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The Cask: A Detective Story Club Classic Crime Novel (The Detective Club) by Freeman Wills Crofts
ladyinpnw's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
I first found out about this book from the podcast Shedunnit. As far as I remember, this book was mentioned in an episode about writers setting stories in places that they know about and that the author of this book knew about railways. Which is why I went into this book with no expectations about the mystery in this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It moves at a steady pace. The story follows the investigation as it happens so the reader is discovering everything along with the detective, which allows the reader a chance to solve the mystery with the detective.
I am looking forward to reading more books by this author.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It moves at a steady pace. The story follows the investigation as it happens so the reader is discovering everything along with the detective, which allows the reader a chance to solve the mystery with the detective.
I am looking forward to reading more books by this author.
sophiaxlm's review against another edition
3.0
挺有阿婆那个年代的时代特征的侦探小说，不过不是安乐椅侦探类，而是寻找不在场证明中的漏洞的严谨推理派。趣味性不高，看20世纪初期的警察跨国查案倒是比较新鲜，结尾有种突然上道德课的感觉。
fictionfan's review against another edition
1.0
Enough to drive a girl to drink…
As a cargo ship is unloading at the docks in London, an accident causes a cask to fall and split. Two employees of the shipping company spot that some gold coins have fallen from it so not unnaturally they decide to have a little poke around inside to see if there are more. There are, but more shockingly there is also a dead hand which appears to be attached to a dead woman! So begins this ridiculously over-complicated, utterly tedious investigation into the death of someone I didn’t care about at the hands of one of the tiny group of suspects about whom I cared even less. If only the cask had been full of red wine, I could have got paralytically drunk and been happy…
Dear me, that’s the nearest I’ve come to death by boredom in a while! I’ve read a few of Crofts’ extremely procedural procedurals now, with varying degrees of enthusiasm or lack thereof, but this one is in a class of its own. Pages and pages and pages of shipping routes of casks, three detectives going over and over and over the same pieces of evidence again and again and again, zero characterisation of victims, suspects or detectives – truly it is a mystery to me how anyone manages to make it all the way through to the end of this with their sanity intact. I gave up at 53% when it became clear to me that I would soon be screaming out loud rather than just inside my head. I was “interested” enough to flick to the last chapter to find out which of the suspects had done the deed, and when I got there I realised I’d been right along – I really didn’t care!
And since I’m moaning, let me have a brief rant about the dialogue. People do not speak as if they are a business letter. No one – NO ONE – ever – in the history of the universe – has ever said in conversation, and I quote:
“That cask, as you see, was invoiced out via Havre and Southampton on the 30th ultimo, and yet it turned up in London on Monday, the 5th instant,…”
Good grief! And then there’s the convoluted journey of the corpse-containing cask, which turns up in Paris, London, Southampton, Le Havre and Rouen, some of them several times. Why? WHY?? Why would a murderer go to these ridiculous lengths to get rid of a body? What’s wrong with burying it in the woods or, since it crosses the Channel at least three times as far as I could gather, dumping it in the sea? And I don’t wish to lower the tone, but would a corpse travelling about in a cask for days in the height of summer remain… ahem… fresh??
(I realise the answers to the above may be given in the 47% of the book I didn’t read, but despite my mouth-frothing ranting, I DON’T CARE!!)
This was apparently Crofts’ first book, so a very strong argument against reading books in order. He undoubtedly did improve, even if his later books occasionally also bore me into fits of the screaming abdabs. At least he got over the desire to make his characters talk as if they were dictating letters to their secretaries. Apparently writer and critic Julian Symons classed him as one of “the humdrum school” of mystery novelists – on the basis of this one I feel Symons was being too kind. But Martin Edwards is even kinder when he uses the euphemism “meticulous” to describe the endless mind-numbing tediosity of repeated details. Amazingly the book has sold over 100,000 copies. I downloaded my copy free and yet still feel I’ve been overcharged…
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
As a cargo ship is unloading at the docks in London, an accident causes a cask to fall and split. Two employees of the shipping company spot that some gold coins have fallen from it so not unnaturally they decide to have a little poke around inside to see if there are more. There are, but more shockingly there is also a dead hand which appears to be attached to a dead woman! So begins this ridiculously over-complicated, utterly tedious investigation into the death of someone I didn’t care about at the hands of one of the tiny group of suspects about whom I cared even less. If only the cask had been full of red wine, I could have got paralytically drunk and been happy…
Dear me, that’s the nearest I’ve come to death by boredom in a while! I’ve read a few of Crofts’ extremely procedural procedurals now, with varying degrees of enthusiasm or lack thereof, but this one is in a class of its own. Pages and pages and pages of shipping routes of casks, three detectives going over and over and over the same pieces of evidence again and again and again, zero characterisation of victims, suspects or detectives – truly it is a mystery to me how anyone manages to make it all the way through to the end of this with their sanity intact. I gave up at 53% when it became clear to me that I would soon be screaming out loud rather than just inside my head. I was “interested” enough to flick to the last chapter to find out which of the suspects had done the deed, and when I got there I realised I’d been right along – I really didn’t care!
