The Old English Peep Show

 The Old English Peep Show (aka A Pride of Heroes; 1969) by Peter Dickinson

Old England or the Peep Show as it's known locally, is Disney-style theme park set at a graceful country house. The servants greet visitors with a bob and curtsy, the butler makes everyone think of Jeeves, and the eccentric owners keep pet lions. There are daily duels and "live" hangings for the more blood-thirsty thrill-seekers. Everything's running according plan...until Sir Richard Clavering's manservant hangs himself. But why would the loyal and faithful Arthur Deakin hang himself in his pantry? And why didn't he leave a note? Oh...and why does Mr. Harvey Singleton (Clavering's son-in-law) insist that he heard a thud and then a drumming sound at the time of the death?

Scotland Yard superintendent James Pibble is sent to deal with the incident and he has to wonder why the local police didn't take care of a supposedly simple suicide. He soon learns that life at Herryngs (the estate in question) is anything but ordinary. Sir Richard and his brother Sir Ralph, retired admiral and general respectively, are war heroes who have gone from charmingly eccentric to downright certifiable. A disappearance and an encounter with a man-eating lion make Pibble understand that danger lurks behind the theme-park façade. And if he's not careful he may wind up next on the killer's list.

I have an on-again, off-again relationship with Peter Dickinson. The very first one I ever read caused me to merely list him in my "books to be found" spreadsheet with a notation of  "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  I don't know what it was, except that it was a mystery. I don't have the title logged. I sortof suspect it may have been this one, though I haven't had quite that violent a reaction upon reading it this time (if, indeed, this was the title in question). I just find the whole thing very weird--from the behavior of the family to the behavior of our detective. I don't understand why Jimmy Pibble, an officer of the law, is willing to try so hard to ignore the signs that Deakin's death was not a suicide. He spends about three pages telling himself he's being conned, listing things that don't fit, and then choosing to say that they don't mean much and, by golly, it sure is a suicide after all. "O.K., he was going quietly. But let them stretch his conscience one notch further and the lion would feel the talons of the vulture, blunt, bourgeouis talons though they were." So, I guess he's willing to believe eight impossible things before breakfast...just don't make it nine. I, personally, stopped believing after the first two...and promptly skimmed my way through this thing just so I can count it towards challenges. But, honestly, Pibble and his investigation did very little for me here. I liked him a heck of a lot better in One Foot in the Grave. ★

First line: Pibble thought, I am the chosen vulture spiraling down onto a dying lion.

Last line: With a noncommittal grunt (risky to be affable with a potential scapegoat) Harry Brazzil slouched into Herryings.

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Deaths = 2 (one hanged, one shot)