Synopses & Reviews
As the judges of a literary prize chip away at the author list,
someone else is chipping away at them....
When the chairperson of the prestigious Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize dies in suspicious circumstances, Robert Amiss (the token sane member of the judging panel) wastes no time in summoning Baroness ""Jack"" Troutbeck to step into the chair.
Speculation that a killer may be targeting the judges worries the baroness not in the slightest - it's the prospect of immersing herself in modern literature that fills her with dread. But noblesse must oblige, even when it means joining the ranks of the superciliati sitting in judgement of the literati.
With the baroness at the helm, the judges resume the task of whittling away at the short-list. But the killer, too, has resumed work and is whittling away at the judges one by one.
Review
In deplorable taste and wickedly funny, this, the tenth in the Robert Amiss series, will consolidate the author's reputation for scurrilous humour. Sprightly, saucy and ingenious. -- Sunday Times
Dudley Edwards is an equal opportunities satirist. She's rude to every persuasion. -- Daily Telegraph
Marvellously entertaining and iconoclastic series of satires on the British establishment. Ruth Dudley Edwards is a crime writer whom we should treasure -sharp, intelligent and gloriously politically incorrect. -- Mail on Sunday
Review
Like other venerable British institutions Ruth Dudley Edwards has gutted in previous mysteries, the literary cognoscenti ("the superciliati," she calls them) hold no terror for this ribald satirist. In CARNAGE ON THE COMMITTEE (Poisoned Pen, $24.95), she unleashes the hounds on prestigious, money-bearing awards like the Booker and the Whitbread, creating a fictional model rife with corruption and cronyism.
Edwards's attack dog is the formidable Baroness Troutbeck ("Jack" to her chums), mistress of St. Martha's, Cambridge University, a rudely outspoken tyrant whose mission is to restore common sense and Tory retro-values to a civilization self-destructing from political correctness.
As a favor to Robert Amiss, her more diplomatic sidekick in these rollicking adventures, Jack agrees to take over when Lady Hermione Babcock, la grande fromage of the Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize, is poisoned at a committee meeting. While Jack isn't shy about biting off the heads of colleagues who spout highbrow piffle and egalitarian rhetoric for their own opportunistic aims, she is reduced to incoherent rage by the novels on her reading list. Given the execrable taste of this committee, it's only fair that Jack should give a free pass to the murderer who is picking them off one by one. -- Marilyn Stasio, NY Times (11.7.2004)
Review
Like other venerable British institutions Ruth Dudley Edwards has gutted in previous mysteries, the literary cognoscenti ("the superciliati," she calls them) hold no terror for this ribald satirist. In CARNAGE ON THE COMMITTEE (Poisoned Pen, $24.95), she unleashes the hounds on prestigious, money-bearing awards like the Booker and the Whitbread, creating a fictional model rife with corruption and cronyism. Edwards's attack dog is the formidable Baroness Troutbeck ("Jack" to her chums), mistress of St. Martha's, Cambridge University, a rudely outspoken tyrant whose mission is to restore common sense and Tory retro-values to a civilization self-destructing from political correctness. As a favor to Robert Amiss, her more diplomatic sidekick in these rollicking adventures, Jack agrees to take over when Lady Hermione Babcock, la grande fromage of the Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize, is poisoned at a committee meeting. While Jack isn't shy about biting off the heads of colleagues who spout highbrow piffle and egalitarian rhetoric for their own opportunistic aims, she is reduced to incoherent rage by the novels on her reading list. Given the execrable taste of this committee, it's only fair that Jack should give a free pass to the murderer who is picking them off one by one. -- Marilyn Stasio, NY Times (11.7.2004)
Review
Add to your getaway bag Ruth Dudley Edwards's Carnage on the Committee and you may never leave the shore. The latest adventure of Robert Amiss, a nice young man who is awfully good at solving mysteries, and his old friend and mentor, the cigar-smoking, deeply
politically incorrect Baroness 'Jack' Troutbeck, is simply, smashingly, brilliantly funny. Edwards is a former staffer for the Economist and this, her second poison valentine to the publishing business, will have you craving more. -- Lauretta O'Connor, Commonweal Magazine
Synopsis
When the chairperson of the prestigious Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize dies in suspicious circumstances, Robert Amiss (the token sane member of the judging panel) wastes no time in summoning Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck to step into the chair. Speculation that a killer may be targeting the judges does not worry the baroness in the slightest - it's the prospect of immersing herself in modern literature that fills her with dread. But noblesse must oblige, even when it means joining the ranks of the superciliati sitting in judgment of the literati.
With the baroness at the helm, the judges resume the task of whittling away at the shortlist. But the killer, too, has resumed work and is whittling away at the judges one by one....
Synopsis
"The literary cognoscenti ('the superciliati, ' she calls them) hold no terror for this ribald satirist."--New York Times
When the chairperson of the prestigious Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize dies in suspicious circumstances, Robert Amiss (the token sane member of the judging panel) wastes no time in summoning Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck to step into the chair. Speculation that a killer may be targeting the judges does not worry the baroness in the slightest--it's the prospect of immersing herself in modern literature that fills her with dread. But noblesse must oblige, even when it means joining the ranks of the superciliati sitting in judgment of the literati.
With the baroness at the helm, the judges resume the task of whittling away at the shortlist. But the killer, too, has resumed work and is whittling away at the judges one by one....