Jumping Jenny is my second favourite novel by Anthony Berkeley and this re-read was just as spellbinding as my first time. Martin Edwards notes that as it was written in 1933 it is of its time and in places it shows. However, I do believe Berkeley intended it to be taken with a grain of salt in its lightheartedness. His character portrayals are witty and exaggerated to add effect. What shines is his cleverness and cunny in this inverted mystery. It is obvious the Detective Club founder enjoyed puzzles very much...so glad he did!

Roger Sheringham is a celebrated author and amateur sleuth, a criminologist of sorts. His methodical brain just happens to be at hand at a house party where a death occurs. Melodramatic props for this party include gallows. Suspects want the death to look like suicide but those closely investigating know better. The victim was an irritant and wouldn't be missed so had to go. Roger reminds witnesses what they remember and don't with hilarious results. There are more twists than you can throw a stick at to the very end but there is only one plausible solution.

Though dated, I am besotted with this story for what it was intended to be...pure enjoyment. Golden Age Mystery fans ought to seek this one out, as well as Berkeley's Poisoned Chocolates Case, his best written and presented.

My sincere thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this superlative British Library Crime Classics mystery. I love that works such as these are recognized for the beauty they are and that they are becoming more and more accessible. Well done!

Anthony Berkeley wrote books that challenges your mind and, as far as I can see, seem to challenge our contemporary moral codes.
I enjoyed Jumping Jenny, it's refreshingly cynical at times, but you are left wondering who is the villain and who is the victim.
It's a good study of relationship in a weird family and a group of people. Roger Sheringham acts as externa. observer and as sleuth.
We know who-did-it but the character in the books ignore it and the game will be how they solve the mystery
I wasn't very comfortable with some descriptions and I think that the characters in this book are almost all flawed and often quite irritating.
It's hard to tell the victims from the abusers and I don't share the opinion that Berkley was misogynistic as the opinions of the characters are those of the age when the book was written and some of them are quite modern as a divorced woman was often biased.
An intriguing story and a book that is also thought provoking.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Jumping Jenny is not your typical whodunit book. Is an inverted one. You know who did it quite early, but the characters don't. And not only that, is one of the few where the main detective (in this case a crime book writer) doesn't want to know it either.

Let's start at the beginning. This book was written in 1933 by Anthony Berkeley and therefore has a lot of old misconceptions about gender and marriage. It is impossible to separate the time when the book was written from its content and honestly, it shouldn't. Please keep this in mind while reading, then some misconceptions might be more forgivable, at least it was for me.

The introduction by Martin Edwards was great to set the scene, and gather some background information about Anthony Berkeley that I greatly enjoyed.

Now to the characters: be warned that a lot of them have similar names. This created some confusion at first, let me explain it better. There are two doctors, two Mr. Stratton, three Mrs. Stratton (two wives of the previous brothers and one sister), there are former/current/future Mrs. Stratton (as both brothers are unhappy in their marriages). I must admit, I got lost at first but around midway I could identify who was who.

Regarding the plot, you might think 'where is the fun in a detective novel when you already know who did it?'. I will admit I was curious too. What is important to note is that with Jumping Jenny you can never be sure of what you know. In the words of Martin Edwards "He (Berkeley) is adept at showing how, from a single set of premises, the over-ingenious mind may construct endless theories, all plausible and all wrong..."

Ultimately, Jumping Jenny is a book that demands your attention and rewards you with a unique and ingenious plot. It will keep you guessing until the very end and it is completely worth it.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Jumping Jenny will be (re) published in January 2023.

British-crime-classics, classic-crime, consultant, historical-novel, law-enforcement, costume-party, closed-circle-mystery, suicide, famous-author*****

The reader is quite ready for the woman to become deceased! Then the reader "watches" as it happens at the fancy dress/costume party with a group of friends. Now comes the sleuthing! It does masquerade as suicide quite nicely, but then Sheringham gets a little too full of himself and neatly becomes a candidate for murderer even though he didn't do anything but shoot off his mouth. I really enjoyed this interesting, twisty, ingenious story!
I requested and received an EARC from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Classic Crime…
Following the usual interesting and enlightening introduction from Martin Edwards so begins the tale of a costume party with a more than dubious theme. ‘Famous Murderers And Their Victims’ has certainly inflamed the imaginations of the select guests and, among them, the criminologist Roger Sheringham may well be right at home. It’s not too long before the murder aspect becomes all too real. A very cleverly done inverted mystery, plenty of word play and a, perhaps, deliberately light hearted narrative where even the justification for the crime is as unsatisfactory and as dubious as the party theme.

