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A Fergus O'Breen Murder Mystery
The Case of the Seven Sneezes
Fergus O'Breen turns down a job to investigate a 25-year old murder, but finds himself part of a house party attended by the man who tried to hire him. The party is to celebrate the silver wedding anniversary of a couple whose marriage was the setting for the death of one of the original wedding party. With the remaining wedding party and other relatives gathered on an island, the deaths of cats that led up to the original killing seems to be starting up again. But the man who hired him has changed his mind and O'Breen may be working now for free, or at least to save his own life. When the killer manages to maroon everyone on the island, it's up to Fergus to protect everyone and unravel the clues, including the fact that he sneezes when around a cat -- dead or alive.
- GenresMystery
239 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1942
About the author
Anthony Boucher
538 books39 followersAnthony Boucher (born William Anthony Parker White) (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968) was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to 'Anthony Boucher,' White also employed the pseudonym 'H. H. Holmes', which was the name of a 19th-century serial killer.
In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.
White was born in Oakland, California, and went to college at the University of Southern California. He later received a Masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He was admired for his mystery writing but was most noted for his editing, his science fiction anthologies, and his mystery reviews for many years in The New York Times. He was the first English translator of Jorge Luis Borges, translating "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America in 1946 and, in the same year, was one of the first winners of the MWA's Edgar Award for his mystery reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle.
He was founding editor (with J. Francis McComas) of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1949 to 1958, and was seminal in attempting to make literary quality an important aspect of science fiction. He won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine in 1957 and 1958. Boucher also edited the long-running Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction anthology series, 1952-1959.
His short story "The Quest for Saint Aquin" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories of all time. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.
Boucher also scripted for radio and was involved in many other activities, as described by William F. Nolan in his essay, "Who Was Anthony Boucher?":
The 1940s proved to be a very busy and productive decade for Boucher. In 1945 he launched into a spectacular three-year radio career, plotting more than 100 episodes for The Adventures of Ellery Queen, while also providing plots for the bulk of the Sherlock Holmes radio dramas. By the summer of 1946 he had created his own mystery series for the airwaves, The Casebook of Gregory Hood. ("I was turning out three scripts each week for as many shows," he stated. "It was a mix of hard work and great fun.")
Tony left dramatic radio in 1948, "mainly because I was putting in a lot of hours working with J. Francis McComas in creating what soon became The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. We got it off the ground in 1949 and saw it take hold solidly by 1950. This was a major creative challenge and although I was involved in a lot of other projects, I stayed with F&SF into 1958."
Indeed, throughout his years with the magazine, Boucher was certainly involved in "a lot of other projects." Among them:
• Supplying the SF and crime markets with new fiction.
• Teaching an informal writing class from his home in Berkeley.
• Continuing his Sunday mystery columns for the New York Times Book Review.
• Functioning as chief critic for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
• Reviewing SF and fantasy (as H.H. Holmes) for the New York Herald Tribune.
• Editing True Crime Detective.
• Supervising the Mercury Mystery Line and (later) the Dell Great Mystery Library.
• Hosting Golden Voices, his series of historical opera recordings for Pacifica Radio.
• Serving (in 1951) as president of Mystery Writers of America.
In addition to all of this, Tony was a devoted poker player, a political activist, a rabid sport fan (
In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.
White was born in Oakland, California, and went to college at the University of Southern California. He later received a Masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He was admired for his mystery writing but was most noted for his editing, his science fiction anthologies, and his mystery reviews for many years in The New York Times. He was the first English translator of Jorge Luis Borges, translating "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America in 1946 and, in the same year, was one of the first winners of the MWA's Edgar Award for his mystery reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle.
He was founding editor (with J. Francis McComas) of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1949 to 1958, and was seminal in attempting to make literary quality an important aspect of science fiction. He won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine in 1957 and 1958. Boucher also edited the long-running Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction anthology series, 1952-1959.
His short story "The Quest for Saint Aquin" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories of all time. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.
