This golden age mystery has all the ingredients of a good Christmas mystery: An old country house, guests snowed in, interesting characters and a baffling murder. It really delivers and I enjoyed reading it immensely. It was a radio play before it became a novel and I think it shows because there is a lot of dialogue, so sometimes I would have wished for a little more description, but it makes for an intense reading experience.
Published in 1951, you can also see the changes in society after the war, which makes the case even more interesting. ( )

It’s a masterpiece! It has every staple of cozy mysteries—a reluctant Christmas guest, an English house party, a lord with a bad heart summoning his family around him, a suspicious butler, being snowed in with a murderer—but it is incredibly original. Published in 1951, it depicts post-war Britain still undergoing privations and everyone having strong feelings about the new Labor government. It also has a sympathetic portrayal of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, arguably the main character. I will say that as in the Francis Pettigrew mysteries, the solution involves a little-known fact about British law (of that time period, no less.) There was no way I could have figured it out but that didn’t trouble me!

PS. My brother said that readers of a specific Victorian novelist will know this point of British law and they will be able to solve the mystery. But I don’t want to give too much away! ( )

one of his best ( )

4/5 A classic holiday murder mystery novel in the Christie style. Set in the English countryside, the novel features all the elements of a traditional whodunit – a closed circle of suspects, red herrings, and a clever detective trying to piece together the clues to solve the crime. As tensions rise and secrets are revealed, the guests must confront their own pasts and prejudices in order to uncover the truth behind the murder. ( )

This is a very cozy murder mystery that hilariously ends immediately after the murder is solved. I love mysteries that stick to the point, but there's usually a few paragraphs after the solve to let it sink in. I enjoyed the length of this as well, it's just right. ( )