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Constable Twitten #1
A Shot in the Dark
After the notorious 'Middle Street Massacre' of 1951, when the majority of Brighton's criminals wiped one another out in a vicious battle as the local police force enjoyed a brief stop en route for an ice cream, Inspector Steine rather enjoys life as a policeman. No criminals, no crime, no stress. He just wishes Sergeant Brunswick would stop insisting that perhaps not every criminal was wiped out that fateful day.
So it's really rather annoying when an ambitious – not to mention irritating – new Constable shows up to work and starts investigating a series of burglaries. And it's even more annoying when, after Constable Twitten is despatched to the theatre for the night, he sits next to a vicious theatre critic who is promptly shot dead part way through the opening night of a new play.
It seems Brighton may be in need of a police force after all…
So it's really rather annoying when an ambitious – not to mention irritating – new Constable shows up to work and starts investigating a series of burglaries. And it's even more annoying when, after Constable Twitten is despatched to the theatre for the night, he sits next to a vicious theatre critic who is promptly shot dead part way through the opening night of a new play.
It seems Brighton may be in need of a police force after all…
304 pages, Paperback
First published June 28, 2018
346 people are currently reading
3005 people want to read
About the author
Lynne Truss
113 books1,002 followersLynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 468 reviews
July 6, 2018
Thanks to www.shotsmag.co.uk for sending me a paperback copy in exchange for an honest review *
In the first of a new series, Lynne Truss successfully blends crime with comedy to produce a highly entertaining read.
Brighton on the south coast of England is the location for ‘A Shot in the Dark’ and it begins with the re-telling of the infamous Middle Street Massacre of 1951, which brought instant fame and adulation to the newly appointed Inspector Steine (pronounced Steen). Steine announced his arrival in town that year with the proclamation that visitors could “Come here to have fun, enjoy yourselves; get drunk; throw up; copulate under our stately piers like beasts of the field if you must; but don’t commit crime matey, not on my patch”
Steine was no hero though, as on the day of the massacre (which saw 45 opposing mafia gang members killed) Steine (on hearing that the villains were all armed) arranged to stop by the local ice cream parlour with the rest of his team, thereby ensuring that they missed the main event. As the massacre took place, the local constabulary were enjoying a leisurely ice cream with extra raspberry sauce! By the time they arrived at the crime scene, it was all over.
Fast forward to 1957, Steine is still wallowing in the glory of 1951, taking all the credit for the removal of so many villains in one fell swoop, but he’s a completely incompetent copper, can’t even see what’s right under his nose - his sidekick Brunswick is ambitious and has more idea, but then again he’s not the sharpest tool in the box. Mrs Groynes (Steine's confidant), and tea lady extraordinaire, appears to know more about the local mafia than the coppers to whom she serves her tea and biscuits! Into this mix arrives college educated Constable Twitten - now here we have an extremely intelligent individual, who aims to make his mark investigating the murder of a much hated theatre critic. But everything starts to go awry and one murder follows another, as everything that can go wrong - does!
In scenes reminiscent of the Keystone Cops, there are chuckles galore, with some really interesting characters, not least Vince, the Greek Punch and Judy puppeteer, who's show is so violent and peppered with the worst profanities, that he manages not only to have the kids running away terrified, but their parents too! A ridiculous (though enjoyable) farce of a plot, teamed with an eclectic and amusing cast of characters, make 'A Shot in the Dark' a very different but satisfying read.
In the first of a new series, Lynne Truss successfully blends crime with comedy to produce a highly entertaining read.
Brighton on the south coast of England is the location for ‘A Shot in the Dark’ and it begins with the re-telling of the infamous Middle Street Massacre of 1951, which brought instant fame and adulation to the newly appointed Inspector Steine (pronounced Steen). Steine announced his arrival in town that year with the proclamation that visitors could “Come here to have fun, enjoy yourselves; get drunk; throw up; copulate under our stately piers like beasts of the field if you must; but don’t commit crime matey, not on my patch”
Steine was no hero though, as on the day of the massacre (which saw 45 opposing mafia gang members killed) Steine (on hearing that the villains were all armed) arranged to stop by the local ice cream parlour with the rest of his team, thereby ensuring that they missed the main event. As the massacre took place, the local constabulary were enjoying a leisurely ice cream with extra raspberry sauce! By the time they arrived at the crime scene, it was all over.
Fast forward to 1957, Steine is still wallowing in the glory of 1951, taking all the credit for the removal of so many villains in one fell swoop, but he’s a completely incompetent copper, can’t even see what’s right under his nose - his sidekick Brunswick is ambitious and has more idea, but then again he’s not the sharpest tool in the box. Mrs Groynes (Steine's confidant), and tea lady extraordinaire, appears to know more about the local mafia than the coppers to whom she serves her tea and biscuits! Into this mix arrives college educated Constable Twitten - now here we have an extremely intelligent individual, who aims to make his mark investigating the murder of a much hated theatre critic. But everything starts to go awry and one murder follows another, as everything that can go wrong - does!
In scenes reminiscent of the Keystone Cops, there are chuckles galore, with some really interesting characters, not least Vince, the Greek Punch and Judy puppeteer, who's show is so violent and peppered with the worst profanities, that he manages not only to have the kids running away terrified, but their parents too! A ridiculous (though enjoyable) farce of a plot, teamed with an eclectic and amusing cast of characters, make 'A Shot in the Dark' a very different but satisfying read.
March 1, 2019
I picked this book up in the library because I remembered how much I enjoyed Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation and I was interested in how the author would fare with writing fiction. The answer is she does it just as well as she does non fiction.
A Shot in the Dark is set in Brighton, England, in 1957 where we meet Constable Twitten who is young, incredibly intelligent and a little naïve. Like many people who are super smart he has a way of appearing condescending to lesser mortals and finds himself transferred regularly to different constabularies. He ends up with the famous but hopeless Inspector Steine and finds himself right in the middle of murder.
The book is light, smart and very witty. I half guessed the main culprit about half way through and thought I must be wrong because it was so unlikely! The characters are like those you might find in an Agatha Christie novel and in fact the whole book reads that way except it is based in the police station rather than a country house.
Finally take a look at the cover with a nicely striped red and white deckchair in the foreground, Brighton pier beyond it and the seagulls above in a dark cloudy sky. Perfect.
A Shot in the Dark is set in Brighton, England, in 1957 where we meet Constable Twitten who is young, incredibly intelligent and a little naïve. Like many people who are super smart he has a way of appearing condescending to lesser mortals and finds himself transferred regularly to different constabularies. He ends up with the famous but hopeless Inspector Steine and finds himself right in the middle of murder.
The book is light, smart and very witty. I half guessed the main culprit about half way through and thought I must be wrong because it was so unlikely! The characters are like those you might find in an Agatha Christie novel and in fact the whole book reads that way except it is based in the police station rather than a country house.
Finally take a look at the cover with a nicely striped red and white deckchair in the foreground, Brighton pier beyond it and the seagulls above in a dark cloudy sky. Perfect.
