The floating admiral 

• 1980 
• Ashton, Winifred 

  + 13

  Aubrey-Fletcher, HenryBerkeley Cox, AnthonyChesterton, Gilbert KeithChristie, AgathaCole, GeorgeCole, MargaretCrofts, Freeman WillsJepson, EdgarKennedy Burge, Milward RodonKnox, Ronald A.Sayers, Dorothy L.Street, Cecil John CharlesWhitechurch, Victor Lorenzo
• Charter Books 
• Grosset & Dunlap 

4059783

Books

The floating admiral

Ashton, Winifred, Aubrey-Fletcher, Henry, Berkeley Cox, Anthony, Chesterton, Gilbert Keith, Christie, Agatha, Cole, George, Cole, Margaret, Crofts, Freeman Wills, Jepson, Edgar, Kennedy Burge, Milward Rodon, Knox, Ronald A., Sayers, Dorothy L., Street, Cecil John Charles, Whitechurch, Victor Lorenzo

1980

First edition

309

11.0 x 18.0 cm

0-441-24095-X

"The Floating Admiral" was conceived as a game for members of "the Detection Club" where 14 authors collaborated on a detective novel to as Sayers put it " the next best thing to a genuine contest is a good game, and The Floating Admiral is the detection game as played out on paper by certain members of the Detection Club among themselves." As Sayers also explains in the Introduction the following rules applied: "Now, a word about the conditions under which The Floating Admiral was written. Here, the problem was made to approach as closely as possible to a problem of real detection. Except in the case of Mr. Chesterton’s picturesque Prologue, which was written last, each contributor tackled the mystery presented to him in the preceding chapters without having the slightest idea what solution or solutions the previous authors had in mind. Two rules only were imposed. Each writer must construct his instalment with a definite solution in view—that is, he must not introduce new complications merely “to make it more difficult.” He must be ready, if called upon, to explain his own clues coherently and plausibly; and to make sure that he was playing fair in this respect, each writer was bound to deliver, together with the manuscript of his own chapter, his own proposed solution of the mystery. These solutions are printed at the end of the book for the benefit of the curious reader. Secondly, each writer was bound to deal faithfully with all the difficulties left for his consideration by his predecessors. If Elma’s attitude towards love and marriage appeared to fluctuate strangely, or if the boat was put into the boat-house wrong end first, those facts must form part of his solution. He must not dismiss them as caprice or accident, or present an explanation inconsistent with them.'