The Big Bow Mystery

by Israel Zangwill

Overview

The first of the locked door mysteries. Landlady Mrs. Drabdump knocks on her lodger's door and when there is no answer she summons Inspector Grodman. They break down the locked door to find the man in bed with his throat cut. This classic book is both a mystery thriller and a satire of Victorian London.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940153440484
Publisher:	Merkaba Press
Publication date:	07/06/2017
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	98
File size:	181 KB

About the Author

Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was a British writer. Born in London, Zangwill was raised in a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. Alongside his brother Louis, a novelist, Zangwill was educated at the Jews’ Free School in Spitalfields, where he studied secular and religious subjects. He excelled early on and was made a teacher in his teens before studying for his BA at the University of London. After graduating in 1884, Zangwill began publishing under various pseudonyms, finding editing work with Ariel and The London Puck to support himself. His first novel, Children of the Ghetto: A Study of Peculiar People (1892), was published to popular and critical acclaim, earning praise from prominent Victorian novelist George Gissing. His play The Melting Pot (1908) was a resounding success in the United States and was regarded by Theodore Roosevelt as “among the very strong and real influences upon [his] thought and [his] life.” He spent his life in dedication to various political and social causes. An early Zionist and follower of Theodor Herzl, he later withdrew his support in favor of territorialism after he discovered that “Palestine proper has already its inhabitants.” Despite distancing himself from the Zionist community, he continued to advocate on behalf of the Jewish people and to promote the ideals of feminism alongside his wife Edith Ayrton, a prominent author and activist.

Editorial Reviews

Adult/High School-A labor leader is found dead in his bedroom, his throat slashed. The door is locked and bolted from within, as are all the windows, and there is no sign of a weapon. Suicide seems impossible, yet so does murder. How, after all, could the murderer have left the room? Written and published in 1891, The Big Bow Mysteryis the earliest locked-room mystery novel, and a delight to read even 100 years later. Set in Victorian London, this puzzle story features Dickensian characters-Mrs. Drabdump the landlady ("whom fog did not depress. She went about her work quite as cheerlessly as usual"), Denzil Cantercot the poet ("Life was very serious to him. He never wrote comic verse intentionally"), and Peter Crowl the cobbler ("Crowl was a thinker, or thought he was-which seems to involve original thinking anyway"). The author's dry wit and satiric view of human nature will appeal to teens who have enjoyed Gulliver's Travelsor Candide, as well as to those looking for a humorous mystery.-Sandy Schmitz, Berkeley Public Library, CA

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