June 11, 2018
This is the first of a proposed crime series, set in Brighton. We begin in 1951, with the ‘Middle Street Massacre,’ where Inspector Steine (pronounced ‘Steen’) believes he has wiped out crime in the town, when two major gangs manage to wipe each other out. He has rather lived off this event, which was made into a film and we meet up with him, six years later, enjoying a pleasant and delusional existence as a minor celebrity.
However, despite his reputation as a radio presenter and criminal expert, it is obvious that there is still crime in Brighton and nothing much is being done about it. This causes Sergeant James Brunswick a great deal of frustration, and irritation, so he welcomes the new, keen young Constable Twitten with open arms. Brighton will soon be requiring someone with an interest in solving crime, as strong passions are being roused by the appearance of theatre critic, Algernon Crystal.
Crystal is a man who is known to crush reputations and he is coming to witness a new, kitchen sink drama, “A Shilling in the Meter,” by Jack Braithwaite, which is everything he despises. He also has an old case that he wants to bring up with Inspector Steine, who is about to have a very annoying day indeed…
I love mysteries and there was a lot about this I enjoyed. At first I chuckled at the humour, but, eventually, it felt a little forced. This is clever, but it had too many stereotypical characters and not quite enough content to really keep me interested. There seem to be quite a few light hearted, comic crime series around at the moment; mainly set in the Fifties, rather than the Golden Age, between the wars, period. This has a lot to offer, but it is, perhaps, just a little too light-hearted for me. I received a copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review. Rated 3.5.
However, despite his reputation as a radio presenter and criminal expert, it is obvious that there is still crime in Brighton and nothing much is being done about it. This causes Sergeant James Brunswick a great deal of frustration, and irritation, so he welcomes the new, keen young Constable Twitten with open arms. Brighton will soon be requiring someone with an interest in solving crime, as strong passions are being roused by the appearance of theatre critic, Algernon Crystal.
Crystal is a man who is known to crush reputations and he is coming to witness a new, kitchen sink drama, “A Shilling in the Meter,” by Jack Braithwaite, which is everything he despises. He also has an old case that he wants to bring up with Inspector Steine, who is about to have a very annoying day indeed…
I love mysteries and there was a lot about this I enjoyed. At first I chuckled at the humour, but, eventually, it felt a little forced. This is clever, but it had too many stereotypical characters and not quite enough content to really keep me interested. There seem to be quite a few light hearted, comic crime series around at the moment; mainly set in the Fifties, rather than the Golden Age, between the wars, period. This has a lot to offer, but it is, perhaps, just a little too light-hearted for me. I received a copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review. Rated 3.5.
July 27, 2019
Mixing mystery with humor is nothing new....think Christopher Fowler's Peculiar Crime Unit series which is truly top drawer. But this book loses its way really quickly and doesn't know what it wants to be which causes it to be irritating at best.
No need to attempt to describe the plot except to say that the police are portrayed as total idiots; Constable Twitten, who is supposed to be the main character is not; none of the characters are "normal" people; there are way too many sub-plots (if I may call them that); and the story's twists and turns are frankly unbelievable.
I didn't hate the book, even though my review is probably too negative but I just could not connect with it at all. I think it has some very positive reviews so, once more, I am in the minority. But if we all liked the same books, it would be a pretty boring world!
No need to attempt to describe the plot except to say that the police are portrayed as total idiots; Constable Twitten, who is supposed to be the main character is not; none of the characters are "normal" people; there are way too many sub-plots (if I may call them that); and the story's twists and turns are frankly unbelievable.
I didn't hate the book, even though my review is probably too negative but I just could not connect with it at all. I think it has some very positive reviews so, once more, I am in the minority. But if we all liked the same books, it would be a pretty boring world!
July 12, 2018
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing for providing an advanced digital copy of A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss. While it is classified as a mystery, I found it to belong more in the humor category. The mystery as it exists is secondary to the story itself, as told by the unseen author.
Throughout the book the author is a strong presence, becoming almost a character in the story itself through use of parentheticals and conversational tendencies that read as if someone is talking to the reader directly as they might relate an occurance or tell a story. There is a strong feeling of being in a room with the author, perhaps as a stand-up comedy routine is being delivered.
Throughout the book, the impression is that the characters are the author’s concept of Keystone Cops types of figures who bumble through their day with total lack of intelligence and foresight. While there seems to be a strong desire to create humor within the pages, it fell flat for me and bordered on being far to predictable to be funny.
The primary characters are three policemen, the charwoman who cleans the police station for them, and a multitude of other characters who have some part to play in the murder as either perpetrators, victims, or bystanders. There are two mysteries throughout the book, one of which is alluded to from the beginning and the other that takes over half the book to take place and is a subplot of the first. The author moves the characters around from place to place, at times telling the reader that is what is being done, to the extent the author almost becomes more vivid than the characters in the story.
In the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, the author indicates these characters have a pre-history as characters on a radio show. This may explain much about the writing style within the story and why it reads as if it is a script as opposed to an actual novel. For me, it read as though it were a lengthy joke where I was waiting for the punchline, but that never really came. Humor is a highly personal thing, so while this didn’t work for me, there may be others who find it hilarious. I am being deliberately light on details so that anyone who chooses to read the book does not have any of it spoiled by having information in advance of when it was intended to be delivered.
Throughout the book the author is a strong presence, becoming almost a character in the story itself through use of parentheticals and conversational tendencies that read as if someone is talking to the reader directly as they might relate an occurance or tell a story. There is a strong feeling of being in a room with the author, perhaps as a stand-up comedy routine is being delivered.
Throughout the book, the impression is that the characters are the author’s concept of Keystone Cops types of figures who bumble through their day with total lack of intelligence and foresight. While there seems to be a strong desire to create humor within the pages, it fell flat for me and bordered on being far to predictable to be funny.
The primary characters are three policemen, the charwoman who cleans the police station for them, and a multitude of other characters who have some part to play in the murder as either perpetrators, victims, or bystanders. There are two mysteries throughout the book, one of which is alluded to from the beginning and the other that takes over half the book to take place and is a subplot of the first. The author moves the characters around from place to place, at times telling the reader that is what is being done, to the extent the author almost becomes more vivid than the characters in the story.
In the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, the author indicates these characters have a pre-history as characters on a radio show. This may explain much about the writing style within the story and why it reads as if it is a script as opposed to an actual novel. For me, it read as though it were a lengthy joke where I was waiting for the punchline, but that never really came. Humor is a highly personal thing, so while this didn’t work for me, there may be others who find it hilarious. I am being deliberately light on details so that anyone who chooses to read the book does not have any of it spoiled by having information in advance of when it was intended to be delivered.
June 18, 2021
Enjoyable and light, even if it's not particularly memorable.
