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Send Bygraves
Note: This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 0399516568.
108 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
68 people are currently reading
292 people want to read
About the author
Martha Grimes
114 books1,454 followersMartha Grimes is an American author of detective fiction.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She was born May 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.
Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.
The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britain, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Marti's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from Mountain Lake, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.
She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 4, 2022
HAPPY POETRY MONTH!
april is national poetry month,
so here come thirty floats!
the cynics here will call this plan
a shameless grab for votes.
and maybe there’s some truth to that—
i do love validation,
but charitably consider it
a rhyme-y celebration.
i don’t intend to flood your feed—
i’ll just post one a day.
endure four weeks of reruns
and then it will be may!
*************************
is it the best mystery novel i have ever read? no
is it the best mystery novel in verse i have read? oh, yes!
is the poetry contained here in every way more ambitious, mellifluous and meaningful/capable of inspiring emotion than some poets who shall remain nameless but who are paying their rent with their shitty poetry?
i think the framing of that question itself serves as an answer.
this book may not be perfect, and it's not the easiest to follow at times, but it gets that fourth star because it's pretty damn rad that an established mystery author decided to write a mystery as a series of poems. i applaud people who like to shake things up.
this takes place in a town full of weirdos - it feels a bit like it's set in some edward gorey-town, to which the enigmatic bygraves is summoned to solve a crime which will become a series of crimes. bygraves is a cipher who communicates his findings in unusual ways, as these chapter titles illustrate:
a note from Bygraves to Constable Feathers found floating in the duck pond by two children
and
a note from Bygraves found under a malt vinegar jug
and
a note from Bygraves blown across Dredcrumble Moor and into your hands
the poem-chapters take many forms - some are long, some only a few lines; some rhyme, some are free verse, and then you get to the middle of the book and there's a parade of poetic form-chapters, all incorporating the word murrrrderrrr in their titles:
-murderacrostic
-murderconcrete
-murderanaphora
-murdersonnet
-murderpantoum
and all adhering to the rules of those forms.
'cuz poems have rules, tumblr-poets, and that's part of the challenge, part of the fun, and part of the honor of being a damn poet.
(although The Bygraves Sestina is not a true sestina. but no quibbles from me: i had to write a sestina in undergrad and it was a pain in the ass. so was the villanelle. this is why i am not a poet.)
so, yeah - it's confusing as hell, this book, and it's not always clear what's really happening - there are shifts and a playfulness with reality, but most questions are answered, if you dig a little and infer a lot.
as this mostly-well-rhymed poem promises, the process of investigation will lead to enlightenment:
and for those of you who remember the dreadful booktheft by one sean patterson, THIS is what you want to see when you have an old library book in your home when you are not, in fact, a library:
come to my blog!
april is national poetry month,
so here come thirty floats!
the cynics here will call this plan
a shameless grab for votes.
and maybe there’s some truth to that—
i do love validation,
but charitably consider it
a rhyme-y celebration.
i don’t intend to flood your feed—
i’ll just post one a day.
endure four weeks of reruns
and then it will be may!
*************************
is it the best mystery novel i have ever read? no
is it the best mystery novel in verse i have read? oh, yes!
is the poetry contained here in every way more ambitious, mellifluous and meaningful/capable of inspiring emotion than some poets who shall remain nameless but who are paying their rent with their shitty poetry?
i think the framing of that question itself serves as an answer.
Looking towards Greenwich,
Towards that great confluence of sky and river,
Thames and Tower,
On misty mornings when Westminster rises
In this pearl-gray hour;
Had you been strolling on the Embankment then,
You would not have looked up towards Scotland Yard,
Its windows silvering in the sun,
And thought: Murder is abroad.
No, you would not have known
The blind man coming towards you in these waves
Of Londoners, his white stick tapping
The ground like a divining rod, is looking
Over his shoulder at you.
Was it Bygraves?
this book may not be perfect, and it's not the easiest to follow at times, but it gets that fourth star because it's pretty damn rad that an established mystery author decided to write a mystery as a series of poems. i applaud people who like to shake things up.
this takes place in a town full of weirdos - it feels a bit like it's set in some edward gorey-town, to which the enigmatic bygraves is summoned to solve a crime which will become a series of crimes. bygraves is a cipher who communicates his findings in unusual ways, as these chapter titles illustrate:
a note from Bygraves to Constable Feathers found floating in the duck pond by two children
and
a note from Bygraves found under a malt vinegar jug
and
a note from Bygraves blown across Dredcrumble Moor and into your hands
the poem-chapters take many forms - some are long, some only a few lines; some rhyme, some are free verse, and then you get to the middle of the book and there's a parade of poetic form-chapters, all incorporating the word murrrrderrrr in their titles:
-murderacrostic
-murderconcrete
-murderanaphora
-murdersonnet
-murderpantoum
and all adhering to the rules of those forms.
