The Poisoned Chocolates Case

⚖The case for it

Warmth is the thing it withholds. Berkeley hands one killing to six amateur sleuths and lets each build a full case, so the pleasure here is method rather than feeling. The dead woman stays a fixed point on a diagram, and the detectives argue like a club scoring debate points, which is exactly the effect he wants. Its real draw is how it tests your confidence in any tidy explanation. If you have ever walked away sure you had the answer, this will make you check your work.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Ingenious is the word, and also the limit. Berkeley's six club members exist to hold theories; nobody in the book is a person, the victim least of all, and each solution requires re-walking the same evidence. As a demolition of detective-story logic it is perfect. As a novel it has the emotional temperature of a crossword.

— the honest librarian