September 22, 2018
Inspector Steine (pronounced Steen) solved the Middle Street Massacre in 1951, still glorying in its resolution 6 years later when Constable Twitten enters the Brighton police force. Theatre Critic A.S. Crystal knows a secret concerning the unsolved 1945 Aldersgate Stick-Up case and goes to the theatre intending to share his secret with the constable when Crystal himself is shot in his seat. Constable Twitten and partner Sgt. Jim Brunswick set out to solve the decades-old case while the Inspector busies himself with the new one. When I requested this one, I expected it to be a police procedural. The book contains some humor, although not necessarily the most enjoyable variety of that. While it was that, it was a bit too "noir" for my personal taste in detective fiction. I prefer books more like Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. The seedy elements in the book simply failed to work for me, but I'm certain others would enjoy the book more than I did. If you enjoy noir and hard-boiled detective stories, you will probably enjoy this one. If you prefer your books to contain a little less seediness, you will probably want to avoid this one. I received an advance e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
November 12, 2018
This is an unexpected hit for me.
Constable Twitten is the kind of young recruit no-one welcomes into their police station. We will know a few like him our job histories. Too clever by far; far too clever for his own good.
His talents are shown up in a clearer light when he turns up at Brighton nick. The is a stark contrast to the little grey cells he would appear to have, and use compared to the existing CID team.
Thankfully, although the body count previously was high in the Middle Street Massacre the lives lost were those in ravel gangland hoods. The local police took the credit but if truth be told, the detection rate isn’t high. This is not so much as the local police force is incompetent but that other factors are at play.
A story has real comic genius running through this plot like a piece of seaside rock. It is a book full of humour, misunderstanding and genuine criminal moments. However, the plot is both engaging and believable with clever clogs Twitten not always on top of developments.
A police procedural that never disappoints, it is true to its period. In the process it pays tribute to a gentler time and world of entertainment was variety shows and provincial theatre. The laughs are never at the expend of these gentler times rather it is character driven, the result is an authentic murder mystery. The author has a good ear for language and the experience to write with confidence and maximise human frailties and shortcomings to enrich her story.
A wonderful reflective piece that entertains and delivers a crime thriller that works from first to last. Hopefully she will not rest here but revisit her strength of character driven writing, the ability to capture a more romantic era and allow us to share a journey with Twitten for many years to come.
Constable Twitten is the kind of young recruit no-one welcomes into their police station. We will know a few like him our job histories. Too clever by far; far too clever for his own good.
His talents are shown up in a clearer light when he turns up at Brighton nick. The is a stark contrast to the little grey cells he would appear to have, and use compared to the existing CID team.
Thankfully, although the body count previously was high in the Middle Street Massacre the lives lost were those in ravel gangland hoods. The local police took the credit but if truth be told, the detection rate isn’t high. This is not so much as the local police force is incompetent but that other factors are at play.
A story has real comic genius running through this plot like a piece of seaside rock. It is a book full of humour, misunderstanding and genuine criminal moments. However, the plot is both engaging and believable with clever clogs Twitten not always on top of developments.
A police procedural that never disappoints, it is true to its period. In the process it pays tribute to a gentler time and world of entertainment was variety shows and provincial theatre. The laughs are never at the expend of these gentler times rather it is character driven, the result is an authentic murder mystery. The author has a good ear for language and the experience to write with confidence and maximise human frailties and shortcomings to enrich her story.
A wonderful reflective piece that entertains and delivers a crime thriller that works from first to last. Hopefully she will not rest here but revisit her strength of character driven writing, the ability to capture a more romantic era and allow us to share a journey with Twitten for many years to come.
October 23, 2018
As an often clueless and sometimes provincial American, I feel I may have missed some of the British humor and allusions in this novel by Truss. But no matter. I caught enough to have had a good deal of fun reading this mystery.
Yes, I said "fun reading this mystery". Because it's not your usual serious "bad guys do bad things and the good guys work hard to solve the mystery and put the bad guys away" type of mystery. As a matter of fact, it's a bit hard to decide who to root for here. And the end doesn't have the usual unambiguous resolution of most crime stories.
The policemen here are either bumbling, apathetic, clueless, or, in one case, clever but not necessarily all that smart. So I can't say I bonded with any of them. The theater folk--actors, playwright, critics--are self-centered, arrogant, self-serving. The Brighton criminals and street folk we get to meet are, let's face it, not exactly good, but they certainly are entertaining. As are the characters we meet at the Hippodrome: Dr Mesmer, and the Strong Lady who can bend iron, something that turns out to be a useful talent in everyday life..
So there are no heroes here. There is a lot of crime, a lot of inappropriate behavior, many deaths, in past and present, but the overall tone of the book is humorous.
It's 1957 in Brighton as this story begins, but the Middle Street Massacre of 1951, in which 45 criminals end up dead in what appears to be infighting, and the 1945 Aldergate Stick-up bank robbery, both play an important part in the why of the book's present events. Famous theater critic A.S. Crystal comes to Brighton to attend the debut of A SHILLING IN THE METER, a new, somewhat full-of-itself play by Jack Braithwaite. When Crystal ends up being murdered in his seat during the play, the rather Keystone Cops story begins. Is there a connection between Crystal and the Aldergate Stick-up? Was he going to reveal crucial information about it to the Brighton police?
When I say "Brighton police", I refer to (1) Inspector Steine, a do-nothing, see-nothing, self-deludedly important head of department, (2) Sergeant Brunswick, a could-be-a-crime-solver who is easily distracted, and (3) Constable Twitten, a young, brand new member of the force who seems to be bounced from police force to police force because no one can stand him and his know-it-all attitude and cleverness. I will also add here Mrs. Groynes, the station's cleaning lady of sorts, who managed to delight me no end.
The characters are all cleverly designed and developed by Truss. There are unexpected revelations as the crime(s) is (are) investigated. The social commentary is entertaining and biting. This is the first in a possible Constable Twitten Mystery Series, based on the police comedy serial for the BBC that Truss created some time ago but I was not familiar with. If you like droll, cheeky humor and don't mind ambiguity of morality and book endings, I think you'll like this.
Yes, I said "fun reading this mystery". Because it's not your usual serious "bad guys do bad things and the good guys work hard to solve the mystery and put the bad guys away" type of mystery. As a matter of fact, it's a bit hard to decide who to root for here. And the end doesn't have the usual unambiguous resolution of most crime stories.
The policemen here are either bumbling, apathetic, clueless, or, in one case, clever but not necessarily all that smart. So I can't say I bonded with any of them. The theater folk--actors, playwright, critics--are self-centered, arrogant, self-serving. The Brighton criminals and street folk we get to meet are, let's face it, not exactly good, but they certainly are entertaining. As are the characters we meet at the Hippodrome: Dr Mesmer, and the Strong Lady who can bend iron, something that turns out to be a useful talent in everyday life..
So there are no heroes here. There is a lot of crime, a lot of inappropriate behavior, many deaths, in past and present, but the overall tone of the book is humorous.
