The Case of the Canterfell Codicil (2020) by P.J. Fitzsimmons

I previously reviewed P.J. Fitzsimmons' The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning (2021) and The Tale of the Tenpenny Tontine (2021), second and third novel in the Anthony "Anty" Boisjoly series, which makes The Case of the Canterfell Codicil (2020) the next logical stop – being the first in the series. The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, set in 1928, begins when an unusual telegram is delivered at the Juniper Gentleman's Club addressed to Anty.

The telegram reads, "COME AT ONCE -(STOP)- UNCLE SEB. DEAD -(STOP)- DEFENESTRATED BY UNSEEN HAND -(STOP)- FIDDLES." Fiddles is the nickname of an old college chum, Fairfax Canterfell. Anty has fond memories of the summer holidays he spend with Fiddles at Canterfell Hall and the surrounding countryside of East Sussex. So welcomes an opportunity to go back and help out his friend.

After all, Anty enjoys a modest reputation in his social circle as something of problem solver, "the Alexander to their Gordian knots," but this is the first time he has been asked to help out with a mysterious death. A locked room murder, no less! The victim is Fiddle's uncle, Sebastian Canterfell, who was thrown out of the second-story window of his study located in the ancient tower of the estate ("...designed and built to resist the Norman hordes"). So, beside the open window, the only other way in, or out, is a heavy oak door that was locked on the inside with the key stuck in the lock. Sebastian Canterfell was overheard arguing with someone and another saw him being ejected from the open window. But when they battered down the door, the study was empty!

Canterfell apparently being flung out of the window of an otherwise empty and locked room is not the only complication. There's a rumored codicil to the will of Major Canterfell, family patriarch and elderly father of Sebastian, who "takes insidious pleasure in neither confirming nor denying its existence." A painting impossibly disappears from the conservatory right under everyone's noses. One moment it's there, the next it's gone. Fiddles falls in love with a house guest of his aunt and "he takes on the speech, demeanour and facial expression of one who's been hit on the back of the head with a cricket bat" every time he looks at Rosalind Pierpoint – before getting into much more serious trouble. Inspector Ivor Wittersham arrests him halfway through the story on suspicion of having murdered his uncle following Anty's explanation of the locked room-trick.

Anty has to play dual roles, fairy godmother and amateur sleuth, which is part of the fun of this book and series. Before returning to the plot, I should note that the first thing to recommend about this series are the humorous characters and dialogue placing it alongside the comedic mysteries of Leo Bruce, R.T. Campbell and Edmund Crispin. I guess the comedy is the reason why the series is advertised as "locked room cozies," but the cozy label is doing the series a disservice. They're substantially better plotted than the cozies with pastel covers with cute animals sitting next to bags of yarn or standing in front of a bakery or candy shop. And actually funny once you get acclimated to Anty's personality. I agree with Kate's review that the comedic highlight of The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is Anty recalling the time he made up a parlor game, "Quite Right, Milord," to hide from his mother how drunk his father was at the time. It was a roaring success. The plot themselves have a distinct touch of absurdity, which is probably why they tend to be uneven in quality... judging by the first three novels.

The locked room murder of Sebastian Canterfell is a case in point. The idea behind the locked room-trick is hilariously clever, buzzing with originality and very subtly clued – perhaps too subtly clued for it to be fully effective. I think those clues would have been strengthened and made the solution a whole lot fairer had the reader been told up front (ROT13) gung gur xrl unq orra tyhrq vagb cynpr. Which should not have given too much away as the locked room-trick was revealed halfway through anyway. It would have given the reader an opportunity to roughly work out the trick for themselves. Not to mention that that piece of information particularly would have nicely complimented the bizarre clue of (ROT13) gur cbgngb fghpx va gur fcrnxvat ghor. Still a really fun idea for a locked room murder and surprised something similar hasn't been used before to eject someone from an empty, sealed room. There's also the seemingly impossible disappearance of the painting and a second locked room murder, a faked suicide, but both impossibilities are fairly minor plot-threads with simple solutions.

So the strength of The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is in the overall plot, but the devil is in the details there as well. Fitzsimmons is not a mystery writer you'll catch red-handed being dull or boring, but the finer plot-details aren't always executed with the same rigor as his Golden Age counterparts. That can be frustrating as they're so close to the genuine article and honestly leaves me in two minds, which is why I want to tackle The Case of the Carnaby Castle Curse (2022) next before deciding to get Reckoning at the Riviera Royale (2022), The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) and Foreboding Foretelling at Ficklehouse Felling (2023). They're cheap enough as ebooks to continue. So, for now, a recommendation as very entertaining pastiches/parodies of the Golden Age detective story.