- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; First edition (4 May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002326736
- ISBN-13: 978-0002326735
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,182,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
‘This blithe series puts itself on the side of the angels by merrily, and staunchly, subverting every tenet of political correctness’ Independent
‘Sprightly, saucy and ingenious’ Sunday Times
‘Dudley Edwards is an equal-opportunities satirist. She’s rude to every persuasion.’ Daily Telegraph
‘[Ruth Dudley Edwards] writes ebullient novels frilled with entertaining eccentrics’ The Times
‘No one is writing wittier mystery fiction in Britain today that Ruth Dudley Edwards’ Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
Product Description
Latest in Ruth Dudley Edwards’s hilarious series of crime novels lampooning the British Establishment
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 breach.
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 and is whittling away at the judges one by one …
In deplorable taste and wickedly funny, this, the tenth in the Robert Amiss series, will consolidate the author's reputation for scurrilous humour.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I don't usually buy books in hardback or read book of this type, but for Carnage on the Committee, I made an exception. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a very entertaining read. The only thing I would say is not to do what I did and read it in public as people look at you strangely when you giggle uncontrollably on a bus.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although the Knapper-Warburton Committee, some of whom get bumped off, is charged with awarding a Booker-like prize and we are intrigued to find out whodunit, the real plot here is the skewering of the self-regarding posturing of figures in the academic and literary worlds. We have the Queer Studies, gender-concerned, politically correct, Derridean deconstructionist and self-invented stereotypes which might become burdensome if not for the poisonously witty pen of Dudley Wright whose lampooning is both deft and good-humored. Lady Jack Troutbeck, who insists on being called 'Madam Chairwoman' to the gasps of some of her committee members, is a real creation, one I'd love to meet in real life, although I might find myself cringing if she were to decide to puncture my own personal balloon of pretentiousness.
Anyone who has ever sat on an academic or prize committee will find much that is deplorably recognizable here. The madness is all leavened by the 'bloody good guys,' as Lady Jack calls them, who bring some sanity to the proceedings.
Thumbs up!
Scott Morrison
Format:Paperback
Irish author and scholar Ruth Dudley Edwards does not write fiction for the faint-hearted reader. Her mysteries all feature English civil-servant Robert Amiss, as well as a cast of supporting cast. Her best known supporting character is Lady Ida "Jack" Troutbeck, a booze guzzling,cigar-smoking, bi-sexual, un-"PC", head of a woman's college at Cambridge. Jack Troutbeck says what she thinks, and what she thinks is often at odds with Britain's "New Labour", which was in power when Dudley Edwards wrote and published "Carnage on the Committee".
The "committee" is the "Knapper-Warburton Committee", a Booker-like committee, whose nine members - including Robert Amiss - are charged with getting together to select one novel as that year's honoree of the prize. And the clever Dudley Edwards has made the eight members caricatures of the prevailing literary elite who people the real prize selection committees. Several murders occur and Robert Amiss enlists Jack Troutbeck's help by taking over the committee's chairmanship, left vacant by one of the murder victims. Dudley Edwards does not stint in poking fun at the pompousness of the literary insiders nor at the worthlessness of the books under consideration for the Knapper-Warburton. There are several laugh-out-loud scenes, for those who enjoy the un-PCness with which Dudley Edwards writes. Dudley Edwards has long satirized the British Establishment - brilliantly in "Publish and be Murdered", another Amiss/Troutbeck mystery, set a the "Wrangler", a suspiciously "Economist"-like magazine.
But if Dudley Edwards satirizes, she also points out truths. Her two page piece in her latest book, "Murdering Americans", gives the most beautiful explanation of America and her place in history and in the world I've ever read. Please seek out Dudley Edwards' fiction. She writes wonderfully, and often has some wonderful "truths" in her work.
The "committee" is the "Knapper-Warburton Committee", a Booker-like committee, whose nine members - including Robert Amiss - are charged with getting together to select one novel as that year's honoree of the prize. And the clever Dudley Edwards has made the eight members caricatures of the prevailing literary elite who people the real prize selection committees. Several murders occur and Robert Amiss enlists Jack Troutbeck's help by taking over the committee's chairmanship, left vacant by one of the murder victims. Dudley Edwards does not stint in poking fun at the pompousness of the literary insiders nor at the worthlessness of the books under consideration for the Knapper-Warburton. There are several laugh-out-loud scenes, for those who enjoy the un-PCness with which Dudley Edwards writes. Dudley Edwards has long satirized the British Establishment - brilliantly in "Publish and be Murdered", another Amiss/Troutbeck mystery, set a the "Wrangler", a suspiciously "Economist"-like magazine.
But if Dudley Edwards satirizes, she also points out truths. Her two page piece in her latest book, "Murdering Americans", gives the most beautiful explanation of America and her place in history and in the world I've ever read. Please seek out Dudley Edwards' fiction. She writes wonderfully, and often has some wonderful "truths" in her work.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hilarious and very clever send-up
Loved this book. The best bits for me were the synopses of dire books being considered for a literary prize. Read more
Published on 19 July 2009 by J. Birtles
Dull dull dull
This book is tedious in the extreme. I gave up half way through when I realised I didn't care about any of the characters and that the plot hadn't moved on from page one. Read more
Published on 10 Sep 2005 by J. Ling
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