A Shot in the Dark: A Twitten Mystery (A Constable Twitten Mystery)

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Future readers would be well-advised to have some idea of the pre-existing radio drama series and larger than life characters before reading because as much as I admired some particularly witty writing and Truss’s joke that ‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene has a lot to answer for, I would have appreciated a little more mental stimulation. The chemistry is undeniable, but their new relationship as teacher and student means desperately wanting what they can't have. A sparkling historical mystery set in sunny Sussex by the sea, perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Robert Thorogood and Elly Griffiths. Inspector Steine (pronounced Steen) solved the Middle Street Massacre in 1951, still glorying in its resolution 6 years later when Constable Twitten enters the Brighton police force.

When Crystal is shot midway through the play prior to the publication of his theatre review with Constable Twittern a witness there appears no shortage of suspects from the current playwright to those whose stage careers he has ended with his savaging. When Crystal ends up being murdered in his seat during the play, the rather Keystone Cops story begins. It’s sorta just understood that there’s something there, and that their relationship is headed somewhere but it’s an understated sort of romantic journey, with Ely’s artistic journey and her recovery and reconnection to her religion taking center stage while Wyatt stands supportively by her side, dealing with a few hang ups of his own and occasionally bringing up the inappropriateness of their interactions due to their respective positions in this art program. Finally, and this is tough to explain, but while reading this I had to wonder, is all representation good representation? The hot and satisfying sex scenes feel simultaneously mainstream and wonderfully queer, grounded by the protagonists’ genuine connection.

Furniture was in disarray; ornaments shattered, curtains torn, blood dripped from the fireplace and was sprayed in arcs across the walls. What with the Shots continuing a poor run with a 1-0 defeat to Eastleigh, it has become an unhappy November for him. Sitting in a dark theater he is about to tell Constable Twitten what he knows about an unsolved case from 1945 when there is "a shot in the dark" and Crystal is dead. no sooner has ely’s first night ended than in a comedic stroke of fate, she’s stumbled into a chance encounter at a queer club, an ensuing one-night stand and then the next morning verging on being late to her very first class with… the very man she just had an electric one night stand with - the wyatt cole.

On her first night back, she goes to a local queer nightclub and hooks up with a very hot trans stranger. There was no doubt that a life-and-death struggle had taken place inside this room--the biggest giveaway being the lifeless remains on the best Persian rug, of the magnetic young playwright Jack Braithwaite, whose own personal Gas Man had arrived unexpectedly to read his meter and collect his dues.

I also was especially drawn to the setting of Parker Art School, since once upon a time I spent two summer taking studio art and photography classes at the actual Parsons School of Art and Design in NYC. This is definitely not your usual cozy mystery - mystery for sure, but way more farcical with a grand touch of Keystone Cops.

Shot in the Dark features artists who share the photographer's spirit of uncompromising individualism, including The Cramps, Patti Smith, The Damned, Lydia Lunch, The Ramones, Dead Boys, Nick Cave, Only Ones, Motorhead, Gun Club and Blondie, with contributions from many of them. His fan’s notes on Aldershot’s game-by-game progress in the Vanarama, AKA the National League, sit oddly adjacent to his dread that a Trump victory in the US election has gone from “virtually unthinkable” to a horrifying possibility. It's clear that the author knows about addiction and Judaism, as those are the parts that the most care and attention were placed on, but it was at the cost of everything else feeling sketched in.

this was lee annexing a trope and breathing new life into it, revitalising it as a romance between a trans man (wyatt) and queer woman (ely). Managing to rub all of his superiors up the wrong way with his rather irritating smart aleck persona, Twittern has been moved from station to station and so jumps at the chance to work for the esteemed Inspector Steine. Whilst I quite enjoyed the first-half and the humorous course to uncovering one of the two mysteries involved, my appetite was for a more succinct novel and sadly A Shot in the Dark outstayed its welcome by well over one hundred pages!

The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. The glory of satire is that instead of needing to dream up a variety of innovative twists and turns to liven up the plot, Truss instead can take the oldest and tritest murder mystery elements and make us choke with laughter as we read them. Humor is a highly personal thing, so while this didn’t work for me, there may be others who find it hilarious.

On the evening of his first day in Brighton, Steine gives Twitten his ticket to a gritty realism play that Steine would do anything to avoid. He almost allows Trump and his wrongdoing to hijack the project, and at times he knows it: “I hate the way that this diary is getting dominated by this thin-skinned egotist. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.