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Lady Lupin #4
Dancing With Death
Murder interrupts a Christmas houseparty in December 1946 and Lady Lupin immediately comes to the aid of her old society friends in the fourth volume of this comic quartet. This is the first U.S. publication for this title.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
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89 people want to read
About the author
Joan Coggin
5 books12 followersJoan Coggin was born in 1898 in Lemsford, Hertfordshire, the daughter of the Rev. Frederick Ernest Coggin. Her mother, who was the daughter of Edward Lloyd, founder of Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper, died when she was eight, and the family moved to Eastbourne, where Coggin lived until her own death in 1980. She was educated, together with her sister Enid, at Wycombe Abbey, a setting she would later use for her girls' school stories, written under the pseudonym Joanna Lloyd.
Leaving Wymcombe in 1916, Coggin became involved in the war effort, working as a nurse at Eastbourne. After the war she worked with the blind, and returned to her schoolgirl interest in Guiding. She suffered from a mild form of epilepsy, but aside from the inability to drive, it did not greatly impact her life. Her first novel, And Why Not Knowing, was published in 1929, and was followed by a series of mysteries featuring the amusingly inadvertent detective, Lady Lupin Lorrimer.
Leaving Wymcombe in 1916, Coggin became involved in the war effort, working as a nurse at Eastbourne. After the war she worked with the blind, and returned to her schoolgirl interest in Guiding. She suffered from a mild form of epilepsy, but aside from the inability to drive, it did not greatly impact her life. Her first novel, And Why Not Knowing, was published in 1929, and was followed by a series of mysteries featuring the amusingly inadvertent detective, Lady Lupin Lorrimer.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 11, 2020
This is the fourth and final mystery featuring Lady Lupin, the scatty vicar’s wife. Unfortunately, Lupin herself, apart from a brief appearance at the beginning, is absent for most of the first half of the book, which concerns her friends Duds and Tommy, and their unsuccessful house party. They are not nearly as entertaining as Lupin, and even when she does arrive, they don’t seem very pleased to see her, and she is rather marginalised. Altogether, rather disappointing after I enjoyed Who Killed the Curate? So much.
November 25, 2017
Dancing with Death by Joan Coggin is the last of her four 1940s British mysteries starring Lady Lupin. Lady Lupin ("Loops" to her friends) is asked to come to the aid of her friend Dorothy "Dud' Lethbridge. Duds and her husband Tommy had decided to host a good old-fashioned Christmas houseparty for their friends and relatives--in the hopes that they could bring some good cheer to those suffering from post-World War II ration books and shortages. But they find they're going to need way more holiday spirit than St. Nick may have in his bag. Twin sisters, who Duds remembers fondly as beautiful girls devoted to one another, are barely speaking. Their cousin is behaving like a cross between Scrooge and the Grinch with a hefty dose of the town drunk thrown in for good measure. (It certainly doesn't look like the meager alcohol supply will last through the New Year). And then there's Dorothy's old flame, complete with a bore of a wife who speaks non-stop about anything, everything....and nothing.
It shouldn't be a surprise that nerves are a bit frayed and that some folks might be wishing other folks dead. But there is surprise that one of the twins chooses to commit suicide in the wee hours of the New Year. Duds summons Lady Lupin to come offer moral support, but Loops offers more than that. She comes to believe that the girl was murdered. It all leads to a mad-dash chase along English country roads to stop the murderer from leaving the country. Will Loops, Duds and Tommy be in time?
This is a very nice little trip back to the post-War era. Even though the characters are faced with ration books and shortages, it is a trip to a less complicated era. There are still things that "aren't done" and everyone dresses for dinner. The mystery isn't complicated--and uses a trope that may seem old hat to the 21st century reader--but it is great fun, nonetheless. Loops, like her name would suggest, is one of those scatterbrained women who seems to have a knack for getting at the truth--albeit by some very circuitous routes. Like the Dowager Duchess in Dorothy L. Sayers's Wimsey books, I love trying to follow her thought processes. Three and a half stars (rounded to four on GoodReads).
First posted on my blog (in 2012) My Reader's Block . Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
It shouldn't be a surprise that nerves are a bit frayed and that some folks might be wishing other folks dead. But there is surprise that one of the twins chooses to commit suicide in the wee hours of the New Year. Duds summons Lady Lupin to come offer moral support, but Loops offers more than that. She comes to believe that the girl was murdered. It all leads to a mad-dash chase along English country roads to stop the murderer from leaving the country. Will Loops, Duds and Tommy be in time?
