03 August 2022

Winter murder (Innes: There Came Both Mist and Snow)


Michael Innes. There Came Both Mist and Snow (1940) Well-done closed-cast mystery. It’s Christmas, and Appleby is among the guests snowed in at a country house. The murder is done for money, but the method and the misdirections make for a pretty puzzle, neatly solved by means of literary allusions. There’s enough social comedy and melodrama to distract from the fantastic plot. The narrator is Arthur Ferryman, a waspish writer who never misses an opportunity to make a snide remark about social pretensions, moral failures or personal weaknesses. Nevertheless, a pleasant entertainment, better than average for the genre. **½

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When did he die? (The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, 1928)

 Dorothy Savers.  The Unpleasantness At The Bellona Club . (1928) General Fentiman dies at the Bellona Club. But there are couple of details...