Boucher also scripted for radio and was involved in many other activities, as described by William F. Nolan in his essay, "Who Was Anthony Boucher?":
The 1940s proved to be a very busy and productive decade for Boucher. In 1945 he launched into a spectacular three-year radio career, plotting more than 100 episodes for The Adventures of Ellery Queen, while also providing plots for the bulk of the Sherlock Holmes radio dramas. By the summer of 1946 he had created his own mystery series for the airwaves, The Casebook of Gregory Hood. ("I was turning out three scripts each week for as many shows," he stated. "It was a mix of hard work and great fun.")
Tony left dramatic radio in 1948, "mainly because I was putting in a lot of hours working with J. Francis McComas in creating what soon became The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. We got it off the ground in 1949 and saw it take hold solidly by 1950. This was a major creative challenge and although I was involved in a lot of other projects, I stayed with F&SF into 1958."
Indeed, throughout his years with the magazine, Boucher was certainly involved in "a lot of other projects." Among them:
• Supplying the SF and crime markets with new fiction.
• Teaching an informal writing class from his home in Berkeley.
• Continuing his Sunday mystery columns for the New York Times Book Review.
• Functioning as chief critic for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
• Reviewing SF and fantasy (as H.H. Holmes) for the New York Herald Tribune.
• Editing True Crime Detective.
• Supervising the Mercury Mystery Line and (later) the Dell Great Mystery Library.
• Hosting Golden Voices, his series of historical opera recordings for Pacifica Radio.
• Serving (in 1951) as president of Mystery Writers of America.
In addition to all of this, Tony was a devoted poker player, a political activist, a rabid sport fan (
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 8, 2021
Private investigator Fergus O'Breen doesn't want to investigate a 25-year-old murder. And he certainly doesn't want his wealthy client's preconditions, so he turns the man down flat. But when he meets Stella Paris, the retired actress who was one of those involved in the Stanhope murder, and Janet, whose parents were also involved, he finds himself weakening, and soon he's on the remote island off the California coast where the survivors are gathered for Janet's parents' 25th wedding anniversary. And there seems to be a maniacal murderer on the island with them--and no way to get help, or escape.
June 4, 2017
The Case of the Seven Sneezes (1942) by Anthony Boucher features his detective, Fergus O'Breen. Fergus calls himself "The O'Breen" and the red-haired Irishman runs a one-man detective agency in Los Angeles. He's a much softer version of the private eye fraternity who prefers to use sweeter, lighter investigative methods because he believes that "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Despite growing up without a mother and with an alcoholic father, Fergus has turned out pretty okay. He has varied interests from reading and cooking to football and classical music (especially Beethoven)...and one major allergy--to cats. In fact, the family tendency to this allergy manifests itself in the most peculiar manner: exactly seven violent sneezes whenever one appears or whenever O'Breen comes in contact with their hair. Thus the title of this particular adventure.
Seven Sneezes begins with O'Breen turning down the assignment to investigate a 25-year-old murder and ends with him solving not only that murder but a run of modern murders that seem linked to that horrible past event. Lucas Quincy, a business tycoon who owns a slice of just about everything in Los Angeles, comes to the private eye's office to hire him to investigate the murder of the maid of honor in his friend's wedding. A murder that took place 25 years ago. O'Breen wouldn't mind that so much (after all, Quincy is simply loaded with cash), but the tycoon insists that all results be given to him and him alone--and kept secret from the D.A. O'Breen isn't willing to risk his investigator's license, no matter how much dough is involved and turns the man down.
But fate has a way of directing things, and later that night O'Breen meets several of the key players in that previous drama--including faded movie queen Stella Paris. When O'Breen learns that Stella's cat has been killed, he allows her to convince him to join the 25th anniversary celebration gathering on Blackman's Island which will bring together everyone from that fateful wedding party. For you see, the maid of honor's murder was preceded by the killing of two cats and the private eye has a feeling that the murderer just might start in again. It looks like he's right when the island's handyman is attacked and left for dead and then the boatman who has ferried party-goers to the island is also coshed on the head and his boat sent motoring out into the harbor--leaving them all stranded on the island.
