Something Fishy is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

, first published in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 on January 18, 1957 by Herbert Jenkins

Barrie & Jenkins

Barrie & Jenkins was a small British publishing house that was formed in 1964 from the merger of "Herbert Jenkins" and "Barrie & Rockcliffe". One of their most notable authors was P. G...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on January 28, 1957 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, under the title The Butler Did It.

The plot concerns a tontine

Tontine

A tontine is an investment scheme for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th. It combines features of a group annuity and a lottery. Each subscriber pays an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity. As members die, their...

 formed by a group of wealthy men, and a butler

Butler

A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...

 named Keggs who, having overheard the planning of the scheme, later decides to try and make money out of his knowledge.

It features Percy Pilbeam, the unscrupulous head of the Argus Detective Agency, who first appeared in Bill the Conqueror

Bill the Conqueror

Bill the Conqueror is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on November 14, 1924 by Methuen & Co., London, and in the United States on February 20, 1925 by George H. Doran, New York, the story having previously been serialised in the Saturday Evening Post from May 24 to...

(1924) and was in several other Wodehouse books, including a visit to Blandings Castle

Blandings Castle

Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth , home to many of his family, and setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...

 in Summer Lightning

Summer Lightning

Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London...

(1929).

External links

• The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with a list of characters