Golden Age of Detective Fiction

I’m a third of the way through my reading list for the #20BooksOfChristmas reading challenge That Happy Reader created, and I’m delighted to say that I’m still fully immersed in the Christmas spirit! There’s something magical about reading Christmas-themed books during this time of the year.

Today, I’m reviewing Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer, a gripping addition to the British Library Crime Classics series. This book kept me on the edge of my seat with its traditional English Christmas setting, a family gathering, and the suspenseful possibility of Santa Klaus’s demise.

Now, if these plot points sound familiar, it’s because they are the essential ingredients of many of my Christmas favorites, including Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie and The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay. So, how does Murder After Christmas compare to my favorites? I can’t wait to share my thoughts with you, so keep reading to find out!

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The Story

Wealthy Uncle Willie visits his relatives, the Redpaths, for Christmas. However, his visit takes a bizarre turn when he is discovered dressed as Santa Klaus and encased in a snowman, where the family had squirreled away his favorite chocolates. The mystery deepens as the investigation reveals poisoning as the cause of death. But who would do such a thing? 

As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that one of the family members, surrounded by others, killed Uncle Willie in hopes of gaining an inheritance. However, the plot thickens when it’s revealed that Willie’s wife has also died. The family is now struggling over the inheritance, adding a new layer of tension and conflict to the already tangled plot.

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The Review

Murder After Christmas is a black comedy with a madcap, capering tone that will be divisive. Full of playful jokes about bumping off Uncle Willie and his snarky comments about the ongoing war’s banality, it sets up the Redpaths and their ilk as spoiled and sequestered from the reality of most Britons during 1943. They are decidedly cossetted and privileged enough to have a wholly blown Christmas celebration during such an austere time- yet all of them want more, oblivious to the hardships faced by others.

The only way to get more money, more land, and a better society is to give rich Uncle Willie the Christmas of his boyhood, which is full of chocolates, parties, and lots and lots of mince pies. Willie, the patriarch of the clan, is probably the greediest of the family; he wants everything in abundance, especially food:

‘Did you say he was ill?’ asked John from behind.
‘Nothing much. Wanted some mince pies. Paulina said they were unlucky before Christmas, so of course he ate five or six.’

There are several running gags about mince pies, unlucky superstitions, and all of the various family members’ ways to spend Uncle Willie’s money that are delivered in a chatty, off-the-cuff way reminiscent of American mystery sleuths Pam and Jerry North, so the book feels very full-on, especially by British mystery standards. However, the chattiness of the first third is soon replaced by a very knotty, good old-fashioned British murder. The clever dialogue will keep you engaged and eager to uncover the mystery.

The Santa Klaus is usually the one that gets killed in these British Christmas offerings, and The Murder After Christmas is no exception. Santa Klaus was found dead in a poisoned snowman- which is a riddle enough is soon wrapped in another fraught mystery- when Uncle Willie dies about his wife, who also passed over the Christmas holidays, the sequence is essential to who in the family will eventually inherit.

Suspicious abound that Willie’s wife may have also been murdered. The sequence of the deaths, who killed Willie, and how it was done is all cleverly wrapped up in the seemingly meaningless chatter about mince pie, the abundance of food, whose dressing up as Santa, where all the presents seem to be disappearing too, and the copious amounts of food.

I had a great time reading this mystery, and it feels like it would make a great Christmas movie. With its use of gags, callbacks, and wordplay, it has the makings of a great script.

The spoiled and ridiculous characters are akin to the Bluth family on Arrested Development– and we are supposed to know how silly they all are and not to take them too seriously, except for the fact that one of them is obviously a deadly murderer. It’s this duality of kitschy fun against the fatal outcomes that Latimer has on a razor wire, and he’s not afraid to cut his characters to the quick with a remark from someone else in the family. Again, the dialogue is fantastic and would be easily translatable to the movie.

The mystery, however, is a pure delight. The investigative team is quite robust and well-equipped to handle a murder or two. Still, they need help with the many wholly mysterious and nonsensical things happening at this Christmas celebration. I’ll admit, I was baffled the whole way through, and every time, I thought I had worked out the bigger mystery of who was killed and when. Another of the more minor mysteries- where is all the damn food disappearing to? Why are the damn mince pies so important?! I was stumped.

And then Latimer, full of comedic timing, runs us through the solution with the vim and vigor of Tim Curry’s Mr. Butler in the movie adaptation of Clue. It all makes sense in an act of supreme genius- every batty thing the characters have been doing and saying is all in character. Because they are selfish, ridiculous people, they have made the mystery of who killed Uncle Willie as complicated as possible because they all want his money and want to set the scent on a particular person. As the final solution is revealed, Latimer brings all the pieces together, and it is a real Christmas treat.

I loved Murder After Christmas and thought it was a riot, but I will say that many people will definitely not jive with the characters and tone of the mystery, which is a shame because it is ingenious. I highly recommend checking Murder After Christmas out (you’ll know after a few pages if the book is right for you). So, dig into a mince pie or grab a box of chocolates and settle in with this Christmas classic mystery.

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#20BooksOfChristmas Reviews