The party includes the happy couple, Horace and Catherine Brainard; Dr. Hugh Arnold, the best man; Stella, the maid of honor; Lucas, an usher; Alys Trent, the flower girl; and James Herndon, borther of the bride, as well as the Brainards' daughter Janet and Quincy's nephew Tom, both of whom were not members of the original group. When Quincy himself is murdered, it's up to O'Breen to discover the killer and find a way to get them all off the island without any more fatalities. But he'll have to determine how much is related to the past and whether there is any new business on the murderer's agenda first.
Fergus O'Breen is an engaging detective. Boucher created quite a character when he brought O'Breen to life and for the most part I thoroughly enjoyed watching the private eye do his stuff on the island. The mystery, however, is quite convoluted and the twists and double-twists and triple-twists make it a little hard to follow in the wrap-up. The reveal of the culprit doesn't bother me so much--it's easy to see the reason why s/he did and is the logical villain, but the method Boucher chose to get the reader to that conclusion was a bit much and tying the past to the present wasn't quite as tidy as it could have been.
Overall, an entertaining read and I'll certainly be interested to read the other two O'Breen novels that I own. I'll be hoping for a more solid (and satisfying) ending for those.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Seven Sneezes begins with O'Breen turning down the assignment to investigate a 25-year-old murder and ends with him solving not only that murder but a run of modern murders that seem linked to that horrible past event. Lucas Quincy, a business tycoon who owns a slice of just about everything in Los Angeles, comes to the private eye's office to hire him to investigate the murder of the maid of honor in his friend's wedding. A murder that took place 25 years ago. O'Breen wouldn't mind that so much (after all, Quincy is simply loaded with cash), but the tycoon insists that all results be given to him and him alone--and kept secret from the D.A. O'Breen isn't willing to risk his investigator's license, no matter how much dough is involved and turns the man down.
But fate has a way of directing things, and later that night O'Breen meets several of the key players in that previous drama--including faded movie queen Stella Paris. When O'Breen learns that Stella's cat has been killed, he allows her to convince him to join the 25th anniversary celebration gathering on Blackman's Island which will bring together everyone from that fateful wedding party. For you see, the maid of honor's murder was preceded by the killing of two cats and the private eye has a feeling that the murderer just might start in again. It looks like he's right when the island's handyman is attacked and left for dead and then the boatman who has ferried party-goers to the island is also coshed on the head and his boat sent motoring out into the harbor--leaving them all stranded on the island.
The party includes the happy couple, Horace and Catherine Brainard; Dr. Hugh Arnold, the best man; Stella, the maid of honor; Lucas, an usher; Alys Trent, the flower girl; and James Herndon, borther of the bride, as well as the Brainards' daughter Janet and Quincy's nephew Tom, both of whom were not members of the original group. When Quincy himself is murdered, it's up to O'Breen to discover the killer and find a way to get them all off the island without any more fatalities. But he'll have to determine how much is related to the past and whether there is any new business on the murderer's agenda first.
Fergus O'Breen is an engaging detective. Boucher created quite a character when he brought O'Breen to life and for the most part I thoroughly enjoyed watching the private eye do his stuff on the island. The mystery, however, is quite convoluted and the twists and double-twists and triple-twists make it a little hard to follow in the wrap-up. The reveal of the culprit doesn't bother me so much--it's easy to see the reason why s/he did and is the logical villain, but the method Boucher chose to get the reader to that conclusion was a bit much and tying the past to the present wasn't quite as tidy as it could have been.
