive to kill Roger, and he does this by holding a series of seemingly casual conversations with them individually or as a group, wheedling out their true feelings about Roger with some nifty psychological games.
This was Snow’s only mystery novel, before he turned to writing straight fiction. He wrote it when he was young, and I felt that showed in his characterisation of Ian, the older man, whose thoughts and feelings never rang true to me. The younger characters are much better – they are modern for their time, mostly too young to have been active in WW1 but still affected by its aftermath and the social changes that are happening around them.
Finbow thinks he’s wittier than he is, and his method of detection seemed to me more like lucky guesses than the psychological understanding he would claim. He plays the usual ‘tec game of keeping things from Ian, hence from the reader, though to be fair we see and hear everything he does – it is his interpretations that he keeps to himself. Of course it turns out that everyone had some kind of motive for killing Roger, and we suspect each in turn. I found the final solution quite satisfying, though I don’t think it could really be described as fair play.
Overall, this was a short and well-paced read that started out rather underwhelmingly and then grew on me as it went on. All the main characters are well drawn, though I could have lived without the comedy policeman and housekeeper – more examples of mocking the working classes, a favourite hobby of the Golden Age writers. The writing is very good and the plot is intriguing, although the detection element is less convincing. The ending is oddly abrupt – it basically finishes with the reveal and I felt I wanted an extra short chapter telling us what happened to the innocent people afterwards. I guess that’s a sign that Snow had made me feel interested in them beyond the mystery, which suggests his straight fiction may be worth exploring!
September 30, 2023
Would say 3.5. We follow an older man (which means could be 40 to 50 here) as he joins a sailing boat party. Shortly after there is a death/murder. The man makes an interesting suggestion, but after that doesn’t pan out; he reaches out to a friend (Finbow) who has a knack for figuring out complicated situations like this.
The local police arrive, and soon after Finbow who certainly knows how to manage both the policeman and people in general.
Won’t go into specifics on the plot as that would spoil your reading this. If there wasn’t one character complaining about young people being physically attracted to each other, this story could easily take place today vs the 1930’s.
There are times in the story where it feels like nothing is happening, while Finbow is trying to get to understand the various suspects. At the end, you realize how important what he is doing is actually working and pulling forth information. While you get to see all the clues that Finbow has- you may not know all the questions/observations he makes of them in regard to the people. (So it is fair play.)
I specifically wanted to read this book after I read Murder’s a Swine. In the intro the authors are talked about (they wrote two mysteries- but so far no reprint of the other). The woman part of the authors split from the other and ended up marrying the author of this book.
Yes, it was worth it. Very different books, this being written almost a decade earlier.
C.P. Snow’s strength is looking at people and their internal motives and needs.
The local police arrive, and soon after Finbow who certainly knows how to manage both the policeman and people in general.
Won’t go into specifics on the plot as that would spoil your reading this. If there wasn’t one character complaining about young people being physically attracted to each other, this story could easily take place today vs the 1930’s.
There are times in the story where it feels like nothing is happening, while Finbow is trying to get to understand the various suspects. At the end, you realize how important what he is doing is actually working and pulling forth information. While you get to see all the clues that Finbow has- you may not know all the questions/observations he makes of them in regard to the people. (So it is fair play.)
I specifically wanted to read this book after I read Murder’s a Swine. In the intro the authors are talked about (they wrote two mysteries- but so far no reprint of the other). The woman part of the authors split from the other and ended up marrying the author of this book.
Yes, it was worth it. Very different books, this being written almost a decade earlier.
C.P. Snow’s strength is looking at people and their internal motives and needs.
February 3, 2022
A brilliant Golden Age Crime Story!
I loved the setting of the Nofolk Broads, a murder on a boat and a group of bright young things - all with a reason to commit murder.
A brilliant detective in Finbow too, shame this is his only outing (that I know of)
A really good read.
I loved the setting of the Nofolk Broads, a murder on a boat and a group of bright young things - all with a reason to commit murder.
A brilliant detective in Finbow too, shame this is his only outing (that I know of)
A really good read.
September 15, 2024
A murder mystery on the Norfolk Broads, written and set in 1932, the author’s first book.
