Philip MacDonald (1)Recensioni

Good read, the plot perhaps a bit far-fetched, the author including entertaining self-mockery of the genre he is writing.

Honestly I was underwhelmed, as a piece where basically the first serial killer in a book appears it's experimenting with how that works and why someone would kill for thrills rather than have a real motive. left me wanting both more and less. I wanted more about why and wished I hadn't spent my time reading. Honestly I don't remember much about it all but have no regrets for not re-reading to find out again.

Yes it's a smart framing device but the end left me very very angry. The solution left my first draft of a review very very sweary. Misogyny is alive and well in this story.
The result of the inquest is death by misadventure but who did it. The story has the files sent to Anthony Gethryn, the detective on leave. Only the files from the inquest and the reader is offered the chance to solve the murder mystery along with the reader. Red herrings are littered throughout but the solution, oh the solution, it is not worthy of the rest of the story.½

A thriller rather than a mystery, by my definition, since there is no “detection” per se. In any event, catching the criminal seems to be mostly a pretext for a complicated romantic plot of extreme artificiality. But the writing is a cut above.

Fine war time squad level drama, lost and stranded in the desert. Too perfect ending and casual racism and anti-Semitism mar the work.

An American Penguin edition.

Patrol by Philip MacDonald is the novel that John Ford used as the basis for The Lost Patrol. MacDonald served with the cavalry in Mesopotamia during World War I. After the war, he trained horses for the army. In 1931 he moved to Hollywood. His writing includes over twenty-five novels which made him one of the most popular mystery writers in the 1930s. He also wrote screenplays and fifteen of his novels became movies.

I picked this book up hoping it would explain some of the war in Mesopotamia. American interests in World War I usually does not extend beyond the Western Front. However in this book Mesopotamia is just the setting. A British unit is on patrol and their lieutenant is shot and killed, leaving the sergeant in charge of the men. The lieutenant, however, is the only man who knew the mission and their location. Any attempt to get back to the British outpost now needs to be based on luck. The men in the unit are from a wide variety backgrounds and interests -- An actor, a man from Cockney, and a Jew. The term Jew is thrown around quite a bit along with the “n” word. The “n” word, for the most part, is from the nursery rhyme, Ten Little “N” where people disappear one by one. The same thing happens in this novel. It is interesting too that profanity is censored in the book and not racial slurs. The world was different in 1927 England when this book was published.

This book shares the same plot line as future works like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (not the original title, by the way) or Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat. It is more of a book of people dealing with the unknown enemy or challenge. The people themselves who are usually controlled by societal forces are now in a new and different situation. Here the men are in an unknown position lead by a man, who although an NCO, is not an officer. Although the sergeant manages discipline, he does not carry the clout of the lieutenant had even though he was not liked. The sergeant must work on two levels -- as a leader and as one of the men. It is a good story, but not really a war story. The war provides the setting. The men and situation provide the story.

Hit-and-miss thriller from the 1930s, set in contemporary London. A fiend is killing policemen, and Scotland Yard struggles to catch the killer. Enter a smooth operator, who may have more than one reason for being so helpful to the police. Also enter the beautiful daughter of the police commissioner (predating Batman, it should be noted), and a massive, stolid baronet/race-car driver. There are some highly amusing bits, such as a newsreel-type sequence where some events are studded, and a hilarious pastiche of Hansard debates. But even though we hear from the killer throughout the novel via diary entries, we really don't get a grip on who the killer is. I didn't really feel satisfied with how the story was wrapped up. I can't honestly recommend it.

I really enjoyed its complicated plot and all its characters, especially Anthony Gethryn. A little disappointed with how it resolved, but not a big deal. I'll look for more Gethryn mysteries.

The romance between a couple of characters was a little awkward, both how one of them acted like a silly teenager, and the fact that much is made of how big, how gigantic she is. "Cable address Valhalla?" someone says. As a women of height I had mixed feelings. At the point when she's literally swept off her feet by her lover, she realizes with joy that for the first time she feels little. I should be offended, but in fact that spoke to my heart too. I'd love to feel little!

One of my favorite books. I didn't find the movie as good as the book. I read this when it first came out in paperback in the '60's and couldn't put it down.

Pretty good. Philip MacDonald basically invented the serial killer subgenre with this book. It's quite readable too, perhaps a tad long, and the denouement is a bit difficult to follow.½

I usually like MacDonald but I do not like this one because of what seems to be an anti-feminist tone.

A classic mystery. A young American author in London , influenced by Chesterton's Napoleon of Notting Hill, (to which this novel introduced me long ago) goes walking in that district, stops for tea and overhears two women discussing a plan that appears to include kidnaping and possibly murder. Scotland Yard is skeptical of his report, but Col. Gethryn is interested.

