Godfrey, Thomas ed.: English Country House Murders

Published in 1989, this is a wonderful collection of stories in a special sub genre of classic mysteries. The country house mystery was one of the most popular types of mystery from late Victorian Era until around the time of the post WWII era. The first story is a Sherlock Holmes classic and the last story is a Sherlock Holmes written by James Miles—probably the best homage to this famous series I have ever read. I love this story because it centers on a famous English composer who was active in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. In between these two gems Godfrey has included most of the best mystery authors of that period including a novella length entry by Wilke Collins and all the giants of the Golden Age of women mystery writers. There are also a couple of writers with whom I was not familiar. The scariest story is by Ethel Lina White who was also the author of the novel on which Hitchcock based his classic movie “The Lady Vanishes.” I’d love to find that book. Christianna Brand is another author that I had never read although she is still popular in England according to Godfrey. I plan to find her most famous book, Green for Danger, to see how she holds up in a novel length work. I was pleased to find Anthony Gethryn, the detective in Philip MacDonald’s The List of Adrian Messenger, represented here and the two penultimate selections are by two of the best women mystery writers of the mid to later 20^th century, Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. In spite of the title, not all the stories involve a murder and many of the stories are as much psychological studies as they are puzzles to be solved. Godfrey’s excellent introduction to the book and the informative blurbs he writes before each story contribute to the enjoyment and enlightenment of the reader. I highly recommend this as an outstanding anthology of this type of mystery.

Marsh, Ngaio:  False Scent

I guess you could classify this one as one of Marsh’s “theater” novels even though we never get to the theater.  The story revolves around the death of a famous, but now somewhat “over the hill” comedic actress at her birthday party.  The characters are all theater people (except the police, of course) even though the setting is more “country house.”  The house is actually in a square in London but we never get any further than next door so it seems more isolated.  It’s a good yarn but before the end I had guessed “who” and at least partially had a handle on “why” and “how” but the timetable Alleyn elucidated in the end was cleverly worked out.  My conclusions, although correct, couldn’t have been proved without that timetable.  It wa amusing, but not one of her best.

Kaye, M.M.:  Death in Cyprus
In the ‘60’s and 70’s I read a lot of romantic suspense novels mainly by Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt (pseudonym of Jean Plaidy) but somehow I never came across MM Kaye, even though she published her first novel of this type a few years before Mary Stewart and almost a decade before Jean Plaidy created Victoria Holt as the name under which she would publish her novels in this genre.  It’s been quite awhile since I’ve read a novel in the “damsel in distress in an exotic locale” style but Death in Cyprus appeared on an Amazon list of best mysteries of the 20^th century so I decided to give it a try.  It was much better than I had expected and actually better than I remember the Mary Stewart’s novels being.  MM Kaye seemed to me to develop her characters more in depth and her descriptions of the locale were superb. The heroine, 21 year old Amanda Darrington, has just come into her inheritance so decides to leave the trip she is on with her guardian and take a side-trip to Cyprus.  Even before she arrives there is a murder on board ship and danger seems to be stalking her everywhere in Cyprus.  Although the villain was not difficult to spot there were enough interesting characters - especially some really “bitchy” women characters that were fun. I also loved the elderly and eccentric Mrs. Moon, with whom Amanda is staying, who chooses the color of her clothing according to what day it is and is highly observant in spite of seeming to be a bit scatter-brained. Persis, the American romance novel author also is quite an interesting character.  I found it refreshing to read a G rated romantic novel-very difficult to find these in this day and age unless you stick the “Christian fiction.”  This was a delightful two evenings of bedtime reading.