Wed 18 Nov 2009
Reviewed by Marvin Lachman: NICHOLAS BLAKE – Murder with Malice (Malice in Wonderland).
Posted by Steve under Reviews[5] Comments
by Marvin Lachman
NICHOLAS BLAKE – Malice in Wonderland.
Collins Crime Club, UK, hardcover, 1940. Harper & Brothers, US, hc, 1940, as The Summer Camp Mystery. Paperback reprints include: Penguin #592, 1946; Pyramid R-1008, 1964 (later 1971, shown) as Malice with Murder; and Carroll & Graf, 1987, as Murder with Malice.
Recently published by Carroll & Graf, a publisher which is doing some of the most interesting reprints lately, is Nicholas Blake’s Murder with Malice. This is yet another title for the book which began life in 1940 as Malice in Wonderland (easily its best title) and was reprinted in the United States the same year as The Summer Camp Mystery.
Oh well, under any title, this is one of the best examples of the late Golden Age of classic puzzles that you’ll find in paperback. Nigel Strangeways is called to investigate strange doings at a holiday camp named Wonderland, where a series of practical jokes — e.g., tennis balls dipped in treacle — by someone who calls himself “The Mad Hatter” have culminated in murder.
The humor Is sophisticated and the puzzle very difficult to solve. The setting is believable but far enough removed from our usual lives to make perfect escape reading.
(very slightly revised).
Editorial Comment: I wonder if this detective novel holds the record for being published under the most titles. It’s certainly in the running!
November 18th, 2009 at 1:16 am
C. Day Lewis supposedly based Strangeways on fellow poet Auden (though I’ve also heard T. S. Eliot as the model) and was one of the relatively few Golden Age writers to make the post war transition. The books are well worth reading though from either period.
Steve
I don’t know what the record for titles a single work appeared under is. Certainly Christie’s And Then There Were None comes in as a close second with three titles. But this one could well be the record holder until something else comes along.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
How about another Christie: The 4:50 from Paddington – What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw – “Murder,” She Said. Those almost tell a story by themselves.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Those Christie books are good ones, all right, but they both fall short. No matter, I really like the one you came up with, Ray!
— Steve
November 24th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
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