I haven’t read the book below because it sounds absurd and isn’t coming out until spring anyway; however, I did recommend it today to someone I thought would like it:
J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, and other literary legends join forces to unravel a deadly conspiracy in this gripping mystery that sweeps from the halls of Oxford to the streets of London and the shores of Loch Ness.I mean, seriously? I have read that Tolkien and Lewis both had a sense of humor – I wonder if they would find this amusing or offensive. It's very trendy to feature real people as sleuths but it is not what I am looking for in a mystery. I'm trying to think of one that worked . . .
Second Degree
One of Lewis’s Inkling friends was George MacDonald, who wrote The Princess and the Goblin (1871), a fantasy in which eight-year-old Princess Irene’s kingdom is threatened by goblins. I found his books somewhat babyish compared to the Narnia books.
There are some great goblins in a book I love by Marian Cockrell but I’ve already used it, so instead I will choose one she wrote with her husband, Dark Waters (1944), a gothic set on a Louisiana plantation about a young woman afraid she is going insane. I was just thinking about it because my friend Laura recently saw the movie, starring Merle Oberon, and reviewed it on her blog.
A classic historical novel set on a Louisiana plantation is Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow (1937). Fifteen-year-old Judith is swept off her feet by a handsome young adventurer in the first book of this bestselling trilogy.
Gwen Bristow and her husband wrote a mystery called The Invisible Host (1930) in which eight people are invited to a deserted, fancy New Orleans penthouse by an anonymous invitation. After dinner, the guests are told they locked in and are all going to die that night. Dean Street Press reprinted it recently.
Some say that Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians (1939) uses a very similar plot but it is considered unlikely she read the Bristows' book or saw the film, which was called The Ninth Guest.
Next month (February 7, 2026), the starting point is Flashlight by Susan Choi.
6 comments:
The current trend for books with real people as detectives doesn't appeal to me either, although I've read one or two of them. I'm curious about The Invisible Host as I love the Christie novel.
I tried to love Tolkien but got bogged down, and Lewis never really did it for me. But connecting Lewis to Christie was fun to follow.
With regards to using real people as sleuths--it depends. I liked the Austen mystery series by Stephanie Barron and the Abigail Adams series by Margaret Hamilton, but this one just seems silly and exploitative.
And Then There Were None i is my favorite book of all time. Have you read the Josephine Tey series by Nicola Upson, I've really enjoyed the couple I've read.
Unfortunately, I misplaced The Invisible Host right after I started it. It's not under the bed, although I have looked there several times! If you ever come across Celia Garth by Gwen Bristow, snatch it up. It is my favorite of all her books and one I have reread several times.
I don't like fantasy much as an adult but my mother read my sister and me The Hobbit and I couldn't wait to read The Lord of the Rings. In fact, my mother said it was pretty scary and suggested I wait a few years so I got it from the school library and hid it in my desk at school, where my helpful teacher showed it to my parents at Parent-Teacher Night. Not the last time I was annoyed with a teacher!
I should have mentioned that it is the same book! I've read the first Nicola Upson and I liked it - in fact, now that I check, it was one of my Best of 2008. Not sure why I did not review it but I must have run out of time. Her style was so Tey-like I was impressed. So I suppose that might be an exception to my disdain for real-life characters as detectives!
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