HHHII The Act of Roger Murgatroyd: An Entertainment

Pointing out that this novel is meant to be primarily an entertainment may be Adair's way of reminding readers that there's normally more to his work than a spanking, glittery narrative. He did, after all, write The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice. But if ever a book deserved to be called surface-deep it's this parody of an Agatha Christie-type crime novel.

After gossip columnist Raymond Gentry is found shot dead in a locked room at a Dartmoor country house on Boxing Day, a list is discovered in his bathrobe suggesting he intended to blackmail the other guests. Trubshawe, a retired police chief inspector plods through the evidence, but it's redoubtable crime writer Evadne Mount who seems to know exactly what's going on.

Featuring a host with a military bearing and a hidden past, a lying vicar, an actress with a cocaine habit, a drunken paediatrician, a sinister foreign con artist, and a nave young flapper, this inconsequential romp manages to pull off a far neater trick than the murderer: by the end of the book, and against all odds, you actually want to know who dunnit and how. Three cheers for Gilbert Adair: Huzzah!

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