Member Reviews
Bellairs never disappoints. His main character, Tom Littlejohn, develops over the series but is always recognisably himself.
Love all of this series of books. Although set in a different era and some of the events wouldn’t be excepted in today’s society, but taken in the age they were written in they give a good idea how things were back then. The gentler pace of life even though murders did happen the gore wasn’t pushed in our faces
An unusually narrated and surprisingly funny mystery that drew me in from the first few paragraphs. Mr. Bellairs also seems to shake off the conventions of his time/genre in some small and large ways (outside of the thoroughly unlikable initial murder victim). I do think he's stronger outside the Inspector Littlejohn series. There's a very interesting paper in here somewhere re: England during wartime and the various approaches authors,, specifically mystery authors, took toward the subject of war, rationing, foreign nationals, etc. Although perhaps this subject is on my mind as I just finished The Case of the Murdered Major. Anyway, this was very enjoyable and it's a strong recommend!
The title is very apt, with the death in the story stopping the frolic that members of a church were indulging in (much to the distaste of quite a few of the members). The victim was a man who had enough time on his hands to pick fights with everyone in town.
The extreme physical descriptions, more of women than the men, was a little off-putting, in a different mood of reading it might not have been as annoying. Some of the narrative descriptions did hold their own uniqueness, and I must admit to having chuckled at a few. It does paint a very vivid and intricate picture of the goings-on of the people in the town. The town's history and the way it was told was also quite interesting. The mystery plot itself was almost sidelined. As a reader, we are not given much of an opportunity to solve the case. The information revelations happen mostly as confessions and leave no room for actual sleuthing. In the beginning, the police do conduct diligent interviews, so it was not all up to the admissions by suspects since they had to become suspects first.
It is a quick read, and I have a few others by the author left to read.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.
With thanks to the Agora Books and NetGalley for the e-book version of this novel.
I was first introduced to George Bellairs through Net Galley and I am so glad I was. I love the Detective Inspector Thomas Littlejohn stories and the characters, however, Superintendent Nankivell falls woefully short and can understand why it is a one off. Its an early book so understandable not one of his best.
The murders in this book are irrelevant to the plot and action, and the solution casually tacked on at the end, unsupported by clues, plausibility or psychological sense. The reader will care no more about the resolution than the author did.
The point of the book is a comic slice of life in a small English village dominated by one employer and one dissenting religion during WWII. From this distance it's hard to tell what is intended as satire versus comedy, but there are no characters the author appears to both like and respect. Despite the absurd and amusing foibles of the characters, this makes it basically a dark book, bitter rather than affectionate. The comically elaborate first murder of an elderly meddling tyrant is conventional, but the subsequent murder of an abused child adds an unnecessarily unpleasant note in a comic novel.
Some of the characters and scenes are amusing, but they make for a tedious investigation. This book would have been much better if held together by some silly romantic dilemma or misunderstanding. As it is, the murder investigation does not furnish any links among the vignettes, nor any momentum to the plot.
A forgettable, lesser work by this author.
I have enjoyed quite a few of Bellairs books and Chief Inspector Littlejohn. This is however not in the Littlejohn series, and I missed him and Sargeant Cromwell.
The story takes place in Swarebridge during WW2, where two murders are committed. The senior deacon of the chapel of Zion is giving his annual performance in follow-the-leader at the Anniversary Tea Party. He falls through a trapdoor and is stabbed to death. The sympathetic Superintendent Nankivell is head of the investigation, but before he succeeds in finding the murderer, another murder is committed.
I found the description of people in the community very good and often very funny, and Bellairs is also excellent at creating the sometimes claustrophobic atmosphere in the close religious society of Zion. The plot was a bit weak and it was not very exciting.
I've never read a novel by Bellairs before and was somewhat taken aback as I slowly got into it.
Humorous, parochial, and different, I ended up enjoying it.
Characters are well differentiated and puzzling, which I appreciated.
I will read more of this author's books.
Recommended
immensely enjoyable - of the old school of crime detective stories - a popular character in a small town is unaccountably knifed to death in the midst of an annual celebration in the town - what unravels is dependent on the good characterisations, and understandings of a small town where gossip and grudges reign - really a good find! I hope more of Bellairs will be published ... very entertaining these long evenings ...
Hi,
My next review is as follows:-
"Death Stops The Frolic” written by George Bellairs and published in Paperback by Agora Books on 19h March 2020 198 pages ISBN-13: 978-1913099114
The book was one that once started was almost impossible to put down and I read it very quickly as it was a really atmospheric and brilliantly researched historical mystery.
