- Unknown Binding
- ASIN: B0018K9GFQ
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
The Big Bow Mystery
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's not really worth buying this book, it's just a scanned-in copy, with many errors in the text. You'd be much better off downloading it for free from Project Guttenberg.
Format:Kindle Edition
`The Big Bow Mystery' by Israel Zangwill certainly lives up to its name. The novel reeks of Victorian atmosphere as it produces right from the start the `closed room' mystery. A landlady cannot arouse a lodger so she summons a neighbour, a retired detective called Grodman, to help. They burst in to find Arthur Constant, throat cut while asleep, with the door locked and bolted, windows closed and no weapon in sight (so not suicide).
The novella is packed with interesting characters that are vividly drawn. I should have realised that Zangwill was a noted humourist by the way these characters are handled. The saintly agitator (Arthur Constant) aka the victim; the steadfast but innocent landlady (Mrs. Dragdump) supplying much of the extensive humour, especially at the legal proceedings; the retired detective (George Grodman) guiding the reader through the forensics but obsessed by rivalry with his successor (Wimp) at the Yard; the blinkered, arrogant detective (Edward Wimp) who EXPLOITS the law rather than acts as its servant; the odious and deceitful scrounger (Denzil Cantercot), a self-styled poet and clear suspect; the ambitious rabble-rouser (Tom Mortlake) who performs the role of chief suspect - perhaps unjustly; the forthright radical (Peter Crowl), so keen to lead others but so hen-pecked by his wife; and the `femme fatale' (Jessie Dymond), basically off-stage but the answer to the mystery.
The background is that of the social unrest (e.g. 1889 Dockers Strike) which led to excessive anti-union legislation and so to the creation of the Labour Party (1900). It was the era of not just Socialism but also Communism and even Anarchism. Some of the characters are part of that world. It was also the world when police faced growing public expectation and not always successfully (e.g. Jack the Ripper in 1888).
The story goes at a great pace and is well-written, complete with twists and false-starts. Near the end the tension rises until the final twist / denouement.
Why do I give it four stars? Because Zangwill cheats by the sin of omission - and I've repeated the offence in this review, so there's your clue. Also the motivation for the murder provided in the solution I would consider rather scanty.
One final word. I followed the advice of another reviewer & used Project Gutenburg.
The novella is packed with interesting characters that are vividly drawn. I should have realised that Zangwill was a noted humourist by the way these characters are handled. The saintly agitator (Arthur Constant) aka the victim; the steadfast but innocent landlady (Mrs. Dragdump) supplying much of the extensive humour, especially at the legal proceedings; the retired detective (George Grodman) guiding the reader through the forensics but obsessed by rivalry with his successor (Wimp) at the Yard; the blinkered, arrogant detective (Edward Wimp) who EXPLOITS the law rather than acts as its servant; the odious and deceitful scrounger (Denzil Cantercot), a self-styled poet and clear suspect; the ambitious rabble-rouser (Tom Mortlake) who performs the role of chief suspect - perhaps unjustly; the forthright radical (Peter Crowl), so keen to lead others but so hen-pecked by his wife; and the `femme fatale' (Jessie Dymond), basically off-stage but the answer to the mystery.
The background is that of the social unrest (e.g. 1889 Dockers Strike) which led to excessive anti-union legislation and so to the creation of the Labour Party (1900). It was the era of not just Socialism but also Communism and even Anarchism. Some of the characters are part of that world. It was also the world when police faced growing public expectation and not always successfully (e.g. Jack the Ripper in 1888).
The story goes at a great pace and is well-written, complete with twists and false-starts. Near the end the tension rises until the final twist / denouement.
Why do I give it four stars? Because Zangwill cheats by the sin of omission - and I've repeated the offence in this review, so there's your clue. Also the motivation for the murder provided in the solution I would consider rather scanty.
One final word. I followed the advice of another reviewer & used Project Gutenburg.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
One of the earliest locked-room mysteries
8 Mar 1998
Format:Audio Cassette
Author Israel Zangwill wrote one of the earliest locked-room mysteries in "The Big Bow Mystery." A woman becomes discouraged when she cannot wake her new lodger. He is in his room, which has been locked from the inside. Despite her fervent knocks, she simply cannot wake him, and she hears no sounds from within. Convinced that her lodger has been murdered, she enlists the help of a celebrated ex-detective neighbor. He breaks down the door, and the lodger is found dead in his bed, his throat slit. The door was indeed locked from the inside, and the windows were similarly secured. Thus is the puzzle at the heart of one of the earliest (circa 1891) locked-room mysteries.
Zangwill has indeed included a masterful puzzle, though the story itself is somewhat problematic. The middle of the story is unnecessarily complex and confusing, and there is a bit too much devotion to politics. Still, the book is very accessible, and anyone with a fondness for the sort of "impossible" crime that John Dickson Carr (a.k.a. Carter Dickson, a.k.a. Carr Dickson) later made famous should read this early entry to the genre.
Note: I read the paperback book for this review and have not listened to the tapes.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Semi-decent mystery
28 Aug 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Israel Zangwill did not write this novel to write a mystery, he wrote it to be a satire of Victorian England. The charecters are on dimesional at best, and completely unlikeable, even the detective. The solution for the mystery is belivable, but the reason for the impossible nature of the crime is completely unbelivable. Like the other reviewers have said, and I agree, the middle of the story is completely pointless, as are several of the charecters. But, it was the first locked room mystery novel, so I must give it some credit.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Lots to like
23 Dec 2010
Format:Kindle Edition
One of the main points of this novel is that people see what they expect to see, and do so at the expense of what's really there. So, caveat lector. Don't start this early locked-room mystery (the first?) expecting a purist's detective tale of the later (Golden Age) type. That's not to say that it isn't a decent locked-room mystery with a couple of last-page surprises, but Zangwill also uses the genre as a vehicle for his ideas and observations, and for poking fun at late Victorian London. The novel offers a good representation of the period--especially with regards to the labor movement--Dickensian characters (almost caricatures, not necessarily likeable but still entertaining), and quite a bit of sardonic humor.
In that regard it struck me as more "modern" than many later and more pristine detective novels of the twenties and thirties.
In that regard it struck me as more "modern" than many later and more pristine detective novels of the twenties and thirties.
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