RogerBW's Blog

Murder at Everham Hall, Benedict Brown 23 November 2024

2023 mystery, first of a series. Marius Quin wrote a successful detective novel, but he's blocked on his second one; so when an old girlfriend asks him to join a New Year's Eve party, he goes along… Naturally, the host will be murdered.

It's set between the wars, and Brown is an English?Welsh writer who's clearly well-versed in the tropes of the murder mystery story… but somehow it doesn't quite work for me. I can't pin down any specific passage, but somehow it always comes over as though every utterance is accompanied with a knowing wink, a tee-hee we know better than these silly people don't we.

I think it feels closer to the later American comedic film adaptation of the original 1920s story, the sort of thing in which Miss Marple suddenly pulls out a rapier to have a duel with the villain. (Murder Ahoy, 1964.) Not that there's anything quite like that here, but it all feels a just a but off, just a bit too much copy of a copy of a copy that no longer fits into the shape of the thing it's trying to imitate.

People speak far too freely of their familial shames and traumas. Some characters are clearly present only for comic relief. This may well be great for other people, but for me there's no life to it.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Add A Comment

Your Name
Your Email
Your Comment

Your submission will be ignored if any field is left blank, but your email address will not be displayed. Comments will be processed through markdown.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2300ad 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech bayern beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 essen 2024 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1