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The Floating Admiral

By: Agatha Christie, Simon Brett - preface, Dorothy L. Sayers - introduction, G. K. Chesterton - prologue
Narrated by: David Timson
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Publisher's Summary

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton and nine other writers from the legendary Detection Club collaborate in this fiendishly clever but forgotten crime novel first published 80 years ago.

Inspector Rudge does not encounter many cases of murder in the sleepy seaside town of Whynmouth. But when an old sailor lands a rowing boat containing a fresh corpse with a stab wound to the chest, the Inspector's investigation immediately comes up against several obstacles. The vicar, whose boat the body was found in, is clearly withholding information, and the victim's niece has disappeared. There is clearly more to this case than meets the eye – even the identity of the victim is called into doubt. Inspector Rudge begins to wonder just how many people have contributed to this extraordinary crime and whether he will ever unravel it…

In 1931, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and ten other crime writers from the newly-formed ‘Detection Club’ collaborated in publishing a unique crime novel. In a literary game of consequences, each author would write one chapter, leaving G.K. Chesterton to write a typically paradoxical prologue and Anthony Berkeley to tie up all the loose ends. In addition, each of the authors provided their own solution in a sealed envelope, all of which appeared at the end of the book, with Agatha Christie’s ingenious conclusion acknowledged at the time to be ‘enough to make the book worth buying on its own’.

The authors of this novel are: G. K. Chesterton, Canon Victor Whitechurch, G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley.

©1931, 2011 The Detection Club (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"The plotting is ingenious, the pace sustained, the solution satisfying." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Amazingly, the story steers along very well despite so many different hands at the tiller. Christie's solution is typically ingenious." (Mark Campbell, The Pocket Essential Agatha Christie)

"These members of the Detection Club collaborate with skill in a piece of detection rather more tight-knit than one had a right to expect. There is enough to amuse and to stimulate detection; and the Introduction by Dorothy Sayers and supplements by critics and solvers give an insight into the writers' thoughts and modes of work." (Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime)

What listeners say about The Floating Admiral

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Greatest mystery writers from yesterday at okay

These writers must have had so much fun engaging in this literary game. An interesting exercise showing how different writers approach a story and play with their characters. Well worth getting.

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Plot

Took a while to get into the book but once a few chapters in enjoyed
The twists and turns.

The book was sufficient without the plot dissection at the end as it broke the parts into different thoughts- for me it distracted
From the flow between authors.

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Classic Mystery

I enjoyed the book with the different writing styles and story direction each chapter. I found the last chapter rather long and tedious as it tried to wrap up all the details previously mentioned. Usually most of the red herrings would have been dealt with before then. It is such a fun idea to challenge themselves to write a chapter each. I'd probably like to give the story 3.5 stars.

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Too confusing

Rambling and long winded .. didn't bother with the alternate endings by each author .. a product of it's time.

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