Anthony Berkeley's Bewildered Detective

Berkeley's first novel was "I Wonder" published under his real name in the September 9, 1922 issue of "Democrat" magazine. Short satire. The theme is "love between husband and wife" which he has always cared about. Interestingly, his short story "Right to Kill" published in the December 30, 1922 issue of the same magazine was his first work on the crime theme.

It is generally believed that the humorist P.G. Wodehouse (Pelham Grenville Wodehouse) had the greatest influence on Berkeley's early creation. One of his masterpieces, Trial and Error (1937), is dedicated to Wodehouse. The four books Berkeley wrote in 1925 were all published by Wodehouse's Herbert Jenkins. In addition, his first full-length mystery novel "The Layton Court Mystery" (1925), and "Cicely Disappears" (1926), which describes the "impossible disappearance" incident in the séance. [1], and the touching novel "Mr. Priestley's Problem" (1927), published under the name of A.B. Cox, is full of Wodehouse's sense of humor.

As for how Berkeley got involved in detective novels, the author wrote it very clearly in an article titled "The Beginning" published in the March 28, 1923 issue of "Plum" magazine. If we believe those words, it can be said that Berkeley wanted to write detective novels long ago because he knew that detective novels are particularly profitable. It was the dawn of the "golden age" of classical reasoning, and long-form mystery works were selling like crazy. Berkeley's secret room mystery novel "The Mysterious Incident of Leyden Court", written in 1924, was published the following year under the extremely weird pen name "?". The book begins with a dedication to his father. In this novel, as long as the detective part is involved, we always try our best to describe possible actions in real life, deliberately creating a natural atmosphere, and try to be as straightforward and realistic as possible about the evidence found. In other words, Berkeley was the first among the writers of the Golden Age to advocate the principles of authenticity and fairness. He advocated effectively playing the role of plot in the entire story.

The novel "The Mysteries of Leyden Court" describes Roger Sheringham, Berkeley's main detective character, stranded with his friend Alek Gullienson. "Leyden Court", the owner of the manor, Stan Wass, was found dead in a study that was locked from the inside. His head was shot through with a pistol. There was a note on the table that was suspected to be a message written by him. Everything showed a state of suicide. Sheringham appeared in the novel as a best-selling author interested in criminology. He asked Gullionson to dress up as an assistant under the pseudonym Watson, while he played the role of a detective. The secret room plot in this book cannot be said to be very creative, but the unexpected murderer, the dramatic plot, and the detailed descriptions that are the characteristics of this series of mystery novels are all remarkable. Berkeley's humorous style is also fully displayed in the work. For example, in the scene where Sheringham seems to have grasped the key to the mystery of the incident and is questioning the relevant personnel, he lectures everyone and refutes the suicide proposed by the police. The argument is that this is a carefully disguised murder case, and then in the rest of the book, he sometimes puts on an arrogant attitude to investigate undercover, and sometimes sanctimoniously follows the temptation, trying to find out who did the good deeds. Because Sheringham was so successful in creating a hateful image, a critic once ridiculed him for his method of handling cases: sit down in a bar, order five or six pints of beer, and then drink all the doubts away. And empty! This unexpectedly funny character is really hilarious.

Belonging to the same genealogy as "The Mysteries of Leyden Court", there is also "Trent's Last Case" (1913) by E.C. Bentley (Edmund Clerihew Bentley) , Alan Alexander Milne's The Red House Mystery (1922), Ronald A. Knox's The Viaduct Murder ", 1925) and a series of other works. Berkeley said that he was "based on a certain impolite man I knew in the past" and created the character of Sheringham as "the antithesis of the famous detective". In fact, the image of "confused detective" who was an "anti-famous detective" like Xue Linghan was rare at the time. At the beginning of "Dead Mrs. Stratton", the American version of Jumping Jenny (1933), there is a short essay titled "About Roger Sheringham". According to the article, despite being two years older than Berkeley, Sheringham was surprisingly similar to him in appearance. Being born as the son of a doctor, making a living as a best-selling author, having deep knowledge in criminology, being proud of his talents and alienating others, etc., are all the same as Berkeley. He pays attention to integrating theory with practice, and is good at reasoning based on character. Although the conclusions drawn may not necessarily be correct, as long as he has criminology, the opportunity to study people, and refreshing beer, this man named Xue Linghan feels that he is a happy person. Man, perhaps the same is true for the writer Berkeley.

