REVIEW: Envoy on Excursion
Jul. 20th, 2015 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllEnvoy on Excursion: Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon
Michael Joseph (this edition 1954)
Detective-Inspector Adam Quill of Scotland Yard, who has previously had to deal with the insanities of the Ballet Stroganov has a new case. It is wartime, and a dead body has most unfortunately been found in the heart of government at the Ministry of Elimination. Eventually, it is established it was murder. I have to report that Quill solves the case quite quickly, if not quite quickly enough to stop another fatality, but by that time, he has been drawn into diplomacy as a result of a series of farcical events involving a practical joker, an indolent Russian and a very bad spy, among other idiots.
For the murdered man was Insomnian, and not just any Insomnian. The neutral nation is on the verge of signing a treaty for its recently discovered Gardenium, but will the treaty be with Nazi Germany or Great Britain? King Hannibal the Hothead wants it to be the latter, but his Cabinet has a different view. With the representatives of British government in this book referring to all foreigners as ‘johnnies’, Quill has his job cut out in getting the treaty with Blighty signed.
It is utterly ridiculous, like ‘Yes, Minister’ (the comparison is irresistible because there’s a Sir Humphrey) run amok. Hitler makes an appearance, is mocked, and there’s a cameo appearance from the Ballet Stroganoff itself. The ways of the Insomnians are as daft as those of the English, not to mention the Russians... There are running jokes and whimsical touches, mostly carried off with aplomb.
It was perhaps all a little much for me. I kept putting it down, because although I was mightily amused, I needed a rest. However, there’s something admirable about a book where 'Mein Kampf' and nearly everything and everyone get it in the neck, written during world war two. (I think this comes before ‘Six Curtains for Strogonova’.)
Michael Joseph (this edition 1954)
Detective-Inspector Adam Quill of Scotland Yard, who has previously had to deal with the insanities of the Ballet Stroganov has a new case. It is wartime, and a dead body has most unfortunately been found in the heart of government at the Ministry of Elimination. Eventually, it is established it was murder. I have to report that Quill solves the case quite quickly, if not quite quickly enough to stop another fatality, but by that time, he has been drawn into diplomacy as a result of a series of farcical events involving a practical joker, an indolent Russian and a very bad spy, among other idiots.
For the murdered man was Insomnian, and not just any Insomnian. The neutral nation is on the verge of signing a treaty for its recently discovered Gardenium, but will the treaty be with Nazi Germany or Great Britain? King Hannibal the Hothead wants it to be the latter, but his Cabinet has a different view. With the representatives of British government in this book referring to all foreigners as ‘johnnies’, Quill has his job cut out in getting the treaty with Blighty signed.
It is utterly ridiculous, like ‘Yes, Minister’ (the comparison is irresistible because there’s a Sir Humphrey) run amok. Hitler makes an appearance, is mocked, and there’s a cameo appearance from the Ballet Stroganoff itself. The ways of the Insomnians are as daft as those of the English, not to mention the Russians... There are running jokes and whimsical touches, mostly carried off with aplomb.
It was perhaps all a little much for me. I kept putting it down, because although I was mightily amused, I needed a rest. However, there’s something admirable about a book where 'Mein Kampf' and nearly everything and everyone get it in the neck, written during world war two. (I think this comes before ‘Six Curtains for Strogonova’.)
