Death in White Pyjamas / Death Knows No Calendar

August 3, 2020
Readers who like their whodunits laced with humor will welcome this reprint of two standalones from the 1940s by Bude (1901–1957). In the first novel, Bude takes a leisurely approach, beginning with witty portrayals of a British theatrical company, financed by biscuit millionaire Sam Richardson and led by sinister producer Basil Barnes, described as the sort of person who’d be expected “to produce a revolver” if he “put his hand in his pocket.” The fraught relationships among members of the company as they prepare to stage a gloomy Russian drama, The Red Ant, are explored, before one of their number is found drowned in a lake near Richardson’s and Barnes’s country cottages. The solution showcases Bude’s cleverness, which is even more in evidence in the second novel, which features Maj. Tom Boddy, a dogged amateur sleuth who’s devoted to fictional mysteries and likes to point out errors to their authors. Aided by his savvy batman, Syd Gammon, Boddy probes the shooting death of one of his neighbors in the parish of Lower Beckwood. The British Library Crime Classics series impresses again.