Customer Reviews

The Stately Home Murder

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I like all of Catherine Aird books, and this is a classic. When a young boy finds a body hidden in a suit of armour while on a house tour in Aird's fictional English county, suspician falls on the family of the Duke of Orman. Was it the Duke or his son? The Ditzy Duchess? The ne'er-do-well nephew? Inspector Sloane, stuck as always with Defective Crosby, is out of place in the Stately house, but, as the Chief Superintendant said, You can expect the tradional at the Duke's Estate.

Catherine Aird has been writing "English cozy" mysteries for many years now. This one seems to have been published first in 1969 as THE COMPLETE STEEL and then in 1970 with its present title.

The Earl of Ornum has had to do the unthinkable, open Ornum House to paying customers. Times are hard for the landed gentry and in order to pay the taxman he made the decision which would have displeased his father immensely. On one of these tour days a young boy left his mother and sister to go exploring on his own and makes his way into the dungeon area, specifically to the armoury. Just the spot any self respecting 10 year old boy would want to explore. His mother and other members of his tour group join up with him just as he raises the visor on a set of armour and finds a very dead body inside. Enter Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and Detective Constable Crosby to find out what has been going on behind the scenes at the stately country house.

Catherine Aird used the same characters in most of her mysteries and one of the interesting things about her books is that there is never any time period mentioned. No character ever ages. They all just continue along as if each book is the first one written. There are the usual list of participants from the Berebury Police: Sloan, Crosby, Superintendent Leeyes, the Pathologist Dr. Dabbe, police photographer Dyson and his assistant Williams. Then we come to the family and servants of Ornum House: the Earl and his Countess, their son and daughter, a nephew and his wife and the black sheep nephew nobody wants to talk about, and various excentric aunts and family retainers. Add to this mixture a whole bevy of servants from the butler, to the cook, the gardner and all the housemaids and you have a country house teeming with suspects.

In some ways I really enjoy a Catherine Aird mystery. It will always have atmosphere and a fairly difficult-to-spot villain. But in other ways I often close the book thinking that I wish she had resisted the temptation to make her main characters irritating to me. Sloan never seems to answer a question put to him by Leeyes. You have to wait for Leeyes to dig the information out of him. Leeyes makes references to night classes he has taken which are somehow relevant to the case at hand and which the author uses to provide us with useful information which I would have preferred to get by Sloan making plain, honest-to-goodness statements. Crosby is always saying the wrong thing and butting in with comments not totally acceptable in the situation. Leeyes is impatient for Sloan to have solved the case yesterday. And yet, even having said these things, I like the books and have read most of them several times. Aird puts quite a bit of humor into her stories, although on a very dry wit level which is more appropriate for a murder scene. I suppose I'm just a sucker for the old fashioned English mystery. I wouldn't say this book comes highly recommended but it is a good book and I enjoyed it once again, even though I did remember who the murderer was.

If you noticed the name of the country house, Ornum House, I'm sure you feel, as I did, that it is rather unusual. Even difficult to pronounce without having to sound it out each time. Here is a little clue: the book dedication says: For Munro-or Ornum-with love. At least by noticing that in the beginning it kept me from getting frustrated by the odd name.

After a hyperactive child wanders where he shouldn't in an old castle and finds a body in a suit of armor, the Calleshire C.I.D is called in, and Inspector Sloan begins to piece together what happened to the poor librarian who was stuffed in the armor. Meanwhile, Aird shows us her humour as Sloan and Crosby interview the Earl of Ornum and his eccentric family. Soon, Sloan and Crosby discover that murder's afoot as another body is discovered. Aird certainly knows about medievil weapons as Crosby gets in a few good cracks. Good, enjoyable mystery.