Case of the Canterfell Codicil

For those who think that either Agatha Christie wasn’t funny enough or that PG Wodehouse didn’t feature anywhere near as many baffling murders as he could have, this book is a classic, cozy, locked-room mystery written in the style of an homage to PG Wodehouse.

In The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly is pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective inspector, and an irascible goat. This all takes place within the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside, where he must untangle a multilayered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge—and a teasing twist in the final paragraph.

The result, for those familiar with Wodehouse or Jerome K .Jerome and Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers, is either an inexcusable offence to several beloved canons, or a hilarious, fast-paced, manor house murder mystery.