It's 1957 in Brighton as this story begins, but the Middle Street Massacre of 1951, in which 45 criminals end up dead in what appears to be infighting, and the 1945 Aldergate Stick-up bank robbery, both play an important part in the why of the book's present events. Famous theater critic A.S. Crystal comes to Brighton to attend the debut of A SHILLING IN THE METER, a new, somewhat full-of-itself play by Jack Braithwaite. When Crystal ends up being murdered in his seat during the play, the rather Keystone Cops story begins. Is there a connection between Crystal and the Aldergate Stick-up? Was he going to reveal crucial information about it to the Brighton police?
When I say "Brighton police", I refer to (1) Inspector Steine, a do-nothing, see-nothing, self-deludedly important head of department, (2) Sergeant Brunswick, a could-be-a-crime-solver who is easily distracted, and (3) Constable Twitten, a young, brand new member of the force who seems to be bounced from police force to police force because no one can stand him and his know-it-all attitude and cleverness. I will also add here Mrs. Groynes, the station's cleaning lady of sorts, who managed to delight me no end.
The characters are all cleverly designed and developed by Truss. There are unexpected revelations as the crime(s) is (are) investigated. The social commentary is entertaining and biting. This is the first in a possible Constable Twitten Mystery Series, based on the police comedy serial for the BBC that Truss created some time ago but I was not familiar with. If you like droll, cheeky humor and don't mind ambiguity of morality and book endings, I think you'll like this.
June 7, 2019
An obtuse inspector is saddled with a young brilliant constable (Twitten) who’s been shuffled from police station to police station for being “too clever”. The inspector (few tomatoes short of a full salad), desperately wants to be rid of Twitten because his new constable has a habit of highlighting the cock-ups & stupidity of police depts....but he also realizes that Twitten could help him win the “Policeman of the Year” award that he so very much desires. Hilarity ensues (think Insp Gadget & Brain).
If you have a quirky sense of humour and you’re a fan of the ridiculous, then this mystery series is for you! Very happy that the second book in this series will be released next month The Man That Got Away: A Constable Twitten Mystery 2.......
If you have a quirky sense of humour and you’re a fan of the ridiculous, then this mystery series is for you! Very happy that the second book in this series will be released next month The Man That Got Away: A Constable Twitten Mystery 2.......
November 28, 2018
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 2.0 of 5
Wait a minute...this is a comedy?
Seriously...is this a comedy?
I was attracted to this book because it was described as the beginning of a new mystery series featuring a brilliant and driven police detective, Constable Twitten, and written by a New York Times best-selling author, Lynne Truss. That this first book featured a theatre critic who holds the keys to an unsolved murder made this doubly appealing to me.
What I didn't expect was a collection of mostly inept, foppish constables who stumble over crimes as well as each other. I did not expect a primary detective who has to battle his own department in order to solve a crime. I did not expect a simple story drawn out to fill the pages of a book. Yet that's what I got.
It is the late 1950's and a noted theatre critic A. S. Crystal has come to the seaside resort of Brighton. Sitting in a dark theater he is about to tell Constable Twitten what he knows about an unsolved case from 1945 when there is "a shot in the dark" and Crystal is dead. Now Twitten has two mysteries ... that from '45 and who killed Crystal?
The narrative here is very strange. Truss is not only the author, but she seems to be the story-teller here - almost playing a defined role in the narrative of the book, pausing to tell the reader a thing or two, like an aside one might find in a Shakespeare play. It works in the theatre, but here...? In a 1950's mystery? Not so much.
In her introduction, Truss mentions that this book, in addition to writing a police comedy serial for the BBC, she was hoping to gain membership in the Detection Club of London. In fact, that's really the whole purpose of this book ... to transform her BBC series and gain admittance to a club she reveres. Ah, such lofty goals. I should have known not to expect great care when she writes "A Shot in the Dark is set in 1957 ... Most of us weren't there, so I felt pretty free to make it up."
Humor and mystery can work - there are any number of authors who do it well. But this one lacks heart.
Looking for a good book? Lynne Truss' A Shot in the Dark misses.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Wait a minute...this is a comedy?
Seriously...is this a comedy?
I was attracted to this book because it was described as the beginning of a new mystery series featuring a brilliant and driven police detective, Constable Twitten, and written by a New York Times best-selling author, Lynne Truss. That this first book featured a theatre critic who holds the keys to an unsolved murder made this doubly appealing to me.
What I didn't expect was a collection of mostly inept, foppish constables who stumble over crimes as well as each other. I did not expect a primary detective who has to battle his own department in order to solve a crime. I did not expect a simple story drawn out to fill the pages of a book. Yet that's what I got.
It is the late 1950's and a noted theatre critic A. S. Crystal has come to the seaside resort of Brighton. Sitting in a dark theater he is about to tell Constable Twitten what he knows about an unsolved case from 1945 when there is "a shot in the dark" and Crystal is dead. Now Twitten has two mysteries ... that from '45 and who killed Crystal?
The narrative here is very strange. Truss is not only the author, but she seems to be the story-teller here - almost playing a defined role in the narrative of the book, pausing to tell the reader a thing or two, like an aside one might find in a Shakespeare play. It works in the theatre, but here...? In a 1950's mystery? Not so much.
In her introduction, Truss mentions that this book, in addition to writing a police comedy serial for the BBC, she was hoping to gain membership in the Detection Club of London. In fact, that's really the whole purpose of this book ... to transform her BBC series and gain admittance to a club she reveres. Ah, such lofty goals. I should have known not to expect great care when she writes "A Shot in the Dark is set in 1957 ... Most of us weren't there, so I felt pretty free to make it up."
Humor and mystery can work - there are any number of authors who do it well. But this one lacks heart.
Looking for a good book? Lynne Truss' A Shot in the Dark misses.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
March 7, 2018
Lynne Truss is perhaps best known for her popular punctuation guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves, but she’s also a novelist and writer, and this first in a new series of farcical, funny murder mysteries is loosely based on her BBC Radio 4 series Inspector Steine. Set in 1957 in Brighton, the star of the book is Constable Twitten, an eager and intelligent young policeman whose ambitions are thwarted by Inspector Steine, who is still resting on his laurels of the Middle Street Massacre seven years earlier, in which two local gangs wiped each other out. Since then Steine is of the opinion that there is no crime in Brighton now, despite what you may read in Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, and he doesn’t like anyone trying to tell him this may not be the case. Add to the mix Sergeant Brunswick, a war hero who is also frustrated by Steine’s ineptitude, and so begins a funny caper involving a murdered theatre critic, an Angry Young Man playwright, a mesmerist, a strong woman, a violent and obscene Punch & Judy man, a James Ellroy-emulating crime journalist… and a criminal mastermind who may be closer to home than Steine can imagine. It’s a rollicking, humorous and fun read, full of larger than life characters and a satisfyingly twisty plot. Ideal for holiday reading!
September 21, 2018
Ahh, where to begin?...This is definitely not your usual cozy mystery - mystery for sure, but way more farcical with a grand touch of Keystone Cops.
