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An Oxford Tragedy
The dons at St Thomas''s College are enjoying after-dinner port and cigars when a tutor is found shot to death. In the absence of clues, Scotland Yard can make littl e headway and it is left to a visiting Viennese lawyer to sh ed some light on the death. '
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
19 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
J.C. Masterman
18 books10 followersBorn on 12 January 1891, John Cecil Masterman was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Modern History.
He later studied at the University of Freiburg where he was also an exchange lecturer in 1914, which was where he was when World War I broke out. Consequently he was interned as an enemy alien for four years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Ruhleben, where he spent much of his time polishing his German.
After his return from captivity, he became tutor of Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was also censor from 1920 to 1926.
In the 1920s he became a very good cricketer, playing first-class for H D G Leveson-Gower's XI, Harlequins, the Free Foresters, and also for Oxfordshire in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCC. He toured North America with the Free Foresters in 1923, Ireland with the MCC in 1924, Egypt with H H Martineau's XI in 1930 and 1931 and Canada with the MCC in 1937. He also played tennis and field hockey, participating in international competitions. As a result of his sporting prowess he was acknowledged as a master gamesman in Stephen Potter's book 'Gamesmanship'.
A crime novel, 'An Oxford Tragedy', published in 1933, was his first work and he followed this in 1957 with his second and final crime novel, 'The Case of the Four Friends'.
He also wrote one novel, 'Fate Cannot Harm Me', a play 'Marshal Ney', an Oxford Guide Book, 'To Teach the Senators Wisdom' and his autobiography, 'On the Chariot Wheel' (1975).
When World War II broke out, he became chairman of the Twenty Committee, a group of British intelligence officials, who were responsible for the Double-Cross System, which turned German spies into double agents working for the British. Apparently its name was a pun based on the Roman numeral XX and its double-cross purpose.
In 1945 he had privately published a history of his time working on the double-cross system, 'The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945', and it was finally officially published in 1972, in the USA because the English government objected to its publication under the Officials Secrets Act.
After World War II he returned to Oxford, becoming Provost of Worcester College from 1946 to 1961 and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1957 to 1958. He was knighted for his wartime services in 1959.
He died in Oxford on 6 June 1977.
He later studied at the University of Freiburg where he was also an exchange lecturer in 1914, which was where he was when World War I broke out. Consequently he was interned as an enemy alien for four years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Ruhleben, where he spent much of his time polishing his German.
After his return from captivity, he became tutor of Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was also censor from 1920 to 1926.
In the 1920s he became a very good cricketer, playing first-class for H D G Leveson-Gower's XI, Harlequins, the Free Foresters, and also for Oxfordshire in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCC. He toured North America with the Free Foresters in 1923, Ireland with the MCC in 1924, Egypt with H H Martineau's XI in 1930 and 1931 and Canada with the MCC in 1937. He also played tennis and field hockey, participating in international competitions. As a result of his sporting prowess he was acknowledged as a master gamesman in Stephen Potter's book 'Gamesmanship'.
A crime novel, 'An Oxford Tragedy', published in 1933, was his first work and he followed this in 1957 with his second and final crime novel, 'The Case of the Four Friends'.
He also wrote one novel, 'Fate Cannot Harm Me', a play 'Marshal Ney', an Oxford Guide Book, 'To Teach the Senators Wisdom' and his autobiography, 'On the Chariot Wheel' (1975).
When World War II broke out, he became chairman of the Twenty Committee, a group of British intelligence officials, who were responsible for the Double-Cross System, which turned German spies into double agents working for the British. Apparently its name was a pun based on the Roman numeral XX and its double-cross purpose.
In 1945 he had privately published a history of his time working on the double-cross system, 'The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945', and it was finally officially published in 1972, in the USA because the English government objected to its publication under the Officials Secrets Act.
After World War II he returned to Oxford, becoming Provost of Worcester College from 1946 to 1961 and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1957 to 1958. He was knighted for his wartime services in 1959.
He died in Oxford on 6 June 1977.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 15, 2023
Written by Sir John Cecil Masterman, this book was first published in 1933. An academic himself, “An Oxford Tragedy,” was the first of two mysteries set in the fictional St Thomas’s College, Oxford University – the second is, “The Case of the Four Friends,” which was published in 1953. As well as being an author, a member of the Detection Club (members included Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie and Anthony Berkeley), an academic and a sportsman, Masterman was the chairman of the Twenty Committee, shich ran the Double Cross System, controlling double agents in Britain, during the Second World War.
