Customer Reviews

The Sittaford Mystery (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries)

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The Sittaford Mystery (American title: Murder at Hazelmoor) opens on a wintry afternoon at the large mansion known as Sittaford House. The entertainment for the day is a seance which suggests that Captain Trevelyan, owner of the house, may be dead. The Captain has leased his home to a Mrs. Willett and her daughter Violet. These South African women had been so insistent on spending a typical British winter in the home that they convinced Trevelyan to move into a smaller home in nearby Exhampton. Major Burnaby, a friend of Trevelyan's, is present at the seance. Although he does not believe in spiritualism, he decides to check up on his friend and finds that Trevelyan has been murdered.

From this intriguing beginning the story moves to Trevelyan's sister, two nephews, and niece, all of whom had motive and opportunity to commit the crime. Also, a convict has escaped from a nearby prison and is added to the list of suspects along with the mysterious Willetts.

Christie weaves the murder beautifully into the novel's second plot which is the unexplained presence of the Willetts in Sittaford. This book, notable for its outstanding description of the stark and isolated setting, also introduces a gimmick that Christie will use again in her novella "Three Blind Mice."

US readers used to know this one as "Murder at Hazelmoor," but nowadays they call it by the name Christie used, "The Sittaford Mystery." What a dull title! I guess the experience of slow sales with "The Listerdale Mystery" didn't teach her much, for this one also seems often to fall between the cracks when fans compile lists of Christie's best books, and I think it's the colorless title that does it, for otherwise this book is nearly the equal of the two midperiod masterpieces that followed it, CARDS ON THE TABLE and DEATH ON THE NILE. It lacks the complete assurance of the sleight-of-hand play of CARDS, and of course it is entirely missing the tragic dimension of the opera that is DEATH ON THE NILE, but THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY is indeed a wonderful treat for Christie readers. I wonder, if Poirot was in it, if it would be better known?

Instead we have the admirable Inspector Narracott, and his opposite number, the inventive, spirited, dazzling heroine Emily Trefusis, a sparkling Katharine Hepburn type no man can resist or outwit. Things look bleak of Emily at the beginning of the story as her sad sack boyfriend, Jim Pearson, is arrested for the murder of his uncle, Captain Trevelyan, in a little English village near Dartmoor--Sittaford--or Hazelmoor--one of them, I suppose. All I remember is that the book begins with a spooky seance of table turning, when the table raps, raps, raps, revealing Trevelyan's name and to the surprise of almost everyone present, the spirit voices say he has died! Six miles away, his body lies on the floor of his home, sandbagged, in the middle of a ferocious, historic blizzard.

Several other rough things happen to Emily during the course of the story, but she never loses heart, or if she does, it's only momentarily, and her common sense and high spirits come to her rescue, as she attempts to clear Jim's name and to free him from prison, even as he's battling an open and shut case against him. Everyone in Sittaford has a secret. I've read the book a good dozen times over the years, and still the utter simplicity, daring, and good humor of Christie's writing dazzles me every time I plunge in again. In some ways, this is the book to recommend to those who don't like Agatha Christie. It has everything Jane Austen has, and a little bit more.

Ahhh. This is more like! A mystery reader/fan must, every now and then, return to the books of the great Dame Agatha. Yet, it becomes harder and harder to find one that perhaps hasn't been read for a while. It's important also, not to get sucked into a recently read title now masquerading under a new name.

I'm sure that at some time in my past, I've read The Murder at Hazelmoor, but not recently enough to have given the subsequently-named The Sittaford Mystery a familiar aura. S'wonderful, indeed.

No one captured the thirties quite so eloquently as did Christie, and this book is a prime example of her art. There is no Miss Marple or Hercule Poiret in this episode, however. Rather we have an intrepid young woman named Emily Trefusis, who has the misfortune to be engaged to the nephew of a man who is found murdered, after his death had been exposed by a 'table turning.' This is a version of the Ouija Board, which was enormously popular in the first decades of the 20th century.

Captain Trevelyan, who was rather fond of money, had been prevailed upon to let out his own Sittaford House to a widow and her daughter, apparently just arrived from South Africa. Never married, the Captain had few heirs: one sister and the three children of another, now deceased. It is James Pearson, one of this latter group, who has captured the fair Emily, and finds himself in jail under suspicion of having done in his uncle.