This begins with two things I dislike, first a murder told from the point of view of a sympathetic victim, in this case a brave young policemen, and second, an episode told from he murderer's point of view. After that, however, he becomes much more agreeable with the mysterious Mr. Revel undertaking to free Christopher Vayne, a war hero and amateur racing car driver, whose penchant for stealing policemen's helmets has brought him under suspicion for the murder of the policeman whose helmet he stole. Revel is motivated by an apparent interest in Jane Frensham, Vayne's ex-fiancée and daughter of the head of Scotland yard..

This Penguin edition has a blurb saying MacDonald belongs to the "cards on the table school" of mystery writer and is almost fanatical about sharing every clue with the reader. In this particular book, that is absolutely true --it is one of the very few mysteries I know in which all the facts are laid out clearly wit no deception. For that reason, I found it very easy to spot the murderer, but that was all right. in other respects, it is a classic British country-house murder, with a cabinet officer murdered in his own house where everyone else seems to have a good alibi. Col. Gethryn, formerly of he secret service, is asked to investigate by a major newspaper, beginning his career as MacDonald's lead detective. .

This felt too conversational to be a satisfying crime mystery. I did not engage with the characters or the plot.

Concerns the death by shooting of Sir Charles Grenville,a rich landowner. Michael Lawless,a Vet,is in love with Grenville's wife and after the death of Sir Charles he becomes involved in the case,both as an early suspect and then as a sort of Watson character. The real detective is Colonel Anthony Gethryn who in a series of startling revelations at the conclusion of the book,solves the case.
Typical of the period,this is a well thought out,if pedantic sort of mystery which includes timetables,appendix's and the obligatory map.½

What a great novel! This is a classic British mystery that kept my engaged and intrigued. While it is 11th in a series, I have never read any of the others and I didn't feel I missed a thing by starting with this one. It's definitely a stand-alone mystery.

A British novelist, Adrian Messenger, shows up with a list of seemingly unrelated people and wants his friend, who is in law enforcement, to check them out. Just find out if they are still alive or not. That's all he wants to know. When Messenger is subsequently killed in a questionable airplane accident, the search begins to find out if the list is related to his death and how the people on it are related to each other. The answer will take them into the upper echelons of British aristocracy.

While easy to read, the book does assume the readers are smart and clever. I like a book that assumes I'm intelligent. It's a smart, classic mystery writing at it's best!

One of the GREATEST!

This is a "locked room" mystery of a different type, and having been written in 1931, one of the 'old school' style. In an isolated house, a woman is found dead in her bedroom; her throat has been cut, but no murder weapon is evident. Downstairs at the time, her husband and his two guests present unshakeable alibis for one another; and of the four occupants of adjoining bedrooms, none (her sister, her son, her housekeeper, and a female friend) seem remotely plausible as murderers. To add to the mystery, in ensuing weeks, two of the occupants die in mysterious accidents that look like murder, and a third has several apparent attempts on her life. Detective Anthony Gethryn races to solve the mystery before more deaths ensue.

Author Philip MacDonald plays by the unwritten rules of mystery writing, holding nothing back from the reader. The plot twists and turns, and the investigator scrambles to unlock the puzzle. The solution is unexpected and worth waiting for. The author's style and local slang take a bit of getting used to, but tend to grow on the reader. My version of this novel is bound with two others in a compilation Triple Jeopardy), and I have been sufficiently entertained to try the others.

Although a bit old fashioned stylistically, this book is presents a terrific puzzle and its solution and resolution are very satisfying.

good characters, good story, good mystery, well explained. i sort of liked the long explanation. i really understood how the murder was done.

pm writes well but this story was kinda stupid.½

Philip MacDonald's Mystery of the Dead Police (originally published in 1933 as "X v. Rex" by Martin Porlock) is written in a somewhat leisurely style where the author quite often 'breaks through' to the reader with asides and comments. Long narrative chapters alternate with short diary entries written by the murderer. It seemed at times that the narrative was simply meandering, and it was very 'talky' in places with paragraphs running to one or two pages long. But then you'd get to the point, and think, 'ah, yes.' I initially thought the book might be part of MacDonald's Colonel Anthony Gethryn series - it's not, although Gethryn would have fit right in with the proceedings. Not for everyone, and not something I'm likely to ever reread. But I liked it well enough this one time.½

A country house murder mystery. MacDonald has a flair for creating extremely likable characters in just a line or two. An English government Minister is found dead in his study, his heady savagely bashed in, and all the clues point to one man. Anthony Gethryn- scholar, spy, and man-about-town- sets out to prove the accused’s innocence. This is a locked room mystery that doesn’t play fair, so the attraction of the story is its charm, which it delivers in spades. The denouement is long but interesting, and it must have been something of a shocker when it was written in 1924. The murderer, when apprehended, is mad and repellent; an interesting theme I’ve noticed in mysteries of the 30s and very different from the portrayal of killers today.