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isabell_cannon's review
3.0
I loved the concept but I just did not enjoy this as much as other mysteries by authors involved in the project
anas27's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
colindalaska's review against another edition
5.0
This isn't a great novel - there are two many red herrings, dead ends and changes of style to work as a story.
However, it is fascinating to see how a series of detective writers tackle the solving of the same crime and how helpful (or not) they are to the writers that follow them.
And GK Chesterton gets to write a prologue that is completely unrelated to the novel that follows.
However, it is fascinating to see how a series of detective writers tackle the solving of the same crime and how helpful (or not) they are to the writers that follow them.
And GK Chesterton gets to write a prologue that is completely unrelated to the novel that follows.
prashiie's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
“We are only too much accustomed to let the great detective say airily: ‘Cannot you see, my dear Watson, that these facts admit of only one interpretation?’ After our experience in the matter of The Floating Admiral, our great detectives may have to learn to express themselves more guardedly.”
I chose this book without having any background information. It was part of the books written by Agatha Christie. But after a quick Google search, I found out how this book came to be and that got me excited!
This is a book written in a joint effort, each chapter written by a different author taking in all the information his/her predecessor has left and using it to continue the story coherently. They did a great job, especially Anthony Berkeley who had to write the last chapter and he humorously called it “Clearing up the mess”. It was a little difficult to get used to a different writing style every chapter. Agatha Christie’s writing style is familiar to me and I’m happy to have had the chance of finding other great authors, such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Henry Wade, Ronald A. Knox, and Milward Kennedy. Freeman Wills Crofts’s writing, however, was not to my liking. He writes more like an observer and most of the conversations that the characters have are written in a descriptive manner. There were very few dialogues present in his chapter and I missed that.
Overall, it was fun to read this book. Though, I have to admit that I didn’t care for the confusing details about boats. The story itself was also a little confusing at times because we have one author planting a seed of thought in your brain that just gets thrown out by the next author because they have a different theory in mind. For example, early in the story there are hints of Elma being a man and I liked that theory! Imagine Elma actually being Walter who is trying to get his inheritance. But unfortunately this line of thought did not survive for too long. It was nice to see that Agatha Christie had the same idea, which brings me to the appendix. In the appendix you can find what plausible solution to this mystery each author had in mind. Clemence Dane’s theory was amusing, I like that he admits he has no idea what’s going on.
“I am, frankly, in a complete muddle as to what has happened.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Violence, Abandonment, Racial slurs, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, War, and Stalking
gripyfish's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
owlet's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I'd recommend this one to someone who is looking for a fun time with a lighthearted book. Additionally I think it's worth a read if you want to give one of the mentioned authors a try.
Howevery, don't read this book if you expect a high-class whodunit.
Howevery, don't read this book if you expect a high-class whodunit.
lenaricharz's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
cardica's review against another edition
2.0
Coming in 12th place, our least recommended novel for the year is [b:The Floating Admiral|719399|The Floating Admiral|The Detection Club|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1324235251l/719399._SY75_.jpg|2742444]. A short affair written by some of history’s most illustrious detective fiction authors, The Floating Admiral is a good experiment long, long before it is a good story. The question is - is it still worth reading?
Featuring the writings of [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589991473p2/123715.jpg], [a:G.K. Chesterton|7014283|G.K. Chesterton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1365860649p2/7014283.jpg], [a:Dorothy L. Sayers|8734|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1519840173p2/8734.jpg], and more, including our dearly beloved Father [a:Ronald Knox|8178205|Ronald Knox|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1559138706p2/8178205.jpg], the Floating Admiral was a dinner party experiment for Christie and her 13 friends to see if they could write a novel with no planned ending, one chapter at a time, as each author passed the buck to the other with no explanation other than what was on the page before them. Only the final chapter and the prologue were written with the full context of the story, and each author was challenged to write their solution in a sealed envelope, printed at the back of the book.
The solutions section of the book is really the best part, too. From wildly absurd solutions by Agatha Christie (whose solution, is definitely not worth the price of admission, despite what some reviewers might tell you), to clinically cold breakdowns of the manner of the problem itself by Ronald Knox, the solutions feel like a crime-fiction horoscope, and whichever one you end up aligning yourself with could point you in the direction of the next author you should check out.
