Customer Reviews

Murder on a Mystery Tour

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The story takes place in an english manor house turned hotel near Salisbury. Midge and her husband Reggie have turned the manor into a hotel in an attempt to save the family home. They are hosting a series of muder weekends for people from the states. All seems to be going well until an unscripted murder occurs with a plethora of suspects. A very entertaining read if you enjoy english country home mysteries.

A large manor house, a fire blazing in the drawing room, card tables set for bridge, a busload of American tourists arriving on a pre-planned "murder game weekend" and a blizzard which leaves them all housebound is the setting for Marian Babson's entertaining and often comical mystery.

Reggie and Midge, the hosts at Chortlesby Manor, have recreated the 1930's golden age of mystery for visiting tourists to play the murder game and help the financially strapped estate survive. It will come as no surprise to savvy readers that the staged murders soon convert to real-life murders and something strange is definitely afoot. As one of the characters so succintly states, "The inmates have taken over the asylum."

In addition to the hosts and permanent residents of the manor, the visiting guests include a twin with a multiple personality disorder, a visiting American writer and his dominating mother, numerous actors hired by the touring company and others. In fact, there are so many "others" that it is oftentimes confusing distinguishing characters and keeping track of the large ensemble.

Babson does enlighten the reader with the history of the murder game, thought to have first been introduced into England by American Elsa Maxwell in the 1920's. Maxwell herself admits she did not originate the game but borrowed the concept from American artist Neysa McMein of the famed Algonquin Round Table. The game was immortalized in Ngaio Marsh's A MAN LAY DEAD (1934) and later in Agatha Christie's DEAD MAN'S FOLLY (1956).

I don't think Babson's effort will reach classic status, but it is certainly a cozy way for a mystery lover to while away an afternoon.