In this witty and clever salute to interwar mysteries, aristocrat Heathcliff Lennox faces a string of mysterious deaths while spending the Christmas of 1920 at an English country manor. Lennox and a motley collection of relatives get a surprise when his aged uncle, Lord Melrose, announces his engagement to an émigré Russian countess. But murder interrupts the festivities and Lennox turns sleuth, finding that all the guests, including shady financial advisor Peregrine and the countess’s niece, Natasha, have dark secrets. Lennox must navigate family rivalries and financial problems to save himself and uncover a killer.
Menuhin has a firm grasp of the English country house mystery: from page one, readers meet the idle rich, too busy tying a fishing fly to realize there’s a dead body on the doorstep. Also present are loyal, daffy servants; a lovelorn butler appears in a scene reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse. Though Melrose Court is well-populated, the author drapes each character with enough amusing offbeat traits to make sure they stand out, as with cousin-by-marriage Gertrude, an unapologetic kleptomaniac with an alarming knowledge of explosives. There’s a slight stumble toward the end with a rushed introduction of new information, but overall the plot zips along and the cast always entertains.
Though largely comic, this mystery contains some somber scenes that lend depth to the story and anchor it firmly in its time and place, as when Lennox remembers his service in the Great War. The aristocratic Russians fail to grasp that working-class English are not Russian peasants and that their grotesquely lavish world is gone forever. The vibrant characters and meticulously detailed period setting will keep readers smiling and even chuckling all the way to the surprising but wholly believable conclusion. This is a wonderful example of its genre, and readers will eagerly look forward to more from Lennox and his eccentric family.
Takeaway: Fans of English interwar mysteries will delight in this whodunit, which is replete with eccentric gentry and servants, a drafty manor house, and plenty of witty exchanges.
Great for fans of Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey series, Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple series.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: -
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B
Print Date: 10/26/2020
Kirkus:
An English gentleman finds his inheritance threatened as he’s accused of murder in this mannered comedic mystery.
It’s 1920, and Major Heathcliff Lennox, a veteran of the First World War, receives distressing news from his butler, Greggs: There’s a dead man lying on his doorstep—truly an uncommon circumstance in sleepy rural England—which kicks off Menuhin’s often humorous story.
Kirkus - Recommend
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Murder at Melrose Court: A Country House Christmas Murder
Karen Baugh Menuhin. Little Dog, $14.99 mass market (262p) ISBN 978-1-916294-70-7
Set in 1920 mostly at an English country house, Menuhin’s winning debut and series launch blends a golden age whodunit with dry Wodehousian humor. The Jeevesian butler sets the tone by announcing to the house’s owner, Maj. Heathcliff Lennox, “I must inform you, sir, that a body has been discovered on the front doorstep.” Though the unidentified corpse has no marks of violence on it, the police suspect foul play—and that Lennox may have been responsible. On a slip of paper Lennox finds on the dead man and turns over to the police is the name of Countess Sophia Androvich Zerevki Polyakov. The plot thickens after the countess, a White Russian, who has become engaged to Lennox’s uncle Charles, is shot dead in Charles’s home. Lennox is caught holding the murder weapon, and he must turn investigator to exonerate himself and get to the bottom of both murders. The brisk pacing and capable prose are impressive. Fans of lighthearted cozies will be delighted.
