Not much of a review but I wanted to jot down a few notes on this book:

This is a short read. The book has a mere 204 pages. And yet, it took me what I perceived as an eternity to finish the book because:

1. The writing drove me nuts:

In an earlier discussion with TA, I referred the style of writing as that of hearing the voice of Jeeves for the entirety of the book without having the benefit of the grounded interjections of common sense summaries of a Wooster. 

Another way to describe the narrative style, which, in addition to the stilted phrasings of a Jeeves, also thrived on an overuse of similes and metaphors is if you picture the film Murder by Death, that excellent spoof of the detective genre, where Peter Sellers plays an "oriental" detective who keeps confounding his fellow guests at a house party with phrases that are so obtuse that it is not clear where we are going. It works a treat in a spoof, but has no place in the actual mystery.

2. The plot...

I had a hunch about the culprit very early on, but could not figure out the motive. It is only in the last few pages of the book that we learn about the why of the murder. Too little, too late, and I really dislike that we are not allowed the relevant information throughout the book to come up with the solution ourselves. 

3. I was bored, and I should not have been because there were some very interesting (for their time) observations on social mores in the book. Yet, they were buried in quite a lot of purple prose...so they mostly were lost on me.

Gaaaaah. Next!

This is not horrible. However, the pacing and the writing in general is not gripping me at all.

Even tho we now have a victim, I find it hard work to care.

I'm tempted to set this aside and pick another book, except that this one is rather short and I am already a quarter of the way in.

Hm, ... It maybe the onset of a slump, it may be that I'm not in the right frame of mind for reading this particular flow of narration, but I'm finding it difficult to focus on this story.

I'll switch to an audiobook for a bit...and for another square.

I am not sure if this one will fit my bingo squares, but I have this at home from the library and it is due back next week. 

I had a peek at the reviews for this one on GR, and I am going in with low expectations. 

Surprisingly good stories by the virtually unknown Capes. I assumed these would tend towards M.R. James but these actually reminded me more of L.P. Hartley. Capes doesn't use the same formula twice so the stories throughout the book remain fresh to the reader. There are a few of the usual haunts but there are a lot of clever variations and even some truly original seeming tales. Capes also isn't afraid to even lead his good characters to a bad ending usually with a bit of irony thrown in.

Hugh Lamb, the editor, says the reason there really are a lot of gems out there by the likes of the virtually unknown is that anthologists are just lazy. He had to comb through lots of original sources and rare books by Capes to get the cream that is here (added to the original 1989 collection), but he says it is no excuse as plenty of other obscure writers have lots of first rate forgotten stories. Lamb virtually made a career out of composing this type of "lost" collection or anthology.