My September TBR outside-the-genre choice was Carnage on the Committee by Ruth Dudley Edwards. It was ultimately greatly disappointing. Darn it. Two comments led me to read the book. The first, a compliment from the Daily Mail: “It’s always a pleasure to welcome another iconoclastic blast against the establishment from the pen of Ruth Dudley Edwards.” And secondly, the back cover description: “When the chairperson of the prestigious Knapper Warburton Literary Prize dies in suspicious circumstances Robert Amiss wastes no time in summoning Baroness ‘Jack’ Troutbeck. Speculation that a killer may be targeting the judges worries the baroness not in the slightest. It’s the prospect of immersing herself in modern literature that fills her with dread.”So what could be better? An English cozy in a bookish setting. Acerbic digs at sacred cows. My kind of book, right? Unfortunately no, because there were far too many judges, an inordinate number of would-be prize books and an unwieldy plot that made frequent allusions to previous books. I found it very difficult to distinguish the rather unpleasant characters. The Baroness was thoroughly unbelievable and Robert Amiss (I think perhaps he was the hero) faded into the background to the point of invisibility. If you decide to read the book, I suggest skimming until you run into a delightful barb or bon mot. There were many of those and they were very on point and enjoyable. Let me leave you with a few (and remember to mentally read all of these sentences with lashings of scornful sarcasm).The Baroness and Amiss discussing a “ground-breaking new novel”. “What ground was she breaking this time?” … “Christ knows. The crassness of consumerism came in to it somewhere, as did the neo-Gothic, Mother Courage, post-capitalist meta-narrative – whatever crap that is – White Goddesses, Hillary Clinton and the Ode to Joy.”One of the suspects needs to be interviewed but the place is problematic. “Den Smith had declined to be interviewed at home (‘I will not have my privacy invaded’), at the Yard (‘I will not set foot in Gestapo headquarters’) or Milton’s club (‘I refuse to obey a dress code imposed by dinosaurs’) …”A judge shares her private reading tastes (no surprise, not at all to the liking of the dearly departed chairwoman). “What do you like to read?’ ‘Stories. Bridget Jones. Jane Austen. Maeve Binchy. Zadie Smith. And mysteries. I love mysteries.”Lastly, Amiss shared a particularly acrimonious exchange with his friend the Baroness. Speaking of the prize books again. ‘Oh yes, there was an enjoyable moment when we were considering the gay logger and Jack referred to Rosa’s and Ferriter’s choices as being of a particular bent, Ferriter said that proved she was homophobic and Jack said, “That, Professor Ferriter, is a fallacy, spelt ‘ p h a l l a c y’.”There you have it – next month I’m back to rom!
