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snickies's review against another edition
3.0
I thought it dragged a bit in the middle (the 39 questions! What was that?! Why did it keep going???) but by the end I was pretty in to it. I was pretty impressed by how it all came together in the end. Well done, masters of the golden age of mystery novels, I guess?
horthhill's review against another edition
4.0
The Floating Admiral is the result of a bit of amusement by a number of the leading detective story writers of the early '30s. Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers and others passed-on each succeeding chapter to the writer next on the list in a sort of writing relay without help of either overall outline or goal except that each succeeding chapter must advance the plot without ignoring the details of the preceding chapters. Of course, the final chapter must tie-up all that went before. All the writers are quite talented and the mechanics of the stories are at a high standard. No clue is left behind. But without an agreed-to outline, the story does meander a bit. The ending does tie-up loose ends, but the overall package is bit bulky and not very elegant. As a mystery novel, it is a bit ho-hum. But as a game, it is fun to follow the ingenuity of writers like Agatha Christie or Ronald Knox. A pretty good read.
tarioronar's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fun and quick book to read. Since every chapter is written by someone different, I expected there to be changes in style, and for the most part, it wasn't as jarring as I expected. The ending annoyed me though. Anthony Berkeley did a decent job tying up the mess his fellow writers made, and then in the last paragraph ruined what could have been a good ending.
l1nds's review against another edition
3.0
It starts out gloriously enough, but frankly it's all downhill after Dorothy L. Sayers. Her chapter is the best by miles (I'm excluding Agatha Christie from the criticism because her chapter is so short) and serves to highlight the shortcomings of her colleagues in the Detection Club.
Side note: there's a foreword by Simon Brett, the current President of the Detection Club and I can only assume he didn't bother to read the book because he writes of GK Chesterton "the prologue he wrote to this volume seems to bear no relation to anything in the ensuing novel". WTF? They must have lowered the standards for entry to the Club since it's inception, because the events in the prologue are crucial to the heart of the matter.
Side note: there's a foreword by Simon Brett, the current President of the Detection Club and I can only assume he didn't bother to read the book because he writes of GK Chesterton "the prologue he wrote to this volume seems to bear no relation to anything in the ensuing novel". WTF? They must have lowered the standards for entry to the Club since it's inception, because the events in the prologue are crucial to the heart of the matter.
irenemg's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
La idea era muy interesante: una novela de misterio escrita por los mejores escritores de misterio.
Sin embargo en la práctica las cosas no han salido tan bien. Se nota que es una historia escrita a cachos, algunos capítulos no aportan mucho y no se sabe muy bien por dónde va a tirar la historia.
Al final del libro vienen las soluciones propuestas por cada uno de los autores pero no sabría decir cuál me parece la mejor.
Es un libro interesante y entretenido pero los trabajos en grupo no suelen salir bien
Sin embargo en la práctica las cosas no han salido tan bien. Se nota que es una historia escrita a cachos, algunos capítulos no aportan mucho y no se sabe muy bien por dónde va a tirar la historia.
Al final del libro vienen las soluciones propuestas por cada uno de los autores pero no sabría decir cuál me parece la mejor.
Es un libro interesante y entretenido pero los trabajos en grupo no suelen salir bien
lindseysparks's review against another edition
4.0
Was this the best mystery ever? No. Was it incredibly fun and entertaining anyway? Absolutely. This was jointly written by member of the Detection Club, including Agatha Christie, Sayers and Chesterton. Each author wrote a chapter, not knowing what would come next. Any clue had to be wrapped up by the end. This makes the later chapters better as they work to weave random events from the earlier chapters together. It's an amazing achievement. The story makes sense and is better plotted than many more conventionally written stories. Each of the later authors also provided a solution, based only on what they knew at their chapter. Christie's was my favorite. This did start a little slow, and Chesterton's prologue just seemed really out of place, and wasn't good, which as disappointing. Overall though it was a fun, successful experiment.
marlisenicole's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
loud_purrbox's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is a fun little curio. It was interesting to see the different writers style and abilities. I liked that the introduction lets you know not to expect a great mystery but a peak into the craft. And it was instructive that the authors‘ proposed endings were included. A shame that Whitechurch and the Coles didn’t give a solution.
Chapter 8 by Knox should have been left out it’s that bad and has nothing of any value to the story in it.
Aside from that I think Christie, Sayers, Jepson and Berkeley can write and the rest sadly cannot.
Of those Christie and Jepson are my favorites. I’d never heard of Edgar Jepson so I’ll investigate him a bit further.
Sadly, Berkeley decided to flop the ending on the last half page. A bit weird and unnecessary but okay.
Christie’s proposed ending was the most fun after that you can see that they’re mostly struggling to make sense of everything and getting lost in the weeds. Which was mostly actually fun and interesting to see.
Sayers proposed ending was the only one I couldn’t finish because it was so boring and convoluted but it made it all the more interesting that her chapter was such a good read.
All in all, the best I can say for this book was that it was very interesting if not always actually a pleasure to read.
Chapter 8 by Knox should have been left out it’s that bad and has nothing of any value to the story in it.
Aside from that I think Christie, Sayers, Jepson and Berkeley can write and the rest sadly cannot.
Of those Christie and Jepson are my favorites. I’d never heard of Edgar Jepson so I’ll investigate him a bit further.
Sadly, Berkeley decided to flop the ending on the last half page. A bit weird and unnecessary but okay.
Christie’s proposed ending was the most fun after that you can see that they’re mostly struggling to make sense of everything and getting lost in the weeds. Which was mostly actually fun and interesting to see.
Sayers proposed ending was the only one I couldn’t finish because it was so boring and convoluted but it made it all the more interesting that her chapter was such a good read.
All in all, the best I can say for this book was that it was very interesting if not always actually a pleasure to read.
serenereader9's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
First of all the cover is gorgeous.
This book was really fun and I think if you’re already interested in the detection club and that era of detective stories you’ll appreciate it more(at least I did). I am already a fan of a few of these authors (Agatha Christie, Dorothy sayers, Anthony Berkeley)and liked all of their solutions. I also thought one of the authors in the appendix going through each of the previous chapter’s authors and where those clues pointed before giving his own solution was fun. Not gonna lie this was kind of hard to follow just because of all the clues and timelines and things to keep track of. I didn’t end up figuring it out. I also had no clue what we were supposed to get with the current and how long it takes to go upstream, downstream, when does the current change and go in the opposite direction etc.lol
This book was really fun and I think if you’re already interested in the detection club and that era of detective stories you’ll appreciate it more(at least I did). I am already a fan of a few of these authors (Agatha Christie, Dorothy sayers, Anthony Berkeley)and liked all of their solutions. I also thought one of the authors in the appendix going through each of the previous chapter’s authors and where those clues pointed before giving his own solution was fun. Not gonna lie this was kind of hard to follow just because of all the clues and timelines and things to keep track of. I didn’t end up figuring it out. I also had no clue what we were supposed to get with the current and how long it takes to go upstream, downstream, when does the current change and go in the opposite direction etc.lol
shellystilger's review against another edition
4.0
Really fun to hear different Golden Age authors set each other up, handle curve balls, and come up with different solutions. Not to be read for the story itself, but for the joy of the interaction between authors.