The more gracious the home, the worse the crime in this anthology by a who’s who of mostly golden-age writers.
Let the guest beware in these 16 reprinted stories, spanning roughly 65 years, set in British country houses.
None but Sherlock Holmes could figure out why a governess’s duties include wearing a specific dress in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Copper Beeches.” In Dick Donovan’s “The Problem of Dead Wood Hall,” a tiny bluish scratch on each of two murder victims is the only indication of foul play. “Gentlemen and Players” features E.W. Hornung’s Raffles in a witty blend of cricket and thievery, and a falling diamond bracelet upsets a desperate plan in W.W. Jacobs’ “The Well.” In G.K. Chesterton’s “The White Pillars Murder,” a notable detective’s protégés learn the difference between listening and hearing, and Ernest Bramah combines an ancient family house, an ancient family curse, and very ancient Druidic ruins in “The Secret of Dunstan’s Tower.” J.J. Fletcher’s “The Manor House Mystery” offers three different solutions to a country magistrate’s murder. A debt-ridden man almost gets away with murder in J.J. Bell’s “The Message on the Sun-Dial”; “The Horror at Staveley Grange” is a haunted room where Sapper (H.C. McNeile) introduces two healthy men who died of heart failure. Anthony Berkeley presents a dead body that disappears twice from a thicket of trees in “The Mystery of Horne’s Copse,” and James Hilton’s “The Perfect Plan” is an almost perfect murder. What should be a hostess’ social triumph ends in humiliation in Margery Allingham’s “The Same to Us.” E.V. Knox’s “The Murder at the Towers” sends up the classic amateur detective who solves the murder of the most disagreeable of houseguests. A nurse spends a night of terror in Ethel Lina White’s “The Unlocked Window”; Nicholas Blake exposes a long-held family secret in “The Long Shot”; and a greedy husband and wife ruin far more than their own lives in Michael Gilbert’s “Weekend at Wapentake.”
The more gracious the home, the worse the crime in this anthology by a who’s who of mostly golden-age writers.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4642-0573-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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