Two Bottles of Relish: The Little Tales of Smethers and Other Stories

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Lord Dunsany mixes reality with fantasy in this forgotten collection of modern detective stories. Some are macabre, others have a lighter and more amusing touch, but every story stimulates the imagination and reveals the acknowledged master of the short story at his very best.
SMETHERS is a travelling salesman for Numnumo, who make a relish for meats and savouries. He shares a flat with an Oxford graduate called Linley, who fancies himself as a detective and to whom Scotland Yard is inclined to turn if they encounter a particularly challenging mystery. When a pretty young girl disappears and her lodger is suspected of murdering her, two bottles of Numnumo relish are the only clues, and Smethers is sent to gather more information . . .

Amongst the hundreds of fantasy stories for which the Irish dramatist, poet and writer Lord Dunsany became deservedly famous there was one solitary little book of detective stories. Selected by Ellery Queen as an unequivocal keystone in the history of crime writing, this quirky collection is a mixture of the masterful and the macabre, a book that lovers of detective stories and tales of the unexpected will want to savour.

Reviews

The book is a treasure-trove no less than 26 tales of crime and detection, all illumined by Lord Dunsanys charm and wit, and his individualistic style. The first nine stories record the exploits of Mr Linley, including that undeniable modern classic, The Two Bottles of Relish.
ELLERY QUEEN

There are my Poe pieces and my Dunsany pieces but alas where are my Lovecraft pieces
H. P. LOVECRAFT

The Two Bottles of Relish is so horrific and what a brilliant, brilliant idea. The perfect crime.
OTTO PENZLER

Author Bio

Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, was born in 1878. Early passions for chess, guns and dogs stayed with him on his path through Eton, Sandhurst and the Coldstream Guards. His untidiness and eccentricity set him apart from his fellow officers, and the Irish peer left the army after the South African war to concentrate on hunting, cricket and, increasingly, wriiting. He wrote nearly 50 books and plays between 1905 and his death in 1957.Alan Sharp was born in Dundee in 1934 and is an award-winning screenwriter, from TV plays for the BBC and ITV in the 1960s to major film scripts, including Rob Roy (1995). He now splits his time living in Scotland and New Zealand.