The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery

September 7, 2015
In the 1970s, Bonfiglioli (1928–1985) made a splash with Don’t Point That Thing at Me and two other humorous mysteries featuring Charlie Mortdecai, a former art dealer who’s often on the wrong side of the law. Completed by British humorist Brown (Hello Goodbye Hello) and originally published in 1996, this first U.S. edition of the witty fourth and final Charlie Mortdecai mystery centers on the death of Bronwen Fellworthy—a fellow and tutor at Scone College, Oxford, Mortdecai’s alma mater—who perished instantly when her motorcar collided with an omnibus. Mortdecai, who considers Fellworthy “perhaps the only wholly unacceptable woman I have encountered in a long and varied experience,” gets involved in the investigation thanks to, among others, Det. Chief Insp. Albert H. Sermon, who makes him a “Special Detective Inspector with Detached Duties.” Fans of Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy mysteries (The Judas Pair, etc.) will find a lot to like.

Starred review from October 15, 2015
In the fourth Charlie Mortdecai novel (first published in 1999 in the UK), the louche aristocrat is recovering from hemorrhoid surgery in his half-mansion in Jersey, Channel Islands, and warring with his wife over his newly sprouted mustache, when his former Oxford tutor arrives, requesting Mortdecai's assistance in the investigation of a murderbut the presence of an actual mystery should in no way dissuade you from reading this book. Plot is a requirement in fiction, of course, but in the wonderfully offbeat novels of Bonfiglioli (192885), plots are like valet stands, flimsy structures that exist to support a gentleman's accoutrements. Though the mystery is eventually solved (with a farcical ending completed by English satirist Craig Brown), digression is the entire point. The often hilarious narrative voice owes something to P. G. Wodehouse (Mortdecai and his thug, Jock, are a through-the-looking-glass Wooster and Jeeves), but Bonfiglioli pays the debt by layering his homage with a loony blend of classical references, groan-worthy asides, and a playful dismantling of Golden Age detective novels. True, the right and left turns of high humor and low may leave middle-of-the-road readers feeling somewhat disoriented. It's not for everyone, but for those whom it is, it most definitely is.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)