The setting is Brighton, 1957. A bumbling Police Inspector is still basking in his presumed glory days of 1951 regarding an event which in his mind, eliminated all organized crime in the community. He just wants everyone to get along and peaceably go about their business. Of course, that's the perfect environment for covert organized crime. Enter newly minted policeman, Officer Twitten. He's bright, eager and cannot seem to avoid trouncing on the corns of his superiors. Murders are most foul and there's at least two yet to be solved, much to the Inspector Steine's chagrin.
I have to admit, with the Keystone Cops scenarios, the vaudeville theater show and general language, the period described felt more like the 1920s/1930s than 1957. Regardless, if a cozy mystery with a grand swath of farce is your cup of tea, then this book is definitely for you.
I am grateful to author Lynne Truss, Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc and Netgalley for having provided a free advanced reader e-copy of this book. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.
#netgalley, #AShotintheDark #LynneTruss #BloomsburyPub
The setting is Brighton, 1957. A bumbling Police Inspector is still basking in his presumed glory days of 1951 regarding an event which in his mind, eliminated all organized crime in the community. He just wants everyone to get along and peaceably go about their business. Of course, that's the perfect environment for covert organized crime. Enter newly minted policeman, Officer Twitten. He's bright, eager and cannot seem to avoid trouncing on the corns of his superiors. Murders are most foul and there's at least two yet to be solved, much to the Inspector Steine's chagrin.
I have to admit, with the Keystone Cops scenarios, the vaudeville theater show and general language, the period described felt more like the 1920s/1930s than 1957. Regardless, if a cozy mystery with a grand swath of farce is your cup of tea, then this book is definitely for you.
I am grateful to author Lynne Truss, Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc and Netgalley for having provided a free advanced reader e-copy of this book. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.
#netgalley, #AShotintheDark #LynneTruss #BloomsburyPub
December 14, 2023
I gave it a shot but it's just not to my taste. 🤷 3.5 ⭐
August 4, 2018
Although I read the odd cosy crime novel and enjoy the comical capers of Charles Paris on BBC Radio 4, I had never heard of Lynne Truss’s Inspector Steine and Constable Twitten series set in 1950’s Brighton. This book came recommended to me by a fond listener and was described as “witty” and “storytelling genius” and whilst A Shot In The Dark had its moments, hitting the spot with its sharp observation on occasions, a painfully slow pace and jaunty narrative proved a little too gentle for my taste. Laden with memorable turns of phrase and a vividly drawn cast, albeit of stereotypes, I was expecting a less farcical tale with a more substantial plot content. Whilst I quite enjoyed the first-half and the humorous course to uncovering one of the two mysteries involved, my appetite was for a more succinct novel and sadly A Shot in the Dark outstayed its welcome by well over one hundred pages!
The novel opens with recounting the events of the legendary Middle Street Massacre that took place in the seaside town of Brighton in June 1951 and established the impressive reputation of the newly posted Inspector Geoffrey Steine (pronounced Steen). Under the misnomer that this unprecedented gang warfare that left forty-five dead and no witnesses eradicated crime in the town, Steine has rested on his laurels doing precious little detective work, dining out on his status and simply presuming that the town is a crime free zone. In fact his well-timed arrival at the Middle Street Massacre owed more to a fortuitous trip to an ice cream parlour and is just one example of his lack of policing acumen and foresight. Now 1957, Steine already has enough on his plate what with dulling the enthusiasm of Sergeant Brunswick who longs to go undercover before the arrival of the far too eager twenty-two-year-old Constable Peregrine Twitten. Managing to rub all of his superiors up the wrong way with his rather irritating smart aleck persona, Twittern has been moved from station to station and so jumps at the chance to work for the esteemed Inspector Steine. Content with his weekly radio broadcasts and a decidedly hands-off approach to policing, Steine however is more at home with the cakes, biscuits and wittering charlady, Mrs Groynes, than front-line policing!
With Constable Twitten’s arrival coinciding with a spate of domestic burglaries in the town all with marked similarities the new recruit is quick to cease the initiative and reinvigorate Brunswick. The simultaneous descent of a vicious newspaper theatre critic, A.S. Crystal, for the opening night of a new play at the Theatre Royal famously unsatisfied with Steine’s lack of investigation into the Aldersgate Stick-up robbery that led to his nervous breakdown nearly a decade earlier threatens to spoil Steine’s easy life in Brighton. Keen to revisit the events and offer his insights, a complimentary ticket to accompany the odious and malodorous Crystal to the main event seems the ideal way to offload a pestering nuisance (Crystal) and occupy a pesky Twitten. With Crystal forthright on his opinions of enfant terrible and decidedly angry Northern playwright, Jack Braithwaite, his panning of ‘A Shilling in the Meter’ is a foregone conclusion. When Crystal is shot midway through the play prior to the publication of his theatre review with Constable Twittern a witness there appears no shortage of suspects from the current playwright to those whose stage careers he has ended with his savaging. But when an interrupted break-in leaves the prime suspect dead the deductive powers and tenacity of young Twittern spring into action and are given a run for their money..
The first half focuses on the identity of the burglar and their modus operandi and a well-conceived plot is presented as a entertaining series of consecutive bungling discoveries. Although the culprit and circumstances are apparent from the off, I was pleasantly entertained by this early part, but sadly I did find the humour wearing thin. As the second half gives way to the more elaborate origins of Crystal’s murder, the disappointingly pedestrian pace and further poking fun at the overdone led to my interest waning. The always witty narrative emphasises the comedy caper element but the longer it went on I quickly realised that it was all too absurd for my palate.
Future readers would be well-advised to have some idea of the pre-existing radio drama series and larger than life characters before reading because as much as I admired some particularly witty writing and Truss’s joke that ‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene has a lot to answer for, I would have appreciated a little more mental stimulation.
The novel opens with recounting the events of the legendary Middle Street Massacre that took place in the seaside town of Brighton in June 1951 and established the impressive reputation of the newly posted Inspector Geoffrey Steine (pronounced Steen). Under the misnomer that this unprecedented gang warfare that left forty-five dead and no witnesses eradicated crime in the town, Steine has rested on his laurels doing precious little detective work, dining out on his status and simply presuming that the town is a crime free zone. In fact his well-timed arrival at the Middle Street Massacre owed more to a fortuitous trip to an ice cream parlour and is just one example of his lack of policing acumen and foresight. Now 1957, Steine already has enough on his plate what with dulling the enthusiasm of Sergeant Brunswick who longs to go undercover before the arrival of the far too eager twenty-two-year-old Constable Peregrine Twitten. Managing to rub all of his superiors up the wrong way with his rather irritating smart aleck persona, Twittern has been moved from station to station and so jumps at the chance to work for the esteemed Inspector Steine. Content with his weekly radio broadcasts and a decidedly hands-off approach to policing, Steine however is more at home with the cakes, biscuits and wittering charlady, Mrs Groynes, than front-line policing!
