A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh

Nigel Bathgate was quite excited to be going to a country house weekend at Frantock.  Nigel was a twenty five year old journalist, and still had a very youthful enthusiasm for the weekend party which was being given by Sir Hubert Handesley who was known for his unique parties. Nigel traveled there on the train with his older and more sophisticated cousin Charles Rankin who was a connoisseur of house parties. Charles already knew most of the people who would be attending. There would be Angela North who was Sir Charles's niece, and Arthur and Marjorie Wilde. Arthur was an archaeologist and Marjorie was very attractive. Rosamund Grant who was a very beautiful woman, would be there. The new person in the group was Doctor Foma Tokareff, a Russian, who had probably met Sir Hubert when Sir Hubert was at the embassy in Petrograd.

Sir Hubert announced at the beginning that they were going to play a "murder" game. One person would be selected to be the murderer. The murderer would select his victim and turn off the lights to indicated the death.  The rest of the party would be tasked with finding the identity of the murderer.

Charles Rankin told the group about a fantastic dagger that he had brought with him. He had received it from a Russian man whom he had rescued from a crevasse in Switzerland. It was a beautiful  antique Mongolian dagger, and  Dr. Tokareff told the group that this dagger was a symbol of a Russian secret society, and that Charles should not have been given it. Sir Hubert who collected weapons coveted this dagger and finally a silly agreement was reached in which Charles would leave the dagger to Sir Hubert after his death.

The next day the group had an enjoyable day. Nigel was not named the murderer. He got to know Angela better as they toured the house and played badminton. In the evening as they were dressing for dinner, a gong sounded and the lights went off. The victim had been chosen. When the members of the party came down the stairs, they found the body of Charles Rankin at the foot of the stairs. He had been stabbed with his Russian dagger.

Inspector Alleyn arrived at Frantock to  find the murderer. He was young, sophisticated, and had an upper class accent. Hardly what the members of the party expected from a member of the police. He interviewed the members of the party, and Nigel was cleared of suspicion because of the testimony of a maid. He and Alleyn became friends which allowed Nigel to follow the investigation of the murder.

There is a side plot in this book which involves finding members of a Russian secret society. The book was written in the 1930's when there was suspicion in England of Soviet conspiracies. Alleyn would seek the help of Nigel and Angela in his investigation of this group.

This book, written in 1934, was Ngaio Marsh's first mystery novel and introduced Inspector Alleyn who would go on to star in many other of her mysteries. It is still in print.

Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon

It was Christmas eve and a few people were in the coach of the 11:37 train from Euston to Manchester. There was an elderly bore, Mr. Hopkins, who had his eye on a young chorus girl, Jessie Noyes,  who was on her way to audition. There were a brother and sister, David and Lydia Carrington, and a young clerk, Mr. Robert Thomson, who didn't feel well because he might be getting a cold. There was also an elderly gentleman, Mr. Edward Maltby, who was a member of the Royal Psychical Society. Mr. Maltby was on his way to interview Charles I at Naseby.

The train had been making its way slowly through a dreadful snowstorm, and then the train stopped. It could not go any farther. The occupants debated what to do and whether it might be a good idea to leave the train and strike out through the snow. Mr. Maltby thought that he saw someone go by outside the coach, and he jumped up and left the train.  David, Lydia, Jessica, and Mr Thomson then decided to strike out cross country through the drifts. Jessica fell and sprained her ankle and David had to carry her. When this group had almost given up hope of finding anything, they encountered a house. The door was unlocked, the house was comfortable and warm, and the kettle was on the stove, but there was nobody home. There was, however, a bread knife on the kitchen floor.

While they were preparing to have tea, there was a knock on the door. It was Mr. Maltby and a stranger. The stranger was a rather rough looking fellow with a cockney accent. He gave his name as Smith. Maltby had encountered him just before he reached the door of the house. Smith was very reluctant to tell anything about himself. While they were talking, they heard a cry for help from outside of the house. David and Mr. Thomson rushed out and found the elderly bore floundering in the snow. The bore said that he had left the train when it was found that some one had been murdered in the compartment next to the one in which he was sitting; he did not know the name of the murder victim.