On a joyous afternoon filled with tea and cake, something strange happens at Zion Chapel’s Anniversary Tea Party. The infamous Alderman Harbuttle is behaving uncharacteristically playful – laughing with the assembly, singing rhymes, and leading people in a rousing game of Follow-My-Leader throughout the chapel’s winding halls.But his jubilee is cut short when the revellers find the Alderman’s murdered body in the dark recesses of the chapel, a bread knife buried to the hilt in his chest.Superintendent Nankivell of the local police force takes up the case, and his investigation quickly stirs up sinister secrets lurking within the walls of Zion Chapel. His suspect list soon proves massive, as he learns there are many people who would be happier without the sanctimonious Alderman Harbuttle around… Death Stops the Frolic was first published as Turmoil in Zion in 1943.
The author was a crime writer and bank manager born in Lancashire, who settled in the Isle of Man on retirement. He wrote more than 50 books, most featuring the detective Inspector Littlejohn. He also wrote four novels under the alternative pseudonym Hilary Landon. His first novel Littlejohn on Leave was published in 1941. If you are looking for great whodunits, which keep you up at night with plenty of clues and red herrings you can rely on his Inspector Littlejohn series. His books are regularly set on the Isle of Man and portray the topography of the Isle in great detail. Many of the later books are set in France, usually in the Provence and Alps-Maritime area. Otherwise quiet English country villages are the most common with Bellairs.
I really enjoyed this very gripping story which had such an unusual plot, or should I say plots as there were so many different elements going on but it all turned out right in the end. Extremely well recommended. (Advance copy from the publisher in exchange for a fair review).
George Bellairs is very good.
If you like your crime novels light and infused with humour but with a well-constructed plot and good characterisation, then George Bellairs is hard to beat. He may not have been particularly radical in his approach to the crime novel but he certainly had a distinctive style and that is a style I have really warmed to over the past few years.
The previous George Bellairs novels I have read have all involved his indomitable detective, Inspector Littlejohn and been part of a series. This novel as far as I can tell is a standalone novel from 1943, quite early in the author’s writing life, and concerns another detective, Superintendent Nankivell, who has a very different back story and position, being from the local area and local police force. But although altering our perspective on the crime by being based in the locality, not having Littlejohn as the detective has little negative impact on the book, the story was as enjoyable as almost any other Bellairs novel I have read. It still has the tropes, details and flourishes that I have come to expect from Bellairs’ Littlejohn series: precise plotting with enough twists and red herrings to keep the story interesting but without becoming frustrating; relatively unlikely scenes and characters, just this side of believable (the main thing I love about Bellairs) and genuine humour throughout. Much of the humour comes from the colourful incidental characters, always described with great detail and care, and helping to add interest to the story and making it entertaining, if not themselves driving the story. It is for this alone that I would and indeed do keep returning to George Bellairs.
Added to this great little crime novel is the incidental comments on the time this was written (1943), a time just within living memory, so very recent and yet so very distant. This novel is a time capsule and a comment on British society during the Second World War which adds to its interest and value. But even without this, it is still a very enjoyable little mystery novel. Just don’t come to this expecting modern day shocks or gore or other fetishes; this is good clean murder, and all the better for it.
A top notch whodunit and great characters.
I highly recommend this book.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.
This is another crime classic reprint – this time of Bellairs 1943 novel originally published as “Turmoil in Zion”. To avoid disappointment to his loyal readers it is important to say it does not involve Inspector Littlejohn; instead local Superintendent Nankivell is given a week to solve the killing of a local church deacon by his superior, precisely so “The Yard” do not need to be called in. The Chief Constable believes that local knowledge will solve the crime – thus allowing a full examination of the town of Swarebridge, its institutions, people and their relationships to be validly investigated I depth as part of the novel’s plot.
Admittedly it was not easy to be certain who was involved in the killing early in the book, not least because the murder victim was not well liked and with good reason too. But the plotline turned out in retrospect to be very simple and so the success of this novel lies in the pithy and detailed descriptions of small town life with all its rivalries (great and small), vagaries and jealousies. Set in 1941 there are increasing references to the increasing stringencies of life in the Second World War – and the abilities of some to circumvent them too.
Swarebridge had been a relatively small settlement until Mr Pogsley set up a set of three spinning mills – actually in 1916, another unwritten tale. This had allowed the settlement to grow and for some to seriously profit by land and housing speculation that ran by the side of this. Bellairs does little to hide this, or the rivalries it laid down. One key institution that has been built and flourished is the Zion Chapel, about to celebrate its 25th anniversary at the time of the killing. It has a large congregation of about 500 tied to it by belief, its centrality to social life and Mr Pogsley’s (albeit now deceased) patronage of it and selective employment practises.
The grand celebration starts in the Church Hall with a meal and after it Deacon and Alderman Mr Harbuttle leads the traditional “crocodile chain” of celebrants around the premises. Shock abounds when he leads the line into the chapel for the first time and then again when he falls down an open trap door in the dark. Investigations prove he has been stabbed through the heart with a knife purloined from the kitchen. The investigation begins and over the next few days police check who was where when and who would have motive and draw up a list of possible suspects. At a reconstruction a few days later a youngster, who might have seen something on the night of the murder is strangled. This means there is now Victim 2 and worse a child killer on the loose.
