What to Read This Winter

 ​What to Read This Winter

Murder on a  Frosty Night by Verity Bright-- 1920s Cozy Mystery

Thank you Bookoture, Verity Bright and NetGalley for an e-ARC. All opinions in this review are my own and not affected by the giveaway.

Ellie and Hugh are looking forward to celebrating their first Christmas as a married couple at Henley Hall with Clifford, the ladies, the furry terrible twosome and all the villagers. The halls are decked and Mrs. Trotman is preparing a delicious feast. However, Hugh is busy working, trying to tie up loose ends for Scotland Yard and fretting about money since the Byron Detective Agency has not had any valuable clients so far. It seems like a Christmas miracle is within reach when a telegram arrives offering 300 pounds now, 300 more on acceptance of case and a further 300 once the case is concluded. The catch? It's Christmas Eve and they have to arrive by midnight and the telegram has no phone number to call and ask for a delay. So the sleuths bundle up in the Rolls, drive 400 miles in the snow to get lost in the smallest hamlet in Britain. Along the way they nearly hit a women dressed all in black, encounter a curmudgeonly landlady who is less than thrilled to greet them but provides directions to Waketon Court, a medieval style castle outside the village. They arrive close to the deadline only to learn the master is not within but has been dead for five years! Then who sent the telegram? Ah, his nephew who has been squatting at Waketon Court but is currently not at home. Inigo Osmond Unwin (I.O.U.), their client, has left them a gramophone recording but no real information to go on. Back to the village, after midnight, Ellie, Hugh and Clifford seek information about I.O.U when Ellie stumbles across their client's dead body lying over his uncle's grave. NOW they have a murder investigation on their hands! Aided by the local constable and the new vicar, the Byron Detective Agency has their work cut out for them. Can they solve the mystery before the Inspector arrives the day after Boxing Day?

This is a long and twisty mystery. I was very confused after skimming the last third and had to go back and reread most of the book. The mystery was very complicated and I never guessed what was going on. I took what we were told at face value just as the sleuths did and didn't realize there was more than meets the eye. The introduction of gramophone records was interesting and used by Agatha Christie in one of her most famous mysteries. Thankfully this mystery is not as dark and creepy but the gramophone recording is a big clue. Thank you to Mark for the fascinating historical notes. This is one of the few times I didn't know any of that! The cozy Christmas cheer was a lot of fun and added some lightness to this otherwise somewhat grim mystery.

As always, the characters are the real draw for this story. I was a little disappointed Ellie had to cancel a visit from a new friend she met in a previous story because there was another mystery there and perhaps a potential new... friendship ... for Clifford. I missed the ladies at first but Ellie, Hugh and Clifford did too and Gladstone missed his partner in crime so they come along later to celebrate the season with their family. The ladies were under-used though. I'd love to be a fly on the wall watching them dance around in their frilly ___ (bloomers? knickers? UNMENTIONABLES!) and teasing the vicar. Kofi gets in on the fun for his first Christmas with his adopted family. Ellie is so delightful with her sense of humor and her big heart. She's drawn to help women in need, I think and she forms a connection with a potential suspect whom everyone believes is a witch. In the past Ellie has had some sort of guardian angel looking out for her and I think this time it's her turn to be guardian angel. I love her cheeky sense of humor and how she enjoys puns and riling up Clifford with unladylike behavior and language. Hugh wouldn't want her to be anyone but herself and he makes it clear he loves her devotedly as she is. There weren't enough swoony moments between them for my taste but the few times they have to be alone together are lovely. Hugh has come a long way. He recognizes he can't wrap his wife up in cotton wool but he does want her to be safe and he does want to shield her from seeing more of the horrible things she's already been exposed to. Hugh can't help himself. He's still a policeman even if he quit the force. Now Clifford is a partner in the business, he has to learn to unbend and relax the rules a bit. The horror! I love his encyclopedic knowledge of everything. Who needs the internet when you have Clifford? 

The inhabitants of the hamlet Yorlow are not a friendly, welcoming sort. They're not used to strangers, being in the most out of the way location in the country. Their hamlet is a "devil's punchbowl" location and they don't get many strangers. I.O.U. is a stranger though and a newcomer. He's come to stay in order to assess the property to sell the castle and the contents. He was an odd sort. His uncle, Augustus Pritchard, eschewed all things modern - an in anything  after Tudor times! He enjoyed reading, riddles and mainly keeping to himself. I.O.U. on the other hand, was the exact opposite. He loved mechanical gadgets- the more the merrier and made good use of the new home recording machine. Unwin was rather obnoxious about it- using the gramophone to dictate what he wanted for supper and whatever else he needed the butler/valet and cook/housekeeper to do for him. He did not endear himself to the servants or the villagers. What was he doing poking around the graveyard at midnight on Christmas Eve? Did he just happen to be strolling past skipping Midnight Mass or ducking out early? Or was there another reason- a reason connected to his urgent telegram to the Agency? Who else was out and about and killed Unwin? Figure out the motive and then find the killer. Well, that's not exactly easy with a newcomer for more than one reason. 