'cuz poems have rules, tumblr-poets, and that's part of the challenge, part of the fun, and part of the honor of being a damn poet.
(although The Bygraves Sestina is not a true sestina. but no quibbles from me: i had to write a sestina in undergrad and it was a pain in the ass. so was the villanelle. this is why i am not a poet.)
so, yeah - it's confusing as hell, this book, and it's not always clear what's really happening - there are shifts and a playfulness with reality, but most questions are answered, if you dig a little and infer a lot.
as this mostly-well-rhymed poem promises, the process of investigation will lead to enlightenment:
Mystery. It's all the same
Questions without end or aim.
What will lead us to the dead?
Footprints in the flower bed.
What appeals were made too late?
Sift the ashes in the grate.
What was fatal in this mug?
Pick the fragments from the rug.
What has tolled the final knell?
Find the sexton and the bell.
What heart has become too fond?
Cast the net across the pond.
What act was misunderstood?
Take the footpath to the wood.
What mind has succumbed to grief?
Search the rocks beneath the cliff.
What was buried in the sand?
Shine the lantern down the strand.
Clues that lie as scattered as
The blown leaves across our paths.
Sinlence, speak. Wind, unwind.
Everything will be explained.
and for those of you who remember the dreadful booktheft by one sean patterson, THIS is what you want to see when you have an old library book in your home when you are not, in fact, a library:
come to my blog!
July 20, 2019
I have been a fan of Martha Grimes books for years. Her mystery's with Richard Jury are my favorites. I was unsure about reading this book of poetry, but I am glad I gave it a chance. It is a mystery story locked in poetry. Send Bygraves is the ultimate Detective that no one can describe. The characters in these poems are wonderful Grimes characters. If you love mysteries written by Martha Grimes, as I do, then give this book a chance you won't be disappointed.
June 1, 2011
There's poetry that aims as art and poetry that is simply entertainment. Send Bygraves by Martha Grimes, a mystery author, falls between the two, leaning more toward entertainment. I would never have heard of this book, let alone picked it up and read it, if I hadn't been systematically going through the American poetry section (811) of my local library. To judge a book, I would usually read a few poems randomly. Very few books pull me into taking the time for a full read but this one did and I was thoroughly charmed. I was delighted when I found it at another library's book sale so that it now sits on my bookshelf to be shared with others or reread whenever I'm in the mood for a bit of humor mixed with mystery and psychology.
The title character, Bygraves, is a detective that no one has ever gotten a good look at but is none-the-less ubiquitious.
From the first poems "At the Manor House (1)"
And his turning up was not mere accident
In family snaps of hatchet-faced old hats,
All looking ghastly grey and prison-bent;
Nor there in tiers of black-robed graduates
Does he seem out of place, funereally
Indistinguishable from the rest.
He joined our summer outings by the sea
The unidentified and unknown guest;
Wedding days, church socials, birthdays--he
attended all, unasked.
Under the pressure of being observed by someone who remains a phantom (the detective sometimes conflated with the murdered one) everyone becomes paranoid because nearly everyone is guilty of something and if they're not, then they suspect the shadowy detective is an assassin. The book introduces us to a town's cast of characters and significant places with names like Madrigal, Whipsnade, Snively, Dredcrumble Moor, and Cobweb Tearooms. Along the way, Grimes pokes fun at various mystery conventions and stock characters and plays with poetic forms. The book's middle section starts with several poems titled "Murderacrostic," "Murderconcrete," Murderanaphora,"Murdersonnet," "Murderpantoum." And near the end, there's a "Bygraves Sestina." Just the idea of a "Murdersonnet" tickles me. Most of these she pulls off wonderfully, the clunkiest being the pantoum (though its last line makes a very clever turn via altered punctuation). One of my favorite poems in the book is "Murderacrostic" that ends:
The spectre follows kings and fools;
The spectre comes to all in time.
The spectre! How you dread to see
The spectre here, and in dark pools
The spectre mirrored endlessly.
