Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story (British Library Crime Classics)

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However, while I found myself saying “Ah-ha” many times in the course of the story, the final resolution dragged out so long that that ultimate, satisfying “AH-HA” never happened. Sayers wrote that 'Jefferson Farjeon is quite unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures'. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. And I find myself in the midst of a serious vintage phase right now, so I'm sure I will read more of these.

Farjeon subverts expectations right away by beginning in a snowbound train where a murder may have taken place in an adjoining compartment. He was educated privately and at Peterborough Lodge and one of his early jobs, from 1910 to 1920, was doing some editorial work for the Amalgamated Press. Robert Davies, from British Library Publishing, said: "For years, publishers have been concentrating on dark, violent, psychological crime novels, but we spotted a gap in the market for readers seeking escapist detective fiction with superb plots and period atmosphere. It was just too little too late and felt as if the author couldn’t make up his mind what genre he wanted to be writing. The Christmas setting, feeling of isolation and the circumstances the characters find themselves in all add to a good atmosphere; while the plot twists and turns and the pace does not lessen.Jefferson Farjeon layers on the twists and builds the eccentric plot as one of the group takes the lead and the various elements one by one come together.

One critic for the Saturday Review of Literature reviewed one of his later books writing that it was "amusing, satirical, and [a] frequently hair-raising yarn of an author who got dangerously mixed up with his imaginary characters. Mystery in White (and its relatively unknown author) first came to my attention with its reprinting by The Poisoned Pen Press as part of its delightful British Library Crime Classics series, and then at the recommendation of fellow mystery enthusiast F.The uninvited guests decided to make themselves at home and discussions take place as to what happened on the train as one of the passengers explains that he saw a body in an adjacent carriage. I have a bias for mysteries of a more reverend vintage (heavy on dialogue and deductions, light on car chases, gunplay and bedroom scenes) and in that respect Mystery in White does not disappoint. Mais alors que des feux brûlent dans les cheminées, que le thé est prêt à être servi, nos voyageurs ne trouvent cependant âme qui vive dans les lieux. Mostly written by contemporaries of crime legend Agatha Christie, they are a time when without modern technology, crimes had to be solved by old fashioned sleuthing by detectives, police officers, or sometimes just those affected by the crimes. Most of the action thereafter is described in conversation rather than as it takes place but still the momentum is kept up and the mystery becomes more mysterious.

Maltby inoltre, l'anziano esperto di fenomeni psichici che funge da detective (un po' stile Poirot), è davvero irritante e il fatto che sappia così tanto pur essendo un estraneo è semplicemente assurdo. throw in a sprinkling of the supernatural, and you have an entertaining, seasonal whodunnit, which is nicely old fashioned. All too soon they realize the blinding storm has obliterated any possibility of finding the station. As the chance of the train getting going becomes more and more remote, the trapped passengers agree to leave the carriage and head for the nearby village.

Many of his novels were in the mystery and detective genre although he was recognised as being one of the first novelists to entwine romance with crime.

One of Farjeon's best known works was a play, Number 17, which was made into a number of films, including Number Seventeen (1932) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and joined the UK Penguin Crime series as a novel in 1939.As explained in the intro, this is not a whodunit set on a train, nor is it a take-off on Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express as this was written three years prior. It's not really a typical Golden Age Mystery in that you can't follow all the clues through to a solution but I think you just have to go with the flow and see where it takes you.