"Rather odd to enter a drawing room carrying a large luminous cod"

Having a hard time with The Man Who Knew Too Much.  Maybe it's that Hitchcock made two movies with that title and I hadn't bothered to look up anything else. I mean, Hitchcock, right? That has to have some good horridness to it.

So I'm expecting something like this...

With some of this:

And maybe a bit of this:

In other words, I was not prepared for the series of quiet short stories that the book really is. So my reaction was more like this:

These are short and unhorrid stories surrounding a man who can manage to deduce the real culprit, but because of various reasons, the killer is never brought to any kind of justice.  So the stories, while they have a 'detective' putting the clues together, are not fully satisfying.  They have a tendency to put me to sleep at night instead of keeping me awake ravenously turning pages--or hitting the page turn button as the case may be.

There are no real inquiries into the crimes, no tension, and no danger.  Just a telling of a puzzle and an answer to a question that is solved, but never rectified.  I like the idea of the politics and the reasons why the killer often gets away in order to keep worse consequences from occurring due to the politics, but could there be the occasional hint of suspense and some amount of justice along with our commentary on how justice isn't really just?  Please?

What I will give Chesterton is some great lines.  The title of this post is one of them.  Here are a few more gems:

Harold March was the sort of man who knows everything about politics, and nothing about politicians.

"I think I can manage to be a sort of fourth-rate burglar."

Such people seldom reject anything nonsensical, for they are always seeking for something new.

He had a talent for appearing when he was not wanted and a talent for disappearing when he was wanted, especially when he was wanted by the police.

I think I will eventually read all the stories, but more on my own time, not for the blog.  No OHMYGOD moments. So, I'm going to move on to other things with more gore and terror and suspense.

So, here is my updated list of reading.

I owe you a back of book blurb for Leavenworth Case!

Which I will get to later. Spent morning moving shelving and tables for a local rummage charity sale and I'm going to Drunken Shakespeare tonight.  Tomorrow I do homework.  So after all the excuses, I'll give you the fun back of book blurb for The Leavenworth Case.

"'Well,' said he, 'this is unexpected, but not wholly unwelcome.'"

Done. Though it took me a bit longer than expected with the real life stuff.  I know who the murderer is, what all the Terrible Secrets are, and that I like Ebenezer Gryce.

Especially how he has a tendency to not actually look at anyone and therefore emotes to buttons, doorknobs, and random flies.

But he's really paying full attention and missing nothing.

He's a quiet character, not given to the dramatics and opium habits of Sherlock Holmes, which might be why Gryce is forgotten, but he is entirely up to the trickery. I am hoping the gentleman narrator is not the narrator for all the Gryce books. In fact I hope the gentleman narrator never shows up again.

But, when I think about it, part of the fun was watching Gryce out think and continually shock and annoy the narrator.

So maybe he wasn't so bad...

Maybe if it was in third person the narrator--who wouldn't be the narrator then and I would be forced to remember his name--wouldn't have annoyed me so much. But honestly, there may be some good points to chivalry being dead.

                                                 ...................Or maybe not.

"I laid my hand upon her heart. It was pulseless as a stone."

Hi. As usual, weekends are the most busy for me.

But I'm back and reading. And....

Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod!

The one witness, the girl who has been missing for weeks, just as they find her, is now dead. And she burned all the papers that would be useful! Everything has hinged on this girl and now....

At least Gryce is back from his rheumatism. I can't come up with any more amusing ways to tell you how stupid I find this narrator.

"that is because you are a gentleman. Well, it has its disadvantages"

I like Gryce. He's devious and practical. I don't like the narrator, Mr. Raymond. He needs to be hit over the head many times.

 He refuses to do "ungentlemanly" things that will actually solve the case, like looking at addresses on personal letters or listening to private conversations. Gentleman seems to be synonymous with Willfully Stupid.

Like this conversation (partly paraphrased and edited for space)
Gryce--The murderer may be one of the women.
Raymond-- I cannot listen to it; it is too horrible.
Gryce-- Women murder people too. Read the criminal records.
Raymond--I do not care for the criminal records. All the criminal records in the world would not make me believe.

I'm waiting for later in the book where he says global warming has nothing to do with the carbon dioxide we are dumping into the atmosphere and that the world was created by intelligent design. Because reality is ungentlemanly.

"Death by means of a pistol shot from the hand of some person unknown"

That's the verdict of the inquest. It took them 2 days and a lot of testimony along with the votes of jurors to state the obvious.

It's generally said that if a murder isn't solved in the first 48 hours that the chances of it being solved go way down. Must have been really easy to get away with murder at that time.

The Leavenworth Case Back of Book Blurb!