Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley

These reprints have opened a whole new world of reading for me, and I continue to enjoy the experience. That said, I am becoming particular about what I think of any one of them because, having read quite a few in the past couple of years, I have developed a taste for a particular style and know what I like versus that which I do not. This particular narrative is a more in-depth exploration of social interactions than any Agatha Christie that I remember reading. The entire social event is a mix of characters with different personalities and ambitions at the party. The guests are all dressed up as some known characters, none of whom I knew about. I could have googled to verify the facts behind the names thrown about, but I did not have the will at the time, and it passed me by. This is not something that is really necessary, but being a visual reader and not being able to add this to my own thought process might have been one of the reasons for me rating the book the way I am. The host is a gregarious individual who is in the process of being divorced, and both his ex and future wife are at the party. His sister-in-law (the future victim) is the centre of everyone’s ire, and we are told by everyone what they think of her. She seemed more like a caricature than a real person, even after she made her own appearance in the scene. A good part of the book talks of all the people, the talks they had, and our lead investigator/protagonist, and it is quite surprising that very little of this would change when describing parties in the current day and age. Finally, when the victim is found, everyone seems to scramble, and I think for me, the highlight was the very ending. The final reveal and the implications that it had on everything we had seen up to this point were fascinating. There are some books that hold me captive throughout. This was the other kind. The one that the ending makes the read worthwhile. The author laid a good plan for the reader, catching them unaware while also not leaving out anything important. I think other people who read this genre will enjoy this even more than I did. I think I will have to try out more books by the author before I can be sure if I like his books as much as some others I have from that era. I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.