Anty Boisjoly Mysteries

There's a literary niche for all tastes including those who think that either Agatha Christie wasn't funny enough or that PG Wodehouse didn't feature anywhere near as many baffling murders as he could have. “The Case of the Canterfell Codicil” is a classic, cozy, locked-room mystery written in the style of an homage to PG Wodehouse. The result, for those familiar with Wodehouse or Jerome K Jerome and Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers, is either an inexcusable offence to several beloved canons, or a hilarious, fast-paced, manor house murder mystery. In “The Case of the Canterfell Codicil”, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly's pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multilayered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph.

Anty Boisjoly tackles the strange case of a war hero who visits his old friends on Christmas morning-after being murdered on Christmas Eve. In “The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning”, Wodehousian clubman, flaneur, idler, and sleuth Anty Boisjoly pits his sardonic wits against another pair of impossible murders. This time, Anty Boisjoly's Aunty Boisjoly is the only possible suspect when a murder victim stands his old friends a farewell drink at the local, hours after being murdered. Like “The Case of the Canterfell Codicil”, “The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning” fits the narrow literary needs of those who feel that Lord Peter Wimsey isn't frivolous enough or that Blandings Castle could stand a few more baffling murders.

Anty Boisjoly is back to fill the gap that overlaps between Ruth Rendell and P. G. Wodehouse, and where Jerome K. Jerome meets Dorothy L. Sayers. “The Tale of the Tenpenny Tontine” is another mystifying, manor house stumper for Wodehousian bon-vivant and problem-solver Anty Boisjoly, when his clubmate asks him to determine who died first after a duel is fought in a locked room. The untold riches of the Tenpenny Tontine are in the balance, but the stakes only get higher when Anty determines that, duel or not, this was a case of murder.

Anty Boisjoly takes on his twistiest test to date in a tale of curses and crows, crypts and conspiracies, concealed corridors and clever crimes, delivered with a strong overpour of locked-room murder and buoyant Boisjoly banter. The ancient curse of Carnaby Castle has begun taking victims again-either that, or someone's very cleverly done away with the new young bride of the philandering family patriarch, and the chief suspect is none other than Carnaby, London's finest club steward. Anty Boisjoly's wits and witticisms are tested to their frozen limit as he sifts the superstitions, suspicions, and age-old schisms of the mediaeval Peak District village of Hoy to sort out how it was done before Carnaby's served his last scotch-and-soda.

Anty travels to the Riviera to finally have that awkward 'did you murder my father' conversation with his mother, but instead finds himself in the ticklish position of defending her and an innocent elephant against charges of a murder that no one could have committed. Like all Anty Boisjoly mysteries, “Reckoning at the Riviera Royale” is a stand-alone stumper populated with eccentric characters and composed of impossible murder and improbable intrigues, delivered with signature Boisjoly banter, and it's best enjoyed by those who like a little humour in their whodunnit. Anty Boisjoly is a serious experiment in a whimsical line-Christie-esque locked-room mysteries written in the style of PG Wodehouse. The reviews are in and the experiment is a success. Readers emphasise in particular the witty and whimsical first-person voice of Anty Boisjoly narrating the nevertheless twisty mysteries.

In The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich, golden-age gadabout Anty Boisjoly travels to the timeless source waters of Glen Glennegie to help decide the fate of his family's favourite ferment, but an impossible locked room murder is only one of a multitude of mysteries that try Anty's wits and witticisms to their northern limit. Time trickles down on the traditional tipple as Anty unravels family feuds, ruptured romance, shepherdless sheep, and a series of suspiciously surfacing secrets to sort out who killed whom and how and why and who might be next to die. Tim Bruce returns as ever-optimistic Anty, his heirloom valet Vickers, and two entire Scottish villages, sheep included, and manages to keep everyone distinct and distilled and delightful, even after the whisky kicks in during a golf match which is hilarious on paper but which Tim raises to a pro tour de force. The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich is another stand-alone, locked room puzzler for those who like a little kidding in their killing and mirth in their mystery, and wouldn't object one bit to a conspiracy between Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse.

Anty Boisjoly is back with his reddest-of-herringed, twistiest-of-turned, locked-roomiest manor house mystery yet. It's a classic, manor house, mystery-within-a-locked-room-mystery for Anty Boisjoly when a death is foretold by a mystic that Anty's sure is a charlatan. But when an impossible murder follows the foretelling, Anty and his old ally and nemesis Inspector Wittersham must sift the connivance, contrivance, misguidance, and faith in pseudoscience of the household and its haunted history before the killer strikes again. Like all Anty Boisjoly locked-room puzzlers, Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling is a stand-alone farce for those who like a little crime with their comedy and vice-versa.