Funny and lighthearted this was a very entertaining story, Yes, it might be a little silly at times but I think that was the intention. I do believe that yes, it has aged poorly but it was written almost a century ago so let's cut it some slack :P

Even when this is a murder mystery the protagonist doesn't have either a personal or a professional involvement. He's a bystander who, given the fact that the press has declared Mrs Bently guilty of the crime, he takes this as an intellectual challenge and sets to prove her innocence :P

It's entertaining, witty and an easy reading, it worked fine for me.

This one is Roger Sheringham’s second case to which he comes ‘after the fact’ as it were. The Bentley case, in which Mr. Bentley has allegedly been poisoned with arsenic by Mrs. Bentley, is up for trial which is when Roger gets involved. After learning all the details available to the public, he decides that Mrs. Bentley is innocent, because there’s altogether too much arsenic around! I agree with him though, there is altogether too much arsenic around 😈 And of course what Mr. Sheringham believes must be true 🙄

Roger and his friend Alexander travel to Wychford to investigate and thereby prove Mrs. Bentley’s innocence. They stay with Alex’s cousins the Purefoys and Sheela Purefoy, Alex’s 19-yr-old, sharp and more than a little annoying cousin joins the duo in their travails. No Inspector Moresby in this one.

Roger is his usual self - arrogant, conceited and unapologetically annoying. He’s clever but prone to lecturing his fellow investigators, whom he treats like children! Alex is quite right when he comments a few times, “How you do gas on Roger!” 😉😈 As the story progresses, Roger becomes convinced that the facts he’s unearthed prove Mrs. Bentley’s innocence although whether they. An be proved in a court of law remains uncertain. 

The climax was typically Roger or should I say Berkeley! There are times when they seem indistinguishable! A last minute fact uncovered that leads to a new and wholly unexpected solution that was fun to read but utterly unbelievable in my opinion! I’m convinced Berkeley writes often for shock value more than anything else, imagining crazy plots and weird solutions just to make a point about writing mysteries! The fact that he does it pretty well is surprising but also a tribute to his writing and imagination.

His mysteries always amuse me even as I’m shaking my head in disbelief 🫢 I know I said I wanted a break from Mr. Sheringham because he annoyed me so intensely in the Silk Stocking Murders, but he amused me in this one and I will read the entire series eventually 😆

What a funny coincidence that the previous murder mystery I read was Agatha Christie's Mrs. McGinty's Dead where a James Bentley was arrested for murder. Poirot had to undertake the task of proving his innocence despite the evidence. In The Wychford Poisoning Case, a novelist and amateur sleuth took it upon himself to prove the innocence of a Mrs. Bentley just because. Similarly, she was already arrested for a murder in which there were damning evidence against her.

I may be biased - because I fell in love with Anthony Berkeley's style from his other work Trial and Error - but I simply adore his discussions about right and wrong, ethics and human psychology. I find his writing pretty witty and funny. And this particular book was nothing like other mysteries I have read. The amateur sleuth was prone to making mistakes, and ending was unexpected, but not in the way that you'd normally find deliciously satisfying. 

That being said though, he did come pretty sexist in this book, which really took me by surprise. A 17-18 year old woman kept getting spanked (yes, that's right) for being cheeky. I suppose it was supposed to be funny, but such things just don't age well. And then there were Sheringham's sexist ideas that women were idiots and were made solely to give birth. But then the same character would then say something completely opposite of that. So it was hard to tell if the author was intentionally being sexist to make fun of people who were or his ideology was truly such. Either way, it was an excruciating part for me to read.

I'd recommend this book only to those who like the debate about human psychology and judicial system. If you're not into psychobabble, and/or if you're looking for a typical satisfying mystery, this book is not for you.