The Santa Klaus Murder
Mavis Doriel Hay
Poisoned Pen British Library Crime Classics, Oct 6 2015, $12.95
ISBN 9781464204951
In Haulmshire County, three generations of the Melbury family,
their professional staff and their servants arrive at Flaxmere to spend Christmas
together. However, the annual gathering
proves fatal to the family patriarch Sir Osmond when someone shoots him in his
study on Christmas Day.
Chief Constable Colonel Halstock leads the homicide investigation
into the death of his overbearing, obnoxious neighbor. As he considers every adult at the gathering
a suspect, Halstock muses over what took so long for someone to kill
Osmond. After interviewing everyone and
looking for clues at the crime scene, the only individual with opportunity is
Santa Klaus who lacked a motive for murdering the victim. As he continues to grill the family and seeks
why, each interviewee keeps modifying their story.
An entertaining English Golden Age manor house police procedural, The Santa Klaus Murder is a wonderful whodunit due to a
rigidly adhered to SOP-oriented lead constable who personally knows many of the
suspects and the victim.
Character-driven, subgenre fans will appreciate this “historical”
holiday homicide and want to read Mavis Doriel Hay’s other 1930s
mysteries (see Murder Underground and Death on
the Cherwell).
Harriet Klausner
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