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Brief Candles |
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 Brief Candles byManning Coles The Rue Morgue Press 154 pages, 2000 ISBN 0915230240 Reviewed by PJ Nunn This book is a Rue Morgue Vintage Mystery release written by Manning Coles, which is the pseudonym of English writers Cyril Coles and Adelaide Oke Manning. It was first released in 1954, and surprisingly it stands the test of time. Sally and Jeremy Latimer are on holiday in the small, French village of St. Denis-sur-Aisne when their car breaks down. Two dapper old gentlemen come to their aid. Their impeccable manners and delightful sense of humor help Sally and Jeremy overlook what they perceive as eccentricities. What the couple doesn’t realize is that the old duo did not come upon them accidentally – they were summoned from an unmarked grave to lend aid to their younger relatives. For good measure, they’ve brought along their pet monkey Ulysses, and the three clumsily attempt to right the wrongs being perpetrated against young Sally and Jeremy. In order to solve the Latimers’ problems, the ancestral specters light brief candles of insanity for a policeman, a banker and a group of English ghost-busters, hoping to even the odds. This only complicates things further but leads the ensemble down a twisting road to a satisfying conclusion. Brief Candles is different, but delightfully so. The strength of the work lies in the eccentricities of the characters and their inept, if well intentioned, attempts to control the uncontrollable. Anthony Boucher is quoted as calling it: As felicitously foolish as a collaboration of Wodehouse and Thorne Smith. If you enjoy the classic English approach to mystery exploration, you’ll certainly enjoy this one. |
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