This is an inverted mystery, where we know who did the murder already; the "mystery" for this novel comes more so from how Roger Sheringham is going to get himself out of trouble after putting himself into the mess in the first place. He attempts to save a friend from what he believes to be an unjust punishment, as the hanged woman--Ena Stratton--has been unpleasant to everyone at the party, even including himself.

This book was incredibly frustrating on so many parts. There is a warning at the beginning of the book to note that some themes might not be seen in the same light now as they were in the past, and that certainly has to do with the sneering misogyny on display. They label Ena in a derogatory fashion left, right, and centre, saying she ought to be in an asylum but she's just this side of sane so they can't. There is musing about how her husband ought to knock some sense into her--literally--and everyone wishes ill on her.

The characters also, for the most part, blend together and don't have very much personality outside of, say, Sheringham, Ena, and maybe Colin. It's also quite funny that they each deem Ena to be an awful person, when they themselves are all, in a word, appalling.

And this is truly an unfortunate book to pick to start the Sheringham series with; how the devil can I trust him in any future outings? This book could have better been titled "Several Ways to Gaslight Your Acquaintances". He--and the others--pat themselves on the backs when they convince someone of something that never happened, but he's the worst because he's a detective! What other crimes has he been to in which he has planted evidence just based on the idea that the victim had it coming to them after knowing the victim for all of a couple hours? Good Lord!

The pros for this book are that it's short and thus a (fairly) quick read, there's an actual twist at the end that was quite good (there weren't so many twists as I'm typically accustomed to with mystery novels, which was slightly disappointing), and Sheringham as well as just the general narration holds a certain wittiness that is fun even with the crime that is taking place.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit of a weird one to me. The first 40% or so I really enjoyed. It had some interesting characters and surprising plot twists. I especially thought the “inverted mystery” aspect of it was neat. But then most of the rest of the book consisted of characters making some really frustratingly stupid decisions. I won’t spoil how everything works out in the end, but I will just say I did find the ending to be satisfying.

Overall, my enjoyment was a bit up and down throughout the book, but it wasn’t bad.

So, this is definitely a different book from your standard British Library Crime Classic reissues. In “Jumping Jenny” by Anthony Berkeley, one knows the identity of the murderer early on, but the rest of the book involves trying to determine how to cover up the crime to protect someone who actually wasn’t the killer.

The action takes place at a fancy dress party, where the guests are dressed as murders throughout history, and the decorations include a hangman’s gallows set up on the roof with fake bodies. One of our guests is the mystery writer and amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham (his ninth appearance in the series), a friend of the host, who soon becomes fascinated by the host’s sister-in-law, Ena Stratton, an outspoken and reckless woman who gets drunker and louder as the evening goes on. Eventually Ena disappears, everyone assumed she went home, until her husband declares her missing and a search reveals that she had replaced one of the dummies on the gallows. The initial thought is suicide, which she had openly threatened throughout the night. But Roger notices the placement of a chair which makes him realize that this was no suicide.

Being an inverted mystery, we know from the start what actually happened to Ena. However Roger and the rest of the group assume that Ena’s husband David has had enough and decided to finish her off (which he didn’t), so they spend the rest of the novel tampering with the evidence and lying to the police about what really happened at the party and the discovery on the roof.

And this is where the book leaves me with a bad feeling; everyone assumes that the murder of a “crazy” woman was justified and that it was okay to fabricate a complete lie in order to protect her long-suffering husband. I believe that Mr. Berkeley was exaggerating the nonsense just to make a point, but the casual way that the murder is justified and the lies compound to hide the truth just feels a bit off. And the last pages add another wrinkle to the crimes committed.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

This is not a mystery novel that I expected, the genre and writers, different from what was published in 1933, when the book was written by the author. And, while it was different, it was a good different, a breath of freshness into mystery writing, a de-evolution of the mystery genre to a book in the spectrum with a different twist of how to write one with psychological implications. Because, to understand why it was written by the author the way in which it was we have to think about what society, and the knowledge society has, as a general whole, at the time. All there was of the study of psychology was really Freud, at the time, really mainstream so, when we read a mystery from that time period, instead of the who-done-it, it is really a tale of why the person who did it, did it. Explaining why each character would have committed the murder to discover the person who did it. Just a great example of the mystery writing genre to produce along the spectrum to show us what was for readers, at one time on the earth and a book well worth reading as a whole. And, that the whole book has reader questioning their own morality, during the read, if they could sympathize with the victim of the murderer. When you have a victim who victimizes others, always makes for a good story and a definite thought about how the reader feels, to help the story move along, be engaging.