December 3, 2018
It's a pity that CP Snow wrote only 1 detective novel! This was a very enjoyable, old-fashioned mystery. It's a variant on the country house murder, in the sense that the suspect must come from a very limited set of people, viz. the 6 people vacationing on the sailboat "The Siren". Their host, the genial Harley Street physician Roger Mills, has been shot one early morning while sailing the boat, and while all the other people on the boat were just getting up. There are two engaged couples, Roger's young medical colleague, and the narrator, Ian, a much older man. He moves into the role of Hastings/Watson when he calls in one of his friends, ostensibly to keep the sequestered party company, but really to help investigate. This friend turns out to be one of those super-observant amateur sleuths who can deduce people's past lives, motivations and future plans from the way they dress, use scent, or row a boat- good stuff! In parallel, the energetic police inspector Birell dashes around, tremendously enjoying his chance at solving a murder case. Between the cerebral amateur detective, the overzealous policeman, the grumpy housekeeper and the Bright Young Things, this was an enjoyable story.
June 3, 2020
I've read all of the Strangers and Brothers books (a long time ago in a "20th Century Novel" class) and own both this book and A Coat of Varnish. I liked this 1932 classic crime version better because he consciously made it like a lot of other Golden Age stories in that the detective was quirky and the police sergeant and housekeeper were both odd ducks. Also, he mentioned Dorothy L. Sayers, who's my favourite mystery writer from the period.
When Snow wrote this story, he was just 26. His main protagonist is 63, and I don't think he really gets into the head of an older man very convincingly. For one thing, he has Ian refer to himself as an "old man," and most of us just don't think we're old, even when we are. By the way, A Coat of Varnish is the mystery that Snow wrote when he was old, in 1979. The two mysteries are stand-alone works, very different in style.
As an ex-pat American, now Canadian, I found some of the references a bit too esoterically English to follow but I liked the plot, which was twisty, and found the tale entertaining.
When Snow wrote this story, he was just 26. His main protagonist is 63, and I don't think he really gets into the head of an older man very convincingly. For one thing, he has Ian refer to himself as an "old man," and most of us just don't think we're old, even when we are. By the way, A Coat of Varnish is the mystery that Snow wrote when he was old, in 1979. The two mysteries are stand-alone works, very different in style.
As an ex-pat American, now Canadian, I found some of the references a bit too esoterically English to follow but I liked the plot, which was twisty, and found the tale entertaining.
April 21, 2020
I am not convinced or impressed
June 20, 2021
This is a 1932 mystery novel by English novelist and scientist Charles Percy Snow (writing as C.P. Snow). This is his first published book and is included in Martin Edwards’ “The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books” list. I am quite disappointed in the book. I find the writing mediocre and amateurish and the dialogue very boring. The murder method, however, is quite ingenious. The setting is in Norfolk Broads in England in September 1931. Most of the story occurs in a bungalow, where all the suspects stay while the police investigate. That limited and restrictive setting might have something to do with the lack of forward momentum of the book. The book is part police procedural and part amateurish detective doing a timeline and alibi checking game. Snow also tried to make the book a psychoanalysis story where the amateur detective eliminates each suspect but he really did not do a good job at it.
Spoiler Alert. The story is about the murder of a successful Harley Street physician Roger Mills when he was vacating with seven friends on his yacht in Norfolk Broads in September of 1931. One morning Dr Mills was found shot to death at the helm of the yacht holding onto the tiller. At that time, all the suspects were below deck either still asleep or performing their morning routines. One curious feature of the case is that the murder gun is missing, together with the ship’s logbook and a pennant.
After they docked at a nearby village and reported the crime, Detective Sergeant Aloysius Birrell of the Norwich police arrived to take charge of the case. One of the suspects onboard, the book’s narrator Ian Capel, decided to call in his friend Finbow to help. Finbow is a high-level colonial government official in Hong Kong, currently on leave in England. Finbow is also an amateur detective in the style of Sherlock Holmes (Capel is kind of his Watson in the story). The seven suspects on board then decided to stay together at a nearby bungalow for the duration of the police investigation. What follows then is the story of Finbow step by step trying to eliminate each suspect either by checking his or her timeline and alibi or by checking on motive and psychological profile. I find Finbow’s efforts quite unimpressive.
