Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Nothing gets me in the Christmas spirit like a good old-fashioned Christmas movie. My husband and I have a long list of favorite Christmas flicks that we rewatch every year- Christmas in Connecticut, Home Alone 1 & 2, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street, and every Christmas Eve we watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas before bed with a mug of hot chocolate. Nostalgic and cozy, Christmas movies create a sense of magic and goodwill towards our fellow man.

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Synopsis

In I Am Half-Sick With Shadows, Alan Bradley imagines what it would be like to be a part of making Christmas movie magic- when the hard-up patriarch of the De Luce clan, Havilland, acquiesces to letting his stately manor, Buckshaw, be the setting for the newest holiday cinema smash starring the beautiful, but temperamental actress, Phyliis Wyvern.

Soon, the whole house is filled with actors, actresses, and several little dramas as the film begins its filming in fits and starts. The whole of Bishop’s Lacy is agog at the spectacle. The local vicar, hoping to capitalize on Phyllis Wyvern’s good name, asks her to play Juliet in the church pantomime -to help raise money for a good cause- the aging actress puts on a brilliant performance before all of Bishop’s Lacy. Still, sadly, it’s to be her last before she is murdered.

With Bishop’s Lacy under siege after the blizzard and with most of the town taking refuge in the sprawling estate of Buckshow, Flavia de Luce realizes that one of the guests, one of her neighbors, must be a murderer. Knowing that the police cannot reach her family due to the storm, Flavia puts down her chemistry set, lays aside her plans to trap Father Christmas, and undertakes to catch a killer.

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Review

I’m Half-Sick with Shadows is resplendent with Christmas magic and imbued with plenty of golden age Christmas mystery tropes: a claptrap Christmas Pantomime for a good cause, a country house splitting at the seams with people who should not be couped up together, the requisite blizzard which causes tensions to rise amongst the villagers trapped at Buckshaw.

Steamy off-screen affairs and chafing larger-than-life personalities are coming to a fever pitch. A dead actress- who has touched the lives of millions and privately ruined others really keeps the action to a fever pitch. The Christmas pantomime really brings out the best and worst of the agog villagers, the blatant superciliousness of the vicar hoping to cash in on the cachet of a big star headlining his little play, and, of course, the mega ego of Phyllis Wyvern is on the whole show. She’s haughty and condescending- feeling that this pantomime is really beneath her- and to be fair, she is an incredible actress.

Soaking in all of the ambiance and filing away all the little intrigues is Flavia De Luce, the youngest daughter of the De Luce clan. She’s part stagehand, part matchmaker, and chock-full of a double dose of wily ambition, so she’s always on the spot and underfoot to help with filming and soothing vicars, film stars, and, later, on-edge villagers.

Flavia de Luce- is pitch perfect in this book- her ingenuity on display as she manages to weasel answers out of the most reluctant witnesses, all while reminding the reader that she’s just a young girl who still believes in Father Christmas- and can’t wait to catch him in her carefully laid trap.

Like all good old-fashioned Christmas movies, there are plenty of love stories to go around- rotten, stinking affairs amongst the film stars and the sweet budding love story between Flavia’s eldest sister, Ophelia, and her suitor, the German pilot Deiter.

Love, hate, and Christmas magic are all pitch-perfect in I’m Half-Sick of Shadows. While some may balk at the murder not occurring until halfway through the book, it allows the slow crescendo of various personalities and plotlines to really shine.

The mystery itself is well-clued and plotted, and the way Phyllis Wyvern is especially clever showcases just how brilliant Flavia is in her deduction. There’s her signature use of chemistry, her knowledge of poisons, and of course her cheeky ability to charm or at least confuddle adults, which all help her piece together what really happened to Phyllis Wyvern. 

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Verdict

It’s too bad this is Alan Bradley’s only Christmas mystery romp, as he clearly is a lover of Golden Age Christmas mysteries and does them exceptionally well. The crumbling Buckshaw estate, snowed during winter, made a perfect backdrop to the human melodramas that led to murder. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows is an atmospheric and fascinating whodunnit redolent with Christmas magic, mystery, and, of course, murder.

#Christmas2025ReadingChallenge | #20Booksof Christmas

This is my second review for the #Christmas2025Reading Challenge and #20BooksOfChristmas. You can check out what else I’m planning to review this holiday season here.

2025 20 Books of Christmas Reviews

• “A Christmas Tragedy” by Agatha Christie (1930) | REVIEW

2024 20 Books of Christmas Reviews

1. The Night of Fear by Moray Dalton(1931) | REVIEW
2. Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon (1937) | REVIEW
3. Murder After Christmas by Rupert Latimer (1944) | REVIEW
4. Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan (1949) | REVIEW
5. Groaning Spinney a. k. a. Murder in the Snow by Gladys Mitchell (1950) | REVIEW
6. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie (1960) | REVIEW
7. The Twelve Deaths of Christmas by Marian Babson (1979) | REVIEW
8. Murder on a Mystery Tour by Marian Babson (1985) REVIEW
9. Mistletoe Murder by Leslie Meier (1993) | REVIEW
10. Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn (1994) | REVIEW
11. A Highland Christmas by M. C. Beaton (1999) | REVIEW
12. The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict (2021) | REVIEW
13. The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett (2023) | REVIEW
14. Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah (2023) REVIEW
15. Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret by Benjamin Stevenson (2024) | REVIEW