Sunday, July 13, 2003		Books

Classics to set your pulse racing
Pankaj Vasudeva

Great Detective Stories
Rupa, New Delhi. Pages 145. Rs 70

MYSTERY novels have fascinated readers of all ages and literary tastes. Be it Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, these characters, rather detectives, have for ages stimulated the minds of readers, as they take them into a labyrinth abound with enigma and ambiguity, clearing the air of uncertainty by bringing to logical conclusion the most obscure and intriguing of puzzles with gentle ease.

The book under review brings under a single cover some of the best stories in the genre. Striking a balance between the contrasting writing styles and thought expression, the book is a compilation of five intriguing stories written by some of the best writers in the business. There is not much to talk about the stories, as these have to be read and enjoyed.

The whodunits, though woven into complex plots, don’t run into hundreds of pages. These are concise and well-crafted stories with the right amount of marrow to keep the reader bound till the revelation.

Sherlock Holmes, who predictably finds a place in the book, with his astute tactics comes out with flying colours by solving the mystery that shrouds the death of an old man settled in the English countryside after returning from Australia, but whose own son is a prime suspect in the murder case. Doyle’s unequivocal style of writing is reflected in the masterfully crafted plot and lucid narration.

Doyle’s contemporary Baroness Orczy’s Who Stole the Black Diamonds? is a compelling portrayal of deceit and trickery set in majestic environs. The story interestingly, or queerly, does not incorporate a detective, though it has a logical end to it as the mystery that dogs the disappearance of diamonds is finally unravelled.

Mr Bovey’s Unexpected Will by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace is another gripping tale, which is a pleasure to read because of the continuity of plot and brevity of thought. The flow is somewhat consistent and similar to most of Doyle’s stories. Of the five stories, it has perhaps the most well-knit plot.

However, there is a degree of ambiguity attached to Arnold Bennett’s A Bracelet at Bruges. Lack of coherence and sketchy layout mar the plot. The accent is stronger on the indulgences of the characters than the plot.

R. Austin Freeman in The Blue Sequin carves out the ‘murder’ of a pretty artist’s model in the most dramatic of fashions and keeps the reader as well as those around the detective on tenterhooks. But it does not have any extraordinary conclusion.

The book might lose out on being a collection of stories from the yesteryear and may find it hard to grab the attention of the most voracious of readers for want of something fresh. However, the stories are from the all-time best and the book could be a good pick. As Cyril Connolly has justly said in Enemies of Promise: "Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once."