With so many people with dislike for Harbuttle – although most were unlikely killers – the police have a difficult task and so decide to follow up all the recent links they can identify around Harbuttle. Finally using local knowledge, (and not that of just Nankivell, but a simple village bobby, the reasons can be unravelled and the perpetrator revealed. Incidentally, thus debunking the need for “The Yard” expertise”
Taken together this is allows a detailed portrayal of small town life in rural northern England. The relations and rivalries of both the women and the men are laid clear. The relationship between its various classes and the links from the town itself to the farms of its hinterland are overlaid on that. Although it is clearly 1941, the back history of the place and its residents is linked to the years of the First World War too with its ongoing impact. Who is “in” and who is “out” of the various social and economic circles is laid clear and the difficulties of newcomers to the place are recognised. This is a subtle and assured statement of time and place, making it – if one ignores the casualness of the murders - an excellent light read.
Don’t get me wrong: I welcome every George Bellairs novel, including Death Stops the Frolic (first titled Turmoil in Zion when released in 1943). But, to be honest, Superintendent Nankivell, chief of the Swarebridge police, is no Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Thomas Littlejohn. Perhaps Bellairs himself realized it, as he limited himself to just one Nankivell novel.
A conceited alderman and church elder gets murdered at an evening church celebration, and there is no end of likely suspects whose lives would be better without the hypocritical old curmudgeon. As always, Bellairs’ sly commentary on villagers and village life is the best part of the novel.
I missed Littlejohn and his trusty sidekick, Sergeant Robert Cromwell, but Death Stops the Frolic, if not an absolute party, was still pretty good.
Superintendent Nankivell, Police Chief of Swarebridge, happens to be on-site at the Zion Church's anniversary celebration when a murder is committed. Alderman Harbuttle has fallen through the chapel choir's trapdoor while leading the church's flock on a follow-the-leader type of entertainment known as "The Famous Duke of York." The fall didn't kill him, but the knife through his heart did. Because of the World War II blackout no one saw anything. Nankivell must investigate his seemingly pious neighbors and pry into their personal lives to solve the crime. Harbuttle was a hot-tempered man who enjoyed bullying people and who also had an eye for much younger women. His murder might be expected, but soon a young boy is also found murdered during a town meeting called to discuss Harbuttle's murder. George Bellairs's ear for dialects and his descriptions of the town's residents are a pleasure to read. The book is well constructed and will keep mystery fans engaged and entertained.
This is a very readable murder mystery, and the setting is a village chapel and the mixture of characters there. There are certainly twists and tuens, and lots of period detail. One thing that struck me, is that apart from Superintendant Nankivell there aren't any likeable characters - they are all drawn with their flaws very visible, and no-one is particularly heroic. The details about how the village transformed from a small rural setting to a factory town is quite fascinating, as the story of the chapel's foundation and the politics behind it is vital to the story.
This is the first novel by George Bellairs that I have read without his main character Detective Superintendent Littlejohn and I felt that it was not one of his best. Having said that I still enjoyed the old fashioned police procedural where alibis and facts need to be checked and double checked to ensure that they are correct. The novel starts with the Zion church having their tea dance which always finishes with a rendition of follow my leader. The leader being Alderman Harbuttle, a very nasty piece of work who likes to get his own way and is prepared to go to any lengths to get it. He decides to show off during the follow my leader and takes the group through the church and up onto the balcony, unfortunately for him a trap door has been left open and he falls through the trap door and is then stabbed to death. The local Detective Chief Superintendent is called and he tries to pass the case to Scotland Yard but his Chief Constable won't have it so he is left to carry out the investigation.
I have only previously read the Inspector Littlejohn books by George Bellairs - and have thoroughly enjoyed them. So with trepidation I started this book knowing Littlejohn was not present. I need not have worried, Mr. Bellairs was 100% on form! The characters were wonderfully painted, as was the small town and surrounding countryside. The author is a genius and the people leap from the page and become alive to the reader. There are some truly comic moments but they are never overdone and the grisly crimes are solved in a clever manner. More George Bellairs please.
This is a reissue of a golden age crime novel with a fresh title and a very noir-looking title, which isn’t entirely the same tone as the book, but which is nonetheless very cool.
I liked the characters and especially the setting: the townspeople are vividly described and the chapel community felt very cleverly drawn. The mystery was good - although I still can’t work out if I think that the resolution was a clever twist or a bit of a cheat. And to say more than that would be giving away too much.
I would happily read more from Bellairs.
Although this isn't up to Bellair's Littlejohn series I did enjoy it for the social history elements, hence the four stars. Trying to search a murder scene during blackout for example. An odd story though and, thankfully, quite short. With thanks to the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.