Best 1931 Adventures (9)
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May 1, 2016
One in a series of 10 posts identifying Josh Glenn’s favorite 1931 adventure novels. Happy 85th anniversary!
Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey crime adventure Five Red Herrings.
This whodunnit brings Lord Peter Wimsey to southwestern Scotland’s Galloway region. When alcoholic painter Sandy Campbell is found dead in a stream, it is at first assumed that he slipped and fell. But Wimsey notices that Campbell’s half-finished painting contains an inconsistency suggesting that someone else worked on it — expertly imitating Campbell’s distinctive style — after the artist’s death. Six nearby artists, all of whom were known to have quarreled violently with Campbell, are suspected. But each of the six behaves suspiciously… so who is the killer, and who are the five red herrings, in this case? It’s a frustrating puzzle, but we’re willing to go along for the ride because Wimsey is such a compelling character. Like Leslie Charteris’s Simon Templar, he’s fond of meta-fictional commentary, like: “You get it in all the mystery stories. Of course, the last person to see him never commits the crime. That would make it too easy.” True, it’s not as exciting as other examples of the glorious tradition of thrillers set in Scotland. Still, it’s one of the best adventure novels of 1931.
Fun fact: “Train timetable” mysteries were popular at the time. British readers couldn’t get enough!
Let me know if I’ve missed any 1931 adventures that you particularly admire.