Emily knows better, however, and with the aid and assistance of a live-wire newspaper reporter, Charles Enderby, sets out to prove his innocence. Emily and Charles quite put in me mind of Tommy and Tuppence with their humorous bantering. (Perhaps they were the inspiration for Dame Agatha, as well.)

The prevalence and importance of trains and their schedules take one back to that time when almost no one owned an auto of their own, and walking twelve miles (round-trip, to be sure) for a visit was hardly any kind of bother at all. If one was fit, that is.

Village life along the moors is captured perfectly, along with the various eccentrics who reside there. It's a cracking good puzzle, with all the clues neatly laid out for the intrepid sleuth. A visit to Agatha Christie's England is good for us all every now and then. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Seances were in vogue in the world known to Agatha Christie in the early 1930s. Contemporary novelists and playwrights began to exploit their dramatic potential, and it was in 1931 that Agatha Christie incorporated one into her novel, "The Sittaford Mystery".

This ever-ingenious writer incorporates much else into the novel, of course. There are the "bright young things" of the Tommy and Tuppence variety, who contribute to the sleuthing undertaken by the local constabulary. There is an escaped convict. There is a snow-bound village. There are new residents from New Zealand, whom nobody knows and who may not be what they seem. There is a will, and legacy hunters who might be any of the characters in disguise.

Readers can therefore expect a tightly wrought, engrossing mystery. I was aware while reading it that it had much in common with "Murder at the Vicarage" and then discovered that it was the Christie novel that immediately followed it. Miss Marple is not here, however, nor is Hercule Poirot - both unsuited to trudging through the snow on Dartmoor.

Having listened to this dramatization of Agatha Chistie's mystery many times over tha last 15 years, I always catch some different nuance each time or remember something small detail I had forgotten. The voices of the actors who perform the dramatization really bring their characters to life and make the mystery extremely engaging. The table turning is absolutely wild and adds significantly to the puzzle of Captain Trevelyan's death. The singlemindedness of Emily in the pursuit of the murderer makes the novel flow smoothly. Her 'use' of the reporter, Charles Enderby, was also a nice touch, especially for the time period it was written in, the 1930's. Inspector Narricott's voice was also well cast and very strong in his role investigating the murder. Also, the setting is excellent for a murder mystery setting, Dartmoor in the dead of winter. I recommend this BBC full cast dramatization to all Agatha Christie fans.

Sittaford House is located in an isolated spot in Dartmoor. Most of the inhabitants of the tiny village are gathered at Sittaford House for an afternoon seance. A 'message from beyond' indicates that Captain Trevelyan has been murdered. The Captain is spending the winter 6 miles away in Exhampton, there is a raging snow storm making the road impassable to the town's only car and there no telephones in the village. The Captain's best friend Major Burnaby decides that he will make the 6 mile trip to see his friend despite the impending blizzard. When he arrives he finds the Captain has been murdered.

Numerous suspects begin to present themselves. The most obvious is the Captain's nephew James who is promptly charged with the crime. James' fiancee Emily arrives on the scene and begins to unearth more possiblities and questions. She is aided by a newspaper reporter who is in the area on another matter. Between them they discover that James is not the only heir who was in the area the night of the murder. They also begin to ask questions about the other inhabitants of Sittaford and discover that a surprising number of them seem to have secrets in their past. In the end all is resolved although this is one of Christie's less convincing solutions.

The setting of a lonely house in Dartmoor is very reminiscent of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, down to the escaped convict hiding in a cave on the moor. The novel also forshadows other works by Christie herself, most notable THE MOUSETRAP. The heroine, Emily Trefusis, has much in common with Lucy Eyelesbarrow (who will appear 20 years later) particularly the problem of choosing between two suitors, one who needs her and one who doesn't.

Though this statement by Inspector Narracott resembles statements made by Agatha Christie's detectives in most of her other mysteries, there is MUCH more in this case than meets the eye. Perhaps the most complex and most beautifully developed case among all Christie's novels, The Sittaford Mystery, originally published in the US in 1931 as The Mystery of Hazelmoor, has at least half a dozen mysteries going simultaneously. Each of them is investigated separately until the conclusion, when all are resolved, with surprises galore. Clever, complex, and filled with unexpected twists and turns, this mystery is a classic of the genre.