Detective Birrell decided to search for the gun by diving into the river in a diving suit. He finally found the pennant (which has two strings) with the gun tied to one end, and the heavy logbook tied to the other end so it really is a long rope with the gun on one end and the book on the other. Birrell concludes that Dr. Mills must have committed suicide and no murder is involved. Birrell believes Dr Mills, being a mean-spirited person, decided to commit suicide and at the same time to frame somebody else for murder. Birrell thinks what happened was Dr. Mills dangled the heavy logbook over the side of the yacht, tied to the gun on the other side of the rope. He then pulled the trigger and shot himself in the heart, the heavy book than pulled the gun into the river and it disappeared, leading police to believe it must therefore by murder. Readers who have read Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s 1922 Sherlock Holmes short story “The Problem of Thor Bridge” might notice the similarity in plot. Snow could have ended the story here and it would probably be enough. Unfortunately, Snow decided to complicate the plot by actually creating a second plot on top of it. Snow had Finbow disagree with Birrell. Finbow, by doing some background research in London, discovered that a few years ago, one of the people on board, Christopher Tarantino, has been treated by Dr. Mills for a rare blood disease. Later, the two had a fallout when Tarantino became a love rival when Tarantino started dating Avice Loring, who Tarantino was in love with. Recently, Tarantino and Loring got engaged and Tarantino has been offered a lucrative job by a British firm for a post in Malaya. As part of that process, Tarantino has to undergo a physical exam. Since Tarantino’s rare blood disease is under control, the physical examination did not uncover any problem. Dr. Mills, however, out of revenge, decided to tell Tarantino’s new employer about his disease, which would disqualify Tarantino for the job. To forestall that, Tarantino killed Dr. Mills while they were all on the yacht. Tarantino knows the police will drag the river at some point to find the gun, and therefore set up the contraption so that it looks like a suicide. That is actually a decent plot, like a double blind. However, Snow did not do a good job his writing. The plot is good. But the writing and story development has much to be desired. In typical Victorian fashion, Finbow, instead of telling Birrell the truth, confronted Tarantino himself and gave him a chance to commit suicide instead of being arrested and hanged.
Spoiler Alert. The story is about the murder of a successful Harley Street physician Roger Mills when he was vacating with seven friends on his yacht in Norfolk Broads in September of 1931. One morning Dr Mills was found shot to death at the helm of the yacht holding onto the tiller. At that time, all the suspects were below deck either still asleep or performing their morning routines. One curious feature of the case is that the murder gun is missing, together with the ship’s logbook and a pennant.
After they docked at a nearby village and reported the crime, Detective Sergeant Aloysius Birrell of the Norwich police arrived to take charge of the case. One of the suspects onboard, the book’s narrator Ian Capel, decided to call in his friend Finbow to help. Finbow is a high-level colonial government official in Hong Kong, currently on leave in England. Finbow is also an amateur detective in the style of Sherlock Holmes (Capel is kind of his Watson in the story). The seven suspects on board then decided to stay together at a nearby bungalow for the duration of the police investigation. What follows then is the story of Finbow step by step trying to eliminate each suspect either by checking his or her timeline and alibi or by checking on motive and psychological profile. I find Finbow’s efforts quite unimpressive.