This book never becomes any one thing. I wouldn't classify it as light verse, though many aspects of it are humorous. And it isn't strictly narrative, though the second poem assigns Bygraves to solve a crime and near the end we have more than one ending scenario. It's partly a meditation on guilt, our uneasy relationship to mysteries of all kinds, and petty animosities between people.
I've read Send Bygraves twice now and was charmed both times. It's a quick, delightful read even for people like myself who have never taken to mystery fiction and who normally read poetry that leans more strongly on the art end of the scale.
The title character, Bygraves, is a detective that no one has ever gotten a good look at but is none-the-less ubiquitious.
From the first poems "At the Manor House (1)"
And his turning up was not mere accident
In family snaps of hatchet-faced old hats,
All looking ghastly grey and prison-bent;
Nor there in tiers of black-robed graduates
Does he seem out of place, funereally
Indistinguishable from the rest.
He joined our summer outings by the sea
The unidentified and unknown guest;
Wedding days, church socials, birthdays--he
attended all, unasked.
Under the pressure of being observed by someone who remains a phantom (the detective sometimes conflated with the murdered one) everyone becomes paranoid because nearly everyone is guilty of something and if they're not, then they suspect the shadowy detective is an assassin. The book introduces us to a town's cast of characters and significant places with names like Madrigal, Whipsnade, Snively, Dredcrumble Moor, and Cobweb Tearooms. Along the way, Grimes pokes fun at various mystery conventions and stock characters and plays with poetic forms. The book's middle section starts with several poems titled "Murderacrostic," "Murderconcrete," Murderanaphora,"Murdersonnet," "Murderpantoum." And near the end, there's a "Bygraves Sestina." Just the idea of a "Murdersonnet" tickles me. Most of these she pulls off wonderfully, the clunkiest being the pantoum (though its last line makes a very clever turn via altered punctuation). One of my favorite poems in the book is "Murderacrostic" that ends:
The spectre follows kings and fools;
The spectre comes to all in time.
The spectre! How you dread to see
The spectre here, and in dark pools
The spectre mirrored endlessly.
This book never becomes any one thing. I wouldn't classify it as light verse, though many aspects of it are humorous. And it isn't strictly narrative, though the second poem assigns Bygraves to solve a crime and near the end we have more than one ending scenario. It's partly a meditation on guilt, our uneasy relationship to mysteries of all kinds, and petty animosities between people.
I've read Send Bygraves twice now and was charmed both times. It's a quick, delightful read even for people like myself who have never taken to mystery fiction and who normally read poetry that leans more strongly on the art end of the scale.
October 20, 2023
A thrilling piece of well-versified pseudo-murder-mystery nonsense, the enigmatic Bygraves appears in distance of the characters' views and of the book's illustrations. Is he the most brilliant detective, or possibly the murderer, or perhaps the undefined victim... is it conceivable he is all three?
I would have given it five stars on first reading because it is so original and well-crafted. Rereading it some years later (with my expectations higher), I find the verse less inspired, the characters excessive to the point of being undifferentiated... but this is not a novel, this is a piece of art work, it gives the tone, the impression of an Agatha Christie or Peter Dickinson novel, but it is a smaller (though more delicate) work. Think (especially) Edward Gorey. Think Borges.
It deserves a place on the bookshelf next to Aniara, the sf novel in verse by Swedish Nobel winner Harry Martinson. Not that they are alike, but where else can you put it?
I would have given it five stars on first reading because it is so original and well-crafted. Rereading it some years later (with my expectations higher), I find the verse less inspired, the characters excessive to the point of being undifferentiated... but this is not a novel, this is a piece of art work, it gives the tone, the impression of an Agatha Christie or Peter Dickinson novel, but it is a smaller (though more delicate) work. Think (especially) Edward Gorey. Think Borges.
It deserves a place on the bookshelf next to Aniara, the sf novel in verse by Swedish Nobel winner Harry Martinson. Not that they are alike, but where else can you put it?
December 29, 2020
A decidedly tongue-in-cheek and darkly humorous—as well as wonderfully illustrated—poetic tribute to the English murder mystery, Send Bygraves is a treat for those of us who revel in locked doors, snooty aristocrats, and other such tropes. If such lines as
“Old Trev (the gardener), they say, went mad
From witnessing too many wills. He hides
Behind the peonies and stares in windows….”