With Constable Twitten’s arrival coinciding with a spate of domestic burglaries in the town all with marked similarities the new recruit is quick to cease the initiative and reinvigorate Brunswick. The simultaneous descent of a vicious newspaper theatre critic, A.S. Crystal, for the opening night of a new play at the Theatre Royal famously unsatisfied with Steine’s lack of investigation into the Aldersgate Stick-up robbery that led to his nervous breakdown nearly a decade earlier threatens to spoil Steine’s easy life in Brighton. Keen to revisit the events and offer his insights, a complimentary ticket to accompany the odious and malodorous Crystal to the main event seems the ideal way to offload a pestering nuisance (Crystal) and occupy a pesky Twitten. With Crystal forthright on his opinions of enfant terrible and decidedly angry Northern playwright, Jack Braithwaite, his panning of ‘A Shilling in the Meter’ is a foregone conclusion. When Crystal is shot midway through the play prior to the publication of his theatre review with Constable Twittern a witness there appears no shortage of suspects from the current playwright to those whose stage careers he has ended with his savaging. But when an interrupted break-in leaves the prime suspect dead the deductive powers and tenacity of young Twittern spring into action and are given a run for their money..
The first half focuses on the identity of the burglar and their modus operandi and a well-conceived plot is presented as a entertaining series of consecutive bungling discoveries. Although the culprit and circumstances are apparent from the off, I was pleasantly entertained by this early part, but sadly I did find the humour wearing thin. As the second half gives way to the more elaborate origins of Crystal’s murder, the disappointingly pedestrian pace and further poking fun at the overdone led to my interest waning. The always witty narrative emphasises the comedy caper element but the longer it went on I quickly realised that it was all too absurd for my palate.
Future readers would be well-advised to have some idea of the pre-existing radio drama series and larger than life characters before reading because as much as I admired some particularly witty writing and Truss’s joke that ‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene has a lot to answer for, I would have appreciated a little more mental stimulation.
September 1, 2018
A Shot in the Dark was a droll romp, inspired by the golden age of mysteries. Lynne Truss, most well-known as the author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, draws from her sense of humor in this book, as well. Truss has a flair for characterization and dialogue. Rather than being a straightforward police procedural, this is a send-up of mid-century crime novels, complete with an entrenched inspector, a dutiful seargeant and an inspired but irritating constable. Most of the establishment, including the Inspector, are oblivious to the most glaringly obvious clues; Truss has fun with that—both portraying their bumbling ineptitude and crafting dialogue that reveals their incompetence. The plot was a madcap hurlyburly, and reading it was pure entertainment. Highly recommended.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of A Shot in the Dark in exchange for an honest review.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of A Shot in the Dark in exchange for an honest review.
August 7, 2018
I am always on the lookout for a good cozy mystery series and I appreciate the sometimes odd or quirky British sense of humor (at least to Americans) but A Shot In The Dark is written in such a manner that the story borders on being unreadable. A prime example of this is the author's fascination with the word nebulous. I can honestly say I have read scores of books where this word does not appear even once, but it becomes apparent that author Lynne Truss seems to be in need of a good thesaurus as she is obviously at a loss for new adjectives.
October 6, 2019
I came for the murder mystery. I stayed for the witty and satirical humor.
October 30, 2018
Thanks to the publisher, Bloomsbury, for providing an advance review copy.
The junior detective who is much smarter than his superiors is common in crime fiction. Here, Lynne Truss exaggerates the notion on both ends. Constable Twitten is so clever (and so eager to show it) that despite graduating the police academy with honors, he’s been transferred out of six squads in three months. Sergeant Brunswick is the usual well-meaning and only slightly dim immediate superior, but Inspector Steine is mind-bogglingly stupid.
On the evening of his first day in Brighton, Steine gives Twitten his ticket to a gritty realism play that Steine would do anything to avoid. There, Twitten strikes up a conversation with a theater critic, Crystal, who regales him with the story of an unsolved bank robbery he witnessed years before. As Crystal is detailing the clues he’s collected over the years, in hopes of remembering something he’s sure he saw that would identify the culprits, a shot rings out and Crystal is dead.
The ensuing investigation becomes entangled with a burglary ring, more murder, and even the search for the identity of the boss of Brighton’s notorious organized crime operation. It’s a dizzyingly intricate plot, but at the same time comic in the silly style popular in the UK. If you like silly British humor, this is an entertaining way to pass a few hours.
The junior detective who is much smarter than his superiors is common in crime fiction. Here, Lynne Truss exaggerates the notion on both ends. Constable Twitten is so clever (and so eager to show it) that despite graduating the police academy with honors, he’s been transferred out of six squads in three months. Sergeant Brunswick is the usual well-meaning and only slightly dim immediate superior, but Inspector Steine is mind-bogglingly stupid.
On the evening of his first day in Brighton, Steine gives Twitten his ticket to a gritty realism play that Steine would do anything to avoid. There, Twitten strikes up a conversation with a theater critic, Crystal, who regales him with the story of an unsolved bank robbery he witnessed years before. As Crystal is detailing the clues he’s collected over the years, in hopes of remembering something he’s sure he saw that would identify the culprits, a shot rings out and Crystal is dead.
The ensuing investigation becomes entangled with a burglary ring, more murder, and even the search for the identity of the boss of Brighton’s notorious organized crime operation. It’s a dizzyingly intricate plot, but at the same time comic in the silly style popular in the UK. If you like silly British humor, this is an entertaining way to pass a few hours.
January 5, 2022
A bit hard to follow along due to deep British roots in the writing, but it was certainly a treat! Definitely a historical cozy mystery with typical Brit humor. Will read the next in the series!
August 26, 2025
Who knew? Lynne Truss, of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame, has written mysteries that are just as charming and witty as her grammar surveys.
November 12, 2018
The world is a serious place right now, and everyone needs to step away from it now and then in order to stay sane. Here it is, your very own mental health break. In fact, if you look at the hourly rate of a good therapist versus the number of hours you’ll read this mystery, even at the full jacket price, Truss’s book is clearly the more economical choice, and it’s far more fun. Lucky me, I read it free courtesy of Net Galley and Bloomsbury. It’s for sale now.
The story doesn’t start as well as it might. It begins with a note from the author explaining that she has written this book exclusively for the purpose of joining a particular writer’s club. It’s likely intended to be a tongue-in-cheek reference, but it comes across as an in-joke between people other than me. I almost feel as though I have walked into a party to which I am not invited.
Then, to make matters worse, the opening chapters contain some jokes that fall completely flat. At about the quarter mark, I consider skimming and then bailing, but I am reluctant to do this with a galley, so I double check the author and publisher first. That changes everything. Bloomsbury is not some small, desperate press that will take any old thing, so that gives me pause. Then I see that Truss also wrote Eats, Shoots and Leaves as well as Cat Out of Hell. At this point the tumblers click into place. I liked both of those books quite well, but I felt exactly the same at the quarter mark of the latter story as I feel about this one. Truss is a writer that takes her time warming up, but she is worth the wait. Soldier through the start as she sets up her characters and puts the story in motion, because once she is on a tear there is no stopping her, and then she’s funny as hell.
