Murder at the Christmas Emporium

First of all, this novel by Andreina Cordani has a terrible book jacket image which does not represent the setting in any way, shape, or form--picky I know but really. I found the plotting entirely too complicated and the multiple flashbacks distracting, but Publishers Weekly loved the book. Here is their review in its entirety:

"Holiday magic goes horribly wrong in Cordani's delightfully eccentric follow-up to The Twelve Days of Murder. Merry Clarke steals her boss's invitation to the reopening of Verity's Emporium, a bespoke London toy store that's home to elaborate displays and strange mechanical attractions. After Montagu Verity, the store's Willy Wonka--esque proprietor, offers a warm welcome to Merry and a handful of other VIPs, the shoppers discover they've been drugged by their complimentary hot cocoa. They awake trapped in the multilevel, secret passage-filled building, their phones having been confiscated upon entry, and soon discover the dead body of the store's head toymaker. From there, flashbacks tease out each character's backstory and relationships to the Veritys, while tense conversations in the present slowly reveal their links to one another. Meanwhile, the store brims with clues and terrors, including a display depicting each guest's brutal murder. Cordani's plotting is devious and perfectly calibrated, revealing just enough to heighten dramatic irony while leaving plenty of room for shocking twists. This canny combination of whodunit and horror makes for a gleefully demented stocking stuffer." 

Likewise, Booklist praises characters and setting: "Told from multiple points of view, both past and present, this compelling, stand-alone mystery with its myriad plot twists, well-drawn characters, and a lovingly described Christmastime setting will appeal to locked-room-mystery fans." 

Kirkus, on the other hand felt much like I did. "...The problem is that at no time do any of her retrospective thumbnail sketches give readers much reason to wish for the grown-up characters’ survival. Even Merry, stuck in a dead-end job and hopelessly in love with co-worker Ross, is foolishly controlling, and TV celebrity Fran, tortured by a secret Cordani teases for more 100 pages before revealing as the most obvious thing possible, is shallow and self-serving. When bad things happen to good people, justice cries out for an explanation. But when bad things happen to bad people, well…why the hell not? A joyless Yuletide tale offers little to celebrate."

 

 

Suddenly at His Residence: A Mystery in Kent

Christianna Brand (pen name for Mary Christianna Milne, 1907-1988) wrote a series of mysteries featuring Inspector Cockrill as well as a children's series with Nurse Matilda that was adapted for the movie Nanny McPhee. This is a classic cozy set in the English countryside during the Blitz with a "locked room" storyline. The grandchildren of Sir Richard March are gathered at the house for a weekend when their squabbling and poor "life choices" so outrage Sir Richard that he vows to disinherit them from Swanswater Manor and his fortune. He shuts himself away in a small lodge on the grounds and is found dead next morning. Everyone seems to have an alibi and Inspector Cockrill must solve first this murder and then a 2nd murder of the grounds keeper. This is a reprint series from British Library Crime Classics. Kirkus calls this "Perhaps the most underrated country-house mystery of them all."

Snowblind

This debut mystery/ crime novel by Ragnar Jonasson is the first in his "Dark Iceland" series (now 6 in all, in addition to his "Hidden Iceland" series (3) and several stand-along crime novels (4). His novels have been translated into several languages and he has won numerous awards for best crime novel in translation.  He has translated 14 of Agatha Chritie's novels into Icelandic, starting when he was 17. He is now a lawyer and teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University.   

The story is set in Iceland's northern most city, Siglufjördur, which is reachable only via a tunnel through the adjacent mountains--assuming an avalanche hasn't blocked the road. Ari Thor Arason has just finished his training as a police officer and trying and rejecting studies in philosophy and theology. He feels this career will suit him just fine, but given that the 2008 recession has left many without jobs, he chooses to take the first job offer he receives, which is from the police department in Siglufjördur, without consulting his live-in medical student girlfriend. Needless to say, this causes some tension between them as she must finish her studies in their current home of Reykjavik. Moreover, Ari Thor is tormented by the claustrophobic smallness of the town--where no one locks their doors and everyone seems to know everyone else, sort of--, the geographic isolation, and the intense winter weather where the days are never light and the snow becomes a fearsome character in its own right.  Although his boss has assured him that "nothing ever happens here," first the director of the Dramatic Society dies from falling down a flight of stairs. Everyone assumes he just drank too much and accidentally fell. Ari Thor is not so sure. Then a half naked woman is found bleeding to death in her snow-covered garden.

