| Book | Year | Plot in One Line | Why Read It | |------|------|------------------|--------------| | (US: The Mortdecai Murders ) | 1972 | Mortdecai must recover a stolen Goya painting while dodging assassins, the IRA, and his own greed. | The original. Perfect pacing, razor wit. | | After You with the Pistol | 1979 | Johanna forces Charlie to kill the Queen (no, really). | Absurdist masterpiece. | | Something Nasty in the Woodshed | 1976 | A family curse, a haunted cottage, and a dead girl. Darkest of the three. | Shows Bonfiglioli can do horror-comedy. |
She was, in fact, carrying considerably more. Lady Annabel Spode swept into the room like a winter storm in diamonds. Tall, imperious, and possessed of a jawline that had launched a thousand regimental bets, she fixed me with a gaze that could curdle cream at forty paces. mortdecai
: A prequel featuring Charlie's Victorian ancestor, providing historical context to the family's eccentricity. The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery (1999) : A final, unfinished novel completed by satirist Craig Brown after Bonfiglioli's death. The 2015 Film Adaptation Directed by David Koepp , the film | Book | Year | Plot in One
But here is the secret:
: Never call someone stupid when you can call them "a man whose intellect is as flat and uninspiring as a Tuesday in Basingstoke." Self-Correction | | After You with the Pistol |
Mainstream comedies are often safe. Mortdecai is not. Charlie is openly racist, classist, and lecherous. He is not punished for these traits; he simply exists as a horrible person. The film’s ending is shockingly cynical—[Spoiler] Charlie commits a major crime and gets away with it, wagging his mustache at the audience. In a Marvelized world where everyone learns a lesson, Mortdecai delights in being unredeemable.
The world of Mortdecai is one of tailored suits, vintage cars, and priceless art. It’s an escapist fantasy into a world of "old money" and high-stakes luxury.