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S'està carregant… X V Rex (1933 original; edició 1939)de Martin (Philip MacDonald) Porlock
Informació de l'obraMystery of the Dead Police de Philip MacDonald (1933)
S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. 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. 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. 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.. 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.
The first police officer is murdered in Farnley which ten years before had been a small country town near London, but which had undergone a dramatic increase in population during the intervening years. At work in the new police station, a marker of the town's recent prosperity, and unaware of the danger he is facing, the police sergeant sends all three of his on-duty constables to investigate a burglary reported to be under way at a nearby house; they return to find him still sitting at his desk, and suspect him of having fallen asleep. But he is dead, having been shot through the forehead. It soon becomes apparent that Sergeant Guilfoil's murder is only the first in a series specifically targeting policemen in uniform. One month later a patrolling police officer is found dead in a deserted Mayfair street, having been strangled with a white handkerchief. A few days later another deceased policeman is found, this one the victim of a knife attack. Continued Pertany a aquestes col·leccions editorialsThe Albatross Crime Club (No. 107) Collins Crime Club (No. 3) Doubleday Crime Club (1933.17) Pocket Books (70)
Excerpt from X V. RexThis sudden giant stride was due to the idea, shyly enough inaugurated in the three years immediately following 1918 but boldly swelling with each succeeding year that because a man must work in the grey and dangerous jungle of London it does not follow that he must eat his evening meal there and sleep there and spend there his Saturday afternoons and Sabbaths.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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