Killing the Emperors (Baroness Troutbeck Robert Amis) [Hardcover]

It's been five years since Ruth Dudley Edwards last published a novel about Robert Amiss and Baroness Jack Troutbeck. That's five long years waiting for the Baroness and her cronies to stamp on yet another absurd aspect of modern life. Now they're back, and the world of Modern Art had better watch out. Especially Sir Nicholas Serota.
A disgruntled Russian Oligarch kidnaps Jack Troutbeck (who had mocked his taste, and collection of Modern Art) as well as an art critic, an academic, a gallery owner and a slew of others involved in the art world. They are kept in a Big Brother-style house, with Hirsts on the wall and beds by Emin (the very thought of having to sleep on these is stomach churning). Daily they perform tasks and have arguments (staged, at the Oligarch's instruction, by Jack) after which Jack has to choose who was "worst". The person Jack judges to have been the Prat du Jour is then evicted. What the inhabitants of the house don't know (but Jack suspects) is that eviction means death. Rather ingeniously, this consists of the murder victims being posed as works of art in public places, in the style of Banksy, Koons etc. All the while Jack's friends and the police force (hampered by an obdurate Assistant Commissioner) try to trace her whereabouts, as the body count mounts. Jack, like Scheherezade, struggles to keep the games going as long as possible, in order to save as many people as she can.
It's all rather jolly. The language is rather fruitier than we're used to, but then if I were stuck in the Big Brother House with those pretentious idiots and made to perform foolish and degrading tasks I rather imagine I'd be effing and blinding away like a good `un as well. Although the cast of victims is large, they're by and large fairly well defined. Modern Art really gets it in the neck, which is most welcome. Big Brother and And Then There Were None have never looked so similar. There are some decent jokes, and if at times it seems to be more of a thriller than a mystery novel (we always know whodunit and what's happening) well, so what? This is a light read which makes some serious points (I believe we call that "satire"), and if one leaves it astonished at learning what is perpetrated in the name of Modern Art, so much the better. On a personal note, I was delighted to discover that Jack's tiresome comedy parrot was reduced, on this occasion, to a non-squawking part...

This is probably the weakest of the Troutbeck books but is still above almost anything else available. There is little suspense about the plot, with the villain identified as soon as the first crime occurs. The constraints of the setting and plot limit the characters to some extent, with the selection of (sometimes underdeveloped) deserving victims not being seen together in the outside world, and Jack is restricted by the villain's actions. There are some wonderful moments such as Jack's reaction to being asked to eat a McDonald's burger, and it is well worth reading, but we miss the sheer outrageousness of the unfettered Jack. Anyone who reads this as their first Jack book must be aware that the others are even better.

I enjoyed the book, but, to be honest, I'm afraid I enjoyed it less than all the previous Amiss/Troutbeck books. I am a major aficianado of Dr Dudley Edwards - both for her novels and her newspaper articles. However, whilst very much agreeing with her 'political' views genrally, I hope that her nest novel will appeal to me more - if that does not appear too arrogant!