The snow continued to come down, and the complications to the situation in the house increased. A dead body was found buried by snow outside the house. Mr. Thomson became quite ill with his cold. Jessica remained in bed with her sprained ankle. Lydia Carrington tried to make plans to celebrate Christmas with what she could find in the house. I will not introduce  spoilers here, but will say that everything was resolved by Mr. Maltby who used a mixture of logic and his psychic sense.

I found this book to be an interesting read even though I was reading it in July. The author allows the reader to look at the inner thoughts of Mr. Thomson, Mr. Hopkins, and Jessica which make them very sympathetic characters. David and Lydia remain positive, attractive people, and their thoughts are not explored. Mr Maltby may supply the reader with a bit too much information on psychic phenomenon.

J. Jefferson Farjeon was a prolific writer of mystery fiction, but his works sank into obscurity as time passed. This book, which was originally published in 1937,  has recently been reissued as part of the British Library Crime Classic series. It has an introduction by Martin Edwards.

When the Wind Blows by Cyril Hare

It was a great loss to the world of classical music when the excellent violinist Lucy Carless was murdered shortly before she was due to perform the Mendelssohn violin concerto with the Markshire orchestra.

Francis Pettigrew was a lawyer who had retired from the bustle of London to the town of Markhampton. His wife Eleanor was an amateur violinist who had joined the Markshire symphony orchestra. Francis was drafted to be the honorary treasurer of the orchestra committee even though he had no financial skills, and only a mild interest in classical music. It was in this position that he witnessed the events leading up to the murder. Clayton Evans, the conductor of the orchestra, proposed a program for the season's first concert which would include a Handel organ piece, the Mozart Prague symphony, and the Mendelssohn concerto. This was quite agreeable to the orchestra committee though there was some doubt about the ability of the organist, Mr. Ventry, to perform the organ piece. There was also a problem with the woodwinds. The orchestra was mainly composed of amateur performers who were mainly string players. It was thus necessary to hire brass and woodwind players for concerts, and the orchestra was short a clarinet player. It was decided to hire a Polish refugee, Mr. Zbartorowski, who had been playing with a local popular music group.

Problems started developing when the orchestra committee held a reception before the concert to welcome Lucy Carless to Markhampton. It turned out that Mr. Dixon, a member of the orchestra committee, had been Lucy's husband before they divorced. Both had since remarried and their new spouses were also at the reception. Also Lucy Carless was Polish, and she and Mr Zbartorowski had a violent argument, and he refused to play in the concert with her. Now the orchestra was again short one clarinet player, and arrangements were made to hire one from a nearby town.

Then the day of the concert arrived and things went totally wrong. The concert was supposed to start with the Handel, but Mr. Ventry did not arrive in time so the program was reversed and started with the Mozart symphony. The new clarinet player did arrive but was  a bit late. When it was time for the violin concerto, Lucy Carless was discovered to have been strangled in the room off stage where she had been waiting to perform.

Now the police took over the investigation. Inspector Trimble was new to the district, and was a bit insecure. He was assisted by Sargent Tate who was experienced and who believed that Trimble was incapable of doing any thing correctly. Trimble feared that the Chief Constable, Mr. MacWilliam, did not believe that he was capable of solving the crime. Indeed, Mr. MacWilliam didn't, and asked Francis Pettigrew for assistance. He knew that Pettigrew had helped the police in other investigations, and he asked Pettigrew to look over the evidence but to never let Trimble find out that he was helping. The relationship of these investigators with each other was one of the most interesting points of the book.

The murderer is, of course, found with both Pettigrew and Trimble contributing to the solution. The reader with a knowledge of Mozart symphonies, of Dickens, and of British law may be able to work out the solution. The actual commission of the crime was rather intricate and involved. I had trouble with two witnesses who could have provided much needed information but who had "poor eye sight".  There are rather few mysteries which involve the world of classical music, and this book is an interesting addition to this group.

Cyril Hare is the pen name of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark. Clark was a lawyer and eventually a judge. He started writing mystery novels in 1937 with the publication of his first mystery Tenant for Death. This book was published in 1949, and is no longer in print. Used copies are available.