This is a very nice little trip back to the post-War era. Even though the characters are faced with ration books and shortages, it is a trip to a less complicated era. There are still things that "aren't done" and everyone dresses for dinner. The mystery isn't complicated--and uses a trope that may seem old hat to the 21st century reader--but it is great fun, nonetheless. Loops, like her name would suggest, is one of those scatterbrained women who seems to have a knack for getting at the truth--albeit by some very circuitous routes. Like the Dowager Duchess in Dorothy L. Sayers's Wimsey books, I love trying to follow her thought processes. Three and a half stars (rounded to four on GoodReads).
First posted on my blog (in 2012) My Reader's Block . Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
January 2, 2019
Lady Lupin's best friend decides to have a good old-fashioned Christmas house party, as a cure for the austerity of the post-war years. But things do not go as Duds planned, and soon she's wiring Lupin to come and help her with a death of one of the party guests. SPOILER I kept wondering how Agatha Christie would have handled this plot, but then I realized that Dame Christie had, indeed, used a similar plot several times END SPOILER Lupin is sure that there's no real crime to investigate, until she suddenly realizes what must have happened when a line of poetry crosses her mind. Terrific characterization and humor in this last, alas, of the Lady Lupin books.
December 24, 2022
This was just okay. The storytelling was quite breezy and irreverant, but the characters were - to a man - either annoying, irritating, or an exasperating mixture of both. Whodunit becomes clear as we reach the climax, and I basically only need to say "evil twin" to give it away. Evil, indeed, to go through with a crime *this* long in the making!
Lupin herself was more or less okay (she wasn't on page a lot, just her dreary friends who were oblivious idiots to what was going on), and apparently there are 3 other books in this series, the plots of which may or may not have been hinted at here. I'd probably try another one from the library, but this wasn't really much to write home about.
Lupin herself was more or less okay (she wasn't on page a lot, just her dreary friends who were oblivious idiots to what was going on), and apparently there are 3 other books in this series, the plots of which may or may not have been hinted at here. I'd probably try another one from the library, but this wasn't really much to write home about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2020
This is the final of the Coggin mystery quartet and I found it to be the best of all. The way the author evoked the sense of what life was like for the ordinary run of people who were trying to make a life again in 1947 Britain was brilliant. I felt like I was on rations my self, and had better not waste any of my tea. The mystery was well done and the characters came to life. These books are keepers.
December 17, 2025
Fine, but not an isolated trope the way I was hoping and suffers for not having enough of its detective in the first half
January 1, 2026
Objectively, probably not that great. But I've enjoyed this little series *so* much and I really wish there were more. I also wish that Lupin was more present in this one. Still, it's clever and fun.
November 18, 2012
I found this to be a good English mystery, in league with Catherine Aird's "A Most Contagious Game".
I did not like Duds, I found her character unworthy of Lady Lupin's friendship. After asking Lady Lupin for help and insisted that she come down to help her with the "suicide", she both ignores and disparages her friend. I like the way Lady Lupin finds the inconsistencies in the case and stories and gets to the core of the matter bringing justice to Florence Harnett- something in which Duds was prepared to dismiss as a figment of Lady Lupin's imagination in conjuring up mystery. The story brought about a suprise ending and Joan Coggins tied up the loose ends nicely as the story was brought to a close. On the whole, it was a well written classic cozy English mystery not to be forgotten.
I did not like Duds, I found her character unworthy of Lady Lupin's friendship. After asking Lady Lupin for help and insisted that she come down to help her with the "suicide", she both ignores and disparages her friend. I like the way Lady Lupin finds the inconsistencies in the case and stories and gets to the core of the matter bringing justice to Florence Harnett- something in which Duds was prepared to dismiss as a figment of Lady Lupin's imagination in conjuring up mystery. The story brought about a suprise ending and Joan Coggins tied up the loose ends nicely as the story was brought to a close. On the whole, it was a well written classic cozy English mystery not to be forgotten.
April 10, 2024
Three stars is stingy for this, but it was so much less enjoyable than the first in the series that I didn't feel I could rate it any higher.
The book opens some years after 'Who Killed the Curate?' with Lady Lupin now a mother in her 30s, very slightly more grownup and less scatty, but only slightly. She receives a telegram from her old friend Duds, pleading with her to come at once, and we have a typically disorganised and confusing scene as Lupin rushes to Duds' aid. Unfortunately, that's the last we see of Lupin until chapter 10, the intervening eight chapters giving us Duds' 'back story' and explaining why the telegram was sent.