Perhaps when "The Mysterious Incident of Leyden Court" came out, the author had the idea of ??letting Sheringham appear again. However, in the subsequent work "An Amateur Adventuress" that was ultimately unpublished, the protagonist Claes Gru who witnessed the murder scene was a person entangled by a violent gang. The purpose of this work is completely different from the previous "Leyden Court Mysteries". It is a romantic thriller and is considered to be imitated by Agatha Christie's "The Secret Adversary" (The Secret Adversary, 1922) and "The Brown Coat". The Man in the Brown Suit (1924). But as the reputation for The Mysteries of Leyden Court grew, Sheringham was at it again.

The Wychford Poisoning Case (1926), the second novel published by Berkeley, shows the author's deep concern for the actual crime. The novel is based on the Mayblick incident that occurred in 1889. Mrs. Florence Mayblick was thought to have poisoned her husband with arsenic and was sentenced to hanging, but the execution was later suspended. There have been differing opinions as to whether she was the murderer or not. This work was published as a "by-product" of a special review by the female writer E.M. Delafield, but this time the name Berkeley was not used. It only stated that the author of the book was "The Mysterious Incident at Leyden Court" author. Of course, these are not important. What is important is that the publishing house that published this work has since been merged into Collins Company, which has a deep understanding of mystery novels, giving this mystery writer a chance to succeed commercially.

The subtitle of the book "Witchford Murder" is "An Essay in Criminology". In his dedication letter to E.M. Delafield, Berkeley said that this work pays more attention to psychological factors than physical evidence, and affirmed the author's ambition to create criminal psychological novels. "Witchford Murder" is about Sheringham and Gullionson, who also appeared in the previous work, living in the house of a friend in Wychford. The friend is a newlywed couple.

It opens with a happy scene of everyone having breakfast together. During the chat, they talked about the incident in this city where Mrs. Bentley poisoned her husband. Based on the circumstances of the incident, Mrs. Bentley was obviously the murderer, but Sheringham doubted this. Therefore, Xue Linghan formed a three-person amateur detective team with Gullionson and his cousin, the crazy girl Sheila, and began to investigate alone.

As if to further confirm his own thoughts, in "The Second Shot" (1930), the fifth work in the "Xue Lingham Series", Berkeley tried to achieve a psychological level. Engage readers. In the novel, the author advocates the pursuit of the mystery of human nature and analyzes and answers it on this basis. It should be said to be a pioneering work. Compared with this book, "Witchford Poison Case" cannot be said to be as fruitful, but after all, it talks about several criminal incidents. The whole book is full of humor and has many interesting points.

The name Anthony Berkeley was first used in the publication of a novel, in the third novel in the series, Roger Sheringham and the Vane Mystery (1927). )inside. Chief Inspector Mawsby of the London City Police Department makes his debut in the work, and our protagonist Sheringham is commissioned by the editorial director of the "Daily Telegraph" to investigate the incident of Mrs. Wynn falling to death from a seaside cliff. Brother Anthony Walton rushed to La Domas Village together. There, Xue Linghan recruited a woman he fell in love with at first sight to join their amateur detective team. The three of them went to solve the mystery of the incident, and the woman was the suspect.

The confused detective Xue Linghan, who was teased by Chief Inspector Moseby for "reading too many detective novels", either mistakenly pointed out the murderer, or his confident reasoning was quickly overturned by the facts, but these descriptions are exactly what happened. Based on the author's unique cynicism, sense of humor, critical spirit, and comic style. From the fourth game in the series, "The Silk Stocking Murders" (1928) to the eighth game, "Active Jenny", it was Sheringham's most active period. During this period, Berkeley made various experiments with the possibilities of detective fiction.

"The Silk Stocking Murder Case" is a more serious detective story in the Xue Linghan series. Compared with the first three works, the style of the work suddenly becomes serious. A priest came to Sheringham, who serialized short criminology reviews in the "Daily Telegraph", and asked Sheringham to find his daughter, whom he had lost contact with after returning to London. After investigation, it was learned that the pastor's daughter was hanged by a stocking. The case had originally been closed as a suicide by hanging. Due to the continuous occurrence of the same deaths, Xue Linghan suspected that there was a serial killer. The beginning of this game is very exciting, but unfortunately the ending is a bit weak.

The next published "The Second Shot" is a masterpiece no less than "The Poisoned Chocolate Murder". In order to enhance the unexpected effect of the murderer, the work adopts a double-line narrative, and the quality of the entire work exceeds that of one of Christie's famous works. There is an article at the beginning of the novel that talks about the directional principles that mystery writers should follow, such as character description and creating the atmosphere of the work. He believes that "if you have superb skills, readers can continue reading with interest even if they know who the murderer is." He also pointed out that, These propositions are based on experience gained from the practice of crime novels such as "Intention to Kill" written under Ayers' name. Admittedly, this is the author's insight, and on the other hand, it is also used as a hidden line in the novel. The story itself takes place in the mansion of a detective novelist, and a group of people are writing a play describing a murder when the real murder occurs. Although this type of work is very common, because this novel is so cleverly conceived, the ending has a "crushing" effect.