[a:The Detection Club|93130|The Detection Club|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] remains to this day one of the great institutions of British crime fiction writing. Founded by [a:Anthony Berkeley|246785|Anthony Berkeley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1408927615p2/246785.jpg] in 1928, it began as informal dinners between the greats of detective fiction until its 1932 charter seated GK Chesterton as the first chairman. The Floating Admiral is the first of a number of pass-the-buck stories by the early detection club, each a variation on the same experiment. The greatest strength of the novel is that if you’re into mystery fiction, it’s a fantastic demonstration on how different the solutions to one single mystery can be, proving that in such a situation there is no ‘one answer’ to hunt for. While that thesis might be short-sighted given how atypical this novel is, there’s still a great value to seeing all these great minds approaching the same problem in such varied ways.
The story itself sits on the very edge of forgettable. While there are moments of greatness, they each feel so disconnected and ordinary as a part of the whole that the only thing I remembered months after reading it was the final twist. Our Detective Inspector Rudge being the prime example. After the great Admiral Penistone is found dead in a boat along his hometown river, Rudge is called in to solve the murder and somehow manages to have so little character that Ronald Knox’s chapter opens by bemoaning his blandness in character. As we trapse from clue to clue, author to author, the momentum of the story is kept up by juicy clues left at the end of each chapter, many of which are abandoned in due course. Despite setting out with the goal that ‘no author shall unnecessarily complicate matters’, each author seems to ridicule clues left by their predecessors, choosing to introduce new problems that in turn become points of ridicule until the conclusion has so many clues to cherry pick from that you could build an entire franchise of endings from (which, mind you, is exactly what you’ll find after the ending, so maybe it worked as intended).
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the narrative is looking at how it twists and turns from author to author - after the entire introduction was staged in Hong Kong, it takes 5 chapters for the story to even mention it again, and as long as you know what you’re getting into, it’s an excellent game trying to piece together where the ideas in the story were first introduced, as you barrel towards Anthony Berkeley’s final chapter, which itself is nearly a third the length of the book to ensure it can adequately clean up the mess the other authors made.
Full of old stereotypes and innumerable clues that are just wasted ink in your notepad, the story hasn’t aged well, unless you are thoroughly and entirely invested in its premise. It’s a shame too, because I think if the book had been done in two passes - one to outline the narrative and pose solutions, and the other to write it, the result would have been infinitely stronger, without entirely undermining the premise. Fortunately the modern detection club is around to give it another whack with the spiritual successor “[b:The Sinking Admiral|27881737|The Sinking Admiral|The Detection Club|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459724098l/27881737._SY75_.jpg|47876033]”, but the truth is that “The Floating Admiral” is a book for mystery fiction nerds and academics. You won’t regret reading it, but it never quite feels the same spark that each author had on their own, so you’d really be better of just sinking, or floating, as the case may be, into one of their other works.
I give this book 1 insurmountable detective fiction author out of 14. It’s an entirely missable book but I genuinely hope it’s not forgotten by history. You can catch our full thoughts on the book over on Death of the Reader.
Featuring the writings of [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589991473p2/123715.jpg], [a:G.K. Chesterton|7014283|G.K. Chesterton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1365860649p2/7014283.jpg], [a:Dorothy L. Sayers|8734|Dorothy L. Sayers|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1519840173p2/8734.jpg], and more, including our dearly beloved Father [a:Ronald Knox|8178205|Ronald Knox|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1559138706p2/8178205.jpg], the Floating Admiral was a dinner party experiment for Christie and her 13 friends to see if they could write a novel with no planned ending, one chapter at a time, as each author passed the buck to the other with no explanation other than what was on the page before them. Only the final chapter and the prologue were written with the full context of the story, and each author was challenged to write their solution in a sealed envelope, printed at the back of the book.
The solutions section of the book is really the best part, too. From wildly absurd solutions by Agatha Christie (whose solution, is definitely not worth the price of admission, despite what some reviewers might tell you), to clinically cold breakdowns of the manner of the problem itself by Ronald Knox, the solutions feel like a crime-fiction horoscope, and whichever one you end up aligning yourself with could point you in the direction of the next author you should check out.