This is the real weakness of the book, since the main character only 'bookends' the plot. I also found that because Lupin was slightly less scatty than in the first book and Duds was much more so, the two became almost interchangeable and I sometimes had to remind myself that the character who was speaking was Duds, not Lupin. I also felt that the ending was very rushed and was also quite sad.
On the plus side, the book does describe the post-war world very well. I did feel for Duds and Tommy with their desperation to be able to celebrate Christmas and New Year just like they used to, and the painful realisation that those times had gone forever. I imagine that the feeling of having been robbed of so much would have resonated with many of the original readers. The overall tone of this book is much darker than the earlier, light-hearted and upbeat novel.
I did wonder if this book would have 'read better', if I'd been able to read the second and third novels in the series first, but unfortunately they are out of print and very hard to come by in the UK. Possibly the change in tone and characterisation might have been more gradual over the course of four books. As it is, I found the contrast between this and the first in the series to be a bit too jarring.
The book opens some years after 'Who Killed the Curate?' with Lady Lupin now a mother in her 30s, very slightly more grownup and less scatty, but only slightly. She receives a telegram from her old friend Duds, pleading with her to come at once, and we have a typically disorganised and confusing scene as Lupin rushes to Duds' aid. Unfortunately, that's the last we see of Lupin until chapter 10, the intervening eight chapters giving us Duds' 'back story' and explaining why the telegram was sent.
This is the real weakness of the book, since the main character only 'bookends' the plot. I also found that because Lupin was slightly less scatty than in the first book and Duds was much more so, the two became almost interchangeable and I sometimes had to remind myself that the character who was speaking was Duds, not Lupin. I also felt that the ending was very rushed and was also quite sad.
On the plus side, the book does describe the post-war world very well. I did feel for Duds and Tommy with their desperation to be able to celebrate Christmas and New Year just like they used to, and the painful realisation that those times had gone forever. I imagine that the feeling of having been robbed of so much would have resonated with many of the original readers. The overall tone of this book is much darker than the earlier, light-hearted and upbeat novel.
I did wonder if this book would have 'read better', if I'd been able to read the second and third novels in the series first, but unfortunately they are out of print and very hard to come by in the UK. Possibly the change in tone and characterisation might have been more gradual over the course of four books. As it is, I found the contrast between this and the first in the series to be a bit too jarring.
August 6, 2022
There is but little biographical information available about Joan Coggin (1898-1980). The daughter of a clergyman, she spent most of her life after the death of her mother when she was eight, in Eastbourne. Apart from nursing in WW1, she devoted her time to work with the blind and in Girl Guiding. She wrote one novel for adults in the 1920s, six girls' school stories,and , between 1944 and 1949, four murder mysteries involving Lady Lupin Hastings. This is the final novel in the series.
It falls very much into the mildly amusing, comedy of manners type of detective fiction. Indeed there is very little real detection and rather a lot of the intuition and knowledge of human nature method of investigating crime. Much of what happens is misinterpreted by those involved and there are acres of rather footling conversation only tangentially relevant to the plot and solution
As it was, I formed a theory very early on which proved to be correct. I did not find the book particularly funny nor the characters immensely engaging.A lot of my interest came from observing the post WW2 background and it was unusual that there was no real carping about the iniquities of the taxation system and the social reforms of the Labour government which one finds in other contemporary detective writers, despite the very upper-middle class milieu.
I was a bit disappointed as this book and series had come highly recommended.
I shall try the earlier books when they are reissued but without great enthusiasm or expectations
3.25 stars.
It falls very much into the mildly amusing, comedy of manners type of detective fiction. Indeed there is very little real detection and rather a lot of the intuition and knowledge of human nature method of investigating crime. Much of what happens is misinterpreted by those involved and there are acres of rather footling conversation only tangentially relevant to the plot and solution
As it was, I formed a theory very early on which proved to be correct. I did not find the book particularly funny nor the characters immensely engaging.A lot of my interest came from observing the post WW2 background and it was unusual that there was no real carping about the iniquities of the taxation system and the social reforms of the Labour government which one finds in other contemporary detective writers, despite the very upper-middle class milieu.
I was a bit disappointed as this book and series had come highly recommended.