First published in 1933, we are invited to a fancy dress party where everyone is dressed up as famous murderers and their victims. One person attending the party is famous author and detective, Roger Sharingham who is delighted at the level of detail the hosts have thrown at the party. The host constructed a gallows that have three dolls hanging from them - two jumping Jacks and one jumping Jenny. And the party would be fun - if it wasn't for the host's sister-in-law who must be in the centre of attention and being a horrid person.

So when she is found hanging in the gallows instead of jumping Jenny, it looks like she committed suicide. But when Roger realises that it can't be, he decides to meddle with the scene, fearing that this key detail will implicate his friend...

During my book blog break of October, I went on holiday and read Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (which I devoured) and then The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (not what I was expecting), but this got me into wanting to read Golden Age of Crime stories. I have a few on my kindle, waiting for me (and I am planning to read them over Christmas, I think), but I saw this randomly on NetGalley, I had to give it a go as I thought this would be a cool Halloweeny read.

This is an easy, entertaining read, and I did enjoy the humour within this. It's witty and, at times, quite dark and there are twists to keep you on your toes. Plus, this is (apparently) one of the first "inverted" crime novels of the Golden Age - in which the reader knows who the killer is before the detective, and that was nice to see (though the final few pages kinda ruin this for me - some readers like the final pages, other not so much).

But - of course there's a but - I did get quite annoyed with the main character, Roger Sharingham. After the discovery of the "suicide", he goes back to the scene and realises that it's murder because a chair is in the wrong place. He then moves the chair and, in doing so, tampers with the scene and, because of that, digs himself into a hole and won't stop digging.

Plus, all the characters in this aren't likeable (yes, even our lead who manipulates everyone around him to make their version of events fit his idea of what happened). They all aren't not nice people.

Also, the level of misogyny in this was something - same with mental health and talk about domestic violence. Am glad that, at the start of this book, we had a note of publisher telling us that there were going things that the publisher didn't endorse.

It sounds like I didn't like this. I did, honest! In fact, I'm planning to read more from the British Library Crime Classic collection as I had a fun time with this. Not sure this was the best Anthony Berkeley to start with, as everyone seems to be saying The Poisoned Chocolates Case is his best work so going to investigate that, but this got me in the mood for Halloween - even though the book is set in April...

Roger Sheringham is attending a fancy dress party at which he is the guest of honor. His host, Ronald Stratton, has decreed that the guests dress as famous murderers or victims. He’s also had a gallows built on the roof, hanging from which are three figures, one woman and two men. They’re stuffed dummies of course, all in the spirit of fun.

During the evening Sheringham, “always on the look-out for types,” becomes intrigued with the behavior of one of the guests. It’s obvious to him that Ena Stratton, the wife of his host’s brother, is determined to be the center of attention. And based on what he hears from the other guests, she is universally disliked. One of Ena’s ploys for attention is to tell all and sundry “that the best thing to do would be to put an end to it all.” So in the early hours of the morning, when Ena is found hanging from the gallows, no one is really surprised…especially the one who killed her.

I’ll get straight to the point. I despise aspects of this book. Yet because it was, for the most part, well written, I do not hate it. The views that Berkeley seems to embrace are unpalatable. But more than anything I dislike it’s casual insensitivity. Rather than feel compassion, or even pity for Ena, we are told that she is a malignancy that needs to be removed. Whoever murdered her is a “decent person” who should be protected and tapering with evidence and witnesses is a moral act. And while Sheringham has no wish to find justice for Ena, he will find justice for himself when it is he who is thought to be the murderer.

While the writing is witty and Berkeley fills the plot with twists, the story slows to a crawl as Sheringham attempts to deflect the police from investigating the death as anything but a suicide. Then he theorizes, and he theorizes, and he theorizes, to determine who the actual murderer is. None of this is helped by the fact that, other than Sheringham and Ena, the characters are indistinguishable one from the other. They simply fade into the background.

