The White Priory murders : a mystery for Christmas / Carter Dickson ; with an Introduction by Martin Edwards.

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Title:

The White Priory murders : a mystery for Christmas / Carter Dickson ; with an Introduction by Martin Edwards.

Author:

Dickson, Carter, 1906-1977, author.

Edwards, Martin, 1955- writer of introduction.

ISBN:

9781728278650

Physical Description:

xiv, 292 pages ; 21 cm

Series:

Sir Henry Merrivale

British Library Crime Classics

Sir Henry Merrivale mysteries.

British Library crime classics.

General Note:

"The White Priory murders was originally published in the UK in 1935 by William Heinemann, London" -- title page verso

Abstract:

"James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, the playwright for her next hit and her agent are all here, soon to become so many suspects when Tait is found murdered on a cold December morning in the lakeside pavilion. Only the footprints of her discoverer disturb the snow which fell overnight - and which stopped just shortly after Marcia was last seen alive. How did the murderer get in and out of the pavilion without leaving a trace? When Bennett's uncle, the cantankerous amateur sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale arrives from London to make sense of this impossible crime, the reader is treated to a feast of the author's trademark twists, beguiling false answers and one of the most ingenious solutions in the history of the mystery genre"-- Provided by publisher.

Personal Subject:

Merrivale, Henry, Sir (Fictitious character)-Fiction.

Subject Term:

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Meurtre -- Enquêtes -- Romans, nouvelles, etc.

Merrivale, Henry, Sir (Fictitious character)

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction

Fiction

Novels

Mystery fiction.

Detective and mystery fiction.

Novels.

Romans.

Added Author:

Edwards, Martin, 1955-

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library	Adult Mystery Fiction Book Paperback	120791003106890	F DIC	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

James Bennett has been invited to stay at White Priory for Christmas among the retinue of the glamorous Hollywood actress Marcia Tait. Her producer, her lover, the playwright for her next hit and her agent are all here, soon to become so many suspects when Tait is found murdered on a cold December morning in the lakeside pavilion. Only the footprints of her discoverer disturb the snow which fell overnight - and which stopped just shortly after Marcia was last seen alive. How did the murderer get in and out of the pavilion without leaving a trace?

When Bennett's uncle, the cantankerous amateur sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale arrives from London to make sense of this impossible crime, the reader is treated to a feast of the author's trademark twists, beguiling false answers and one of the most ingenious solutions in the history of the mystery genre.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

The unmatched master of the impossible crime returns to the limelight in this second case for Sir Henry Merrivale, originally published in 1934. James Boynton Bennett, the nephew H.M.'s just met for the first time, has been invited to spend Christmas at the White Priory, the ancestral home of the Bohun family. The colorless Bennett is outshined in every sense by fellow guest Marcia Tait, a newly crowned Hollywood star who ran out on Cinearts Studios to take a leading role opposite Jervis Willard in The Private Life of Charles the Second, a new play written by Oxford historian Maurice Bohun and produced by his brother, John. But Bennett's on hand when John Bohun finds Marcia beaten to death in the Queen's Mirror, an outbuilding ringed by a pristine coating of snow that's unbroken by any footprints except John's. As usual in Dickson, the question of whodunit--movie director Carl Rainger? press agent Tim Emery? Louise Carewe, daughter and private secretary to powerful newspaper magnate Lord Canifest, who's supposed to be backing the show?--is less interesting than the question of how the killer escaped the murder scene without leaving a trace. Though the few hours before H.M. arrives at the White Priory to investigate seem to take forever, Dickson keeps the pot boiling with a poisoning subplot, a false confession, and two ingenious theories of the murder that turn out to be much less compelling than the true explanation. If this all sounds like kitchen-sink plotting, rest assured that the denouement, by far the best thing here, is brilliant in its simplicity and conceptual elegance. Nothing says Christmas like a pair of corpses from 90 years ago. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.