I shall try the earlier books when they are reissued but without great enthusiasm or expectations
3.25 stars.
November 25, 2022
Finally got a copy of this. This one has a very smart mystery embedded in storytelling manner that belies its seriousness. You have two main persons that the story is told by- Lady Lupin (whose mind jumps about trying to make sure she is catching all her duties and interests, and is actually type of mind that can stumble on a solution.) and Dorothy "Duds" Lethbridge (whose mind is extremely observant and emotionally tuned to those around her- and also has some really humorous comments of the people she interacts with.)
Once you get into the swing of listening to all the internal chatter of the narrators, you can enjoy the humor and also sympathize with them a great deal. However, if you get lost in just staying there you will miss many clues. It's also a Christmas story after WW2 has ended and many people have died or changed forever- thus causing the current party to not live up to the hostesses happy hopes of past holiday gatherings. The reality of ration books and some not being able to live in their own place etc... the have and have nots is really well portrayed here. A very interesting Christmas mystery where someone is out to kill.
Once you get into the swing of listening to all the internal chatter of the narrators, you can enjoy the humor and also sympathize with them a great deal. However, if you get lost in just staying there you will miss many clues. It's also a Christmas story after WW2 has ended and many people have died or changed forever- thus causing the current party to not live up to the hostesses happy hopes of past holiday gatherings. The reality of ration books and some not being able to live in their own place etc... the have and have nots is really well portrayed here. A very interesting Christmas mystery where someone is out to kill.
May 11, 2024
Not as fun as Who killed the Curate?, mainly because Lady Lupin is mostly absent in the first half of the novel. This part concerns an unsuccessful Christmas party hosted by Lupin’s friends Tommy and Duds, culminating in a suicide which might or might not be murder. This first part dragged on and wasn’t funny enough, although I must admit to being fascinated by the descriptions of the shabby post-war Britain and Duds’ desperate scheming to get hold of enough food and drink for her guests in the age of rationing. It struck me as significant that they hadn’t seen Lupin since before the war (seven years!) which at first was unbelievable to me but which I then realized probably was very realistic in war-time Britain.
In the second half of the book the plot picks up a bit, as Lupin enters the scene. A pretty silly mystery, but I still like Lupin.
In the second half of the book the plot picks up a bit, as Lupin enters the scene. A pretty silly mystery, but I still like Lupin.
October 3, 2020
very confusing
January 24, 2025
Another enjoyable read.
March 22, 2023
Lady Lupin is a bit scatter brained, an amateur detective and a Vicar’s wife – which in this 1947 novel means that she is summoned by her good friend, Duds, to a house party which is disastrous, and not just because they have run out of alcohol. This is a stylish novel of an almost claustrophobic gathering which takes place in a house to try and recreate a time before post-war rationing, when food and drink were plentiful, and everyone was younger. It has been re published by Galileo Publishing recently, and offers a superb insight into life at the time for a certain group of people linked by family ties and old romances. There is a mystery which does not actually mature until well into the novel, but the building tension within what is virtually a closed community of people is well handled. This is a well written novel of social manners and expectations, old loves, clothes and a setting which fulfils many of the requirements for a classic mystery, Written from different points of view but mainly from the point of view of Duds and Lupin, this is a fine example of a novel which shows a sophisticated understanding and presentation of characters under pressure, with a certain amount of humour. Written to portray the times, Coggins has assembled a fine cast of characters and placed them in a complicated situation, and I found the whole package very engaging, and very hard to put down once begun.
The book begins with Lupin receiving a telegram at the Vicarage which alerts her to her friend’s difficulties. “Am in great trouble, please come at once. Duds”. This summons sends Lupin into something of a panic; she wants to rush to her friend’s house yet is aware of her family and church obligations. Her scatter gun instructions to her maid/ housekeeper/church worker are enough to confuse anyone, being contradictory and wide ranging. To be fair she is full of trepidation for what may have happened, as an earlier letter from Duds described a house party where things were going wrong; her husband Tommy is becoming exasperated with Henry, one of the guests, and murder is feared. Imagining the worse accordingly, Lupin sets off to discover what she can do.