Now for what I did like. This is an inverted mystery, which is a sub-genre I really enjoy. The reader “knows” what actually happened, and the identity of the murderer. But Berkeley really gave this one a twist, and the real explanation isn’t revealed until the very end. I certainly didn’t see it coming. Berkeley also filled the story with humor, most of it on the dark side, but still enjoyable. And I especially enjoyed it when it was at the expense of Sheringham. It was so enjoyable to see Sheringham made into the patsy. He believes himself to be in control of the narrative, manipulating events and characters toward his intended outcome. But in reality it is the women who are in control all along. Where Sheringham is obvious in his attempts, they achieve their aims through subtle, artless comments and actions. It was exquisite to see.

So all in all, while there was humor and wit throughout, ultimately there was just too much moral ambiguity in this one for me.

"In times gone by, a hanged man was sometimes colloquially referred to as a 'Jumping Jack'."
-Martin Edwards

"Two jumping jacks...one jumping jenny...it took...a long time to stuff those chaps with straw...and an old dress...". Now three figures were hanging from a gallows tree erected on the rooftop of Ronald Stratton's house. The gallows were a wonderful embellishment to his murder themed party. Guests came dressed as well known murderers or their victims. Merriment filled the air, as the partygoers danced and drank. Topics of conversation included views on marriage.

"...almost anything to do with marriage was either comedy or tragedy. It depended whether one was looking at it from the outside or the in."

"...I never think the first marriage ought to count...One's so busy learning how to be married at all that one can hardly help acquiring a kind of resentment against one's partner in error. And once resentment has crept in, the thing's finished. Anyhow, there one is, all nice and trained to the house, the complete article for the next comer." And so it goes. David Stratton, younger brother of the party host, wanted a divorce from his wife, Ena.

Ena was the bane of David's existence. She was theatrical, an exhibitionist. She planned on getting drunk at the party. "...sometimes getting drunk seems the only thing worthwhile in life." Ena, an unfulfilled woman who made a spectacle of herself, as usual, abruptly left the ballroom. Ena, found on the rooftop, dangling from the gallows in place of the straw jenny! Was is suicide? Was it murder? She was a universally disliked woman. Partygoers seemed relieved at her demise... but disturbed by the thought of the upcoming police presence.

Amateur sleuth and mystery writer, Roger Sheringham, had been one of the invited guests. Sheringham piped up, "I scent a mystery, and I can't bear mysteries...all human relationships interest me, especially tangles." Sheringham had his theories. He must first "adjust" aspects of the crime scene to fit a possible narrative, then revisit, refine and/or abandon unworkable ideas. Unfortunately, his actions made his own behavior suspect and he was now in danger of being considered a person of interest. His jaded moral compass and manipulation of others helped present a cohesive set of events he hoped would pass police scrutiny.

"Jumping Jenny" (also published under the title Dead Mrs. Stratton) by Anthony Berkeley was published in 1933 during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Sheringham was determined to interpret justice in his own way causing him to make countless mistakes. He had no qualms about crime scene tampering. He might even be "fingered" for a crime if an inquest determined that Ena's death, by strangulation, was not suicide, but murder. Although Ena Stratton was most detestable, as were many of the characters in this read, I found it distasteful that the partygoers felt that she deserved her fate.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

At a murderers and victim's party held at the home of Ronald Stratton a death occurs. The murder of a disliked female by virtually everyone at the party.
The murder is described early on but what will the police determine, especially as the crime scene has been altered. Roger Sheringham interferes aiming to make sure that the verdict is suicide, which becomes irritating and he certainly doesn't seem to be a moral man. Being ambivalent about the main character does distract from the story for me.
But overall an entertaining mystery.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
(Originally published in 1933)

Jumping Jenny is a classic mystery published in 1933. It is an inverted mystery which means we see the murder as it's committed and who does the deed. The mystery then lies in if the murderer will be discovered. Jumping Jenny starts off with a costume party with a theme of murderers and their victims. How cute, right? Maybe it gives some insight to the character of the attendees and the person who set the party up, Ronald Stratton, who created a gallows display of straw "jumping jacks" and a "jumping jenny" on the rooftop.

Everyone is full of drinks and dancing but not everyone is having a good time. Ronald's sister in law, Ena Stratton, is universally disliked. Her erratic and antagonistic behavior is on full display, even to guest of honor, Roger Sheringham, who has never met her before. After an argument, Ena runs off to the roof. Later someone else goes on to the roof and Ena ends up dead. It appears at first to the guests to be suicide, but we know and soon Roger Sheringham, a well known criminologist, will know too that it is murder.