Our story starts in a little tourist town in Britain. Twitten is the eager new guy on the force; Sargent Brunswick is unimaginative but sincere, shackled by the lead cop, a bureaucratic blowhard that avoids doing police work by pretending that Brighton has no crime. Since this is the first in the Constable Twitten series we know he won’t be killed, but everyone else is at risk.
Our story features performers from the Brighton Royal Theatre, a woman that works as a cleaner and occasional secretary for the constabulary, a love triangle, a playwright, and an ambitious journalist. The satire is both thick and at times, subtle. I appreciate a writer that can sneak humor into odd nooks and crannies without hitting me over the head with the fact that she’s made a joke, and Truss does that even as she lays out the larger joke in an unmissable way. Ultimately, even the captain must acknowledge that a crime has taken place:
“’May I offer you a sherry before you go?' And then she opened the door to her front living room, and let out a scream of horror. Furniture was in disarray; ornaments shattered, curtains torn, blood dripped from the fireplace and was sprayed in arcs across the walls. There was no doubt that a life-and-death struggle had taken place inside this room--the biggest giveaway being the lifeless remains on the best Persian rug, of the magnetic young playwright Jack Braithwaite, whose own personal Gas Man had arrived unexpectedly to read his meter and collect his dues."
The glory of satire is that instead of needing to dream up a variety of innovative twists and turns to liven up the plot, Truss instead can take the oldest and tritest murder mystery elements and make us choke with laughter as we read them.
An added perk is that this is the first in a series, and so the reader can get in on the ground floor. Just don’t trip over the corpse.
Once Truss warms up, her humor is hilarious. Cancel that expensive therapy appointment and order this book instead.
The story doesn’t start as well as it might. It begins with a note from the author explaining that she has written this book exclusively for the purpose of joining a particular writer’s club. It’s likely intended to be a tongue-in-cheek reference, but it comes across as an in-joke between people other than me. I almost feel as though I have walked into a party to which I am not invited.
Then, to make matters worse, the opening chapters contain some jokes that fall completely flat. At about the quarter mark, I consider skimming and then bailing, but I am reluctant to do this with a galley, so I double check the author and publisher first. That changes everything. Bloomsbury is not some small, desperate press that will take any old thing, so that gives me pause. Then I see that Truss also wrote Eats, Shoots and Leaves as well as Cat Out of Hell. At this point the tumblers click into place. I liked both of those books quite well, but I felt exactly the same at the quarter mark of the latter story as I feel about this one. Truss is a writer that takes her time warming up, but she is worth the wait. Soldier through the start as she sets up her characters and puts the story in motion, because once she is on a tear there is no stopping her, and then she’s funny as hell.
Our story starts in a little tourist town in Britain. Twitten is the eager new guy on the force; Sargent Brunswick is unimaginative but sincere, shackled by the lead cop, a bureaucratic blowhard that avoids doing police work by pretending that Brighton has no crime. Since this is the first in the Constable Twitten series we know he won’t be killed, but everyone else is at risk.
Our story features performers from the Brighton Royal Theatre, a woman that works as a cleaner and occasional secretary for the constabulary, a love triangle, a playwright, and an ambitious journalist. The satire is both thick and at times, subtle. I appreciate a writer that can sneak humor into odd nooks and crannies without hitting me over the head with the fact that she’s made a joke, and Truss does that even as she lays out the larger joke in an unmissable way. Ultimately, even the captain must acknowledge that a crime has taken place:
“’May I offer you a sherry before you go?' And then she opened the door to her front living room, and let out a scream of horror. Furniture was in disarray; ornaments shattered, curtains torn, blood dripped from the fireplace and was sprayed in arcs across the walls. There was no doubt that a life-and-death struggle had taken place inside this room--the biggest giveaway being the lifeless remains on the best Persian rug, of the magnetic young playwright Jack Braithwaite, whose own personal Gas Man had arrived unexpectedly to read his meter and collect his dues."
The glory of satire is that instead of needing to dream up a variety of innovative twists and turns to liven up the plot, Truss instead can take the oldest and tritest murder mystery elements and make us choke with laughter as we read them.
An added perk is that this is the first in a series, and so the reader can get in on the ground floor. Just don’t trip over the corpse.
Once Truss warms up, her humor is hilarious. Cancel that expensive therapy appointment and order this book instead.
October 30, 2018
You may already know Lynne Truss from her phenomenal book about grammar, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. If so, you may be surprised to hear that her newest book is a historical British mystery. But you won't be surprised that it is filled with period slang and she has a lot of fun with language throughout. But if language isn't your thing, no worries, the plot is rollicking enough to carry you along without dwelling on what is really a minor aside.
In the English beach town of Brighton, the police are run by Inspector Steine who, years earlier, made his name in the Middle Street Massacre in which two local gangs were going to have a shootout, which the police were heading to, when they decided to stop for ice cream. The gangs completely and totally wiped each other out, while not a copper got a scratch on him. Steine (pronounced STEEN by the way, he'd like you to know) was lauded for the way he brilliantly allowed the bad guys to clean up the town for him, without any loss of life or even minor injury to the good guys. In the movie he was portrayed by a handsome leading man whereas his number two, Sergeant Brunswick, came off as a doddering fool. Since then Steine has bragged about the lack of crime in town. Brunswick has lamented that the crime there is has now gone totally underground and is hard to suss out, and worse, that Steine refuses to investigate anything (lest he be proven wrong) or even admit there is anything to investigate. Then a young whippersnapper, Constable Twitten, who has managed to offend half of the British police force in very short order, is assigned to Brighton, and immediately starts to look into a series of thefts which seem to be tied to the unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up Case of 1945. While Steine is hastily trying to sweep it all under the rug, a renowned theater critic is shot and killed at the theater (while sitting next to Twitten) and the playwright is also murdered, which are much harder crimes for Steine to ignore.
This story is pretty hilarious. The period details for the 1950s are dead-on. There are loads of quirky characters and red herrings and a phrenologist and a strong lady and if you have any affinity for British mysteries of the mid-twentieth century, you will love Ms. Truss's farce, which is told with much love, even though she's also kind of making fun of them all. It was a ball of fun!
In the English beach town of Brighton, the police are run by Inspector Steine who, years earlier, made his name in the Middle Street Massacre in which two local gangs were going to have a shootout, which the police were heading to, when they decided to stop for ice cream. The gangs completely and totally wiped each other out, while not a copper got a scratch on him. Steine (pronounced STEEN by the way, he'd like you to know) was lauded for the way he brilliantly allowed the bad guys to clean up the town for him, without any loss of life or even minor injury to the good guys. In the movie he was portrayed by a handsome leading man whereas his number two, Sergeant Brunswick, came off as a doddering fool. Since then Steine has bragged about the lack of crime in town. Brunswick has lamented that the crime there is has now gone totally underground and is hard to suss out, and worse, that Steine refuses to investigate anything (lest he be proven wrong) or even admit there is anything to investigate. Then a young whippersnapper, Constable Twitten, who has managed to offend half of the British police force in very short order, is assigned to Brighton, and immediately starts to look into a series of thefts which seem to be tied to the unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up Case of 1945. While Steine is hastily trying to sweep it all under the rug, a renowned theater critic is shot and killed at the theater (while sitting next to Twitten) and the playwright is also murdered, which are much harder crimes for Steine to ignore.
