... You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
After the success of The
Floating Admiral, The Detection Club soon decided to do another round-robin
novel entitled Ask a Policeman. The
cast list was once again comprised of all-stars, but this time they were not
quite as numerous. Six novelists combined their efforts into Ask a Policeman, namely Helen Simpson,
Milward Kennedy, John Rhode, Anthony Berkeley, Gladys Mitchell, and Dorothy L.
Sayers.
– Harry Callahan, Dirty Harry (1971)
The plot is only a semi-serious one, although the parody
elements never outweigh the detection elements. A rich, despised-by-all
newspaper tycoon is shot dead at his house, with a plethora of suspects playing
a complex game of ring-around-the-rosy around the scene of the crime. But, as
luck would have it, these suspects happen to include an Archbishop, the Chief
Whip of a political party, and an Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard. But
for good measure, you can throw in the dead man’s secretary and a Mysterious
Lady, as well as a suspicious butler and other members of the domestic staff.
