The Case of the Canterfell Codicil by P.J. Fitzsimmons

 Codicil per Miriam Webster: "a legal instrument made to modify an earlier will".

The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is the first book in the Anty Boisjoly Mysteries.

About: "There’s a literary niche for all tastes including those who think that either Agatha Christie wasn’t funny enough or that PG Wodehouse didn’t feature anywhere near as many baffling murders as he could have. The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is a classic, cosy, locked-room mystery written in the style of an homage to PG Wodehouse. The result, for those familiar with Wodehouse or Jerome K Jerome and Agatha Christie or Dorothy L Sayers, is either an inexcusable offence to several beloved canons, or a hilarious, fast-paced, manor house murder mystery.

 In The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph."

My take: This is a good locked room mystery reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery and Clue. With the calm of Poirot and deduction skills of Sherlock Holmes, Anty Boisjoly helps his school mate, Fiddles, try to find out how his Uncle Sebastian came to be thrown/or fell out of an upstairs window from a room that was locked. Colorful characters, a wealthy aristocratic family in England, Earls, seats in Parliment...who stands to gain from Sebastian's death.

Anty is good at letting the local police and investigators work on the case but all the while is figuring it out himself as the locals try to solve it all in a day and lock up the first person they can think of. Just when things appear to be wrapping up, Sebastian's father is found dead by apparent suicide, again in a locked room. Anty is pretty sure these deaths are related to the Canterfell Codicil written 30 years ago. Anty calls everyone staying in the house to the conservatory a few times for his own questioning, pointing out what rooms everyone was in at the time of the "accidents", things in the room etc. Hence the reference to Clue. 

The story seems to take place in the 1930's, based on events mentioned. The dialogue is what I imagine to be aristocractic English (if that is a thing)of that time and I did have a little trouble following it sometimes. Anty does make some very funny comments and observations throughout the book. 

The story is very good, methodically unraveling  "who dunnit" peppered with hilarious quips. I look forward to book two.

About P.J. Fitzsimmons: "I’m a freelance ghost for mainstream genres but when I’m my own man I write strictly for the laughs. I dream of an alternative reality in which PG Wodehouse wrote locked room mysteries, and in which I’m PG Wodehouse." 

I received a free copy and voluntarily provided this review.