Why a Booktrail?
1930s: A Columbo style murder for children. Where you know the who and how before the police.
Antidote to Venom (British LIbrary Crime Classics)
What you need to know before your trail
Have you ever wanted to know who carried out a crime, why and how before the police ever find out about it? What led to the criminals doing a crime and what circumstances led up to it?
The story starts with George Sturridge, who works at the local zoo in Birmingham as its Director and has wanted this job ever since he was a child. His wife Clarissa however is upset as she wants to live in London and so hates the provincial feel of anywhere else. George soon finds solace in the arms of another and other vices..
There is murder afoot at the zoo as someone is planning to use snake venom to commit the perfect crime but is everything as it seems?
Travel Guide
Birmingham Zoo -or Birmington zoo in this book – is a place of exotic animals and murder, fictionally speaking of course. And the murder is quite an ingenious one despite knowing who commits the crime. The why can be a lot more interesting….
for those of you who remember and still love Columbo, the crime unravels like this – we see who does it and what the crime entails at the start before the police arrive. Inspector French however is not your usual police inspector as he is somewhat reluctant to investigate and then deems something strange about the whole affair.
Murder with snake venom is quite ingenious. Murder with a zoo as its setting rather more so. The zoo and Sturridge’s work is described and evoked in detail:
“The collection of snakes was extremely good, one of the best features of the Zoo.”
“Whether there was something that suited them in the air or soil of Birmington, or whether their health was due to the care of their attendant Keeper Nesbit, Sturridge did not know..”
But this goes deeper and further into the social conditions of the time, how adultery and lying are viewed and how seemingly mild mannered people can go on to commit crime by circumstance..
There is a 19th century feel to the entire proceedings with the the local ladies’ club having just fixed electrical wiring into their hall, the notion of ‘social calls’ and talks about lunching, talks on the Sinai issue to mention just a few.
It’s the structure of the book which sets it back into the golden age of crime and a fascinating world it is too.
Where Next?