The narrative then goes back in time to a few weeks before Christmas. Duds and her husband have recently inherited a manor house and a certain amount of money, but they have had a tough War and rationing is still taking its toll. In order to cheer everyone up, Duds thinks of having a small party to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, with guests staying for an entire week. While Tommy is dubious about getting enough food and drink to supply a party, and they have relatively little domestic help, but Duds is determined. It is decided to invite Duds’ cousins, twins Flo and Jo, who she was very close to as children. Now they are young women, Flo is married and seemingly content, while Jo is apparently less settled. With Flo’s husband Gordon, the list also includes Sandy, a man who has recently returned from Germany where he spent time as a Prisoner of War. When Henry, a man who Duds had a brief romance with when much younger, writes to ask if he and his second wife Irene can come, a party of eight seems possible. From the beginning all is not well. Henry is a talkative know it all, and his wife a bore if essentially good natured. Flo seems happy, and Gordon attentive and helpful. Sandy is morose and drinks a great deal, and Jo is just argumentative. As Duds struggles to keep the party fed and Tommy tries to eke out the drink, it is obvious that old romances, a difficult inheritance and general dissatisfaction is ruining any possible festive atmosphere, and disaster is beckoning.
This is a book which I greatly enjoyed, despite the possible lack of a sophisticated mystery. It shows the difficulties of post-war which extends beyond the shortages of food and drink, as people come to terms with the changes and even losses experienced over the previous few years. My favourite character is undoubtedly Lady Lupin, whose friends would acknowledge is far from methodical and calm in her suspicions and detection, but is nonetheless dogged in her pursuit of the truth. Apparently, she appears in other novels, and I will be keen to seek these out. I recommend this novel as very much of its time, and a very entertaining read.
The book begins with Lupin receiving a telegram at the Vicarage which alerts her to her friend’s difficulties. “Am in great trouble, please come at once. Duds”. This summons sends Lupin into something of a panic; she wants to rush to her friend’s house yet is aware of her family and church obligations. Her scatter gun instructions to her maid/ housekeeper/church worker are enough to confuse anyone, being contradictory and wide ranging. To be fair she is full of trepidation for what may have happened, as an earlier letter from Duds described a house party where things were going wrong; her husband Tommy is becoming exasperated with Henry, one of the guests, and murder is feared. Imagining the worse accordingly, Lupin sets off to discover what she can do.
The narrative then goes back in time to a few weeks before Christmas. Duds and her husband have recently inherited a manor house and a certain amount of money, but they have had a tough War and rationing is still taking its toll. In order to cheer everyone up, Duds thinks of having a small party to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, with guests staying for an entire week. While Tommy is dubious about getting enough food and drink to supply a party, and they have relatively little domestic help, but Duds is determined. It is decided to invite Duds’ cousins, twins Flo and Jo, who she was very close to as children. Now they are young women, Flo is married and seemingly content, while Jo is apparently less settled. With Flo’s husband Gordon, the list also includes Sandy, a man who has recently returned from Germany where he spent time as a Prisoner of War. When Henry, a man who Duds had a brief romance with when much younger, writes to ask if he and his second wife Irene can come, a party of eight seems possible. From the beginning all is not well. Henry is a talkative know it all, and his wife a bore if essentially good natured. Flo seems happy, and Gordon attentive and helpful. Sandy is morose and drinks a great deal, and Jo is just argumentative. As Duds struggles to keep the party fed and Tommy tries to eke out the drink, it is obvious that old romances, a difficult inheritance and general dissatisfaction is ruining any possible festive atmosphere, and disaster is beckoning.
This is a book which I greatly enjoyed, despite the possible lack of a sophisticated mystery. It shows the difficulties of post-war which extends beyond the shortages of food and drink, as people come to terms with the changes and even losses experienced over the previous few years. My favourite character is undoubtedly Lady Lupin, whose friends would acknowledge is far from methodical and calm in her suspicions and detection, but is nonetheless dogged in her pursuit of the truth. Apparently, she appears in other novels, and I will be keen to seek these out. I recommend this novel as very much of its time, and a very entertaining read.
January 9, 2024
Nice story and sense of its post-War setting, but really could have done with an edit as very repetitive in places.
June 21, 2025
A competent puzzle and a well written book catching up with Lady Lupin. Less of the pre-war joie de vivre as the characters have aged and are negotiating post-war austerity. Changes to the social fabric are shown as the Christmas house party turns the hostess into cleaner / kitchen maid / general servant, and then the alcohol runs low...! Another cosy crime but with a more serious undertone - the wicked characters are genuinely evil this time.
August 9, 2022
Entertaining but guessed it early on. And aren’t twins cheating?! Also spoilt by lots of typos in this edition.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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