Detective Birrell decided to search for the gun by diving into the river in a diving suit. He finally found the pennant (which has two strings) with the gun tied to one end, and the heavy logbook tied to the other end so it really is a long rope with the gun on one end and the book on the other. Birrell concludes that Dr. Mills must have committed suicide and no murder is involved. Birrell believes Dr Mills, being a mean-spirited person, decided to commit suicide and at the same time to frame somebody else for murder. Birrell thinks what happened was Dr. Mills dangled the heavy logbook over the side of the yacht, tied to the gun on the other side of the rope. He then pulled the trigger and shot himself in the heart, the heavy book than pulled the gun into the river and it disappeared, leading police to believe it must therefore by murder. Readers who have read Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s 1922 Sherlock Holmes short story “The Problem of Thor Bridge” might notice the similarity in plot. Snow could have ended the story here and it would probably be enough. Unfortunately, Snow decided to complicate the plot by actually creating a second plot on top of it. Snow had Finbow disagree with Birrell. Finbow, by doing some background research in London, discovered that a few years ago, one of the people on board, Christopher Tarantino, has been treated by Dr. Mills for a rare blood disease. Later, the two had a fallout when Tarantino became a love rival when Tarantino started dating Avice Loring, who Tarantino was in love with. Recently, Tarantino and Loring got engaged and Tarantino has been offered a lucrative job by a British firm for a post in Malaya. As part of that process, Tarantino has to undergo a physical exam. Since Tarantino’s rare blood disease is under control, the physical examination did not uncover any problem. Dr. Mills, however, out of revenge, decided to tell Tarantino’s new employer about his disease, which would disqualify Tarantino for the job. To forestall that, Tarantino killed Dr. Mills while they were all on the yacht. Tarantino knows the police will drag the river at some point to find the gun, and therefore set up the contraption so that it looks like a suicide. That is actually a decent plot, like a double blind. However, Snow did not do a good job his writing. The plot is good. But the writing and story development has much to be desired. In typical Victorian fashion, Finbow, instead of telling Birrell the truth, confronted Tarantino himself and gave him a chance to commit suicide instead of being arrested and hanged.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2025
Published in 1932, ‘Death Under Sail’ is a classic Golden Age mystery. The biggest mystery being, of course, how such a very distinguished don, politician and author like CP Snow even dreamed up this detective novel.
Patterned on many classic detective plots, which are set in a snow-bound or moving train, or aboard a yacht in difficulties or disappeared during the night, or an island cut off from the mainland or similar improbable settings which restricts the search for a criminal limited to those on board the boat/ airplane/ island/ train, this is on also set on a boat in the wetlands of Norfolk. In addition to this, we are provided with a plan of the boat as well as the map of the river. Among the company of young men and women, the host invites a retired and civil servant, Ian Capel, who is also the narrator of the incidents. One of the first things he observes is the idea that their host and his guests, despite their superficial gaiety and bonhomie, practically loathe each other.
Ian’s own personality is a distinct grey, almost a negative one in his efforts to paint himself out of the scene. When the host is murdered, Ian together with one of the group, phones the police. He also sends away for a private detective friend, lately retired from the Hongkong Service. The detective sent by the police, Aloysius Birrell, is a perfect opposite to Finbow, the retired private detective. He is young, enthusiastic and eager for surface evidence, while Finbow goes in for psychological scrutiny, and has a dry tact denied to the younger man.
In the end, the results are the same. Both of them come to the same conclusion, though the reader has less patience with the official police detective. On the other hand, Finbow unmasks the villain only after everyone has first fallen under suspicion. And only after the criminal has escaped the law.
This is very much a young man's novel, before he has struck the right tone for the style and theme of his later writing. Nevertheless, it is worth reading for the elegance and style of the language.
Patterned on many classic detective plots, which are set in a snow-bound or moving train, or aboard a yacht in difficulties or disappeared during the night, or an island cut off from the mainland or similar improbable settings which restricts the search for a criminal limited to those on board the boat/ airplane/ island/ train, this is on also set on a boat in the wetlands of Norfolk. In addition to this, we are provided with a plan of the boat as well as the map of the river. Among the company of young men and women, the host invites a retired and civil servant, Ian Capel, who is also the narrator of the incidents. One of the first things he observes is the idea that their host and his guests, despite their superficial gaiety and bonhomie, practically loathe each other.
Ian’s own personality is a distinct grey, almost a negative one in his efforts to paint himself out of the scene. When the host is murdered, Ian together with one of the group, phones the police. He also sends away for a private detective friend, lately retired from the Hongkong Service. The detective sent by the police, Aloysius Birrell, is a perfect opposite to Finbow, the retired private detective. He is young, enthusiastic and eager for surface evidence, while Finbow goes in for psychological scrutiny, and has a dry tact denied to the younger man.