Overall, an entertaining read and I'll certainly be interested to read the other two O'Breen novels that I own. I'll be hoping for a more solid (and satisfying) ending for those.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
January 29, 2022
Alas, my first Boucher did not sit as well as I hoped it would. This is probably more of a 3.5, and I'd love to give Boucher the benefit of the doubt (I already know him as a great GAD expert and criticism writer,) but hopefully I can make apparent my qualms with this one. The setup is great, it really is great. It's kind of like And Then There Were None, as everyone has already pointed out, but still it's unique in many ways. Each of the original group is connected to the same murder from 25 years ago, one which they do not know the solution to. I love the idea of making a closed-circle mystery from this original group plus a few newcomers, and having the threat of the original murderer looming over them. Unfortunately, as good as this plot seems to be, and as well as Boucher writes the characters, including all of the suspects but especially his detective Fergus O'Breen, it just kind of goes nowhere. Of course I wasn't expecting a bloodbath of any sort, and having the momentum build up from a new dead cat to the two non-fatal attacks until we have the release of the present-day murder halfway through, is actually pretty well done. But I felt like the suspense just didn't ratchet up appropriately enough to really involve me in the story. And after the midway point, it kind of turns into a suspect-questioning thing, with some events which get blamed on the growing paranoia but which aren't too convincing, and then the last 40 or so pages which really give one surprise after another. I would have hoped that the buildup had been a bit stronger, and the second act more solid, because then the final reveals would have been so much more effective. I did appreciate the solution, however - I found the juxtaposition of the psychological cluing of the past crime to the physical cluing of the present crimes to be an interesting comparison, although I do wish that Boucher had spent more time examining said psychology of the crime and of the characters during the 1915 events. So, overall, the premise, cluing, and characters were all great, but the plotting/pacing and the lack of cohesiveness on a couple sole ideas really brought the book down from what it could have been. However, The Case of the Seven Sneezes still has merit, and I will not give up on Boucher the author, who I hear has some pretty clever impossible crimes. This may be one more for the "people-stuck-on-an-island" crowd than anything else, but I wouldn't discourage one from checking it out.
July 30, 2020
More like a 3.5. It was great until the last two-thirds, where the suspense nearly evaporates and the plot feels honesttogod drawn-out. I love the Murderer Loose on Island trope but this one just lost steam (Berkeley’s take is my favorite after 10 Little Expletives.) Another murder wouldn’t have hurt.
But I singoddamnedcerely wish this wasn’t the last Fergus O’Breen book (although there’s still a few shorts, I hear) because he’s a great character and such a man of his time. WW2 looms large, and it’s interesting to track the build up from Crumpled Knave to this. I wonder why Boucher stopped?
Get ready to duckduckgo a lot of obscure 1940s slang and references if you give it a go and comment below on how you interpreted that bisexual stuff. Was it or wasn’t it?
But I singoddamnedcerely wish this wasn’t the last Fergus O’Breen book (although there’s still a few shorts, I hear) because he’s a great character and such a man of his time. WW2 looms large, and it’s interesting to track the build up from Crumpled Knave to this. I wonder why Boucher stopped?
Get ready to duckduckgo a lot of obscure 1940s slang and references if you give it a go and comment below on how you interpreted that bisexual stuff. Was it or wasn’t it?
July 20, 2023
I loved this one. It ends up being kind of absurd in its intricacies, but brilliant because of them too.
I'd call it 4.5 stars rounded down. This is almost a private reflection...but because of one little scene, it was very interesting to pick this book so soon after reading the fabulous nonfiction book The Black Guy Dies First. I'll explain: Seven Sneezes takes place around 1940, but there are references, and even flashbacks (dubious unreliable-narrator flashbacks?) to 1915; murders, and circumstances surrounding them, that occurred in 1915 are starting to repeat in 1940. Anyway, in a 1915 flashback that doesn't seem to have much to do with slit throats and whodunit (and may be resuming 25 years later), two dudes have walked out of a showing of the film Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman). One fellow praises the film, how it was made, how it will likely influence film-making...the brilliant movie-making on display. Meanwhile, his friend, not so chatty at first, doesn't see the film that way at all, is worried about it, is concerned about what it is saying. "Don't you see, this film is going to affect people's attitudes, is going to affect how you behave towards the next N—-o you meet on the street...?". The package may be spectacular, the message is toxic.