Six people at remote, moor-side Sittaford House decide to pass the time on a snowy evening by calling up the spirit world while joining hands around a small table. A "spirit" tells them that Captain Trevelyan, a man known to them all, is dead--murdered. His best friend, Major Burnaby, alarmed, immediately decides to check on him in person, traveling on foot for six miles until he finds Trevelyan's cottage open and Trevelyan indeed dead.

Trevelyan, a wealthy but "close" man, has family, some of them greatly in need of money, and each member of the extended family is investigated in detail. One young nephew, who had visited his uncle just before his death, is arrested for the murder, and his fiancée, Emily Trefussis, believing him innocent, decides to investigate, with the help of a newspaper reporter, Charles Enderby. The Willett family, which has been leasing Sittaford House from Captain Trevelyan, is mysterious, their origins in question, and their reasons for occupying the house in the depths of winter are suspect. A jailbreak twelve miles away creates tension in town, and characters seemingly unconnected with the murder are discovered to have been lying about their whereabouts. Everyone in the community seems to have questions about everyone else. The six people involved in the table-turning at Sittaford are the only ones who seem to have airtight alibis.

As Inspector Narracott, Emily Trefussis and Charles Enderby all work to solve the case, each for different reasons, Christie's genius at plotting becomes obvious. Red herrings abound, as do true surprises, and when, at the conclusion, all the questions are answered and the murderer is unmasked, the precision with which Christie has developed this mystery is obvious. Arguably the best of the Christie mysteries. n Mary Whipple

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Though this statement by Inspector Narracott resembles statements made by Agatha Christie's detectives in most of her other mysteries, there is MUCH more in this case than meets the eye. Perhaps the most complex and most beautifully developed case among all Christie's novels, The Sittaford Mystery, originally published in the US in 1931 as The Mystery of Hazelmoor, has at least half a dozen mysteries going simultaneously. Each of them is investigated separately until the conclusion, when all are resolved, with surprises galore. Clever, complex, and filled with unexpected twists and turns, this mystery is a classic of the genre.

Six people at remote, moor-side Sittaford House decide to pass the time on a snowy evening by calling up the spirit world while joining hands around a small table. A "spirit" tells them that Captain Trevelyan, a man known to them all, is dead--murdered. His best friend, Major Burnaby, alarmed, immediately decides to check on him in person, traveling on foot for six miles until he finds Trevelyan's cottage open and Trevelyan indeed dead.

Trevelyan, a wealthy but "close" man, has family, some of them greatly in need of money, and each member of the extended family is investigated in detail. One young nephew, who had visited his uncle just before his death, is arrested for the murder, and his fiancée, Emily Trefussis, believing him innocent, decides to investigate, with the help of a newspaper reporter, Charles Enderby. The Willett family, which has been leasing Sittaford House from Captain Trevelyan, is mysterious, their origins in question, and their reasons for occupying the house in the depths of winter are suspect. A jailbreak twelve miles away creates tension in town, and characters seemingly unconnected with the murder are discovered to have been lying about their whereabouts. Everyone in the community seems to have questions about everyone else. The six people involved in the table-turning at Sittaford are the only ones who seem to have airtight alibis.

As Inspector Narracott, Emily Trefussis and Charles Enderby all work to solve the case, each for different reasons, Christie's genius at plotting becomes obvious. Red herrings abound, as do true surprises, and when, at the conclusion, all the questions are answered and the murderer is unmasked, the precision with which Christie has developed this mystery is obvious. Arguably the best of the Christie mysteries. n Mary Whipple

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The murder mystery aside, this book remined me of a Jane Austen book - I'm thinking of Mansfield Park. I really enjoyed the detectives - Inspector & Emily. They should have worked together again in a future book. I was slightly disappointed with the romatic storyline, a girl like Emily deserved better, as Major Burnaby says!
Still the cozy atmostphere, small town charactors & humor were all there, making this a worthwhile read.

You'll be able to tell who did the dirty deed in this one but the snowstorm plot device is very ingenious. A goofy seance begins the story and from there, the amateur sleuthing begins. The main characters seem somewhat like the enjoyable duo from Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Not a masterpiece, but as usual, Agatha tosses an extra red herring into the plot to throw you offguard.