The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) by P.J. Fitzsimmons

P.J. Fitzsimmons' The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) is the sixth entry in the Anthony "Anty" Boisjoly series of Wodehousian locked room mysteries, set in the late 1920s, which brings Anty and Vickers to the fictitious gorge of Glen Glennegie, Scotland – where he has to serve as judge in a whiskey competition. Kilcladdich and Kildrummy, dual villages divided by Glen Glennegie river ravine, which "supplies the icy clear hill water that balances the local magic." Namely whiskey. There are two master distillers, Lummy MacAlistair and Duncan MacAngus, whose respective clans have been feuding for generations. A feud dating back to a golf game from 1767 that "resulted in a rift between the families which has survived to this day." A long-standing feud with customs and traditions of their own.

Once every decade, there's a competition between the two distilleries for the right to label their whiskey "Glen Glennegie" for the next ten years. So, during the final stages, the master distillers locked themselves inside their distilleries in order to guard the secrets of the process. A jury of three decide the winner and Anty inherited the seat on the jury from his late father, but, when he arrives in the Scottish highland, trouble is not only brewing... it has already exploded!

Lummy MacAlistair was blown to pieces when his distillery exploded, likely an accident, but Anty is suspicious the accident happened right before the competition. Not to mention the apparent impossibility of it having been murder ("...what we have here is a locked room mystery"). However, the story doesn't plunge headfirst into classically-styled locked room case meticulously picking apart various (false) solutions to the impossibility like a few of my recent reads. The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich is primarily a comedy with detective interruptions with the first-half going over the territory, its history and characters populating the village – something that normally doesn't bode well for the quality of the plot. So it's very fortunate for this series Fitzsimmons is a funny writer who knows his way around one-liners, punchlines and absurd anecdotes. I'm no Wodehouse expert and have read bits and pieces of criticism from Wodehouse fans, but, when it comes to genre spoofing and satire, Fitzsimmons very much writes in the tongue-in-cheek tradition of Leo Bruce, Edmund Crispin and R.T. Campbell.

Fitzsimmons has always been upfront that he writes the Anty Boisjoly series "strictly for laughs" with result being "either an inexcusable offense to several beloved canons or a hilarious, fast-paced, manor house murder mystery." This series has also shown with The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning (2021) and Reckoning at the Riviera Royale (2022) what can be done when the laughs and chuckles are backed by a good, solid plots. The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich is mostly played for laughs and that can be frustrated when the plot had enough to match those two earlier novels.

First of all, the "impossible coincidence" of the two master distillers dying in apparent accidental explosions in their locked and barred distilleries. There's a third, very minor, locked room in miniature concerning ten bottles of whiskey added to a locked cabinet when the key was accounted for ("...nearest locksmith that can copy that key died in 1902"). Regrettably, The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich is not very impressive as a locked room mystery, comparable to the earlier The Tale of the Tenpenny Tontine (2021) and The Case of the Carnaby Castle Curse (2022), but the motive saved it from being just satire sporting a tartan deerstalker. The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich operates on its home brew of loopy logic and crooked rules, which Fitzsimmons cleverly employed to create a plot that could not have worked anywhere else except in Kilcladdich and Kildrummy ("we might be by Michael Innes"). So the digging into the history, characters and long-standing feud ended being more than a bantering exercise in exchanging barbs. I also enjoyed the scene in which Anty tries to explain to the Scottish policeman that America has gone dry ("you're saying that America has outlawed alcohol"). That needed some processing of its own.

So while I enjoyed The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich, it was more for the characters and humor than the plot and can only recommend it those already a fan of the series. I'll probably get to the next title, Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling (2023), before too long but hope to have something good from the Golden Age next. Stay tuned!