Death Makes a Prophet

The stranger in a strange land premise works really well in this revived mystery (part of the British Library Crime Classics series), first published in 1947. Bude, a prolific writer of mysteries with picturesque settings, including The Cornish Coast Murder (originally published in 1935), sets this later one in an idyllic garden city inhabited by a bohemian, freewheeling cult known as Cooism. The cult is a soup of beliefs, with lashings of Egyptian gods, numerology, astrology, vegetarianism, and handmade clothing. Bude sends up the cult itself, the pretentiousness and ambition of its acolytes, and the opportunism of its high prophet. Into this mix comes Peta Penpeti, robed and exotic-looking, perhaps Egyptian, an espouser of mysticism. And quicker than you can say Osiris, the cult is infested with jealousy, blackmail, fraud, and a double murder. Bude infuses the tale with comic commentary throughout. Veteran mystery writer and anthologist Martin Edwards' introduction gives an overview of other writers, including Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dashiell Hammett, and Ellery Queen, who have all used exotic cults as their mysteries' springboards.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2017 Booklist

A new religion becomes a hive of intrigue, culminating in murder, in this entertaining entry, first published in 1947, in the British Crime Classics series. Despite the book's detective, Inspector Meredith, being largely offstage and the killing he investigates not occurring until about halfway through, Bude (1901-1957) easily sustains interest as he wryly describes the Children of Osiris, a faith "compounded of a belief in magic numbers, astrology, auras, astral bodies, humility, meditation, vegetarianism, immortality, hand-woven tweeds and brotherly love." The cult quickly expands and becomes profitable, leading its founder, widowed bookseller Eustace Mildmann, to create the position of Prophet-in-Waiting, who is to serve as his chosen successor and help with the increasing administrative duties. After the charismatic and flamboyant Peta Penpeti, who has a closet full of skeletons, fills that role, the stage is set for multiple schemes aimed at making Penpeti's position more secure. A crafty set of final revelations ensures that the delayed gratification pays off for whodunit fans. Mystery buffs will want to seek out more work from this golden age author. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Bude, the pen name of Ernest Carpenter Elmore (1901-57), juices this 1947 cozy by spending more than half the story setting the stage for a double murder whose victims are both active in a fantastical cult that's taken root in the English village of Welworth.The two powers behind the Children of Osiris, popularly known by the acronym Coo, are Eustace Mildmann, a widowed ex-bookseller whose fascination with early Egyptian religion launched Cooism, and Alicia Hagge-Smith, the wealthy widow whose capacious purse has installed Eustace as High Prophet and turned Cooism into a veritable cash machine. Despite their closeness, they don't see eye to eye about everything. Eustace doesn't share Mrs. Hagge-Smith's infatuation with Peta Penpeti, whose assiduous devotion to the cult has made him Eustace's successor-designate. And he's slow to warm to his backer's enthusiastic suggestion that they organize a conference that ends up drawing 600 of the faithful to Welworth, where they sleep in tents and talk a lot of rubbish Bude (The Lake District Murder, 2016, etc.) is too solicitous to let his readers overhear. Instead, he focuses on rivalries among the tight cliques that form around Penelope Parker, the Penpeti booster Eustace hopelessly adores; Hansford Boot, the Eustace booster who's being blackmailed over some shameful secret in his past; and Denise Blake, Mrs. Hagge-Smith's secretary, whom Eustace's son, Terence, would love to marry despite his father's sputtering objections. The nonfatal shooting of Sidney Arkwright, the under-chauffeur Mrs. Hagge-Smith has assigned Eustace, is only a prelude to a double poisoning that brings Inspector Meredith down from Scotland Yard to solve a case whose mysteries seem to multiply faster than rabbits.Once Bude's franchise hero arrives, the elaborately facetious but essentially toothless satire of the first half gives way to the head-scratching complications of the second. Pick your poison: although neither kind of pleasure is sustained all the way through, they're both amply in evidence. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The "stranger in a strange land" premise works really well in this revived mystery (part of the British Library Crime Classics series), first published in 1947. Bude, a prolific writer of mysteries with picturesque settings, including The Cornish Coast Murder (originally published in 1935), sets this later one in an idyllic garden city inhabited by a bohemian, freewheeling cult known as Cooism. The cult is a soup of beliefs, with lashings of Egyptian gods, numerology, astrology, vegetarianism, and handmade clothing. Bude sends up the cult itself, the pretentiousness and ambition of its acolytes, and the opportunism of its high prophet. Into this mix comes Peta Penpeti, robed and exotic-looking, perhaps Egyptian, an espouser of mysticism. And quicker than you can say "Osiris," the cult is infested with jealousy, blackmail, fraud, and a double murder. Bude infuses the tale with comic commentary throughout. Veteran mystery writer and anthologist Martin Edwards' introduction gives an overview of other writers, including Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dashiell Hammett, and Ellery Queen, who have all used exotic cults as their mysteries' springboards. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

A new religion becomes a hive of intrigue, culminating in murder, in this entertaining entry, first published in 1947, in the British Crime Classics series. Despite the book's detective, Inspector Meredith, being largely offstage and the killing he investigates not occurring until about halfway through, Bude (1901–1957) easily sustains interest as he wryly describes the Children of Osiris, a faith "compounded of a belief in magic numbers, astrology, auras, astral bodies, humility, meditation, vegetarianism, immortality, hand-woven tweeds and brotherly love." The cult quickly expands and becomes profitable, leading its founder, widowed bookseller Eustace Mildmann, to create the position of Prophet-in-Waiting, who is to serve as his chosen successor and help with the increasing administrative duties. After the charismatic and flamboyant Peta Penpeti, who has a closet full of skeletons, fills that role, the stage is set for multiple schemes aimed at making Penpeti's position more secure. A crafty set of final revelations ensures that the delayed gratification pays off for whodunit fans. Mystery buffs will want to seek out more work from this golden age author. (Jan.)