—from a section titled “Murdersonnet”—does not make you smile, then Send Bygraves is probably not for you; if you enjoy Midsomer Murders or Agatha Christie and the English sense of humor, however, you might find worse ways to spend an hour or so.
“Old Trev (the gardener), they say, went mad
From witnessing too many wills. He hides
Behind the peonies and stares in windows….”
—from a section titled “Murdersonnet”—does not make you smile, then Send Bygraves is probably not for you; if you enjoy Midsomer Murders or Agatha Christie and the English sense of humor, however, you might find worse ways to spend an hour or so.
July 11, 2021
Neil Nyren retired at the end of 2017 as executive vice president, associate publisher, and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and has worked with Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Carl Hiassen, and Daniel Silva among others, and now writes about crime fiction and publishing for Publishers Weekly, among other publications.
In his essay, entitled The Rules – And When To Break Them, he states that one of his favorite books is Martha Grimes’s Send Bygraves, which depicts a Scotland Yard detective trying to solve an extraordinarily spooky series of small-town murders – in a 108-page illustrated poem.
His point of course, is don’t be afraid to mash up genres.
I had to read it.
The verse forms include “simple rhyming couplets to the puzzlelike sestina,” but the deeper mystery is Bygraves himself, who “finds bodies no one knew were missing.”
“Send Bygraves!” barked the Chief Inspector
“Bygraves?”
You know his reputation!
Scares witnesses. Hides evidence. Plants clues.
“Bygraves?
I’d get ‘im sir, yes … only, wot’s ‘e look like?”
A note from Bygraves is found however:
“Mystery: It’s all the same.
Questions without end or aim.
What will lead us to the dead?
Footprints in the flower bed.”
The past is dead and buried.
In his essay, entitled The Rules – And When To Break Them, he states that one of his favorite books is Martha Grimes’s Send Bygraves, which depicts a Scotland Yard detective trying to solve an extraordinarily spooky series of small-town murders – in a 108-page illustrated poem.
His point of course, is don’t be afraid to mash up genres.
I had to read it.
The verse forms include “simple rhyming couplets to the puzzlelike sestina,” but the deeper mystery is Bygraves himself, who “finds bodies no one knew were missing.”
“Send Bygraves!” barked the Chief Inspector
“Bygraves?”
You know his reputation!
Scares witnesses. Hides evidence. Plants clues.
“Bygraves?
I’d get ‘im sir, yes … only, wot’s ‘e look like?”
A note from Bygraves is found however:
“Mystery: It’s all the same.
Questions without end or aim.
What will lead us to the dead?
Footprints in the flower bed.”
The past is dead and buried.
January 24, 2020
The best miracles of private libraries happen in old bookstores, and it was in such a bookstore that I found Send Bygraves, tucked into a box of poetry books for $1. I committed for my own reasons -- a renewed interest in poetry, and a temporary fascination with illustrated books for adults -- but once I was fully engaged, I found myself caught up in a truly revelatory reading experience.
Send Bygraves is by Martha Grimes, apparently a mainstay of detective fiction... a name I wasn't familiar with, being a novice in that genre. This book of poetry is a small attractive hardback (at least my copy) with illustrations by Devis Grebu... the illustrations being wonky donkey little montages that have a sort of cubist simultaneity to them.
Send Bygraves is less a story than a poetic sketch of a certain place at a certain time -- a surreal mystery town with murder and paranoia baked right into the brickwork. The town is populated by caricatures and enigmas: the local gossips, the bumbling police, the shadowy figure always at the margins, and the protagonist detective who makes himself known through patterns of absence. Victims are plentiful, everyone is the murdered, and nobody is Bygraves. It's a demented masterpiece of a puzzle-box, and I felt blissfully lost in every section.
I was going to compare this to Edward Gorey, feeling very clever about it, but I see others have already made the association. It is warranted -- like Gorey's work, Bygraves is sprightly and lyrical, illustrated with a childlike morbid charm, and suffused with a sort of understated, grotesque delirium. I would add: Bygraves is what you might get if you kidnapped Edward Gorey and forced him at gunpoint to dig deep, instead of working at the surface. Whereas Gorey had this as a style, Grimes writes it as a philosophy... something she embraces as a challenge to her reader, her genre, and herself.
Enter this book with an appreciation for ambiguity and play. Stay until you're dizzy with the toxic fumes. If you've found Bygraves, you've stumbled upon something very distinctive indeed.