The subsequent "Top Storey Murder" (1931) and "Murder in the Basement" (1932) are also novels that can be called his masterpieces. The former was written in a dirty apartment on the top floor where the body of an old lady who had been strangled was found. Xue Lingham was dizzy to the extreme.

The latter is about a couple who had just returned from their honeymoon and found someone murdered in the basement of the house they rented. The investigation of the identity of the body and the search for the murderer were carried out at the same time. Sheringham wrote the draft and Chief Inspector Moseby was conducting the search at the same time. The structure of the novel is quite interesting. See skill.

In "Lively Jenny", a murder occurred while a party was being held in the mansion of a detective novel writer. This novel has the most dramatic plot twist in the Xue Linghan series. Attendees of the party all came to the party with the intention of pretending to be killed by a famous murderer. Among them was a woman who had persecutory paranoia, was self-centered, and liked to torture others. She was found hanged. On the gallows, which was meant to be a fun party. The narrative skills of the novel are superb. As a guest at the party, the "humorous" scene in which Xue Linghan is suspected of being the murderer also appears.

The last novel in the Sheringham series is "Panic Party" (Panic Party, 1934). Milward Kennedy, a member of the "Detective Club" who had a heated debate with Berkeley on the future of detective fiction, in his masterpiece "Death to the Rescue", 1931) stated that this book was a response to Berkeley's challenge to all tricks and types of reasoning. Berkeley said that "The Horror Party" was specially dedicated to the work of Kennedy. He tried the completely opposite creative method of Kennedy and broke the strict writing rules of "Detective Club". Indeed, as a golden age mystery novel, this work is very unique. It is set on an isolated island and is comparable to Christie's masterpiece "No Survivor" (1939). At the beginning of the story, a weirdo named Guy Pigeon took a group of friends headed by Sheringham to visit an island he bought. After the boat that took them to the island sailed away, Pijin suddenly made an explosive speech, saying that there was a murderer among the group of people who came to the island with him, and suggested that the murderer be found. It was just a joke to see how friends would react, but the next morning it was discovered that Pi Jin had fallen off a cliff and died. The boat to pick them up was delayed, and the people who came to the island to play were all suspicious of something. The suspicion eventually led people to suspect that the person who pushed Pijin off the cliff was a man named Lynch. In this work, Berkeley tried to integrate puzzle elements with the characteristics of adventure novels and thrillers to create a mystery novel with a grand structure. The result was a novel with inconsistent style and a somewhat strange taste. work.

Another series of detectives written by Berkeley is Ambrose Chitterwick, who debuted in "Poisonous Chocolate Murder". Chitterwick is a small, middle-aged man with a good-natured personality and no obvious characteristics. He has no job and lives with his two particularly nagging uncles. At the beginning of "The Piccadilly Murder" (1929), Chitterwick, who was very interested in criminology, saw the hand of a red-haired young man touching an old man's hand in the lounge of a hotel. The woman's cup made a strange movement. After the man left, the old woman who seemed to be asleep actually died of potassium cyanide poisoning. Chitterwick is a very funny character, so the Chitterwick series has a stronger sense of humor than the Sheringham series. Although the reader knows at a glance that his reasoning is wrong, he is still willing to watch with relish how his reasoning collapses. This is what makes this novel so interesting.

Zitterwick was also active in the 1937 book "The Referees Are Wrong." This novel should be said to be Berkeley's masterpiece. In the prologue of the novel, doctors tell a man named Todd Hunter that he will not live long. How to spend the rest of your life meaningfully? Todd Hunter asked all his friends around him, and everyone advised him to kill someone. After entering the main text, Todd Hunter actually killed someone, but another unrelated person was arrested as the murderer. In order to convince the police that he was the murderer, Todd Hunter started a fierce battle with Chitwick.

The main text is divided into five parts, which are presented to readers in the style of villain novels, cheap dramas, mystery novels, newspaper novels and strange novels. In other words, the various writing methods that Berkeley discussed in detail in "A Pot of Good Food" were all practiced in a full-length novel. In addition, this novel published under the name of Francis Ayers began to try to clearly depict the psychology of criminals, and it was well integrated with Burke Wright's detailed plot.