such fun sublime idiocy ( )

A Coal After Christmas
Review of the British Library Crime Classics paperback (October 10, 2021) of the original Macdonald & Co. hardcover (1944).

It is a thin line between "ingenious" (as described in the Goodreads synopsis for Murder After Christmas) and "convoluted and confusing," which is what I found the book to be. Rich Uncle Willie comes to stay with the Redpaths for Christmas and is then found shortly afterwards dead and dressed as Santa Claus inside a snowman outside the house. Investigation reveals the cause as poisoning, but the exact source is uncertain and how did the body get inside the snowman anyway? There are plenty of suspects as it is uncertain who will inherit. A further complication arises when it is revealed that his wife is dead as well. Who inherits is dependent on which of them died first.

The tone of the book did not feel in keeping with the subject matter, as it had too much levity and jokes about murdering the old man before the event actually occurs. The convoluted plot then made it rather hard to follow. Overall this became only a so-so read, but it was still perfect for the season. It continues my annual tradition of reading a British Library Crime Classics at this time of the year.

See print at https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/410957690_25351935204405259_3...
The original source print for the cover of “Murder After Christmas” from Colliers Magazine 1930. Image sourced from the Mary Evans Picture Library.

As explained in editor Martin Edwards' introduction, Rupert Latimer was the penname of Algernon Victor Mills (1905-1953) who only wrote 2 or 3 novels. Even the exact number is uncertain as it is possible that Death in Real Life and The Unenchanted Circle are the same book under different titles.

Trivia and Links
The British Library Crime Classic series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here. ( )

I couldn't quite keep track of all the characters, but it was still a funny holiday mystery! ( )

This is one of those Golden Age mysteries involving a relatively small but convoluted, multi branched family tree, with old and venerated grandfathers, grandmothers and relatives, gathering (or not) for Xmas, and pondering whether the elders will last the distance or drop off, and if the later what that will mean for the long awaited inheritances. And not just speculating whether, but whether one should take more active steps to see if wills should be rewritten or subject to a codicil, and if so to what end?

There are family schisms (real and feigned) and much misdirection. Oh, and a death on Boxing Day in a house surrounded in snow, and some mystifying tracks in the snow.

The local police investigate: is the death murder or not? If the former, who is responsible and even more puzzling, how was it achieved? There are experiments by the police throwing 'bodies' out of various upper floor windows to see if the deceased could have been thrown or fallen out of such a window and to roll down to (of course) a snowman to explain those mystifying snow tracks. The family members seem less concerned with the fact of such experiments than that the noise is making it difficult for them to carry on their own discussion as to 'who done it' in the drawing room below.

The book is a sustained exercise in the family members and the police coming up with seemingly logical and fact supported theories time and again, only for them to be dashed by the emergence of a new fact or revelation. It reminds me of movies such as Arsenic and Old Lace, The Importance of Being Earnest or more recent (but still somewhat ancient) What's Up Doc, Raising Arizona and My Cousin Vinny. Do they still make such movies? The most recent examples that I can think of which goes close would be Hail, Caesar! and Death at a Funeral.

The only reason this does not get 5 stars is that there is a slight (only slight) drop off in intensity towards the very end...the denouement after all had to bring all to a head and became a (very) little complicated!

Apparently one of a few books written by actor Algernon Victor Mills under the pen name Rupert Latimer, who passed away comparatively young, It would have been interesting what else he could have conjured, and whether he could have kept the many juggling balls in the air as well as he achieved in Murder After Christmas.

Big Ship
6 November 2022 ( )

Well that was something. ( )