Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony

I’ve been looking forward to reading Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony since the moment I saw the cover. Actually, it was even before that. I knew that the annual Christmas book British Library Publishing releases in their Crime Classics series usually comes out in October, so as soon as I saw it listed in online shops, I started to get excited. Because few things are better than reading a festive mystery in the lead up to Christmas. And if you’re a library user like me, it can be hard to get your hands on anything seasonal in the time that you would actually want to be reading it. I found myself reading the collection A Surprise for Christmas back in October, for just this reason. 

Dramatic Murder opens with Doctor Harley and a journalist, Katherine Mickey, driving through the snowy landscape of Scotland up to Possett Island where they have been invited by Dimpson McCabe, widely known as Dimpsie, a playwright and broadcaster, for a Christmas party at his castle. 

The fine snow that had been falling since they left Edinburgh was thickening, and the sky was black with large powdered flakes. They collected on the windscreen, and the wiper, pushing them aside, groaned protestingly. The car sped onwards, eating up the road which stretched like a long, white ribbon, bordered by fir trees that were jet-black in the half light. At the side of the road a signpost pointed the way down a narrow cutting between the trees; painted in black and red it had a sinister appearance and the words POSSETT ISLAND stood out bleakly. Doctor Harley swung the car off the road and it skidded slightly on the soft snow. (17)

Outside a small cabin at the edge of the loch, they are met by Dimpsey’s manservant, Benson, who has been waiting for the guests to arrive. Benson directs them to drive straight over the ice, which he assures them is perfectly safe, the ice being a foot thick and gravelled. 

As they got out of the car they noticed that the snow had stopped falling, and Possett Castle stood out sharply against the dark blue sky. It was built of grey stone, which looked black in the evening light, and its turrets and crenellated battlements were witchlike, reminding Katherine of an illustration to an old book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Although every window was brilliantly lit, there was something cold and forbidding about the exterior, and as they approached the entrance she became aware of a peculiar throbbing which seemed to reverberate through the air. (18-19)

The sound is coming from a generator, and perhaps the sound outside makes it all the more unsettling when they enter the castle and an eerie silence washes over them. Doctor Harley and Katherine find their way to Dimpsey’s studio wing, which appeared to be the only part of the house not lit up from outside. There they find a magnificent tree—which is so beautifully described, but I’m going to preserve that joy for when you read the book—and that is where they discover their host. Apparently, he has been electrocuted while fixing the bulb on a string of lights with a frayed cord. The frayed cord, the lights being plugged into the wall, and the fact that his slippers were wet, prove to be a deadly combination.

It looks suspicious, but the verdict at the sheriff’s inquest is Accidental Death. Besides, from the looks of things, more people benefited from Dimpsey being alive than from his death. It isn’t until everyone is back in London when the body count begins to rack up that it becomes clear there is a cold blooded killer among the group. 

Dramatic Murder—what a great title! The murder is certainly dramatically described, but I think it’s such a startling image that I want you to experience it within the context of those opening pages, so I’m not going to quote it, or even describe it, here. Adding to the drama, Dimpsie is a playwright, and most of the suspects to his murder are predominantly rooted in the theatre world. I loved getting to see the dynamics between the cast and crew, and the lengths that they are willing to go to for the purpose of furthering their careers. As someone who has dabbled in acting, myself, and spent years in ballet, I always find it fun to get to experience an ever so slightly exaggerated version of the theatre world on the page.

Elizabeth Anthony does such a good job of spinning out the solving of the murder, and making the reader feel smart for figuring it out ahead of the characters. I know, I did! Inspector Smith, who is investigating the case, seems almost disinterested at times, and in my mind this feels very much like Katherine’s investigation. She uses her journalistic skills to get her into all sorts of trouble in the course of getting the scoop and finding her dear friend’s killer.

It was not until I had finished this book that it occurred to me it wasn’t very Christmassy. The murder takes place near the start of the book, when Doctor Harley and Katherine arrive at Dimpsie’s castle for Christmas. But the guests leave the private island in Scotland fairly promptly and the rest of the book takes place in London post-Christmas. Now, I only mention this as an observation. As I said, it wasn’t until I had finished reading that I even noticed that the book as a whole wasn’t all that Christmassy. It was a great book, with the added benefit that you could read this anytime in the winter and still enjoy it because it isn’t overly festive. Making this book, in my mind, the ideal gift to give at Christmas. You could start this one Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but not feel behind the times if you start it in January, either.

As Martin Edwards mentions in the introduction, the author of Dramatic Murder was born Barbara Frances Courlander and only wrote this mystery and one other, Made for Murder, under the pseudonym, Elizabeth Anthony. A year before Dramatic Murder came out in 1948, she published a non-genre novel under her own name called, The Cup and the Song. She also wrote plays, and at least one song and a short story, but her career as a novelist was very short, which is so disappointing. This book kept me glued to the page from the atmospheric opening right through to the breathtaking conclusion. This truly is “A Lost Christmas Murder Mystery”, as it says on the beautiful cover of this edition. A lost book by a lost author. Thankfully, lost no longer.

Thank you to British Library Publishing for kindly sending me a copy of Dramatic Murder for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.

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The Foolish Gentlewoman & Four Gardens by Margery Sharp

A while back, I put in a request that my library order a few books published by Dean Street Press. Now, I would love to own all of the books that Dean Street Press have published under their Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, but as I do not have unlimited funds in my book buying budget I am really excited that I can try a few titles through my library. I also like to think that I am single-handedly improving the shelves of my local library! Among the titles I requested were these two, The Foolish Gentlewoman (1948) and Four Gardens (1935). 

I was introduced to Margery Sharp through her book Rhododendron Pie (1930). Why did I choose to start with that one? I liked the title! And what good luck I did start there because I found it to be a delightful read, full of joy and humour. You can find my review of that book here.