Library Journal sums it up by saying, "As Ari Thór digs deeper into the town's past, it becomes apparent that Siglufjördur has more than its fair share of secrets and few of its residents are as they appear...  Jonasson has taken the locked-room mystery and transformed it into a dark tale of isolation and intrigue that will keep readers guessing until the final page." Booklist concurs, concluding "Jønasson spins an involving tale of small-town police work that vividly captures the snowy setting that so affects the rookie cop. Icelandic noir at its moodiest."

Publishers Weekly calls this a "sterling debut, a tale of past and present revenge, which combines the power of extreme climate and geography with penetrating psychological analysis," and concludes "Jónasson skillfully alternates points of view and shifts of time that set in relief Ari Thór's efforts to find a purpose to his lonely life. The action builds to a shattering climax."

Fortune Favors the Dead

I really liked this book by Stephen Spotswood; it's a well-plotted mystery that lacks excessive violence, sex and gore and, to boot, has great female protagonists. Spottswood is an educator, journalist and playwright who is previously better known for his dramatic works and his writing about the struggles of post-Iran and post-Afghanistan veterans. Here is a summary from Publishers Weekly:

"Spotswood's stellar debut puts a modern spin on classic hard-boiled fiction with a duo of female private investigators. In 1945 Manhattan, Lillian Pentecost, "the most famous woman detective in the city and possibly the country," struggles with multiple sclerosis. Fortunately, Lillian can always rely on her sharp-witted assistant, Willowjean Parker. Lillian hired her three years earlier after Will, a runaway whose five years performing with a traveling circus gave her a unique skill set, used her knife training to save Lillian's life from a gunman. Their latest case involves a wealthy woman who was bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball in a locked room during a party. It becomes personal when Lillian realizes that an old adversary, a fake medium and spiritual adviser, is entangled in the murder. Complications arise after Will becomes romantically entangled with the victim's beautiful daughter."

Kirkus calls the work a "sprightly period debut" but is a little less laudatory in their overall review. They go on to conclude, "The most striking feature is the provocative gender-flipping of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin." I still think the book is good fun and plan to read the sequel, Murder Under Her Skin.

Murder of a Lady

This murder mystery was published in 1933 by Anthony Wynne (pseudonym for Robert McNair-Wilson: 1882-1963), a pre-eminent and prolific author of "impossible crime/ locked room" types of mysteries.This book has been republished in the British Library's "Crime Classics" series.  

Physician Dr. Eustace Hailey has also gained some renown as an amateur sleuth with a record of solving tricky crimes and he is called upon while visiting a friend in the Scottish Highlands. The Procurator Fiscal calls upon his host late one night to say that Mary Gregor, the sister of the laird of Duchlan, has been murdered, but was found in a room locked from the inside and inaccessible any other way. Hailey makes a preliminary inspection but is displaced from participation in the investigation when Inspector Dundas is sent from Glasgow. What he does continue to do, however, is look into the life of Mary Gregor, who everyone claims is a saint. As it turns out, her sainthood had a dark side and many people had reason to hate her. That still doesn't explain how she was murdered, but when the first and then a subsequent inspector  are also murdered, Hailey undertakes a risky plan to reveal both the means and the person who committed the crimes. 

Booklist says the murder(s) are "cunningly concocted" and Publishers Weekly concludes, "Those who like black-and-white films, in which ladies and gentlemen dress for dinner and everyone has frightfully good manners, are in for a treat." Kirkus likewise lauds, "This classic British mystery, first published in 1931, has enough complex plotting and red herrings to win a new generation of fans for the largely forgotten Wynne."