It's been a snowy winter, now that we're about two months into the season in the Northeast. My wife, not really much of a fan of heavy snowfalls, was disheartened when she stepped outside the garage and found herself hip-deep in snow. One of the few responses I could make to Winter became clear, however, when I stepped into the Classic Mysteries vault for a copy of T. Jefferson Farjeon's fine book called Mystery in White. If you haven't read it, there's no time like the present. It was the subject of one of my audio reviews for the Classic Mysteries podcast several years back. Here, for your (I hope) enjoyment, is a transcript of that review - as usual, somewhat edited:
- 0 -
Within reason, a train ride through a countryside while in the midst of a snowstorm can be very beautiful indeed.
Within reason.
The problems, though, do multiply very quickly when that snowfall gets out of control. That’s what happened on a winter’s night just before Christmas to the passengers on an English train, the 11:37 from Euston. By that time, the snow had been falling for several days. So when the snow became impassable, as it did in mid-journey, the train simply came to a complete halt, unable to go either backwards or forwards. There was no indication that the train would be able to move again anytime in the immediate future. As a result, several passengers from one of the train’s third class compartments decided to risk leaving the train and try to find their way at the very least to a station located just five or six miles down the track. Unfortunately, the weather continued to get worse…the snowfall becoming a steady blizzard, making it impossible to see anything at all, let alone a road or a railroad track. It was getting pretty desperate before they discovered a house out there, in the middle of nowhere. So they knocked at the door, and…
Well, what happened next really is at the heart of this mystery. The story may be found in a book called Mystery in White, by T. Jefferson Farjeon. He is another of those Golden Age English mystery writers who is virtually unknown to today’s readers – pretty amazing when you realize that between 1924 and 1955, he cranked out more than eighty novels, many of them detective stories. Mystery in White was written in the middle of Farjeon’s career, in 1937. It’s a Christmas mystery – it takes place just before and during the Christmas holiday. It is set in a heavy blizzard – the kind of scene so popular with many Golden Age mystery writers, presenting us with a group of people isolated by a snowstorm, unable to communicate with the outside world…and something happens to them.
In this case, what happens, as the central characters struggle through the snow, looking for shelter, is that they come upon a house. They knock – no answer. But one of them tries the door, and it opens. They walk inside to find nobody home – yet fires are burning in the fireplace, the water for tea is ready to boil, the bedrooms are neatly prepared for guests. Why would anybody have left the house in that blizzard? There are no answers…not yet anyway. The refugees from the train include a brother and sister, another young man who is a clerk, an elderly bore, a showgirl, and an elderly psychic researcher who will, eventually, be our detective. This party of intruders, needing warmth and food and shelter, settle in, waiting for the residents of the house to return home…and the wait gets longer and longer.
And other stranded travelers do find the house, including a most unpleasant character who calls himself “Mr. Smith.” There is word of a murder on board the train which they had left. And the mystery grows in and around that house…with ever-more disquieting clues about the secret behind the disappearance of whoever lived there.
And, yes, there will be murder done again before the solution is presented.
Mystery in White really isn’t much of a fair-play puzzle – it’s kind of a light thriller. Gradually, the reader learns the secret of the house and of the people who live there, but it’s not revealed through hidden clues. Most of the secret is revealed through papers found in the house. But through it all, the blizzard…for that snowfall does indeed become a blizzard…keeps some pretty dark secrets. The writing is kept light, and the humor helps to keep the reader both entertained and informed. There’s a touch of romance as well, and the plot flirts with the supernatural without letting it overpower the book. Mystery writer Martin Edwards has contributed a fine introduction to the book providing additional context and some fascinating insight into the life and work of the author, T. Jefferson Farjeon. Mystery in White is another classic reprint available in paper, on audio and as an e-book. It’s an easy, quick and entertaining read.
- 0 -
If you'd like to listen to the original audio review, please click here.
Next: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, by Agatha Christie.
Comments