Dead Babies is
Martin Amis's second novel, published in 1975 by
Jonathan Cape. Its first UK and US paperback edition was published under the title Dark Secrets.[1] Amis's second novel—a parody of
Agatha Christie's country-house mysteries[2]—takes place over a single weekend at a manor called Appleseed Rectory. In 2000, the book was adapted into a
film of the same name, starring
Paul Bettany and
Olivia Williams. In 2001,
BBC critic David Wood wrote "Amis's second novel ranks among his most incendiary with its mordant wit, black comedy, and sense of the violently absurd."[3] It has an epigraph attributed to the
CynicMenippus and the novel has been interpreted as a
Menippean satire.[4]
Further reading
Bentley, Nick (2014). Martin Amis (Writers and Their Work). Northcote House Publishing Ltd.
^ Stolarek, Joanna (2011). "Narrative and Narrated Homicide": The Vision of Contemporary Civilisation in Martin Amis's Postmodern Detective Fiction (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Silesia. Retrieved 1 September 2023.