In the end, the results are the same. Both of them come to the same conclusion, though the reader has less patience with the official police detective. On the other hand, Finbow unmasks the villain only after everyone has first fallen under suspicion. And only after the criminal has escaped the law.
This is very much a young man's novel, before he has struck the right tone for the style and theme of his later writing. Nevertheless, it is worth reading for the elegance and style of the language.
January 20, 2026
Picked up this book at a secondhand bookstore in the Lake District without knowing that CP Snow is a well-known public figure, civil servant, and author, and that this is one of the only two mystery novels he wrote. It was fantastic and I wish Snow had written more!
Snow wrote this book in 1932 when he was only 26 years old and the Golden Age of Detection was in full bloom. There were tropes of the time: an exotic setting, a closed circle of suspects, an eccentric detective, an idiot Watson as a stand-in for the reader... This book checks every one of those boxes BUT still manages to surprise and delight.
The setting is a little yatchting holiday undertaken by a group of six young people and one outlier—Ian, an elderly friend of the host who joins the party a week after it's started. The day after he joins, the host is found shot dead at the tiller. It is clear from the start that one of the party is the murdered. But who?
We have not one but two interesting detectives. One of them is Detective Sergeant Aloysius Birrell, who takes criminology and his job very seriously. He is pleasant, hard-working, and open to new ideas, yet comes across as a comic figure to the upper class party. The other is Ian's friend Finbow, an amateur detective who is fond of sipping light Chinese teas and engaging people in seemingly pointless conversations to then study their behaviour and draw psychological inferences.
It is a custom in such classic detection novels to have the detectives hold their cards close to their chests until the very last chapter when all is revealed. Until then, the readers and the Watsons are left to draw our, often incorrect, conclusions. Death Under Sail is refreshingly different. In every chapter, we see what Aloysius Birrel discovers, who he suspects and why, why Finbow has drawn character X or Y into a conversation, what he was trying to figure out, and what conclusions he has drawn from this. This, surprisingly, doesn't make the book slow or boring. I found myself getting more and more interested in Finbow's tricks and theories.
A common problem msytery writers face is how to make their detective's process unique or memorable. Hercule Poirot has his famous love of order and method. Miss Marple has her village parallels. Dr. Thorndyke has his scientific and legal expertise. Finbow has his psychological observations. Not that all his inferences are sound. Some are interesting, others are weird, and yet others are plausible but need not be accurate. But I like that this detective has a visible, memorable process that the reader is fully privy to.
In the afterword to my edition of the book, written in 1959, CP Snow wryly notes how he wrote a book that was fashionable at the time but would do things differently if he'd had another chance. He writes, "If I had had another lifetime to play with, though I would have liked to write some more detective stories. I shouldn't have gone on with the convention in which Death Under Sail was written. I should've had a shot at the real roman policier, bringing the story as near to a realistic novel, as I could. No one, not even Simeon, has done quite what I should like to see. I believe the field is still wide open." I sincerely wish he had.
Snow wrote this book in 1932 when he was only 26 years old and the Golden Age of Detection was in full bloom. There were tropes of the time: an exotic setting, a closed circle of suspects, an eccentric detective, an idiot Watson as a stand-in for the reader... This book checks every one of those boxes BUT still manages to surprise and delight.
The setting is a little yatchting holiday undertaken by a group of six young people and one outlier—Ian, an elderly friend of the host who joins the party a week after it's started. The day after he joins, the host is found shot dead at the tiller. It is clear from the start that one of the party is the murdered. But who?
We have not one but two interesting detectives. One of them is Detective Sergeant Aloysius Birrell, who takes criminology and his job very seriously. He is pleasant, hard-working, and open to new ideas, yet comes across as a comic figure to the upper class party. The other is Ian's friend Finbow, an amateur detective who is fond of sipping light Chinese teas and engaging people in seemingly pointless conversations to then study their behaviour and draw psychological inferences.
