By Tom Mead
Of all the classic tropes of the Golden Age Mystery, I think my favourite is the country house setting. After all, it’s a writer’s dream: haunted corridors, secret passages, isolated pavilions, shelf-lined studies whose denizens are inevitably found slumped over mahogany desks with daggers in their backs … so much potential! When I was writing my novel Cabaret Macabre (an unabashed love letter to the country house whodunit, coming out July 16), I took the opportunity to revisit some of my favourite examples in search of inspiration. Here, in reverse order, are ten of the very best:
10. An English Murder, Cyril Hare (1951)
Warbeck Hall is the archetypal English country estate, and in Cyril Hare’s marvellous standalone mystery it serves as the backdrop for a rather unusual murder. The title is apropos, for the crime in question is suggested by an obscure (and unique) detail of English law, a reflection of its author’s experience in the legal profession. To say any more, though, would be to spoil the fun…
9. Case for Three Detectives, Leo Bruce (1936)
Here, the lucky reader is presented with not only a country house but a locked-room murder—and a particularly fiendish one at that. Fortunately, there are not one but three detectives on hand, each a delightful parody of another author’s legendary creation: Monsieur Amer Picon (Hercule Poirot), Lord Simon Plimsoll (Lord Peter Wimsey), and Monsignor Smith (Father Brown). Bruce manages not only to ape their distinctive personas, but also their detecting styles in a truly bravura performance. But of course, it is the oft-underestimated Sergeant Beef who provides the real solution to the murder.
8. Hamlet, Revenge!, Michael Innes (1937)
To me, Innes (real name, J.I.M. Stewart) embodies the wonderful eccentricity of the Golden Age—his novels can be outré, surreal … but they are never less than interesting. In Hamlet, Revenge! his series detective John Appleby visits the gothic Scamnum Court, where the Lord Chancellor of England is murdered during an amateur performance of Shakespeare’s titular tragedy. As unlikely as this seems, it is merely the starting point for a gloriously bizarre criminous flight of fancy.
7. The Siamese Twin Mystery, Ellery Queen (1933)
The Siamese Twin Mystery finds our detective trapped in a highly unusual country house setting: Arrow Head, mountaintop home of surgeon Dr. Xavier. Not only is Ellery faced with a deviously contrived puzzle, but also a race against time: the mystery is compounded by mortal dread as forest fires encroach on all sides.
6. Thou Shell of Death, Nicholas Blake (1936)
Another snowbound Christmas murder: this time, the victim in question is famed aviator Fergus O’Brien, a complex and beguiling character. Indeed, the cast of suspects is also remarkably well-drawn, and Blake’s series detective—Nigel Strangeways—is in fine form.
5. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, Agatha Christie (1938)
One of the best (and bloodiest) Christies, this novel sees the hated millionaire Simeon Lee meeting a decidedly gruesome end in his locked study. Fortunately, Hercule Poirot is on hand to unravel the tangled web—though not before encountering a raft of unlikely clues, including a set of stolen diamonds and a false moustache…
4. The White Priory Murders, Carter Dickson (1934)
When Hollywood starlet Marcia Tait is found murdered in the Queen’s Mirror pavilion, the circumstances of her death are—apparently—impossible. The building is surrounded by unmarked snow, and the question of how the crime was committed is just as baffling as whodunit. Fortunately, Dickson’s ebullient, Falstaffian sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale boasts a brain as big as his personality, enabling him to unravel one of the author’s most fiendish plots.
3. Suddenly at His Residence, Christianna Brand (1947)
This wonderful locked-room mystery sees the return of Brand’s finest creation, Inspector Cockrill. This time, aged patriarch Sir Richard March has gathered his family around him at his country estate, Swanswater, on the anniversary of his first wife’s death. He spends the night alone in a Grecian lodge, isolated in the heart of the rose garden. The following morning, he is of course found dead, and the lodge apparently inaccessible. Cue: Cockrill…
2. The Problem of the Green Capsule, John Dickson Carr (1939)
Here, the overarching theme is the problem of perception; the fact that we may not always trust the evidence of our own eyes. The country house serves as a backdrop for an interesting experiment given by the eccentric Marcus Chesney: a staged murder, enacted before an audience of witnesses. However, this is no mere pantomime—after the show, Chesney is found dead, and Carr’s indefatigable sleuth Gideon Fell must determine not only what seems to have occurred, but what actually occurred.
1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie (1920)
In many ways, this is the novel that ushered in the Golden Age of Mystery. Here we encounter so many classic conventions: a “closed circle” of suspects, a slew of red herrings, and an ingenious, sweeping deception. Of course, we also have the wonderfully evoked setting: Styles Court. Captain Arthur Hastings visits the Essex estate on leave from the Western Front, and during his stay the property owner—Emily Inglethorp—is found dead one morning, poisoned with strychnine. Fortunately, the captain’s eccentric acquaintance, a Belgian fellow named Poirot, happens to be staying in a nearby village.… It’s hard to underestimate the significance of Agatha Christie’s marvellous debut within the crime fiction canon. Just magnificent.
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