“I mean, imagine how some unfortunate Master Criminal would feel, on coming down to do a murder at the old Grange, if he found that not only was Sherlock Holmes putting in the weekend there, but Hercule Poirot, as well."
Having listened to a bunch of these back-to-back, out of order, and alongside a rewatch of the television series, I can safely say this is the best of the ones I've read so far. Why?
Easy.
Because I can remember all the plot points.
Wodehouse's stories have a sort of rhythm to them, a format, if you will, which makes them quite predictable right up until the moment they aren't. Bertie Wooster can't walk ten feet at a stretch without becoming unwittingly embroiled in a friend's relationship or accidentally getting engaged. Much like with a Holmes story, the question is never whether things will all eventually work out for the best (Jeeves is here, so they always will) so much as a) how long Wodehouse will continue to let Bertie make things worse for himself and in what ways he'll allow him to do it and b) how Jeeves will solve the problem.
The centerpiece of this particular farce is an 18th century cow-creamer. It isn't uncommon for Wodehouse to give Bertie some object that needs stealing or protecting or delivering, but for some reason the cow-creamer is an especially funny object.
Bertie's uncle is a collector. His favorite aunt, Dahlia, runs a magazine. She relies on his uncle to fund the magazine, therefore she wants him kept in a good mood so that she can ask him for an infusion of money.
Bertie's job is simply to go sneer at a cow creamer. Dahlia believes this will cause the seller to lower the price on the object, thus ensuring her husband can get a good deal on it and therefore putting him in the sort of mood where he'll be willing to help her fund a serial.
Since Bertie doesn't take Jeeves on this quest, he obviously messes it up. Not only is he mistaken as a thief by a judge who recently charged him for stealing an officer's police helmet, but in the process he makes a rival collector aware of the cow-creamer, causing him to buy it instead of his uncle.
Meanwhile, his old school pal, Gussie Finknottle, seems determined to sabotage his own relationship, putting the Bertie in danger of winding up engaged to Madeline Basset again. Throw in a few more zany characters and a book containing all of Gussie's negative thoughts about the people around him and it all starts to get a bit thick, but of course Jeeves is there to save the day.
Like most of these, you can read and follow this story without having read the others, but due to the presence of recurring characters, this one definitely benefits from having read others in the series.
EM Jeanmougin
writes Queer Urban Fantasy, Flash Horror, & Poetry.
Find Out More @ www.hunterandspider.com