It is a custom in such classic detection novels to have the detectives hold their cards close to their chests until the very last chapter when all is revealed. Until then, the readers and the Watsons are left to draw our, often incorrect, conclusions. Death Under Sail is refreshingly different. In every chapter, we see what Aloysius Birrel discovers, who he suspects and why, why Finbow has drawn character X or Y into a conversation, what he was trying to figure out, and what conclusions he has drawn from this. This, surprisingly, doesn't make the book slow or boring. I found myself getting more and more interested in Finbow's tricks and theories.
A common problem msytery writers face is how to make their detective's process unique or memorable. Hercule Poirot has his famous love of order and method. Miss Marple has her village parallels. Dr. Thorndyke has his scientific and legal expertise. Finbow has his psychological observations. Not that all his inferences are sound. Some are interesting, others are weird, and yet others are plausible but need not be accurate. But I like that this detective has a visible, memorable process that the reader is fully privy to.
In the afterword to my edition of the book, written in 1959, CP Snow wryly notes how he wrote a book that was fashionable at the time but would do things differently if he'd had another chance. He writes, "If I had had another lifetime to play with, though I would have liked to write some more detective stories. I shouldn't have gone on with the convention in which Death Under Sail was written. I should've had a shot at the real roman policier, bringing the story as near to a realistic novel, as I could. No one, not even Simeon, has done quite what I should like to see. I believe the field is still wide open." I sincerely wish he had.
March 9, 2025
Dr. Roger Mills has invitied six of his friends on holiday to sail in his ship on a river for two weeks. These include the book narrator, Ian Capel, Avice Loring and her beau Christopher Tarrant. Others include Tonia Gilmour and her partner Philip Wade, William Garnett, a surgeon and accompanied by the cook, Mr Willet. On the morning after Ian joins them, host Roger is found shot through the heart at close range. Obviously by one of the guests, all of whom are friends. What are friends to do? The police are called and Capel calls his friend Inspector Finbow to cover for him and help get to the bottom of the riddle before the quasi-competent local cop gets the case wrong.
This is Snow’s first book, which has been largely forgotten as he later wrote serious novels about the Oxford University community and their inter-personal travails. He never wrote another mystery novel. Thus, I was curious as to how he would handle the questions arising from a murder. Or is it a murder and not a suicide? Finbow will try to work it all out. A pleasant read from the early 1930’s.
This is Snow’s first book, which has been largely forgotten as he later wrote serious novels about the Oxford University community and their inter-personal travails. He never wrote another mystery novel. Thus, I was curious as to how he would handle the questions arising from a murder. Or is it a murder and not a suicide? Finbow will try to work it all out. A pleasant read from the early 1930’s.
November 16, 2018
La lettura di questo Bassotto mi ha soddisfatto sotto certi aspetti, ma sotto altri no.
Aspetti positivi: l'ambientazione 'chiusa', in un luogo ristretto, con pochi personaggi e quindi pochi possibili colpevoli; l'investigatore dilettante, contrapposto alla polizia.
Aspetti negativi: troppo marcata la bravura dell'investigatore dilettante Finbow, contrapposta all'apparente ottusità del sergente Birrell. Poi, il fatto che l'investigatore riesca a sviare il lettore escludendo apaprentemente quasi tutti i personaggi come possibili colpevoli di solito è una cosa che apprezzo. Ma qui si scontra con la spiegazione finale che ho trovato molto arzigogolata e, anche se gli indizi materiali ci stanno, un po' troppo tirata per i capelli. Infine il movente del/la colpevole: troppo poco deducibile da una sola frase/episodio.
Aspetti positivi: l'ambientazione 'chiusa', in un luogo ristretto, con pochi personaggi e quindi pochi possibili colpevoli; l'investigatore dilettante, contrapposto alla polizia.
Aspetti negativi: troppo marcata la bravura dell'investigatore dilettante Finbow, contrapposta all'apparente ottusità del sergente Birrell. Poi, il fatto che l'investigatore riesca a sviare il lettore escludendo apaprentemente quasi tutti i personaggi come possibili colpevoli di solito è una cosa che apprezzo. Ma qui si scontra con la spiegazione finale che ho trovato molto arzigogolata e, anche se gli indizi materiali ci stanno, un po' troppo tirata per i capelli. Infine il movente del/la colpevole: troppo poco deducibile da una sola frase/episodio.
