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Clifford Orr

Författare till The Dartmouth Murders

8 verk 13 medlemmar 1 recension

Verk av Clifford Orr

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All Dartmouth College is appalled by the death of one of their young scholars, then even more appalled when evidence surfaces suggesting that the death was not suicide after all, but murder! (Gasp!) Enter the father of our protagonist, one of the students' dormmates, who fancies himself a bit of an amateur detective because he reads a LOT of detective manuals and procedurals. (I kid you not.)

The 1920s were a golden age for amateur literary detectives (Agatha Christie's Poirot, Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter). Not so much this gentleman, who not only fails to display any particular wit (he's happy enough to gather clues but it's not clear he ever does anything with them), but also comes off as bossy and unlikeable. Neither is his son much more relateable, even though he narratives this tale in first person. You'd think it would be hard to narrate a tale in first person without revealing at least something of the narrator's perspectives, biases and beliefs, but Orr pulls off that dubious achievement here.

Even the mystery is a dud, featuring a solution is so convoluted that there's no way a reasonable detective could figure it out from the clues provided. Combine this with dolorous pacing (stop retelling stuff that's already happened!), pedestrian attempts at drama (a car chase, a pursuit through an abandoned house) and every imaginable mystery cliche - (the witness who is clearly lying, but no one bothers to confront them; the guy who announces "I know who did it!" but refuses to share the info, giving the murderer time to off them before they can), and you end up with a denoument that - when it finally comes - is bereft of either passion, interest, or reasonable common sense.

The bits of the novel devoted to college life might still have saved this from insipidness; alas, however, Orr fails even here. The narrator and his chums spend most of their time studying, interactions with females are chaperoned, and the most scandalous thing going on in town are off-campus parties at which alcohol is served to female guests.

If you like academic mysteries, skip this one and try Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night on for size - a novel that has everything (intriguing plot, fully realized and psychologically complex characters, entertaining details about college life, wholly satisfying denoument, and a bit of romance to boot!) that this novel lacks.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Dorritt | Apr 2, 2021 |

Statistik

Verk
8
Medlemmar
13
Popularitet
#774,335
Betyg
2.0
Recensioner
1
ISBN
3
Språk
1