Trumpets Sound No More is one of the masterpieces written by Jon Redfern. This book earned the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. This book tells a story: in 1840, one of the youngest and most successful entrepreneurs in London, Mr. Samuel Cake, was found bludgeoned in his bachelor house with few leads. The London’s theatre world is totally shocked. Inspector Owen Endersby was called to solve this case within one week. As the investigation moves on, Inspector Endersby meets street vendors, downstairs servants, moneylenders and the greatest performers of the London stage. Without the help of fingerprinting, blood analysis, or any other technique of the modern-day detective, Inspector Endersby must root out the villain any way he can—by disguise, break-and-enter, bribery, mail tampering and physical force. With his talent of being a good detective, finally Endersby finds out the suspect and makes him confessed. Finally Endersby returns home with the case of Mr. Cake’s murder solved.
A lot of descriptions and details in Redfern’s Trumpets Sound No More are identical with the previous book we study, Great expectations. In Dickens’s Great Expectation, the story happened from 1810 to 1840. In the book London was a grimy city with strict class system. People are callous and mostly connected by benefit. Property and class position are the only that matters in lots of people’s mind. The main character Pip is one example. He betrayed his best friend after he got huge amount of heritage. In the other hand, in Trumpets Sound No More, the background is also London in 1840. By Redfern’s description, London in 1840 is a brutal city. During Endersby’s investigation, the dark side of London shows up. Endersby faces instances of child abuse, child labor, madness and sexual deviancy. And he had to use some “special” skills to get information form the people involved in the case. So the London in these two books quite match each other.
Variety of characters is one focal point of Trumpets Sound No More. By the investigation, lots of characters’ images are shown clearly. And some of the characters have lots of common points with characters in Great Expsctation. Like Betty and Pip, they are both with great ambition. Betty wishes to join the theatre to be and she is willing to sacrifice everything she has to make it real. After she meets Mr. Cake and knows about his theatre, she feels strongly dissatisfied and abominable about her current life. Pip and Betty both betray their families which loves them and leave. When they go home, they both feel acceptable about their family. But there is something different between Pip and Betty. Unlike Pip who reaches his dream and at last gets his family back, Betty dies in an accident and didn’t make her dream real. Another two characters that are similar are Mr. Wemmick and detective Endersby. They both like live behind two faces. Detective Endersby is a tough guy when he faces criminal. He knows how to find them by using guile and disguises, by tricking them into giving up information and, if necessary, to use an occasional cuff to the ear to jog a recalcitrant recollection. He knows his way around London too. But he also had a soft side since he absolutely devotes to his wife Harriet.
The Grisi brothers and Orlick have something similar, too. In Dickens’s book, Orlick is a very violent person and always revenges on people he thinks treats him bad. And The Grisi brothers also have the characteristic of violence. It appears on their several attacks on Inspector Endersby’s partner, Sergeant Caldwell.
The whole book is written around three major themes. One of these is crime and guilt, which is shared with Great Expectation. Crime appears through the whole story along with Endersby’s investigation. Actually, the whole started with one famous businessman’s murder. Characters in the story revenge and punish on each other for different kinds of reasons. In the process of investigation, some other crimes are also discovered. Like John Loxton, he had broken into Cake’s house with some relatives in order to exact revenge for the injury suffered by his sister – Betty. Love is also one common theme between Trumpets Sound No More and Great Expectations. Lots of characters in the book are in love and some of them did things criminal for love. Like John Loxton, and the murderer who killed Mr. Cake-- William Weston. Weston killed Mr. Cake because he thinks its his fault to make his sister sick. Ambition is one of the major theme in this book. Betty Loxton wants to be become one important member of the theatre so much that she betrayed her family. And Mr. Dupré is so jealous and wants to keep his position from being replaced by Mr. Cake. Ambition is also shown in Great Expectation as an important theme.
Redfern provides a few prominent symbols in the book to develop the plots and themes of the novel. And one important symbol among the them are detective Endersby’s wooden puzzle. The puzzle just represents the process of solving Mr. Cake’s case. Endersby followed the way putting the pieces together to solve the case. The puzzle also shows the love between Endersby and his wife. His wife helped him solve the problem of the puzzle and gave him the feeling of home. The Old Durry is also one of the very important symbol in the novel. At the beginning of the novel, the Old Durry is described as glittering domain of dreams beyond the grime of London. But it also represents the cruelty and injustice in Mr. Cake’s case.