Anyway, I just love that this strange scene - in a flashback that is supposed to be focusing on murder clues from the past - comes out of nowhere. A little respect for Boucher. And this had come after a 1920s story in the book Hardboiled Dicks - a story I also read by chance, after reading The Black Guy Dies First - that used the racist ""Spook/'Feets don't fail me now!" stereotype as a plot device.
All this means that my Seven Sneezes review is being taken over by a The Black Guy Dies First review that I should have written (and may still write), because everything I read from 1920-1940 insists on showing how relevant and spot-on The Black Guy Dies First really is.
But to get back on track: The Case of the Seven Sneezes is a madcap banger of old, that acts towards the end like it has a fairly satisfying puzzle, before morphing, and then morphing again, into a brilliant, but plausible, but over-the-top, super-puzzle. Y'know...a really fun Mystery. Island setting, cold case seeming to cause new worse case, and lots of suspense mixed in with the humour - plus occasionally hardboiled. Recommended!
I'd call it 4.5 stars rounded down. This is almost a private reflection...but because of one little scene, it was very interesting to pick this book so soon after reading the fabulous nonfiction book The Black Guy Dies First. I'll explain: Seven Sneezes takes place around 1940, but there are references, and even flashbacks (dubious unreliable-narrator flashbacks?) to 1915; murders, and circumstances surrounding them, that occurred in 1915 are starting to repeat in 1940. Anyway, in a 1915 flashback that doesn't seem to have much to do with slit throats and whodunit (and may be resuming 25 years later), two dudes have walked out of a showing of the film Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman). One fellow praises the film, how it was made, how it will likely influence film-making...the brilliant movie-making on display. Meanwhile, his friend, not so chatty at first, doesn't see the film that way at all, is worried about it, is concerned about what it is saying. "Don't you see, this film is going to affect people's attitudes, is going to affect how you behave towards the next N—-o you meet on the street...?". The package may be spectacular, the message is toxic.
Anyway, I just love that this strange scene - in a flashback that is supposed to be focusing on murder clues from the past - comes out of nowhere. A little respect for Boucher. And this had come after a 1920s story in the book Hardboiled Dicks - a story I also read by chance, after reading The Black Guy Dies First - that used the racist ""Spook/'Feets don't fail me now!" stereotype as a plot device.
All this means that my Seven Sneezes review is being taken over by a The Black Guy Dies First review that I should have written (and may still write), because everything I read from 1920-1940 insists on showing how relevant and spot-on The Black Guy Dies First really is.
But to get back on track: The Case of the Seven Sneezes is a madcap banger of old, that acts towards the end like it has a fairly satisfying puzzle, before morphing, and then morphing again, into a brilliant, but plausible, but over-the-top, super-puzzle. Y'know...a really fun Mystery. Island setting, cold case seeming to cause new worse case, and lots of suspense mixed in with the humour - plus occasionally hardboiled. Recommended!
May 8, 2020
The second star is for writing skills. Ironically for a mystery, I think the parts I enjoyed most were where the detective protagonist is thinking or talking to someone about things other than the crime. Other than that, just way too coarse for me (plus becomes almost too convoluted near the end). Didn't anybody in the 1940s write a good private-eye novel that could have passed the Hays Office?
May 31, 2022
Boucher was a prolific reviewer of others' mysteries and science fiction, and wrote a number of puzzlers himself. This one is typical fare, with a group of suspects/victims isolated during the crimes. Some of the dialogue is a bit stilted, and the unraveling of the mystery at the end is a bit complicated, but all in all it's a fun read for those who enjoy these old-fashioned whodunits.
August 11, 2019
Baby's first Anthony Boucher. The fun I had with Fergus O'Breen rivals the joy I found discovering Nero Wolfe.
Want to read
October 7, 2018Synopsis: Fergus O'Breen is at a 25th wedding anniversary. There had been a murder at the wedding. Is it happening again?
June 30, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews