FFB: TRIAL AND ERROR, Anthonyn Berkley (by Casual Debris from 2012)

Anthony Berkeley: Trial and Error (1937)

Berkeley, Anthony, Trial and Error, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1937
______, Trial and Error, New York: Dell Books (Great Mystery Library), September 1967. 316 pp (my edition, below right)
______, Trial and Error, London: House of Stratus, 2001. 396 pp (bottom left)

Rating: 8/10

Its excellent premise is what attracted me to Anthony Berkeley's original, innovative and highly entertaining Trial and Error. Mild-mannered Lawrence Butterfield Todhunter learns that due to an aggressive aneurism he doesn't have much time left on this earth. Wanting to commit a great, humanitarian act before he goes, he throws a dinner party and tosses out a hypothetical, which leads nearly everyone to declare that great can be achieved through murder, so long as the victim is deserving of death. Hence Todhunter decides that before his impending doom he must seek out an appropriate victim and commit this terrible act.

Anthony Berkeley's novel has been out of print for some time, since the late 1960s it appears, with the exception of a small print run in 2001 by House of Stratus. This is a terrible shame because Trial and Error is an excellent read, a unique mystery that reads almost like an epic novel as it spans various significant episodes, each one a small book on its own, from Todhunter's seeking the perfect victim to the murder itself and its eventual trial. The book is split into five parts, each part dealing with a substantial leg in Todhunter's journey. There are a number of twists and I won't reveal anything more about the central plot.

The novel also boasts great characters, dialogue and attention to detail that is simply riveting. The world Berkeley manages to create is very real, and the geography of the various UK locations are clear; we always know where we are and where the settings lie in relation to one another. Moreover, the novel is filled with a good deal of humour despite its premise and its incessant focus on death. Yet what elevates Trial and Error from a good British mystery to a great novel is its notions of absurdity. Throughout the novel is a pervasive sense that despite the high dramatic aspects of life, both selfish and altruistic actions are governed by nothing more than chance; no matter how we strive for control the idea that we can influence destiny, our own or someone else's, is ridiculous. It is clear that the universe has its plans and the minutest element can thrust and thwart our plans in any seemingly random direction. And in the final scene even these ideas are challenged, as Berkeley twists the entire story into something altogether different.

Trial and Error is additionally a success due to its innocuous protagonist. Lawrence Todhunter is barely a character, a simple man with simple ideas, impressionable and easily influenced, harmless in every dimension of his being. While it initially appears that such a character would undoubtedly fail in maintaining interest in any kind of novel, Todhunter succeeds in growing on the reader, not necessarily through his altruism, but through his determination and particularly because he does indeed transform. Not static at all, this Todhunter. Berkeley also risks creating an over-sentimental character, particularly as he is nearing death, and yet does a wonderful job in being direct with his story and avoiding overblown sentimentality.

The novel's only weak point is at the early stage of the trial, when Berkeley feels the need to restate details which the reader is already familiar with. This portion of the work suffers a little in its pacing, but once the cross-examination begins, the writing, particularly the dialogue, is so riveting that we nearly forget the slow progress of the previous thirty or so pages.

Anthony Berkeley's Trial and Error is a rare find that is absolutely worth seeking out.

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Short Story Wednesday, THE WIND IN THE ROSEBUSH, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

 Jerry House used to live in Southern Maryland. Now he lives in Florida.

This is from 2008.

The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural
by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (whose married name was sometimes preceded by a dash) was a popular 19th and early 20th century author. She has been credited with an astonishing 238 novels as well as several short story collections. Her duties as secretary to Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr., brought her into contact with many of the literary lights of the day. Amazingly versatile, she produced a number of works of very high standard. In 1902 she began a series of supernatural stories which were published in Everybody's Magazine. One of her publishers, Doubleday Page, had an editorial relationship with Everybody's and brought out The Wind in the Rose-bush the following year. About the same time, however, Everybody's was sold to another company which had no use for "outlandish" or "morbid" stories.

With Everbody's market closed to her, Freeman went on to different kinds of fiction. Our loss. While her other work (both deservedly and otherwise) has faded into obscurity, the six stories in The Wind in the Rose-bush remain among the best of its kind. It was the fashion in turn-of-the-century popular fiction to portray family life in a mawkishly sentimental manner, but in Freeman's stories, the domestic trumped the sentimental. Her characters are real people with real flaws, while the supernatural hides quietly in everyday events, slowly coming into light. Several of these stories are standard fare in anthologies collecting "great" supernatural stories.

Here are the contents:

The Wind in the Rose-bush
The Shadows on the Wall
Luella Miller
The Southwest Chamber
The Vacant Lot
The Lost Ghost

Notice that I keep using the word "supernatural" rather than "ghost". Some of the six are true ghost stories; others are ghost stories only by courtesy. Mrs. Freeman does not bother to explain the supernatural in these stories: she allows the reader and the characters to experience it -- which is more than enough. The most accomplished of the stories may be "Luella Miller", who is a woman who may or may not be a psychic vampire and whose influence may or may not have been transferred to her home. In "The Lost Ghost", two gossiping ladies are diverged from telling the expected ghost story by an altogether different ghost story. "The Southwest Corner" gives us a haunted room that grows more menacing as the story progresses. The first of "The Shadows on the Wall" is that of a murdered brother; the next...?

These six stories were later combined with five lesser stories to form the Arkham House publication of The Collected Ghost Stories of Mary Wilkins-Freeman (1974). Despite that title, there evidently several of her supernatual stories that remain uncollected.

George Kelley 

Kevin Tipple 

TracyK 

Jerry House

Todd Mason 

Monday, Monday

At the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. I recognize Megan, Sarah, Laura and Alifair but not the others.  Gillian Flynn was on the panel but not sure if this is her and who the other woman is.

 We saw (and when I say "we" it's various female friends) ENGLISH at the Tipping Point Theater in Northville. It was very good and won the Pulitzer a few years ago. It concerns the students and teacher in an English class in Iran. How hard it must be as an adult to learn a new language especially if it's tied up with political reasons. 

Watched the first two episodes of THE STUDIO (Apple), which I enjoyed. Also THE WHITE LOTUS. I have to admit disappointment with LUDWIG and I think it's the overuse of David Mitchell in British series. And once again it relies on someone being smarter than the rest of us. Boy, that's in use so much lately. (HIGH POTENTIAL, THE RESIDENCE, ATTORNEY WOO, etc). 

Been watching the movies and TV shows of Hirokazu Koreeda on various channels. They portray Japanese domestic life much like Ozu of an earlier time. Although many of an element of crime in them.

The political news is so alarming, I can't seem to concentrate on books. But am slowly reading HERE IN THE DARK (Alexis Soloski). 

How about you?

Nothing but rain here.  

(OKAY THIS HAPPENED AGAIN)

FFB: PAST CARING, Robert Goddard

 

I read this book in September of 1987. If you look at Amazon today, it is still being read and reviewed by people who enjoyed it as much as I did. This feels unusual for a writer not as well known as a Sue Grafton or Sara Paretski. It was a first novel for Goddard and became an instant best seller. 

It's the story of a contemporary man, who's had a bad run of luck, and is hired to look into an MP from 1910 who was ruined by scandal. This was a real page turned that also managed to create the era when women in the UK were fighting for the right to vote. His writing was good and you never felt like you were wasting your time with his books. The book was first published in January 1986. Goddard went on to write other books, whose titles are vaguely familiar but this is the one I remember most.

Short Story Wednesday, From THE NEW YORKER, "Frenzy" Joyce Carol Oates

 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/the-frenzy-fiction-joyce-carol-oates

 Thankfully the story is read by Joyce Carol Oates and not AI.

A forty-sixish man and his teenage mistress (his constant term for her, not mine) are on the way to Cape May. He is married and has children but is sort of besotted with this nineteen year old-although much of it seems to rest on her age. He has, in fact, rented a condo in Manhattan, with the idea of leaving his wife and kids and taking up with this girl who is the daughter of friends.

This story reminds me so much of a John Updike story, not any particular one, but many of them. Especially as it's told from the male POV.  The girl's interest in him seems more experimental than born of any passion. His interest in her is in his ability to attract a nineteen year old. Of course, it is a well-written story but I am betting-like Updike-Oates has written a dozen stories like this. There is nothing that sets it apart except perhaps its title, which came from an earlier boat trip when he watched a feeding frenzy with fish. Now the frenzy is his. 

George Kelley

Jerry House 

TracyK

Monday, Monday

 

                                            Josh's birthday many years ago.
Saw THE BLACK BAG (Stephen Soderbergh), which sort of left me cold. Spy dramas often do except for SLOW HORSES and a few of the Smiley books. Both leads are pretty aloof, as in most of their films, and I also had some hearing issues as did all four of us who went.

Loving THE RESIDENCE on Netflix. And LUDWIG on BRTIBOX. About to finish SEVERANCE. THE WHITE LOTUS seems too much like the first two seasons to be very enjoyable. ADOLESCENCE on Netflix was amazing although very dark. Stepen Graham is an amazing actor but so were the two teen actors.

Not so dark the movie EVERY LITTLE THING, on Kanopy.

About to start THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Chris Whittaker.

Went to a lecture on the BLACK BOTTOM and PARADISE VALLEY, areas of Detroit that were vibrant centers for black life in the early 20th century. There were hundreds of Black businesses there until they figured out how to push them out by crisscrossing freeways. Also heard a great jazz guitarist. Both of these were at our great senior center. Here is the website of the historian/photographer Rod Arroya https://city-photos.com/detroit-history/

For Tracy's Glen, a book called SICK HOUSES (Leila Taylor) reviewed in the NYT today might be of interest to you. 

What about you? 

(Sorry this one got away from me early)