Death in the Opening Chapter

May 30, 2011
As the title promises, the first chapter of Heald's stately new entry in his Simon Bognor series (Red Herrings, etc.) does indeed find the Rev. Sebastian Fludd hanging in the nave of St. Teath's in Mallborne, a feudal relic of an English seaside town. It's the eve of the annual Flanagan Fludd Literary Festival named for a distant ancestor, and this doubting and almost radical clergyman, who was also at odds with his wife, Dorcas, had been preparing tomorrow's sermon. Sebastian's baronet cousin, Sir Branwell Fludd, a believer in order and tidiness, is sure the vicar committed suicide, but Bognor, a special investigator for the Board of Trade, suspects otherwise. The witty Bognor, while guest of Sir Branwell, begins his own inquiry with a methodical if at times unorthodox approach to interviewing suspects. Those who prefer rambling, allusive, mildly humorous English mysteries will be most rewarded.

May 15, 2011

The Flanagan Fludd Literary Festival is put on hold when a collateral relative of its namesake is strung up in his own church.

The Rev. Sebastian Fludd, vicar of St. Teath's Mallborne, was an inoffensive soul. The only scenario more unlikely than that he should have hanged himself is that he should have annoyed someone else enough to take the trouble to do so. Luckily, Sir Simon Bognor, head of the Board of Trade's Special Investigations Department, is staying with the vicar's cousin, Sir Branwell Fludd. So when Chief Constable Jones indicates that his one and only interest in the case is not stirring up any trouble, Bognor, variously assisted by his wife Monica and his right-hand man Harvey Contractor, is available to interrogate the suspects, beginning, of course, with his host and his wife Lady Camilla. Whether Bognor, who aptly "felt as if he had never really grown up," is questioning grieving widow Dorcas Fludd, operatic soprano Vicenza Book (née Marigold Bean), or Festival Writer-in-Residence Martin Allgood, the dialogue is so relentlessly facetious and self-gratifying, in the Wodehouse manner, that even the most experienced armchair sleuths will have trouble grasping the truth beneath the industrial-strength persiflage. It doesn't help that Heald (Stop Press, 1999, etc.), after signaling the potential importance early on of a key clue, never presents it directly to the gentle reader.

A feast of blather, more full of fun than genuine wit or humor, that's bound to flatter like-minded fans into approval.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011
The death by hanging of the Reverend Sebastian Fluddoccurring, as promised, in the opening chapteris decidedly untimely, coming just as the annual Flanagan Fludd Literary Festival is about to open in the town of Mallborne, England. A ruling of suicide would be most convenient all around, but the reader will suspect murder, as does Board of Trade special investigator Sir Simon Bognor, who's on holiday with his wife, Monica, at the Mallborne estate of Sir Branwell Fludd, a distant cousin of the victim and patron of the festival. After publishing 10 Simon Bognor mysteries decades ago (most recently, Business Unusual, 1989), Heald had declared his intention to drop the character, considering him something of an indulgence. Happily, he changed his mind. The pleasure here comes not as much from the mystery element as from the stylish, witty wordplay encountered along the way to resolution. Heald riffs entertainingly and perceptively on everything from big issues like class and religion to why a stand-off is labelled Mexican. Great fun for fans of Wodehouse and beyond.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)