This story is pretty hilarious. The period details for the 1950s are dead-on. There are loads of quirky characters and red herrings and a phrenologist and a strong lady and if you have any affinity for British mysteries of the mid-twentieth century, you will love Ms. Truss's farce, which is told with much love, even though she's also kind of making fun of them all. It was a ball of fun!
June 26, 2018
Lynn Truss is an excellent writer with a fine comic sense and I have enjoyed a lot of her work very much, but I'm afraid I was a little disappointed in A Shot In the Dark.
The Book is a "crime mystery" but also essentially a farce. Set in Brighton in the late 50s, a hopelessly stupid and vain police Inspector turns a blind eye to all crime, completely convinced that he has eradicated it from Brighton. A brilliant, socially inept new constable arrives and upsets the normal order of things, just as murderous events take place around the opening of a new play by an Angry Young Man, and a comic investigation/imbroglio develops.
Truss has a lot of fun at the expense of conceited but idiotic policemen, pretentious and narcissistic theatre folk and so on, and I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot. However, it did begin to pall a bit; the plot moves slowly and rather predictably and the comedy is so broad-brush that it lost its appeal rather. Inspector Steine's colossal idiocy and vanity became just annoying and the rest of the developments weren't funny enough to maintain the book. I know that it is intentionally absurdly pantomimic and a parody of old-fashioned police dramas, but even Lynn Truss couldn't keep it going for me.
So, a decent beginning but overall I can't recommend this and I shan't be bothering with any more in what seems to be being set up for a series.
(My thanks to Bloomsbury Press for an ARC via NetGalley.)
The Book is a "crime mystery" but also essentially a farce. Set in Brighton in the late 50s, a hopelessly stupid and vain police Inspector turns a blind eye to all crime, completely convinced that he has eradicated it from Brighton. A brilliant, socially inept new constable arrives and upsets the normal order of things, just as murderous events take place around the opening of a new play by an Angry Young Man, and a comic investigation/imbroglio develops.
Truss has a lot of fun at the expense of conceited but idiotic policemen, pretentious and narcissistic theatre folk and so on, and I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot. However, it did begin to pall a bit; the plot moves slowly and rather predictably and the comedy is so broad-brush that it lost its appeal rather. Inspector Steine's colossal idiocy and vanity became just annoying and the rest of the developments weren't funny enough to maintain the book. I know that it is intentionally absurdly pantomimic and a parody of old-fashioned police dramas, but even Lynn Truss couldn't keep it going for me.
So, a decent beginning but overall I can't recommend this and I shan't be bothering with any more in what seems to be being set up for a series.
(My thanks to Bloomsbury Press for an ARC via NetGalley.)
May 6, 2019
I am a fan of droll, and I also appreciate a well-executed send-up. This, however, somehow manages to be clever but not fun, and that's more than mildly disappointing.
I lost count how many times I paused to consider whether to continue, but there were glimmers of wit that would take me further. When Twitten himself enters, it was almost as if a lamp had been turned on in the dusk, which sparked new hope. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to combat the overall stodginess, and though I pushed through the ups and downs until the halfway point, I couldn't foresee anything making a stubborn completion worthwhile.
audiobook note: Matt Green's narration was a factor in my hanging in as long as I did. In addition to smooth reading in a lovely accent, he presents as being in on the joke, which successfully endears him to the reader. Voices for a minor character or two are gratingly cartoonish, but I couldn't determine if the lack of nuance was an intentional choice in service to the satire or no.
I lost count how many times I paused to consider whether to continue, but there were glimmers of wit that would take me further. When Twitten himself enters, it was almost as if a lamp had been turned on in the dusk, which sparked new hope. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to combat the overall stodginess, and though I pushed through the ups and downs until the halfway point, I couldn't foresee anything making a stubborn completion worthwhile.
audiobook note: Matt Green's narration was a factor in my hanging in as long as I did. In addition to smooth reading in a lovely accent, he presents as being in on the joke, which successfully endears him to the reader. Voices for a minor character or two are gratingly cartoonish, but I couldn't determine if the lack of nuance was an intentional choice in service to the satire or no.
May 28, 2024
I have had this sat on my TBR for a few years now (YES YEARS!) and it became available on Libby so I thought it was time to try tick another one off the list! 😊 It follows a police force in Brighton in 1951 where they claim that no crimes will be committed after the gangs all killed each other! I actually found this a little underwhelming, and quite frankly a little bizarre if I am being honest! 🤨 The only reason this went up to a three was because I did laugh at some of the characters in this book - they were quirky but it just lacked any sort of thriller aspect and the ending just had me baffled if I am completely honest! 😳
October 24, 2018
1957 and theatre critic A. S. Crystal has arrived in Brighton to review a play. But Crystal was once a witness to a robbery, the culprits never caught. But just before he exposes a clue he is killed.
Unfortunately I really didn't care for the writing style, and I certainly didn't get the humour of the story.
A NetGalley Book
Unfortunately I really didn't care for the writing style, and I certainly didn't get the humour of the story.
A NetGalley Book
January 2, 2019
I am NOT the audience for this book. I quite enjoy humor in mystery stories, but farce is not my thing. This was just too silly for me. Also, to enjoy a book, there must be at least one person I like. There is no one to like in this because they are all caricatures. And, of course, the fact that absolutely NOTHING is resolved makes it impossible for me to like the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 2, 2024
Rereading, again, because it was a tough month.
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This book is an underrated treasure. It's humorous and entertaining. Soft-core thriller.
Twitten is still the man of my dreams, The Sarge and Stien are a great duo, and Mrs. G is a genius.
Why have I not shelved this in my favourites the first time around? It's perfect.
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This book is an underrated treasure. It's humorous and entertaining. Soft-core thriller.
Twitten is still the man of my dreams, The Sarge and Stien are a great duo, and Mrs. G is a genius.
Why have I not shelved this in my favourites the first time around? It's perfect.
November 28, 2019
The danger of using audiobooks for mysteries is that a few seconds of inattention can mean you miss crucial details. I'm blaming the fact that I completely missed murder #2 until someone casually mentioned it later on another driver's boneheaded traffic move.
Initially, I thought the book hopped around a lot, but by the second half, I'd grown accustomed to the style, and learned most of the character names, and really started to enjoy it.
I have a feeling I missed a lot of punchlines because I'm not intimately familiar with the Britain of the 1950s, but I still chuckled frequently.
Assuming Twitten stays in Brighton, that leaves us with one of the most intriguing central conceits for a mystery series I've encountered in a long time. Generally, I don't mind spoilers, but revealing the central conceit in this case would completely ruin the book.
It reminded me a bit of Jasper Fforde, and a bit of Monty Python, but mostly it is its own thing. I'm definitely planning to read book 2.
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