In the process of Sheringham's investigation, which happens to be mostly for his own amusement, evidence gets destroyed. Wanting to save someone from going to jail, he tries to steer the investigation in a certain way. But he makes mistake after mistake, eventually implicating himself. The story is a great example of someone coming up with ideas based on observations and known facts but still managing to be wrong. Sometimes there can be a different explanation for something.

There is a lot of humor in Jumping Jenny. It comes from watching Sheringham and his wild ideas and watching him squirm as he thinks the police are closing in. Ena is not a likeable character. None of the characters like her. We see evidence of ourselves of her behavior. However, most of what we, and Sheringham, know is related by other characters. So, while I think we aren't supposed to feel bad about Ena's death, I do. I spent the whole book at odds with the characters. This didn't lessen my enjoyment. It is a fun ride waiting to see how it will all end.

This is the only book from the Roger Sheringham series I’ve read. It was hard to get into this mystery at first, but when I did, I enjoyed the change in the typical mystery narrative.

The first part of the book introduces the characters based on what I assume was costumes from the party (which mostly weren’t known today making it difficult to follow). It made it difficult to decipher who the characters were until it was laid out by Roger Sheringham.

I loved that it was an inverted mystery with the “murderer” being known to the reader, The characters are human and flawed, with Roger Sheringham’s lack of moral compass and interference causing more harm than good.

Typical of some mysteries from the “Golden Age” period, there is certainly misogyny, but I appreciated the overall storyline and clever read

Thanks #NetGalley and #PoisonedPenPress for the advance reader copy

We start off with a fancy dress party where the theme is famous murderers and their victims attended by Roger Sheringham, a famous author and detective. To add flavour, the host has constructed a gallows, complete with dummies of two jumping Jack's and one Jenny. Later, one of the guests ends up replacing the jumping Jenny with herself. The reader is there at the scene of the crime, so we know who did it but unlike most inverted mysteries I've read, we aren't there watching the detective try to work things out, we watch as the detective tampers with evidence to make it appear suicide.

The victim is portrayed as a singularity loathsome woman who deserved what she got. A couple of party goers had remarked that she needs a husband who'd give her a beating to keep her in line, and most seem to think she should be locked up in an assylam. I'm used to casual misogyny in older books, but this was going some. That said, the whole plot was nonsense really, so it wasn't like I could take anything in the book seriously, and it was entertaining. The characters were all pretty unpleasant, and the main detective has no moral compass, but I would be interested in reading more of the series. (I have previously only read The Poisoned Chocolates Case).

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

Intriguing characters who are fascinating…similar to the Christie mysteries…family and friends…fiction that often reads like nonfiction. This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. I liked this book. It is a cannot put down mystery. The author is talented at writing intrigue. Enjoy

Ena Stratton was an exhibitionist, a trouble-maker who delighted in twisting the truth, a malcontent constantly threatening to kill herself in order to gain attention, a harridan to her worn-down husband, quick to take offense and even quicker to give offense -- in short "a woman who ought to be murdered." When at a party, Mrs. Stratton is found dead, the first thought is suicide.

But writer and criminologist Roger Sheringham, one of the guests at the party, begins to have second thoughts:
"The coincidence of it all. Here is a woman whose existence is a source of annoyance, and perhaps a good deal more than annoyance, to several different people, and that for several different reasons. And just at the moment when those people are resenting it perhaps more intensely than ever before, she very obligingly, and most unexpectedly, kills herself. You must admit that the coincidence is far too violent to be stomached in fiction."

I won't say any more so as to not spoil things for the reader, but let's just say that Roger assumes his usual contrarian manner with regard to Mrs. Stratton's death and the police investigation into it.

As in so many of his books -- in particular, The Poisoned Chocolates Case, Berkeley's best-known book, and Roger Sheringham and The Vane Mystery, author Anthony Berkeley provides a great deal of suspense while reserving quite a few surprises for the last two chapters. Jumping Jenny is one of Berkeley's best works, and I just wish that Berkeley were better known. Mystery lovers don't know what they're missing.

The British Library continues to pick superb golden age mysteries that keep you guessing until the very end. This one in particular centers around a costume ball with participants dressing as famous murderers and victims, a type of setting that might seem familiar, but add in an amateur criminologist instead of the usual police inspector or private detective, and you have something unique. Without spoiling the ending, this book builds suspense to the very end.