Murder in the Falling Snow: Ten Classic Crime Stories (Vintage Murders)

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At Christmas I like to read a good murder mystery, particularly if it has a Christmas theme - I'd not come across Gladys Mitchell before, but I was encouraged by a quote from a Guardian review, likening it to Miss Marple. And the Cotswold setting was attractive, as it's just up the road from where I live. She taught English, history and games at St Paul's School, Brentford, from 1921-26, and at St Anne's Senior Girls School, Ealing until 1939. If that that bears all things bears thee,’ quoted Mrs Bradley in solemn and sonorous Greek, ‘bear thou and be borne.’

An English Christmas has mince pies, cheerful carols, a twinkling tree… and a murder? Thank goodness Lady Swift is on the scene! There is much to like about Murder in the Snow (originally published as Groaning Spinney), most of all I loved the scene setting: Mrs Bradley visits her nephew and his new wife for the Christmas holidays in the Cotswolds and just as they settle in, the snow begins to fall. And keeps on falling, cutting off the village community from the outside world. As the snowfall stops and roads begin to clear, a body is discovered. Other famous folk popping up here include Dorothy L Sayers, Julian Symons, Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, it’s a Holmes and Watson story, ‘The Adventure of the Abbey Grange’) and GK Chesterton.

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Although an appearance by Lord Peter Wimsey would have been welcome, in Dorothy L Sayers’ Sleuths on the Scent, it is the delightfully named Mr Montague Egg who takes refuge in the bar-parlour of the Pig and Pewter during a snowstorm and finds himself with an opportunity to unmask a fugitive from justice. A number of other people are likewise sheltering in the hostelry and, as their convivial talk turns to the whereabouts of suspected murderer Gerald Beeton, it becomes increasingly likely that the killer might be hiding among them. Unmasking the murderer relies on insight into the life and business of the typical commercial traveller, a character once a staple of crime fiction who has since been erased from the genre by the passage of time. Overall, a delightful, fun and entertaining read but try not to read when you’re hungry as I guarantee you’ll want to reach for the cake tin! If you like Christie or Dorothy Sayers then I think it’s well worth giving this novel a go. I love the cover too. Thank you to NetGalley for a free advanced review copy of this book. All opinions expressed in the review are entirely my own and not affected by the giveaway. This is another superb cosy murder mystery featuring Lady Eleanor Swift and her intrepid butler and supporter, Clifford. The repartee between these two had me laughing out loud despite the somber nature of their investigations, and Gladstone is as stoic as ever!

The murder and the plot that spins from it was quite interesting, with lots of unexpected but plausible connections that held my interest while making it impossible for me to solve the whodunnit riddle. An anonymous contribution to your knowledge of my morals and conceits. I’ve got a beauty about you!’ Those eyes could melt a nun trapped in a glacier… I just meant that I can see why Canning did so well with the ladies, if all the stories are true. Not my type, but I can imagine in his day, Canning was quite the fox women would have howled at the moon over.A similarly chance encounter proves equally fateful in Julian Symons’ Meeting in the Snow, where Francis Quarles offers a lift to a hitchhiker on a particularly miserable winter afternoon and ends up embroiled in a murder mystery. The hitchhiker turns out to be the nephew of Quarles’ old friend John Landon and, when Quarles agrees to accompany his passenger to Landon’s home, the stately Clinton House, the two discover that Landon has been murdered sometime earlier that day. Unfortunately for the murderer, Quarles sees to the heart of the matter before the police even arrive on the scene, which provides an archetypal illustration of the gentleman detective at work. I thoroughly enjoyed Murder in the Snow which is a fun read with a good mystery attached, i.e. I had no idea of the perpetrator’s identity. This is the first novel in the series that I have read but it won’t be the last. I loved that it is told entirely from Lady Eleanor’s point of view as it means that there are no distractions and the reader knows what she knows, nothing more and nothing less. There are plenty of suspects as Canning was not a nice man and plenty of motives as he’s a man with a past. The solution comes out of left field although the clues are maybe there if the reader looks hard enough.