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The Old English Peep Show
Peter Dickinson
#UB6552
Paperback, 199 pages; 2007 (1969)
$8.90
Mysteries from Felony & Mayhem
Bas Bleu is proud to offer (on pages 12-15) fifteen novels published by Felony & Mayhem, specialists in saving classic, plot-driven mysteries from extinction! Publisher Maggie Topkis has selected these titles especially for Bas Bleu's readers and, for most of them, she's written the book's review. Look for her initials (MT) to see why she likes what she likes!
In The Old English Peep Show, Inspector Jimmy Pibble is dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate a peculiar death on the premises of "Old England," a sort of theme park that pays tribute to a beautiful, largely imaginary, national past, where all the servants knew their place and the weather was always good. After spending some time in what is essentially a British version of Colonial Williamsburg, Pibble finds himself half-hypnotized by Old England's intoxicating daydream. His essential pragmatism eventually snaps him back to reality, reminding him—as Peter Dickinson is reminding his readers—of the dangers of falling in love with false history. Dickinson isn't for everyone; his books are about as far from a fast airplane read as it's possible to get in the mystery genre. But for readers bored with dumbed-down prose and cookie-cutter plots, he offers a kind of rarefied pleasure that few other writers provide.
(MT)
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