unearths some literary gems.
From Murder, Maestro, Please, by Delano Ames:
***
"Was our tandem a Speedster, a Roadster, or a Sportster? It has to go on a form, and since the form is in quintuplicate it's essential to get it right."
***
The mayor got on to the platform to express our gratitude in a few well-chosen words. While he was choosing them everyone filed out.
***
[Honest Answers to Cheeky Questions dept.]
I asked curiously: "Is it lots of fun, Mr Kitson, pretending to be an eccentric genius?"
He opened one bleary eye and studied me. "Yes," he said.
***
Dagobert... knew of a celebrated hostelry in the neighbourhood where the chef was an old pupil of Escoffier. His Perdreau aux morilles and Fricandeau de mousserons were famous, and Dagobert was interested in tasting such locally renowned wines as Clos Saint-Crescent and Château de Leverette. Though he was probably making up these names, he talked himself up to such a pitch of enthusiasm about them that he invited us all to dinner.
***
[By the way, this book--first published in 1952--features a fictional character whose surname is Gordon-Smith. Meanwhile, one of the novels waiting in my to-read stack is by a different author--not born until 1958-whose surname is Gordon-Smith. It does not appear to be a pseudonym and--though one cannot entirely rule out the possibility that a Gordon-Smith senior was a buddy of Delano Ames and the inspiration for his character's name--I have no particular reason to suspect anything other than sheer coincidence at work here.]