This is very much a traditional, Golden Age detective mystery. It begins with Francis Wheatley, a sixty year old Vice-President and Senior Tutor at St Thomas’s, looking forward to a convivial dinner with his fellow dons. There is also a visiting lecturer – Ernst Brendel, a Viennese lawyer and crime specialist. After the dinner, it is Winn’s favourite part of the evening, where he and his colleagues spend their time relaxing and talking. Although he is worried about a new person joining them, he finds Brendel sympathetic and interesting and enjoys his company. However, the evening ends in disaster, when a cold and unpopular don is killed in the Dean’s rooms.
Winn finds himself involved in the investigation, both with Inspector Cotter, of Scotland Yard, and Brendel, who he asks to help discover the culprit. What follows is a good example of a mystery set very much within a closed community, with jealousy, rivalries and hidden secrets. Winn is an interesting, and sympathetic, narrator and he works well as a sounding board for Brendel’s theories. I found this a very enjoyable read. It reminded me very much of, “Death at the President’s Lodging,” by Michael Innes, although that was published after this, in 1936.
This is very much a traditional, Golden Age detective mystery. It begins with Francis Wheatley, a sixty year old Vice-President and Senior Tutor at St Thomas’s, looking forward to a convivial dinner with his fellow dons. There is also a visiting lecturer – Ernst Brendel, a Viennese lawyer and crime specialist. After the dinner, it is Winn’s favourite part of the evening, where he and his colleagues spend their time relaxing and talking. Although he is worried about a new person joining them, he finds Brendel sympathetic and interesting and enjoys his company. However, the evening ends in disaster, when a cold and unpopular don is killed in the Dean’s rooms.
Winn finds himself involved in the investigation, both with Inspector Cotter, of Scotland Yard, and Brendel, who he asks to help discover the culprit. What follows is a good example of a mystery set very much within a closed community, with jealousy, rivalries and hidden secrets. Winn is an interesting, and sympathetic, narrator and he works well as a sounding board for Brendel’s theories. I found this a very enjoyable read. It reminded me very much of, “Death at the President’s Lodging,” by Michael Innes, although that was published after this, in 1936.
January 18, 2023
Very difficult to review, I don’t want to give spoilers; in some ways, the author masterfully presented the effects of a murder on a closed community, as an unpopular don is shot dead while sitting in another’s room, waiting for a meeting.
In other ways, I found the writing weirdly dated in places - understandable, it was written in 1933, but distracting. Also the narrator, another don (Winn), the eldest of the Common Room members, is so fastidious and fussy, going on about how the murder has destroyed the bonhomie of the College community and his lovely bachelor existence. This might also explain his extremely dated views about women!
It also gets more sad and depressing in the last quarter or so, as we learn some of the dark secrets that lead to the murder, and the resolution of the case (which goes on waaay too long in my opinion, with one of my least favorite methods, , it struck a bit to close to home. Every mass shooter in the US (and we have way too many), leaves behind a screed full of hatred, fear, paranoia, anger and loneliness. In all fairness, given the early publication date of this novel, it may have been one of the first to deploy this now-dated plot method.
Overall, I can see why it’s a “classic” - the author effectively uses his sheltered, pampered bachelor don narrator to perfectly convey the devastating effect of a murder on a closed community. The Viennese law professor was a good foil, seemingly much more realistic and aware of human nature and it’s darker sides - he pursued different angles of the case than the Scotland Yard Inspector, and got there first. He was like Christie’s Poirot, the European outsider who comes into a closed community, but is allowed in because of his academic accomplishments. Interesting, but not a favorite for me.
In other ways, I found the writing weirdly dated in places - understandable, it was written in 1933, but distracting. Also the narrator, another don (Winn), the eldest of the Common Room members, is so fastidious and fussy, going on about how the murder has destroyed the bonhomie of the College community and his lovely bachelor existence. This might also explain his extremely dated views about women!
It also gets more sad and depressing in the last quarter or so, as we learn some of the dark secrets that lead to the murder, and the resolution of the case (which goes on waaay too long in my opinion, with one of my least favorite methods, , it struck a bit to close to home. Every mass shooter in the US (and we have way too many), leaves behind a screed full of hatred, fear, paranoia, anger and loneliness. In all fairness, given the early publication date of this novel, it may have been one of the first to deploy this now-dated plot method.
