The Awdrey-Gore Legacy is an endearing little murder mystery by Edward Gorey.
On last St Spasmus's day Miss D. Awdrey-Gore was found dead at the age of 97. Just before dawn a nameless poacher came upon her body in a disused fountain on the estate of Lord Ravelflap; she was seated blt upright on a gilt ballroom chair, one of a set of seventeen then on display at Suthick & Upter's Auction Rooms in Market Footling; her left hand clutched a painted tin lily of cottage manufacture, inside which was rolled up a Cad's Relish label of a design superseded [sic] in 1947; something illegible was pencilled on the back. That she had been murdered was obvious, though as yet the cause of death has not been determined.
The book itself is a sparingly-narrated collection of evidence, jottings, and suppositions compiled by the investigator (who has a penchant for quoting the Ipsiad). My favourite page in the book is a smattering of notes on the case written carefully on specially-prepared note cards:
- What the murderer failed to realize is that there is no Number Fourteen, Bandage Terrace
- Lesla Trope is really Lord Onion's great grand-daughter
- What the murderer failed to realize is that yellow stitchbane is not yellow at all, but a pale mauve
- At 4:17 the door to the winter garden was already locked and bolted
- James Grumesdaub and Charles Toast are really the same person.
- What the murderer failed to realize is that the Great Northwest Road does not go beyond Little Remorse
- George Utmost is really not Daphne Sost's cousin from Wyoming
- On the 14th of January the "Larko Sandargo" was still off the coast of Iceland
- What the murderer failed to realize is that Grumblotch's salts are not soluble in lemonade
- Lady Truss is really two entirely different people
- What the murderer failed t o realize is that at high tide the outermost of Saint Loola's Rocks is completely submerged
I put together a handful of graphics using Dame Hex's wonderful "Gorey" font, based on Gorey's most common captioning hand. You can use these cards for decoration, writing ideas, party games, and almost anything else you can think of.
