Its
Christmas Eve at Sir Eustace Vernon’s house and everybody
is assembled around the table at dinner. Their host has been
troubled of late, and when he announces that he has had some
bad news and leaves, his guests go in search of him. He can’t
be located, but his butler Purvis is dead and there is a sinister
message in his pocket. Or rather her pocket as it seems that
Purvis is actually a woman! Not long after Police Commissioner
Sir Austin Kemble and Anthony Bathurst come upon a body on
the train tracks near an abandoned car. This also has a message
in its pocket, plus a red cracker…
…Or
rather a bon-bon, because that was what people called crackers
in 1929 when this book was written. One of the many enjoyable
things about reading golden age mysteries is that it gives
the reader a look in the past, a very enjoyable history lesson.
Things that would probably be missing from a historical novel
are present here, such as a village coffee stall and some
unusual words and phrases. This is the fourth Brian Flynn
mystery to be released in paperback and ebook format by Dean
Street Press. Perhaps coming straight after his best work,
The Mystery of the Peacock’s Eye (also reviewed on this
site) makes it a tough act to follow, but there is a lot to
enjoy here too. Expect a whole trawlerful of red herrings
and a denouement I certainly didn’t see coming; Flynn
excelled as a writer of complex, twisty plots. This is a spin
on the classic Christmas house party and is full of surprises,
although realism is not a feature, to put it mildly. Bathurst
is still an enigma we know nothing about and most (if not
all) the characters are stock creations but that is a feature
of many puzzle whodunits from this period. It doesn’t
stand in the way of a good plot and I was eagerly turning
the pages to see what happened next. One to read during the
festive season for best results!
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