January 26, 2025
Gialletto a tratti divertente, con personaggi in gran parte macchiettistici e un investigatore dai ragionamenti più che contorti. Il nostro detective spesso parla per aforismi, il che funziona se l'autore si chiama Oscar Wilde ma risulta innaturale in tutti gli altri casi.
C.P. Snow stesso sembra condividere poiché ammette, in una nota alla fine del romanzo, «scrissi un giallo, uno di quelli artificiosi e stilizzati secondo la maniera dell'epoca», e aggiunge, se ne avesse scritti altri: «Non avrei proseguito nello stile di Morte a vele spiegate; mi sarei cimentato nel roman policier, cercando di accostarmi il più possibile a un romanzo realistico». Personalmente mi sento di dargli ragione.
Consigliato solo agli amanti di Agatha Christie o ai cultori degli oscuri romanzi polizieschi.
C.P. Snow stesso sembra condividere poiché ammette, in una nota alla fine del romanzo, «scrissi un giallo, uno di quelli artificiosi e stilizzati secondo la maniera dell'epoca», e aggiunge, se ne avesse scritti altri: «Non avrei proseguito nello stile di Morte a vele spiegate; mi sarei cimentato nel roman policier, cercando di accostarmi il più possibile a un romanzo realistico». Personalmente mi sento di dargli ragione.
Consigliato solo agli amanti di Agatha Christie o ai cultori degli oscuri romanzi polizieschi.
July 8, 2021
Tough to put down.
November 30, 2021
Over-complicated. Weird, but I wanted someone else to die - having one person I barely got to know (and who seemed pretty dreadful) die right up front just didn’t hook me enough. Onward.
Read
September 19, 2022Charmingly chatty, but dated.
February 20, 2023
Interesting 'closed circle' murder mystery. A period piece.
March 9, 2026
Hard to believe that this amateur debut novel is by the same person who wrote the excellent Strangers and Brothers novels.
May 28, 2026
Drinking the best tea in the world on an empty cricket ground---that, I think, is the final pleasure left to man.
February 29, 2008
I used to be a real fan of CP Snow, many years ago. I have several of his books, mostly picked up second hand. I spied this on my bookshelf a week or so ago, and thought I'd re-read it. Not being a fan of crime fiction, I'm not sure why I bothered. Maybe I once was a fan of the genre. I found it not particularly intriguing, although some of the characters are interesting. Not to be recommended - a biased view. I think this one will be going back to the Lifeline Book Fair this year.
May 28, 2012
This is one of the first books written by Snow, and I think a good mystery, though not as in depth as his later books such as A Coat of Varnish.
As a sailor, and one who enjoys just messing about in boats, this book rates a place in the bookcase aboard TIGGY.
As a sailor, and one who enjoys just messing about in boats, this book rates a place in the bookcase aboard TIGGY.
September 22, 2013
this is really terrible. A completely preprosterous plot (nobody on a SMALL boat hears a gunshot)with not enough good writing or characterization to make up for it.
one good quote: "It is one of life's major consolations--the ease with which we bear other people's misfortunes."
vastly overrated.
one good quote: "It is one of life's major consolations--the ease with which we bear other people's misfortunes."
vastly overrated.
May 5, 2014
As he explains in the Preface, this was C.P. Snow's first published book. It foreshadows the elegant writing and excellent understanding of human nature which Lord Snow demonstrated through the Strangers and Brothers books of his later years. And it's a pleasant little murder mystery!
June 28, 2015
i loved it
cp snow is one of my fav detective writers
this book is exciting even because of its main point or essence
like when roger mills was found in his yacht by his six guests he was murdered, shot, and i couldnt stop thinking about smile on his face
this is absolutely interesting
cp snow is one of my fav detective writers
this book is exciting even because of its main point or essence
like when roger mills was found in his yacht by his six guests he was murdered, shot, and i couldnt stop thinking about smile on his face
this is absolutely interesting
November 28, 2012
The mystery is very intricately plotted but this is definitely not my favorite of his books. I found it a bit tedious.
February 17, 2014
easy read
good emotional description of how people lie
good emotional description of how people lie
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