"The Stately Home Murder"

Few things say "Classic mystery" quite as loudly as a murder set in one of the Stately Homes of England. And, as the title implies, that's exactly what you will find in "The Stately Home Murder," by Catherine Aird. It's the subject of our weekly review on the "Classic Mysteries" podcast, which you can listen to here.

Many of Britain's stateliest homes are open for visits by tourists - paying tourists, to be sure - but it comes as a remarkably rude shock to one inquisitive tourist, going through the Earl of Ornum's estate, to open the visor on a suit of armor and find a remarkably new corpse inside. It's a well-written story, quite fairly clued, with a fair amount of humor and, of course, a great many interesting and quite eccentric characters, as we would expect in such a setting.

First appearing in 1969, this is one of Catherine Aird's early novels about Detective Inspector Sloan of the Calleshire CID, and it's a delight. It's also a pleasure to be able to feature an early novel by an author who is still turning out mysteries in the classic tradition - her most recent novel appeared just two years ago. "The Stately Home Murder" found her at the top of her form.