Half The Stars

Northern Advocate, 18 March 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

Half The Stars

Double Death is a composite detective thriller, each one of six famous

authors writing a section of the book. If one cannot say “all the stars of detective fiction are here,” it is no very great exaggeration to say that somewhere about half of them appear in the production. Dorothy Sayers leading the list, followed by Freeman Wills Croft. Valentine Williams, Tennyson Jesse, Anthony Armstrong and David Hume. John Chancellor acts as supervisor, and writes a prologue.

With all this array of talent we ought to get something good, and, in a way, as a psychological study, we do, plus; each author’s notes on his own section. Otherwise it is an instance of too many cooks spoiling the broth. An author often tells us that his characters run away with him and take the story .into their own hands. Which means that the story grows better than the author at first conceived it would. It imparts inspiration while he writes, living daily, as it were, with the children of his imagination. Whatever there is in this inspiration depends on a close unity of authorship. It can hardly be expected to survive a composite authorship of six, and it doesn’t.