And since I’m moaning, let me have a brief rant about the dialogue. People do not speak as if they are a business letter. No one – NO ONE – ever – in the history of the universe – has ever said in conversation, and I quote:
“That cask, as you see, was invoiced out via Havre and Southampton on the 30th ultimo, and yet it turned up in London on Monday, the 5th instant,…”
Good grief! And then there’s the convoluted journey of the corpse-containing cask, which turns up in Paris, London, Southampton, Le Havre and Rouen, some of them several times. Why? WHY?? Why would a murderer go to these ridiculous lengths to get rid of a body? What’s wrong with burying it in the woods or, since it crosses the Channel at least three times as far as I could gather, dumping it in the sea? And I don’t wish to lower the tone, but would a corpse travelling about in a cask for days in the height of summer remain… ahem… fresh??
(I realise the answers to the above may be given in the 47% of the book I didn’t read, but despite my mouth-frothing ranting, I DON’T CARE!!)
This was apparently Crofts’ first book, so a very strong argument against reading books in order. He undoubtedly did improve, even if his later books occasionally also bore me into fits of the screaming abdabs. At least he got over the desire to make his characters talk as if they were dictating letters to their secretaries. Apparently writer and critic Julian Symons classed him as one of “the humdrum school” of mystery novelists – on the basis of this one I feel Symons was being too kind. But Martin Edwards is even kinder when he uses the euphemism “meticulous” to describe the endless mind-numbing tediosity of repeated details. Amazingly the book has sold over 100,000 copies. I downloaded my copy free and yet still feel I’ve been overcharged…
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
bibliobethreads's review against another edition
3.0
If I could give three and a half stars to this novel, I definitely would! An intriguing and entertaining golden age mystery with so many strands, twists and turns I was desparate to discover "who dunnit."
thomcat's review against another edition
3.0
A decent first novel, if a little long. Party mystery, part police procedural. I understand this author ranks up there with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers, but I hadn't heard of him before this.
The first section is policework, building the case against the shocked addressee of a cask containing coins and a body. In the second half, a defense is built, with another detective covering the same ground but from different angles. In both, the author lovingly describes pre-Great War London and France, going into a bit too much detail on the travel at times.
In addition to being a bit too wordy, the ending is very short. I can't say more without spoilers, but perhaps this was because the mystery genre was still evolving. Certainly some of the deductions were worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
Each year I try to read something from more than a century ago, and while wandering through Project Gutenberg I found this title. I didn't enjoy it as much as Doyle or Wells, but I'd like to try out another from this author - perhaps with his most famous protagonist, Inspector French.
The first section is policework, building the case against the shocked addressee of a cask containing coins and a body. In the second half, a defense is built, with another detective covering the same ground but from different angles. In both, the author lovingly describes pre-Great War London and France, going into a bit too much detail on the travel at times.
In addition to being a bit too wordy, the ending is very short. I can't say more without spoilers, but perhaps this was because the mystery genre was still evolving. Certainly some of the deductions were worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
Each year I try to read something from more than a century ago, and while wandering through Project Gutenberg I found this title. I didn't enjoy it as much as Doyle or Wells, but I'd like to try out another from this author - perhaps with his most famous protagonist, Inspector French.
iceangel9's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The classic mystery from one of the members of the famous Golden Age Detective Club. When a man is sent a cask with a dead body in it, the police try to prove him guilty of murder. His lawyer hire a famous detective to prove him innocent - and the game's afoot. A wonderful Golden Age mystery. Fans of Sayers and Christie will love this one as well.
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