You really couldn't blame John Foss for the deadly goings-on at Lord Aveling's country house. His lordship had planned for a party of a dozen people to do some hunting on his land; a dozen should certainly guarantee a lively weekend. But when young John Foss had a minor accident getting off his train at the village of Flensham, not far from Lord Aveling's home at Bragley Court, injuring his foot, he found himself transported to that house and invited to stay while his foot healed. And that meant that there would now be thirteen guests at the party. It was a number likely to prove most unfortunate for someone. You'll find the details in a 1936 Golden Age classic called Thirteen Guests, by J. Jefferson Farjeon. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.
Thirteen is said to be an unlucky number, and it will prove to be so for the thirteenth guest to arrive at Lord Aveling's party. As they arrive – most of them by train – some distinctly odd things begin happening. A stranger is seen, first at the railway station, then closer to Bragley Court – a stranger who seems to be anything but a stranger to several of the guests. One of those guests, an artist named Leicester Pratt, finds someone has vandalized one of the portraits he has been painting. Strange noises are heard in the middle of the night – including the barking of a dog, suddenly silenced, not to mention the sound of glass breaking. And, ultimately, there is a murder…and then, perhaps more than one. And a policeman, Detective Inspector Kendall, comes to Bragley Court to help unravel the complexities of a puzzling case.
It’s on this last point that I have some complaints about Thirteen Guests. Inspector Kendall does indeed unravel many of the complexities, as I said – but he often does so, I think, in a way that’s not really fair to the reader. The inspector carries out some of his most significant questioning away from the readers – we aren’t given many of the most important clues until Inspector Kendall shares them in his report near the end of the book. Still, overall, I would recommend the book quite highly. The characters are very nicely defined and drawn; many – most, even – of the characters are both believable and ultimately rather endearing. And our friend John Foss, excluded from the list of suspects because of the accidental injury to his leg, makes a fine witness to some of the mysterious events taking place around him.
The British Library has been publishing several of J. Jefferson Farjeon's mysteries as part of its Crime Classics series being published in the United States by Poisoned Pen Press, with an excellent introduction by mystery historian Martin Edwards. The books are readily available in both print and electronic editions.
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