Send Bygraves is by Martha Grimes, apparently a mainstay of detective fiction... a name I wasn't familiar with, being a novice in that genre. This book of poetry is a small attractive hardback (at least my copy) with illustrations by Devis Grebu... the illustrations being wonky donkey little montages that have a sort of cubist simultaneity to them.
Send Bygraves is less a story than a poetic sketch of a certain place at a certain time -- a surreal mystery town with murder and paranoia baked right into the brickwork. The town is populated by caricatures and enigmas: the local gossips, the bumbling police, the shadowy figure always at the margins, and the protagonist detective who makes himself known through patterns of absence. Victims are plentiful, everyone is the murdered, and nobody is Bygraves. It's a demented masterpiece of a puzzle-box, and I felt blissfully lost in every section.
I was going to compare this to Edward Gorey, feeling very clever about it, but I see others have already made the association. It is warranted -- like Gorey's work, Bygraves is sprightly and lyrical, illustrated with a childlike morbid charm, and suffused with a sort of understated, grotesque delirium. I would add: Bygraves is what you might get if you kidnapped Edward Gorey and forced him at gunpoint to dig deep, instead of working at the surface. Whereas Gorey had this as a style, Grimes writes it as a philosophy... something she embraces as a challenge to her reader, her genre, and herself.
Enter this book with an appreciation for ambiguity and play. Stay until you're dizzy with the toxic fumes. If you've found Bygraves, you've stumbled upon something very distinctive indeed.
February 21, 2021
Send Bygraves by Martha Grimes is a mystery story in verse, set in 20th-century Little Puddley, Surrey, England. So 'out of the box' for me....I never read poetry. But I always read Martha Grimes. What a treat! Cavort through the chapters/poems. Try not to rush...take time to examine and appreciate the artwork. Verbalize the lines to enjoy how they rhyme...or don't. Savor the humor. Remember how "The Old Wine Shades" stuck in your mind, such delightful riddles? Send Bygraves will make you swoon. This is a keeper. To pull out and reread when you need a lift up and away. What a gem.
November 2, 2020
I found this book on my mother's bookshelf so I decided to read it. I have read a lot of Thai poems in the past since they were a part of my Thai literature class back when I was in Thailand, and I also enjoyed them very much. I have never read English poems, however, so this the first English poem - book that I read. I personally found this book quite hard to understand (maybe because it's written as poems). I got the general idea of the book but it was quite hard to read and it took me a while to understand. I personally think that it doesn't really sound that much like a poem, though (I am probably wrong since I don't think I have any knowledge about English poems). I think it is interesting to see different styles of poems in different languages. This book is quite hard to understand for me but it was interesting to see the author's choice of words to create the story.
October 21, 2025
And here I thought was finally some exciting and fun poetry, as opposed to the navel-gazing modern standard. To the extent, I was right.
It's a fun experiment, this mystery-long poem or poem-long mystery. But it's more of an experiment than a cohesive narrative told in verse. The mystery is obfuscated to the point of being metaphysical. Grimes constantly switches the poetic styles and her narrative perspectives, presumably to show of versatility, but it creates a rather muddled mess.
That said, it is still amusing and rather original. Plus, a very quick read. The book is already slim, and probably a full third of it is taken up by promos for the author's other work.
It's a fun experiment, this mystery-long poem or poem-long mystery. But it's more of an experiment than a cohesive narrative told in verse. The mystery is obfuscated to the point of being metaphysical. Grimes constantly switches the poetic styles and her narrative perspectives, presumably to show of versatility, but it creates a rather muddled mess.
That said, it is still amusing and rather original. Plus, a very quick read. The book is already slim, and probably a full third of it is taken up by promos for the author's other work.
July 5, 2021
I just love this murder mystery poem! If you read British murder mystery novels, you'll "get" so many of the things in this. Like the fact the gardener is named Trev. The gardener is always named Trev! Well, maybe not always the gardener, but there's always a Trev someone in the village! And, the gardener is always called in to witness the signing of a will. Here, Trev is sick of doing that! It's fun, and mysterious, and unusual. I also love the illustrations.
July 16, 2024
I think Lucas Davenport was re-reading Send Bygraves in one of the John Sandford books. In any event, I read about it somewhere and , being a fan of Grimes’ Richard Jury books, got it out of the library.
Definitely a unique volume- a village mystery of sorts told in verse and illustrated in line drawings by Devis Grebu. I can see why Lucas kept re-reading it as it doesn’t make much sense the first time around. There may be a murder or two or perhaps some bodies.
