Once you’ve read all of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and the Miss Silver novels, you may begin to worry that you only have a few hundred more books before you run out of classic British detective novels. At least that was the case, but a rising tide of contemporary novels that take place in the 1920s and 1930s, written in the style and, as much as possible, the form of those Golden Age books, has risen.
One author who has embraced this in their own special way is PJ Fitzsimmons, whose byline is so clearly a pseudonym I can only hope it is their real name. To quote Fitzsimmons themselves, “I dream of an alternative reality in which PG Wodehouse wrote locked room mysteries, and in which I’m PG Wodehouse.” They have published four mysteries, of which The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is the first, in which they have very much tried to write Christie in the style of Wodehouse.
It is a bold experiment. To take the best qualities of two of the twentieth centuries most successful writers (certainly in terms of book sales, in any case) and mash them together certainly runs the risk of falling short in many ways. But if you can avoid constantly comparing Fitzsimmons with the greats they are trying to mimic the books are a success.
No, they’re not as funny as PG Wodehouse. The Bertie Wooster-esque voice of the protagonist, Anty Boisjoly (pronounced either “‘Bo-juhlay’ like the wine region… [or] ‘Boo-juhlay’ like the wine region”1) keeps the prose light and give the stories momentum, though a Bertie Wooster who is actually a genius detective is a little odd (unless that’s who Lord Peter Wimsey actually is.) The narrative is unabashed in its borrowings from Wodehouse, but that’s just fine. This is a book for that author’s existing fans.
And no, the Anty Boisjoly books aren’t quite as clever as Christie. Reading the first one there are many of the elements of the classic Christie locked door mystery, but the great thing about Christie, in the books where she was successful, was that she managed to fool you completely without breaking any of the rules that govern the mystery author-mystery reader relationship. There are no unreported clues, no characters introduced at the last minute, no solutions that are so outlandish and impractical that the readers suspension of disbelief is really put to the test. These mysteries do not quite rise to that level. But neither did all of Christie’s work.
Not being as funny as Wodehouse and not being as clever as Christie does not mean the books are not pretty funny and pretty clever. And they are a real pleasure to read. There is also the occasional anachronism, which, if you are a complete pedant, like your hardworking correspondent, can be a bit jarring. But you grit your teeth and read on.
These are clever, entertaining books and if you are looking for something a little cozy, fairly funny, and pretty clever to pass the time with they may be just the thing.
1Page 2 of The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning, Anty Boisjoly Book 2, PJ Fitzsimmons