At least the cats are enjoying it

This was going to be our first four-day weekend together in ages, but now we both have covid. I often think how unfair it is that you don't get makeup vacation when you lose one to illness.

Just lucky that Anubis is temporarily at the breeders'. I shudder to think of managing keeping him locked up in this state. The guy is already fast and strong enough to be quite the problem under the best of circumstances.

Quotes from HC Bailey's golden age Reggie Fortune mysteries

• "We will now disturb his lunch. Why should he have lunch? No. Man was born to suffer."



• "Are we down-hearted? Yes. Absolutely."



• "Oh, my hat!" he complained. "Fellow - creatures make life so difficult."



• "Yes. That is the obvious inevitable inference[.]"



• "Well, well. Concentration of the higher intelligence. On the fundamental, painful question. Why are policemen?"



• “Poisonin’ seldom is induced by the nobler emotions.”

As this dialogue shows, there's much that is sympathetic about Bailey's sleuth, Fortune, a researching medical doctor consulted as an expert witness. His vocal disdain for the police stands out, as well as his attitude to crowds of people and his views on justice.

His dialogue is quixotic to the modern ear but familiar to the reader of classic mystery from elsewhere, and at first I wondered if he was based on some other literary characters - Peter Wimsey, Philo Vance, and even Bertie Wooster - until I realized it was just a very particular and dated slang which he shares with these characters because of class, date, and setting. Personality-wise, Fortune is quite distinct.

Unfortunately, the plots of these stories aren't as unique, and they tend to rely on the same somewhat tiresome tricks of narration to create twists. One book of his short stories was entertaining, but I got sick of him by the end of the second. I will give one of his novels a chance after a bit of a break, but if it's more of the same I'll probably skip the rest of his stuff.