Something Light (1960) was the next. It was similarly joyful, and like the title suggests, it was a light and sparkling book. It put me in mind of Doris Day films like, "Move Over Darling" and "Pillow Talk". I cannot actually remember how the character of Louisa is described, or even if she is, because after the first couple of pages I had cast Doris Day in the role and nothing would budge her image from my mind.

As a plus, Louisa is a photographer of dogs. Any book with plenty of scenes with doggies is a winner in my mind. (And yes, I am a grown woman who unashamedly refers to dogs as doggies!) My full review of Something Light can be found here.

Now, The Foolish Gentlewoman and Four Gardens are entirely different from Rhododendron Pie and Something Light. They are not without humour, but both of these books left me feeling... Sad, frankly.

Let's start with The Foolish Gentlewoman.

World War II has ended and Isabel Brocken has moved back into her family home in London. With plenty of room to spare, she opens her home to her friend and companion, Jacky, who has just left the Auxiliary Territorial Service, and Humphrey, Isabel's recently demobbed nephew. Then there is Simon, Isabel's lawyer brother-in-law, who needs a place to live while his bomb-damaged home is being repaired. Simon has no other option but to stay with Isabel, but he makes it clear he won't be a part of the household any longer than necessary. He has little patience for his sister-in-law, who he thinks of as being foolish. Then Isabel does something that feels drastic, and perhaps more than a little foolish. In a misguided attempt to right a mistake she made in her youth, Isabel invites her a relative, Tilly Cuff, to stay at her home and, here's the kicker, Isabel plans to give her home and everything she has to Tilly. Oh, and not leave her home to Tilly when she dies, no, she wants to give it to Tilly now. 

I found The Foolish Gentlewoman difficult to get into, that is, until Tilly arrives on the scene. If I'm remembering correctly, Tilly appears about a third of the way into the book. She is a poor relation of Isabel's, and as such it seems that Isabel is doing the right thing in at least opening her home to her, but Tilly is the kind of person that causes people to band together in their dislike. She is malicious and conniving, a thoroughly unlikeable person.

In a way, the premise of the unwanted houseguest or the unpleasant houseguest, reminded me of Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith, another book republished by Dean Street Press. But I enjoyed that book more than this one. (You can find my review here if you are interested.) 

I don't want to spoil the ending of The Foolish Gentlewoman, but I found it almost entirely unsatisfying. In my mind, only three characters got a happily ever after and only two of them were deserving of one! I felt a little like everyone else was cheated of -- if not happy ending -- than a satisfying one.

Needless to say, I really wanted the next book I picked up to be happy and light and uplifting. 

The back cover of Four Gardens refers to this book as the "most emotional and nostalgic of Margery Sharp's brilliant novels". Sounds great, right? Especially if you are in the mood for something nostalgic. As it would happen, I was not. But in classic Caro fashion, I didn't read the back cover until after I had already read the book.

Nostalgia is such a nice word, and there is often the tendency to infuse it with a positive meaning. But in the Merrian-Webster dictionary, nostalgia is defined as "a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition". A further definition calls it "the state of being homesick". It's a longing for a home that one cannot return to. Is it any wonder then that this book left me feeling sad and at a loss?

The story begins with Caroline as a young woman when she visits and tends the garden of an empty house. Later, when she marries, she is too busy to garden and their small plot of land lays mostly forgotten. When Caroline gets the kind of garden that dreams are made of, she is discouraged by the gardener in taking any part in its care or to even have a say in what is planted. She may visit the garden, but is made to feel like a guest there. Eventually, Caroline gets a garden of her very own. She has the time to both tend it and enjoy it, and no one else has any say in her outdoor space. Bliss!

Or is it? Because it isn't just a garden for which Caroline has spent her life yearning. If her and her husband could have had one open, honest conversation, he would have known that and they might have stood a chance of living a life where they were both happy and fulfilled. I felt both frustrated and sad by the end of this book. Even thinking about it now is bringing me down. It isn't that this book is not good. It is very good! But it made me feel sad because the marriage is all too believable. This couple has maybe a few moments of honesty and understanding across a lifetime together, and the rest of the time it is as though they are just plugging away at their own separate lives. 

There were two bright spots in this novel, for me. One is the later part of the children's trajectory. The second is Caroline's friendship with Lady Tregarthan, a woman Caroline dreads meeting, but who quickly becomes a firm friend. Without Lady Tregarthan, I think Caroline's life would have been unbearable. There are still moments of humour in this book, as one would expect from a Margery Sharp novel, but there wasn't enough to make up for the melancholic atmosphere that permeates this story.

If I had enjoyed reading this book more, I might have forgiven the fact that for a book with the word "garden" in the title there is precious time spent in a garden. I didn't make a note of the exact page count, but there was about 100 pages or so where no mention was even made of a garden and the edition I read is only 227 pages in its entirety. 

One could say that this book does have a happy ending for the heroine. But it's after a life of disappointments with a husband she barely sees and children who are brought up with much more privilege than Caroline herself was, so both parties struggle to relate to each other. I just found it sad and depressing.

Here's a photo of my best guy, Clark, to cheer us all up.

Now, just because I found both of these books to be melancholy, does not mean I don't think they are good books. The problem is, I went in expecting something different from what I got and was disappointed. These are great books! Margery Sharp is a stellar writer. The fact that I still feel sad and frustrated on Caroline's behalf and worried for Isabel's future, should tell you how much I believe in these characters. 

However, I think I will be turning to something cheerful and uncomplicated for my next read. And when I read these two again in the future it will be when the sun is shining outside and I am in an obnoxiously optimistic mood. 

Have you read either of these books? What are your thoughts on them? And if you have a favourite Margery Sharp book, please let me know!

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