First on the suspect list is Ned Yearth. Ned is one of those nasty guys who likes to smirk and make "knowing" comments. He thinks he can do whatever he wants and does things to rile people up. He threatened Unwin and was not at Midnight Mass. Well ideally he should be the killer but that's too obvious. Yet, Gladstone doesn't like Ned so I think he must be the killer. Who else is there? The butler/valet Mr. Babcock is certainly a prime suspect. He hated the newcomer, the nephew who invited himself to stay and wouldn't leave until the legalities of Mr. Pritchard's will were sorted out. The nephew seemed to think everything would work in his favor and if it did, Mr. Babcock would be out of a job. In many respects Mr. Babcock is from the same old school as Clifford but he's also odd. He's fiercely loyal to a dead employer and acts as if his employer is on vacation and will return soon. He knows a lot about what's going on in the village but is not so forthcoming. He, too, is an obvious suspect! Miss Dora is the only only servant. She's Mr. Pritchard's cleaner and also cooks meals for the household - mostly Mr. Babcock. She seems like a timid sort of woman who wouldn't harm her employer even if she was worried about losing her job.

Mathilde Frisham runs the local pub with her sister Blythe. The two could not be more opposite. Mathilde is all business. She's tough and strong and suspicious of strangers. She doesn't trust anyone or like anyone. Mathilde is tough on her sister who is more of a free spirit and more lively. Blythe stepped out around the time of the murder, according to her sister. Yeesh really? Mathilde is quick to throw her sister under the bus and my guess is, her sister loved not wisely but maybe too well and she loved Unwin? She seems to be the only one mourning his death so I think that's a safe assumption to make. Maybe her older sister did the man in. I sure hope it's not "Loony" Luna. Why is everyone Luna believed to be "loony"? This Luna is eccentric in a different way than Luna Lovegood but she's an adult and chooses to be odd. Luna was the young lady of the manor until her parents lost their money and perished in a fire. She got blamed and now lives in the woods in a cabin, dresses all in black and flits around mysteriously. I rather like the sound of her and I hope she's not the murderer. She does have a strong motive though. 

Mr. Dunstan O'Brien, the church warden, whatever that is, is a newcomer to the village. He's kind of odd and cranky. Dunstan asked for the job the day after Rev. Ansel arrived and says he's helped out at churches before. He went through a tough time and just wants to be left alone and not asked a million questions that remind him of who he used to be. Or maybe he's just suspicious because he has something to hide? He's not in the story much and he was at Mass but not the whole time! He had means and opportunity but what about motive? Douglas "Digger" Dilkes, a mysterious man, is the grave digger. A-ha! He had means and opportunity to kill Unwin but again, what motive? He had more motive to kill the second person who turns up dead but not Unwin. Jarrett Maystone, the stone mason, is a little creepy. He's fascinated by Ellie's green eyes, so like the stones he tumbles and polishes. He's hoping to find a real gem some day. Ah... a jewel heist was referenced in the first chapter... could he have found real gems after all and sold them to shady characters? Could he then have gotten involved in stealing jewels? But he lives so far and out of the way from civilization so I doubt it. He was friendly enough until the sleuths mentioned Pritchard's grave and he seemed to be issuing a veiled threat about not sticking their noses in things that are none of their business. 

Constable Farnaby Quilter is a good man. He is respected in the village and can handle local petty crimes but he's never had a murder case before. He wants to solve this one and retire but needs the Byron Detective Agency's help. Constable Quilter is bashful around Ellie but comfortable celebrating Christmas with the ladies and Kofi. Yet, the sleuths feel he is not as forthcoming as he should be and withholding information that could be pertinent to the case. I don't know why they suspect that though. I think he's being open with them as much as he can. Rev. Thaddeus Ansel is the new, young vicar in the hamlet. He's a bachelor and as a young man, has difficulty convincing the parishioners he is as good as an elderly vicar. Sure his Christmas Eve Midnight Mass sermon is in Latin and way too long but he's kind and really wants to help people. He starts by helping the sleuths by providing information. He observed strange lights in the graveyard but was unable to identify the people. He also knows who was at Mass and who was not which helps narrow down the suspect pool. Most importantly, he does a real good deed for the sleuths on Christmas when they're homesick and missing family. He's a sweet man and I think Blythe should marry him. 

Professor Pike is not the murderer as he was in jail, drunk at the time but he's a delightful character. A professor of "phony English" I knew just what Quilter meant! Professor Pike is Henry Higgins and that's made clear late in the novel with a reference to George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. Unlike the staid Henry Higgins, Professor Pike is perpetually drunk and can't hold down a job. They need him to not be drunk to help them out. Can he do it?

This was one twisty mystery! I'm still a little confused as to how they figured it out! 

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