Overall, I can see why it’s a “classic” - the author effectively uses his sheltered, pampered bachelor don narrator to perfectly convey the devastating effect of a murder on a closed community. The Viennese law professor was a good foil, seemingly much more realistic and aware of human nature and it’s darker sides - he pursued different angles of the case than the Scotland Yard Inspector, and got there first. He was like Christie’s Poirot, the European outsider who comes into a closed community, but is allowed in because of his academic accomplishments. Interesting, but not a favorite for me.
February 12, 2008
I believe this was written in 1933; a golden-age mystery classic that's on every list of the top 100 classic mystery stories I could find. If you like this sort of thing, then I do recommend it. If you are too much of a reader that deals with stuff in the present, you probably won't like it or you may be bored.
The setting is Oxford University; St. Thomas's College. A distinguished guest has arrived, and the Vice-President of the college hosts a dinner for him which is attended by all of the dons. The guest is one Mr. Brendel, from Germany; he is fascinated with the subject of murder and as dinner proceeds, the conversation turns to how easy it is to find a killer, what the perfect murder and how to commit it might be. The hour grows late, and as much as everyone is enjoying this disturbing (don't forget -- it's the 30s and these are a group of distinguished Oxford dons!) conversation, there are certain dons which have to leave the festivities to work. One of these is Professor Shirley, who was supposed to have met another of the dons, Hargreaves, in his office some time back. He excuses himself, goes up to Hargreaves' office; not 20 minutes goes by until the fellows still in the dining room are informed that Shirley is dead, having been shot with a pistol in Hargreaves' office, one that had earlier been confiscated by some ne'er-do-well students and had been left loaded. Well, Scotland Yard is called in, but it is Professor Brendel here who is asked to investigate by the college vice-president. He does warn the vice-president that he may not like what Brendel uncovers; and as the investigation proceeds, it turns out he is correct.
What's kind of cool about this novel is the focus on what the effects of the murder are on the inhabitants of St. Thomas's College. Today we're so jaded but back then, there was much that was scandalous!
I liked it; I'm a British mystery fan, the older the book the better. If you are into the golden age/classic mystery style, then you'll like this one as well.
The setting is Oxford University; St. Thomas's College. A distinguished guest has arrived, and the Vice-President of the college hosts a dinner for him which is attended by all of the dons. The guest is one Mr. Brendel, from Germany; he is fascinated with the subject of murder and as dinner proceeds, the conversation turns to how easy it is to find a killer, what the perfect murder and how to commit it might be. The hour grows late, and as much as everyone is enjoying this disturbing (don't forget -- it's the 30s and these are a group of distinguished Oxford dons!) conversation, there are certain dons which have to leave the festivities to work. One of these is Professor Shirley, who was supposed to have met another of the dons, Hargreaves, in his office some time back. He excuses himself, goes up to Hargreaves' office; not 20 minutes goes by until the fellows still in the dining room are informed that Shirley is dead, having been shot with a pistol in Hargreaves' office, one that had earlier been confiscated by some ne'er-do-well students and had been left loaded. Well, Scotland Yard is called in, but it is Professor Brendel here who is asked to investigate by the college vice-president. He does warn the vice-president that he may not like what Brendel uncovers; and as the investigation proceeds, it turns out he is correct.
What's kind of cool about this novel is the focus on what the effects of the murder are on the inhabitants of St. Thomas's College. Today we're so jaded but back then, there was much that was scandalous!
I liked it; I'm a British mystery fan, the older the book the better. If you are into the golden age/classic mystery style, then you'll like this one as well.
January 31, 2023
A typical Oxbridge college murder mystery: I started off liking the voice of the fussy old don who's the narrator as he's a little witty and a little fun... but as the story drags on, the atmosphere changes and it gets darker, with the narrator depressed that his privileged and easy life has been affected by murder.
There's almost a Poirot-alike European law professor who takes on the role of detective, playing up his 'foreignness', as Poirot does, to allow people to let down their guard out of assumed superiority.
The problem is, there is lots of following up on alibis of who is where at college that night but no clues and no development in the investigation. The truth pops up out of nowhere and all is revealed in a very long letter from the murderer who, yawn, has committed suicide.
I can't help comparing this to the deft way that Christie plots her crimes and leads us gently on the road to a solution. Here it's all one-note. Bit of a racy motive though which must have been shocking when this was first published.
There's almost a Poirot-alike European law professor who takes on the role of detective, playing up his 'foreignness', as Poirot does, to allow people to let down their guard out of assumed superiority.
The problem is, there is lots of following up on alibis of who is where at college that night but no clues and no development in the investigation. The truth pops up out of nowhere and all is revealed in a very long letter from the murderer who, yawn, has committed suicide.
I can't help comparing this to the deft way that Christie plots her crimes and leads us gently on the road to a solution. Here it's all one-note. Bit of a racy motive though which must have been shocking when this was first published.
February 14, 2023
Not badly written, but not what I´d expected from a detective novel.
February 3, 2023
A group of Oxford academics have dinner together and a while later one of them is found shot dead. The list of suspects is whittled down pretty quickly, but there are a complete lack of clues leaving a visiting professor and the police stumped.
December 6, 2018
"Thwarted ambition, unconsumed passion, weakness, hatred, jealousy -- the human components of many crimes, including the brutal murder that is the subject of this uncommonly literate mystery. As the story opens, all is fellowship and conviviality in the Common Room of St. Thomas's College, Oxford. The dons are enjoying after-dinner port and cigars and the companionship of Ernst Brendel, a Viennese lawyer visiting the College. The civilized calm of academe is soon shattered, however, when a brilliant but unpopular tutor is found shot to death in Dean Hargreaves' lodgings.
"In the absence of clues and a clear motive, the crime is deemed to be a matter beyond the competence of the local constabulary, and the coolly methodical Inspector Cotter of Scotland Yard is called in. Even he, however, can make little headway in unraveling the sequence of events leading up to the crime, or in establishing the identity of the murderer.
"It remains for the visiting Brendel, an amateur student of murder and detection, to shed some light on the case. Worldly, charming, and singularly perceptive, the scholarly sleuth uncovers a tragic tale of human weakness and obsession -- with its inevitably tragic consequences.
Written in the 1930s by a real-life Oxford don, this well-told tale is particularly effective in illuminating the psychology of murder -- the tangled motives and unbridled passions that enable an otherwise civilized human being to commit the ultimate crime. It is equally effective in its authentic recreating of the setting, customs and atmosphere of Oxford -- a feature that will be especially welcomed by mystery lovers with a touch of Anglophilia."
~~back cover
A very clever plot and good characterization of the dons and deans and tutors and students, etc. Unfortunately, the author made a decision to let the narrator drone on about himself, about the other players in the game of murder and about the visiting Brendel, who ultimately solved the mystery. Not a long book at 186 pages, a good 25 of those pages could have been dispensed with, imho.
"In the absence of clues and a clear motive, the crime is deemed to be a matter beyond the competence of the local constabulary, and the coolly methodical Inspector Cotter of Scotland Yard is called in. Even he, however, can make little headway in unraveling the sequence of events leading up to the crime, or in establishing the identity of the murderer.
"It remains for the visiting Brendel, an amateur student of murder and detection, to shed some light on the case. Worldly, charming, and singularly perceptive, the scholarly sleuth uncovers a tragic tale of human weakness and obsession -- with its inevitably tragic consequences.
Written in the 1930s by a real-life Oxford don, this well-told tale is particularly effective in illuminating the psychology of murder -- the tangled motives and unbridled passions that enable an otherwise civilized human being to commit the ultimate crime. It is equally effective in its authentic recreating of the setting, customs and atmosphere of Oxford -- a feature that will be especially welcomed by mystery lovers with a touch of Anglophilia."
~~back cover
A very clever plot and good characterization of the dons and deans and tutors and students, etc. Unfortunately, the author made a decision to let the narrator drone on about himself, about the other players in the game of murder and about the visiting Brendel, who ultimately solved the mystery. Not a long book at 186 pages, a good 25 of those pages could have been dispensed with, imho.
October 8, 2022
I usually like British Golden Age mysteries, but this one is kind of dull. A Fellow at a college in Oxford is found murdered and the narrator, a senior Fellow, and a visiting German scholar discover the killer. The senior Fellow, Winn, is the narrator and is very fussy about he tells the story and the background of the suspects and the two women, the President’s daughters, that may have influenced the murder. Brindle, the visiting scholar, does most the detection. Although less than two hundred pages long, it seemed longer.
November 14, 2012
Forgettable.
December 21, 2014
Not a bad book, just sort of undistinguished; probably there were hundreds like it in its time.
July 21, 2024
This book was originally published in 1933. While the mystery to be solved--by Brendel (a visiting lecturer from Vienna to St. Thomas), which is a fictitious but very real, Oxford college--is interesting and honestly solved, I think the remarkable things about this book are as follows:
1) at least based on my time at Oxford from 1977 through 1980, it is totally authentic in how it describes the lives of dons and the workings within Oxford colleges. Anyone who has attended Oxford will find the glimpses into the Senior Common Room, the erudite but often catty conversations as the port is passed, and the insularity of the College versus the University as a whole a dear reminder of their time up at Oxford;
2) the book is wonderfully written--from the perspective of a long time don, Senior Tutor and College Vice President Francis Wheatley Winn, who has settled into his existence without much further ambition (at the age of 60)). Winn (Masterman) is clear and elegant without being verbose or pompous, making the reading very enjoyable.
Some brief example, as Winn walked into the SCR knowing that Brendel is coming in from Vienna as a guest, he is worrying: “I confess that the prospect (of the guest coming in to the SCR) did not fill me with pleasurable anticipation , I could remember with miserable clarity previous guests who had made Common Room life burdensome for the duration of their visits—a gentleman from Sweden so taciturn as to make human intercourse almost impossible, a German so voluble as to make all thought of it abhorrent, another who discussed so persistently and exclusively his own special subject—and that an abstruse affair of physics and mathematics—that the very words of Gelehrter and Sachverstaendiger became to me as red rags to a bull. I hope desperately, although without much confidence, that Brendel would at least speak sufficient English to make conversation bearable, and that he would have grasped the great truth of polite society that guests have duties in entertainment no less than hosts.”
Speaking of an older man: “He belonged, I think, to that class of persons who, because they are profoundly interested in and sympathetic towards their fellow men, can never in nature grow old.”
A number of other memorable passages:
“’Why,’ I had once asked a returned and much to voluble voyager with that gentle irony which I so admired in myself, ‘should events uninteresting in themselves acquire a profound importance because they occur in Singapore?”
But to show that Winn is not just a snide academic, he also notes “The secret, as I believe, of their charm was an intense enjoyment of life, and a love and comprehensive sympathy for the lives of others.”
An Oxford Tragedy is in sum a very serviceable mystery novel with a context and a style that is very much more than serviceable. Those who have spent time at Oxford should read it. I am less sure it will speak as much to those who have not.
1) at least based on my time at Oxford from 1977 through 1980, it is totally authentic in how it describes the lives of dons and the workings within Oxford colleges. Anyone who has attended Oxford will find the glimpses into the Senior Common Room, the erudite but often catty conversations as the port is passed, and the insularity of the College versus the University as a whole a dear reminder of their time up at Oxford;
2) the book is wonderfully written--from the perspective of a long time don, Senior Tutor and College Vice President Francis Wheatley Winn, who has settled into his existence without much further ambition (at the age of 60)). Winn (Masterman) is clear and elegant without being verbose or pompous, making the reading very enjoyable.
Some brief example, as Winn walked into the SCR knowing that Brendel is coming in from Vienna as a guest, he is worrying: “I confess that the prospect (of the guest coming in to the SCR) did not fill me with pleasurable anticipation , I could remember with miserable clarity previous guests who had made Common Room life burdensome for the duration of their visits—a gentleman from Sweden so taciturn as to make human intercourse almost impossible, a German so voluble as to make all thought of it abhorrent, another who discussed so persistently and exclusively his own special subject—and that an abstruse affair of physics and mathematics—that the very words of Gelehrter and Sachverstaendiger became to me as red rags to a bull. I hope desperately, although without much confidence, that Brendel would at least speak sufficient English to make conversation bearable, and that he would have grasped the great truth of polite society that guests have duties in entertainment no less than hosts.”
Speaking of an older man: “He belonged, I think, to that class of persons who, because they are profoundly interested in and sympathetic towards their fellow men, can never in nature grow old.”
A number of other memorable passages:
“’Why,’ I had once asked a returned and much to voluble voyager with that gentle irony which I so admired in myself, ‘should events uninteresting in themselves acquire a profound importance because they occur in Singapore?”
But to show that Winn is not just a snide academic, he also notes “The secret, as I believe, of their charm was an intense enjoyment of life, and a love and comprehensive sympathy for the lives of others.”
An Oxford Tragedy is in sum a very serviceable mystery novel with a context and a style that is very much more than serviceable. Those who have spent time at Oxford should read it. I am less sure it will speak as much to those who have not.
March 3, 2020
Why do I find fantasies of murder on college campuses so entertaining?
September 16, 2022
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! I was scared the murderer would be too obvious, but maybe that's just me. The ending was good, and for that I give it four stars.
June 5, 2020
Yet another promising mystery which turns out to be vacuous and boring. Masterman was an Oxford don and presumably he had a lot of fun exploiting his prestigious environment as a setting for a plain murder mystery: unpopular tutor found shot dead in a colleague's room. Which of the dozen or so scholars who were around that night did it? To spice things up a little, Masterman makes it so that Shirley wasn't the intended victim and it's all a horrible blunder, leading the wretched culprit to take his own life. In such a book a banal plot is not necessarily the end of the world if the author packs in a lot of atmosphere and some interesting characters, but in my view Masterman fails on all counts and only aficionados of the genre will want to bother with it.
August 12, 2012
J C Masterman's 1933 mystery, An Oxford Tragedy, is a remarkably satisfying mystery. Wholly in the tradition of the Golden Age of English crime fiction, it is very similar to the traditional country house mystery, where there is a defined set of suspects. It also has aspects of the locked room mystery - or in this case, the locked college. The gates to St Thomas' College are closed and locked at 9 PM and the porter at the gate writes down the name of everyone who comes and goes after that hour. . . .
You can read the rest of my review on my blog at:
http://maryslibrary.typepad.com/my_we...
You can read the rest of my review on my blog at:
http://maryslibrary.typepad.com/my_we...
December 30, 2015
Picked up an old Penguin Crime edition (1939) in a secondhand bookshop.
Can't believe I haven't read it before.
Can't believe I haven't read it before.
February 6, 2023
I rather liked this mystery, for all its fussy and dithery narrator sometimes irritated me. That narrator is Francis Winn, a sixty-year-old fellow of a fictional Oxford college, and he plays fair with the reader, giving all the details of what happens as he knows them, enough for us to figure out whodunit (though I did not get it right, I was close). He observes his peers with a fairly clear eye, though he is quite neurotic and indecisive when it comes to action.
Another fellow of the college is found murdered in the rooms allocated to the dean. The dead man was unpopular but no motive is immediately clear. A Scotland Yard man arrives to investigate and there is also on the scene a foreign professor visiting, and he is the one who ultimately figures it all out.
The mystery is well constructed and the potential suspects not excessive. I did feel the author could have muddied the waters more if he had included more scenes with the female characters, but the Oxford he is depicting was very much a male place, with females playing only bit parts, so it’s not surprising.
One thing I especially appreciated was that it wasn’t all treated simply as a puzzle—there was due appreciation, starting with the book’s title, for the painful and destructive consequences of murder. Although the setting is an academic one, the author didn’t indulge in the flights of erudition that delight me and offend many readers; there were no literary clues, abstruse philosophical debates, etc. It is a quick read that sticks to the main thread.
Another fellow of the college is found murdered in the rooms allocated to the dean. The dead man was unpopular but no motive is immediately clear. A Scotland Yard man arrives to investigate and there is also on the scene a foreign professor visiting, and he is the one who ultimately figures it all out.
The mystery is well constructed and the potential suspects not excessive. I did feel the author could have muddied the waters more if he had included more scenes with the female characters, but the Oxford he is depicting was very much a male place, with females playing only bit parts, so it’s not surprising.
One thing I especially appreciated was that it wasn’t all treated simply as a puzzle—there was due appreciation, starting with the book’s title, for the painful and destructive consequences of murder. Although the setting is an academic one, the author didn’t indulge in the flights of erudition that delight me and offend many readers; there were no literary clues, abstruse philosophical debates, etc. It is a quick read that sticks to the main thread.
February 13, 2023
Enjoyable Golden Age mystery set in a fictitious Oxford college - St Thomas’s - where an unpopular don is shot dead while waiting for the Dean. The narrator is the rather fussy elderly professor Winn, and the suspects are the other fellows of the College, along with the dead man’s wife and her sister and a couple of visitors who were dining there on the night in question, including Brendel who is Austrian and an expert n the psychological aspects of murder.
The first half of the mystery is quite charming, with Winn flapping about while others take control and parallel investigations by the police and the Poirot-like Brendel, but it does begin to ramble a bit and to get much darker as the investigation progresses. The solution to the mystery is a satisfying one in itself, but conveyed via a letter from the culprit which is a common but unsatisfactory way of rounding things off.
The first half of the mystery is quite charming, with Winn flapping about while others take control and parallel investigations by the police and the Poirot-like Brendel, but it does begin to ramble a bit and to get much darker as the investigation progresses. The solution to the mystery is a satisfying one in itself, but conveyed via a letter from the culprit which is a common but unsatisfactory way of rounding things off.
February 13, 2023
3.5* - not an easy one to review.
I find myself a little conflicted in this review as I was while reading the book. It is undoubtedly well written and the crime is well constructed. There are enough characters and suspects to give the reader some involvement in the detection process but there was a sameness to the characters. This was not surprising given they were overwhelmingly all academics but it perhaps dulled the interest a little.
I also found myself just feeling really quite sad as I came to the last 15% of the book as the sadness of the murderer and the narrator was fully revealed.
Overall I am glad I read it but I do not expect to read it again.
I find myself a little conflicted in this review as I was while reading the book. It is undoubtedly well written and the crime is well constructed. There are enough characters and suspects to give the reader some involvement in the detection process but there was a sameness to the characters. This was not surprising given they were overwhelmingly all academics but it perhaps dulled the interest a little.
I also found myself just feeling really quite sad as I came to the last 15% of the book as the sadness of the murderer and the narrator was fully revealed.
Overall I am glad I read it but I do not expect to read it again.
January 31, 2023
The setting of this book is excellent and I felt it portrayed the college community well. The narrator is interested in giving an accurate account, including his dithering over decisions. The "detective" is a foreigner, thus not part of the community. The title is apt, as a 'tragedy' it is.
July 29, 2024
Hard to rate this so would give 3.5-4. The plot is a good one, the insular, somewhat cloistered characters well drawn but the final summing-up took rather too long. It gave me a new word though, which is always a joy; in this case ‘inspissated’ which I don’t think I’ve ever come across before.
October 22, 2025
Alongside being an Oxford tutor, playing tennis at Wimbledon as well as international cricket and working for MI5 in World War Two, Masterman found time to write another mystery which I will try and find as An Oxford Tragedy was a really good murder mystery.
April 4, 2021
Because it was an early entry in its genre, the Oxford mystery, I will give some of the awkwardness of the story a pass. I did not guess the murderer and that makes me happy. An enjoyable read.
March 10, 2022
Really interesting puzzle. I was drawn in by the description of Oxford academic life and the range of characters
September 4, 2024
Atmosfera da quattro stelle ma il caso meritava uno sforzo maggiore
April 9, 2025
Written in 1933 by J CMasterman, a real life Oxford don. Elegant early entry to this long and distinguished genre.
November 2, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
it’s a classic whodunit; charming, old-fashioned, and perfectly cozy for autumn
it’s a classic whodunit; charming, old-fashioned, and perfectly cozy for autumn
March 25, 2017
This is a historical mystery mainly because it was written in the 1930's and so reflects another time. It's a basic British who-done-it of the time, easy to read and kept me guessing until the end.
June 26, 2023
4/5
An Oxford Tragedy, by J. C. Masterman is a murder mystery in the vein of his golden age contemporaries. The novel is acutely similar to other works of the same genre. If you've ever enjoyed a golden-age mystery, then you will enjoy this one as well.
The story is narrated from the perspective of Professor Winn, an Oxford Don. Thirteen people dine at a table. The Dean, Hargraves have a loaded revolver in the table of his rooms. Everyone hears about it at the dinner. After dinner, Shirley goes to the Dean's room. Thirty minutes later he is dead. The Detective is Brendel, a lawyer present there as a guest.
Which of the twelve did it??
As always, I'll review this novel as any other mystery:
The Detective and the Method of Deduction: 5/5
The Criminal: 3/5
The Method of Crime: 3/5
The Detective Mr. Brendel is just wonderful. He is everything you expect from a traditional amateur detective. I loved watching him work.
But the Criminal and the method in which he commited the crime was quite common in my opinion. There is nothing in the story that might be considered novel. Yet, I won't spoil it in this review. Just expect and the expected and you might solve the crime before you reach the final page. As everyone in the story had the opportunity to commit murder, the question naturally begins to revolve around the motive. It is quite commonplace as well.
In conclusion, this is a textbook example of a traditional mystery, meant for people who enjoy this particular delicacy.
Can't wait to read more!!!
An Oxford Tragedy, by J. C. Masterman is a murder mystery in the vein of his golden age contemporaries. The novel is acutely similar to other works of the same genre. If you've ever enjoyed a golden-age mystery, then you will enjoy this one as well.
The story is narrated from the perspective of Professor Winn, an Oxford Don. Thirteen people dine at a table. The Dean, Hargraves have a loaded revolver in the table of his rooms. Everyone hears about it at the dinner. After dinner, Shirley goes to the Dean's room. Thirty minutes later he is dead. The Detective is Brendel, a lawyer present there as a guest.
Which of the twelve did it??
As always, I'll review this novel as any other mystery:
The Detective and the Method of Deduction: 5/5
The Criminal: 3/5
The Method of Crime: 3/5
The Detective Mr. Brendel is just wonderful. He is everything you expect from a traditional amateur detective. I loved watching him work.
But the Criminal and the method in which he commited the crime was quite common in my opinion. There is nothing in the story that might be considered novel. Yet, I won't spoil it in this review. Just expect and the expected and you might solve the crime before you reach the final page. As everyone in the story had the opportunity to commit murder, the question naturally begins to revolve around the motive. It is quite commonplace as well.
In conclusion, this is a textbook example of a traditional mystery, meant for people who enjoy this particular delicacy.
Can't wait to read more!!!
September 26, 2011
Like so many of the mysteries that have an academic setting, An Oxford Tragedy is written by a scholary man. J. C (Sir John Cecil) Masterman was a well-known academic, sportsman and author. He was a don at Oxford University as well as serving as the chair of the Twenty Committee, an organization which controlled British double-agents during World War II.
Masterman wrote his first mystery, the one featured today, in 1933. It takes place at the fictional St. Thomas's College in Oxford. The dons of the college are enjoying some moments of fellowship in the Common Room--indulging in port and cigars and listening to Ernst Brendel, a visitor to the college, discuss law (his profession) and crime and detection (his personal interests). It isn't long before Brendel has a chance to put his amateur skills into practice. An unpopular tutor is found shot to death in the Dean's lodgings and the police are baffled. There doesn't seem to be any clues nor any definite motive for the crime. After all, if everyone who was unpopular were to be shot.....
It is Brendel who is perceptive enough to discover the tangled motives that can drive the academic mind and to uncover the passions that can fuel the decision to kill. He uses psychology in much the same way Hercule Poirot does. There is no mention of "little grey cells," but the reader knows they are hard at work. Brendel also has a way of getting the suspects to talk and soon is able to discover the murderer through a psychological process of elimination. The story is much about atmosphere and less about plot than other mysteries.
Masterman does a wonderful job with the psychology of the crime and in creating the academic setting. The reader really feels like she has been to Oxford and hob-nobbed with the dons. This book was one of the first "academic mysteries" that I read. It is said that Masteman helped pave the way for writers like Michael Innes and Edmund Crispin. That is certainly true in the case of my reading journey. Being exposed to An Oxford Tragedy helped to start me on my hunt for other mysteries set not only at Oxford or Cambridge but at just about any academic institution. It is a fine British mystery and an excellent example of the mystery set in college.
Masterman wrote his first mystery, the one featured today, in 1933. It takes place at the fictional St. Thomas's College in Oxford. The dons of the college are enjoying some moments of fellowship in the Common Room--indulging in port and cigars and listening to Ernst Brendel, a visitor to the college, discuss law (his profession) and crime and detection (his personal interests). It isn't long before Brendel has a chance to put his amateur skills into practice. An unpopular tutor is found shot to death in the Dean's lodgings and the police are baffled. There doesn't seem to be any clues nor any definite motive for the crime. After all, if everyone who was unpopular were to be shot.....
It is Brendel who is perceptive enough to discover the tangled motives that can drive the academic mind and to uncover the passions that can fuel the decision to kill. He uses psychology in much the same way Hercule Poirot does. There is no mention of "little grey cells," but the reader knows they are hard at work. Brendel also has a way of getting the suspects to talk and soon is able to discover the murderer through a psychological process of elimination. The story is much about atmosphere and less about plot than other mysteries.
Masterman does a wonderful job with the psychology of the crime and in creating the academic setting. The reader really feels like she has been to Oxford and hob-nobbed with the dons. This book was one of the first "academic mysteries" that I read. It is said that Masteman helped pave the way for writers like Michael Innes and Edmund Crispin. That is certainly true in the case of my reading journey. Being exposed to An Oxford Tragedy helped to start me on my hunt for other mysteries set not only at Oxford or Cambridge but at just about any academic institution. It is a fine British mystery and an excellent example of the mystery set in college.
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