[a:The Detection Club|93130|The Detection Club|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] remains to this day one of the great institutions of British crime fiction writing. Founded by [a:Anthony Berkeley|246785|Anthony Berkeley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1408927615p2/246785.jpg] in 1928, it began as informal dinners between the greats of detective fiction until its 1932 charter seated GK Chesterton as the first chairman. The Floating Admiral is the first of a number of pass-the-buck stories by the early detection club, each a variation on the same experiment. The greatest strength of the novel is that if you’re into mystery fiction, it’s a fantastic demonstration on how different the solutions to one single mystery can be, proving that in such a situation there is no ‘one answer’ to hunt for. While that thesis might be short-sighted given how atypical this novel is, there’s still a great value to seeing all these great minds approaching the same problem in such varied ways.
The story itself sits on the very edge of forgettable. While there are moments of greatness, they each feel so disconnected and ordinary as a part of the whole that the only thing I remembered months after reading it was the final twist. Our Detective Inspector Rudge being the prime example. After the great Admiral Penistone is found dead in a boat along his hometown river, Rudge is called in to solve the murder and somehow manages to have so little character that Ronald Knox’s chapter opens by bemoaning his blandness in character. As we trapse from clue to clue, author to author, the momentum of the story is kept up by juicy clues left at the end of each chapter, many of which are abandoned in due course. Despite setting out with the goal that ‘no author shall unnecessarily complicate matters’, each author seems to ridicule clues left by their predecessors, choosing to introduce new problems that in turn become points of ridicule until the conclusion has so many clues to cherry pick from that you could build an entire franchise of endings from (which, mind you, is exactly what you’ll find after the ending, so maybe it worked as intended).
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the narrative is looking at how it twists and turns from author to author - after the entire introduction was staged in Hong Kong, it takes 5 chapters for the story to even mention it again, and as long as you know what you’re getting into, it’s an excellent game trying to piece together where the ideas in the story were first introduced, as you barrel towards Anthony Berkeley’s final chapter, which itself is nearly a third the length of the book to ensure it can adequately clean up the mess the other authors made.
Full of old stereotypes and innumerable clues that are just wasted ink in your notepad, the story hasn’t aged well, unless you are thoroughly and entirely invested in its premise. It’s a shame too, because I think if the book had been done in two passes - one to outline the narrative and pose solutions, and the other to write it, the result would have been infinitely stronger, without entirely undermining the premise. Fortunately the modern detection club is around to give it another whack with the spiritual successor “[b:The Sinking Admiral|27881737|The Sinking Admiral|The Detection Club|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459724098l/27881737._SY75_.jpg|47876033]”, but the truth is that “The Floating Admiral” is a book for mystery fiction nerds and academics. You won’t regret reading it, but it never quite feels the same spark that each author had on their own, so you’d really be better of just sinking, or floating, as the case may be, into one of their other works.
I give this book 1 insurmountable detective fiction author out of 14. It’s an entirely missable book but I genuinely hope it’s not forgotten by history. You can catch our full thoughts on the book over on Death of the Reader.
snickies's review against another edition
3.0
I thought it dragged a bit in the middle (the 39 questions! What was that?! Why did it keep going???) but by the end I was pretty in to it. I was pretty impressed by how it all came together in the end. Well done, masters of the golden age of mystery novels, I guess?
horthhill's review against another edition
4.0
The Floating Admiral is the result of a bit of amusement by a number of the leading detective story writers of the early '30s. Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers and others passed-on each succeeding chapter to the writer next on the list in a sort of writing relay without help of either overall outline or goal except that each succeeding chapter must advance the plot without ignoring the details of the preceding chapters. Of course, the final chapter must tie-up all that went before. All the writers are quite talented and the mechanics of the stories are at a high standard. No clue is left behind. But without an agreed-to outline, the story does meander a bit. The ending does tie-up loose ends, but the overall package is bit bulky and not very elegant. As a mystery novel, it is a bit ho-hum. But as a game, it is fun to follow the ingenuity of writers like Agatha Christie or Ronald Knox. A pretty good read.