Robert Amiss allows Ellis Pooley to persuade him to apply for a job as a waiter at a gentlemen’s club to try and find out what is going on there. Was the recent death of the club secretary suicide or murder? It soon becomes clear that certain stalwarts who have taken up permanent residence in the club are doing very nicely thank you and that they do not want any changes made by their reforming chairman. When that same chairman is killed in a bomb blast which knocks out Robert as well things become serious and Ellis and his boss, Jim Milton are sent in to investigate.This is an amusing look at the arcane world of gentlemen’s clubs with plenty of obnoxious characters as well as some likeable ones. Robert finds himself needing food parcels from Ellis because the food for the staff is so dire though the food for residents and guests is first class. I enjoyed this entertaining story which pokes fun at many stereotypes while telling an excellent crime story.If you like your crime stories in the classic mould with interesting and likeable series characters then you may enjoy this series featuring Robert Amiss. It is best to read them in the order in which they were written so that you can see the relationships between the characters developing. The first book in the series is ‘Corridors of Death’.
This was an odd book. Things at the Ffeatherstonehaugh (pronounced Fanshaw) Club are very strange. The secretary of the club died suddenly and the police are not sure if he jumped or if he was pushed off the railing of the atrium. Robert Amiss, a friend of the police, is hired at the club to see if he can find out what happened. He enters a very strange world. The club is run by a group of about 5 very elderly men who live there. The staff are treated horribly but the club members are living way above their means. This was a fair mystery but it was a little boring in places and was a slow read.