An entertaining puzzle of a book. I’ll be reading it again.
Definitely a unique volume- a village mystery of sorts told in verse and illustrated in line drawings by Devis Grebu. I can see why Lucas kept re-reading it as it doesn’t make much sense the first time around. There may be a murder or two or perhaps some bodies.
An entertaining puzzle of a book. I’ll be reading it again.
June 5, 2024
After reading Jury mysteries for decades, I decided to take a look at some of Grimes's earlier work and started w/Send Bygraves. Knowing nothing abt it, I was surprised to see that it's a short, illustrated poem. But what a cutie it is!! Wry, tongue-in-cheek, sinister, amusing and a little dark. Loved it!!!
December 19, 2018
I'm really not sure I fully understood everything about this work, though it was truly fun and offered compelling poetry. As mystery goes, however, it did make me want to know what was going on. I just never truly figured it out. It may warrant another read...
January 2, 2019
This is an interesting book. I liked the concept and I love the writing, but I ultimately found it confusing and hard to follow. I think it's too clever for me.
November 28, 2019
It's fun.
January 22, 2020
Martha Grimes meets T. S. Eliot.
July 31, 2020
Poems, disjointed and disconnected. Not a book to read in my view.
May 31, 2022
It was interesting to read a murder mystery in poem, and how each character was a suspect and a murderer. It reminded me of Midsommer Murders.
July 9, 2023
A Murder Mystery in poetry format with Edward Gorey-esque drawings ?! Yes please.
This is very clever, original and lots of fun. Very charming & amusing.
This is very clever, original and lots of fun. Very charming & amusing.
May 6, 2024
interesting but more work to understand than i was willing to do.
July 24, 2024
A very different kind of mystery. It is actually a poem.
September 15, 2024
Something Different
It was a quick read but told the story
Not exactly the way I want to read all my mystery stories.
It was a quick read but told the story
Not exactly the way I want to read all my mystery stories.
October 5, 2024
Quite unique and clever. I love mysteries and also love poetry but this just didn’t work together for me at this time. I might te-read ar another time as I had several books going simultaneously.
November 1, 2025
I did not follow what was going on at all.
February 2, 2013
Send Bygraves is a deceptively short poem, easy to read yet harder to deconstruct. Bygraves, the shadowy detective who exists within the parameters of every character's psyche is the immediate "go to" when there is a murder. Almost codependent upon Bygraves, are the well meaning survivors who treat him as a source of comfort. With the cry of "send Bygraves" resounding throughout the book, the reader must dig a little deeper to realize that the grand detective could potentially be the killer, the victim, the pawn.
Yet Bygraves always has the last laugh. His obscure presence has him appearing and disappearing at a moments notice. He is called at a scene of a murder, only for us to realize that he has already come and gone. If a character has something to hide, then there is a sense of looming dread at the thought of Bygraves unearthing every detail. Beware sinister thoughts or a guilty secrets, for there may be a killer in place of the detective that comes in the darkness.
Full review here: http://bookendchronicles.blogspot.com/
Yet Bygraves always has the last laugh. His obscure presence has him appearing and disappearing at a moments notice. He is called at a scene of a murder, only for us to realize that he has already come and gone. If a character has something to hide, then there is a sense of looming dread at the thought of Bygraves unearthing every detail. Beware sinister thoughts or a guilty secrets, for there may be a killer in place of the detective that comes in the darkness.
Full review here: http://bookendchronicles.blogspot.com/
December 26, 2020
Tore through this on the tube going to the hairdressers and back, and I might read it again soon. Not a long read but evocative in language and pictures, with probably more going on than evident in a first reading. Is Bygraves detective? Murderer? Victim? All three?
My favourite is the Murderpantoum.
My favourite is the Murderpantoum.
November 23, 2019
A mystery of various murders told through poetry. The poet uses various forms such as sestinas and rhyming couplets.
Bygraves is a detective, but is he really? And is ever really seen? Mysteries on top of mysteries.
Bygraves is a detective, but is he really? And is ever really seen? Mysteries on top of mysteries.
December 11, 2008
This quirky, very small mystery book is written in rhyming verse and is illustrated in pen-and-ink. It all worked perfectly for me; and if it doesn't for you, well, it is a very short book.
March 18, 2009
Bygraves is not Richard Jury but he is fun. It is a slim volume in rhyme.
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