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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
Written in 1936, this reads like a classic murder mystery. A murder occurs during a Christmas celebration at an English country manor. The crime is first told by the family, then the police take over the narrative and finish it. It was a good story and kept me changing my mind about the conclusion.
This is a classic manor house mystery with an extended family and the staff brought together, an unexpected death, a plethora of suspects, and of course the question of an inheritance of substantial assets as part of the storyline. What does the will say? Is it the real will? Is it what the victim intended? Who knew about the contents of the will? How was Santa Klaus involved?
The chapters have varying points of view but the narrators are clearly laid out in the chapter headings so there is no confusion regarding who is speaking at any given time (I really liked that). The ending of the book has a postscript which very neatly lays out why the culprit obviously had to be the guilty party and all the clues leading to his or her feet.
I enjoyed this book much more than the first book I read by Mavis Doriel May and now I look forward to reading more by her.
The chapters have varying points of view but the narrators are clearly laid out in the chapter headings so there is no confusion regarding who is speaking at any given time (I really liked that). The ending of the book has a postscript which very neatly lays out why the culprit obviously had to be the guilty party and all the clues leading to his or her feet.
I enjoyed this book much more than the first book I read by Mavis Doriel May and now I look forward to reading more by her.
A lively and engaging murder mystery! Even once you figure out who probably did it you still want to know how it plays out!
A good old-fashioned murder mystery in a Downton Abbey-esque setting albeit not quite so grand. The patriarch is murdered and everyone is a suspect including Santa Klaus. The investigator is the Chief Constable who, of course, is a family friend but remains impartial. The bulk of the story is told from his pojnt of view but various other characters are asked to write their account of events in a story form and these are integrated into the story. I loved the writing style, so true of the upper classes of the 1920s-30s yet Hay also writes in dialect and it's perfectly done. I've never read Agatha Christie but I suspect they would have similar styles. I would have liked a longer epilogue, I felt it ended quite abruptly but I suspose there wasn't really any more to say.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Enjoyed this one way more than I expected given how old it is. Very fun and didn't feel too dated.
The book was very readable and enjoyable and for people who enjoy these kinds of mysteries, this will be undeniably satisfying. Elements of it were quite clever, such as the use of different perspectives to narrate the run up to the murder, then explained within the plot as asked for by the detective but the potentially really interesting way that this could be used was limited by them fading out as the novel continues with only two perspectives than that of the main detective in the rest of the novel which were then unexplained in the way the previous ones had been done. The mystery itself is enjoyable, with lots of little clues and reveals which make the read exciting, but there is nothing groundbreaking in the crime or its culprit. Furthermore, it seemed like the novel needed one more edit - there were several typos or missing words in sentences, which stood out and became quite jarring. Overall, the novel was very enjoyable and I was continually really excited to return to it but it does not add anything new to the genre.
Very of it's time and type - personally I don't consider this as a bad thing. Writing style is very formal and not particularly demonstrative or "exciting". But as a country house murder novel written at this time it is a good example.
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder