Reviews - The Santa Klaus Murder

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156 reviews for:

The Santa Klaus Murder

Mavis Doriel Hay

3.38 AVERAGE

angie_spumoni's review against another edition

3.25

mysterious medium-paced

jessreadthis's review against another edition

3.0

"There is a tacit understanding among the Melburys that there shall be no more family gatherings at Christmas time at Flaxmere."

This took me the entire month of December to read. It didn't absorb me to the point where I couldn't put it down. In fact, I found it to be rather slow moving until about the middle and then things picked up. However, it truly was a pleasant enough read with no real clue towards who the murderer could be. The plot was rather vague and very circumstantial until the end. A few clues were rather convenient. Was this a well crafted whodunnit? Not so much. Yet, it was still a truly likable book.

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

4.5

dark funny mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“I’ve suggested to Philip that he should write and publish a book that is at one and the same time an indisputable work of genius, a dignified production in the Victorian style and a best seller. That’s the only way I can see of getting Father to accept him as a son-in-law.”

TITLE—The Santa Klaus Murder

AUTHOR—Mavis Doriel Hay

PUBLISHED—1936

GENRE—English Christmas manorhouse mystery

SETTING—an old estate in 1930’s England

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—family, inheritance, murder mystery, Christmas holidays, English country house, epistolary format

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—perfect Christmas mystery read!

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Can’t make up my mind whether there’s sheer lunacy or something really devilish clever at the bottom of all this.”

This was a really fun Christmas mystery that was also a perfect read for the particular unChristmasy mood that I was in this year… 😅 It kind of felt like Agatha Christie meets Scarlett Thomas with a little Wilkie Collins thrown in.

What was particularly interesting was the way that each character rather than accusing another character in their POV chapters, seems to defend everyone else in the house, usually at least one or two specific other characters…. and give clear reasons as to why it *couldn’t* be someone rather than who they thought it was.

I think the main difference between Agatha Christie’s mysteries and this story was that Christie really distracts me from all the facts and clues with all the character motivation and every character casting suspicion on every other character until I’m convinced that literally everyone must be somehow responsible whereas in this story everyone is like “well I don’t see how anyone here could have possibly done it” and it feels like the opposite, almost: the reader is being persuaded *against* suspecting anyone rather than suspecting almost everyone even though almost everyone had a possible motive though almost no possible opportunity. It’s an interesting difference!

And while I immediately guessed one thing I didn’t guess who the murderer actually was by the end and the reason why I didn’t was the same reason why the detective didn’t see the answer at first either until ultimately he ended up receiving the information in a different order from the reader so that’s why he figured it out and then was able to explain why the reader didn’t figure it out. Which I also thought was cool and a unique approach to these sorts of stories. I could definitely see myself rereading this one!