Book Review: Death of a Busybody

[osprey_archer]

I criticized Martin Edwards' The Golden Age of Murder when I first read it, but I must say it has been a productive book for me in leading me to new and interesting authors: first to E. M. Delafield, who isn't even a murder mystery author but nonetheless got caught up with those who were (now that sounds like the plot of a detective story in itself), and now with George Bellairs' Death of a Busybody.

I must say I feel that E. M. Delafield was the more successful find. Bellairs, eh; Death of a Busybody is a perfectly adequate English country village mystery, but I don't feel the urge to search out any more books by him.

And his detective, Inspector Littlejohn, has given me a new appreciation for the depth Ngaio Marsh gave to her Inspector Alleyn. Now you may object that Inspector Alleyn is not exactly over-endowed with personality himself, which may be accurate when compared to the eccentricities of for instance a Poirot -

Speaking of Poirot, I saw Wonder Woman recently and the new Orient Express was one of the previews and maybe I just imprinted too hard on David Suchet, IDK, but I'm not sure I approve of this new Poirot. Do we need a new Poirot? Why all the remakes all the time???

ANYWAY. The point I intended to get to is that Inspector Littlejohn has no discernible personality at all. While I prefer this detective's personal lives to remain second fiddle to their mysteries, lest they throttle their books like strangler figs, it turns out that there is indeed such a thing as too little personality in a detective, too. Littlejohn is little more than a conduit for exposition, and mostly indistinguishable from the other characters who act as conduits of exposition in this book, which makes the thing sadly forgettable even though I enjoyed it in a mild way as I read it.

Comments

[sovay]

and maybe I just imprinted too hard on David Suchet, IDK, but I'm not sure I approve of this new Poirot. Do we need a new Poirot?

No.

[littlerhymes]

I showed my mum the Orient Express preview - she strongly disapproved of the moustache. #teamsuchet

You need SOMETHING to the detective. Even if it's just a good hairstyle.

[evelyn_b]

Alleyn's just a slow burn. He doesn't feel the need to put all of his cards on the table in the first six pages like some detectives I could name. He's got work to do! Besides, too much personality prejudices the investigation.

Do we need a new Poirot? Why all the remakes all the time???

Poirot is eternal and unchanging, so no. But it also can't hurt anything to do a lot of remakes, because Poirot is eternal etc.. So I'm all for this murdertrain mustache festival.

[thisbluespirit]

Alleyn's just a slow burn. He doesn't feel the need to put all of his cards on the table in the first six pages like some detectives I could name. He's got work to do! Besides, too much personality prejudices the investigation

<3

(I spent too much of this post thinking much the same: Alleyn has a personality! It's just not a showy one with all those ridiculous quirks that detectives in books have. He does, indeed, have work to do instead!

(We don't need a new Poirot, though. Even if it does look like a ridiculous thing at least, which is always something.)

[osprey_archer]

I was worried that perhaps it was just my dislike of change that got in the way of my appreciating this trailer, so I am glad to see that other people agree. Suchet is perfect! No need to replace him!

[osprey_archer]

I thought that surely a detective named Littlejohn would lead to some Robin Hood allusions, which would be close enough to a personality to be getting on with, but no dice.

[osprey_archer]

I originally had a paragraph about how Alleyn does turn out to have a personality beneath all that professionalism - he likes Shakespeare! He calls his coworker Br'er Fox! He is super awkward about love! Also he went to an English public school once - but it ended up getting eaten up by my rant about the new Orient Express.

I suppose if I read enough books about Littlejohn he might turn out to have a personality too, but I don't think I care enough. And anyway I think Alleyn displays at least a bit of it even in books where he's very buttoned up and professional - you can usually see his sense of humor in the way he talks to his colleagues, for instance. And that Shakespearian sense of drama comes out in his tendency to run reenactments of the crime.

[osprey_archer]

Alleyn likes to keep his personality under wraps, as a proper police detective should - although I think his flair for the dramatic comes out in his fondness for gathering all the suspects round to stage murder reenactments. Too much Shakespeare, Alleyn! (Although I'm sure Alleyn thinks there's no such thing.)

[sovay]

Suchet is perfect! No need to replace him!

I saw him for the first time as Salieri in a revival of Amadeus at the Old Vic in 1999. I imprinted. Discovering he was the definitive Poirot (and he is) was just lagniappe.

[thisbluespirit]

Too much Shakespeare, Alleyn! (Although I'm sure Alleyn thinks there's no such thing.)

He would probably concede, though, that too much Shakespeare has been interrupted by murder.