An English Murder by Cyril Hare
An English Murder by Cyril Hare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A completely blind read for me, and a very by-the-numbers murder mystery.
An old country house seems to be a popular setting for a mystery story, so this one seems ideal, as several characters get together for Christmas. The murder comes about a third of the way into the book, and is by poisoning, but could it be suicide?
I don't really have a lot to say about this book really; it was slow-moving to start off with, but I gradually managed to get more into it. Other than it feeling long-winded at times, this seemed reasonable, if occasionally cliched (a suspect who is suddenly found dead for example). Other than that, the only real issue for me was that most of the characters didn't feel like they were very fleshed out, and so felt slightly two-dimensional.
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So, one of the December Calendar of Crime's prompts is: Christmas.
2 out of 10 for December.
January: 3/10
February: 4/10
March: 2/10
April: 3/10
May: 3/10
June: 4/10
July: 2/10
August: 3/10
September: 3/10
October: 3/10
November: 3/10
1. December in the title
2. Author's birth month
3. Primary action takes place in this month
4. Christmas
5. Other November holiday (So, Hanukkah or New Year's Eve?)
6. Original publication month
7. Book title has word starting with D
8. Christmas tree, decorations, snow winter scene, probably - A TURKEY, just like for November ;)
9. Year of the Pig
10. House party or family gathering