Corpus Christmas

Sigrid Harald #6

by Margaret Maron

A relic of Manhattan's Gilded Age, the Erich Bruel House is home to an idiosyncratic collection of art. For over sixty years it has managed on donations from the visiting public and its dwindling trust fund. But tastes in art do change and in trying to restore the house's faded luster, its trustees propose a major retrospective for renowned artist Oscar Nauman. A festive Christmas party in Nauman's honor ends in acrimony--and next morning one of the trustees is found in a most unfestive heap at the bottom of the basement steps. Lt. Sigrid Harald had been an unwilling guest and the party and now she must return to investigate why that trustee was so universally hated. As often happens when Nauman is involved, Sigrid's professional duties are complicated by her off-duty relationships. Corpus Christmas was first published in 1989, but unlike others in this series, there is little, in a technological sense, to jar the reader unless one compulsively adds and subtracts from the few dates scattered through the text. The New York depicted here is very much as it is today, except—tragically—for the view of lower Manhattan that Sigrid enjoyed from the deck of a Staten Island ferry. Although loosely based on an amalgam of the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, and the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill, the Breul House itself is a complete fiction. (Graphics by Paper Moon Graphics)

Genres: Mystery, Christmas, Procedural, New York, Fiction, Holiday, Mystery Thriller

255 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Born and raised in central North Carolina, Margaret Maron lived in Italy before returning to the USA. In addition to a collection of short stories she also authored numerous mystery novels.

Her works have been translated into seven languages her Bootlegger's Daughter, a Washington Post Bestseller won Edgar Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity awards.

She was a past president of Sisters in Crime and of the American Crime writers' league, and a director on the national board for Mystery Writers of America.

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Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not too sure why this story needs a Christmas tie in. Okay it begins rather promisingly with a Christmassy atmosphere in the Erich Breul House that contains three floors of 19th century art. At this point I thought this would be a winner.

But thereafter it rambles along with a corpse being discovered in the attic and a collection of characters, who I thought I would be able to empathise with as of their connection with the art world, did not enthuse me at all. Even Lieutenant Sigrid Harald of the New York Police Department seemed insipid. And I am not too sure of her relationships with others in the book.

Although there were plenty of people around who could have been suspects, the explanations of why the murder has happened is somewhat convoluted to the point where this reader could not have cared less. And the further I got into the book, the worse it got. I tried to continue, and succeeded three times in persuading myself that it would be worth it but the fourth time, I just gave up.

One critic apparently wrote, 'A Christmas gift for mystery fans.' Well, I just hope I don't get too many gifts such as this. Sorry Margaret Maron but it just was not for me.

[Abbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

BOTTOM LINE: Murder at a stuffy museum brings Lt. Sigrid Harald into rather more contact with artsy-fartsy types than she really wants, but she does solve the case and learn to work better/easier with her subordinates, never an easy thing for her. Maron still shows Sigrid growing and very slowly changing, and it's beautifully done. Here she also adds a sad, twisted murder mystery with lots of turns and back-tracks. Extremely good stuff. This series just keeps getting better.

The Eric Bruel House Museum is one of those extremely specialized, hidden-away little gems in New York City that not many folks know about but is appreciated by the few. Unfortunately their funding is drying up and they need to get more publicity/cash-inflow ASAP. Christmastime is one of the best times to visit the Bruel House, an almost perfect late Victorian mansion simply stuffed with art and artifacts that the Bruel family brought back with them from European tours circa 1860 through 1900. The Bruel does Christmas up very beautifully, in the Victorian manner, with an immense tree and hundreds of glass ornaments that belonged to the lady of the house, garlands and swags and carols, etc. The trustees believe it would be a good time to make up a new brochure for advertising purposes and bring in one of the trustees' grandsons to do the photography. He meets and becomes friends with the live-in janitor, a quiet, hard-working, mentally-challenged young man, with an angelicly beautiful face. When the nastiest trustee is found bludgeoned to death after having embarrassed pretty nearly everybody present at a Christmas Party via wild and lurid insinuations, the investigation soon begins to center around Rick the photographer, and Pascal, the handyman.

Mixed in with a seemingly basic timetable plot (who left when, who came back, who went down to the basement, etc) is the tale of two mummified babies found in a trunk in a poor neighborhood; both cases come to Sigrid, and are followed during the novel, although the majority of the story surrounds the Bruel investigation. And there are some nice bits of Sigrid and her lover Oscar, a great painter, who seems to know everybody in the art world, and everybody seems to know and is impressed by, him. Shy, quiet Sigrid is still having difficulty acclimating to the rareified atmosphere surrounding Oscar, but their relationship is growing steadily.

Maron balances all the bits nicely, and also factors in a couple of extra nice storylines, including a historical one about the Bruel family and their possible acquisition of some early 20th century art masterpieces; this leads to a particularly effective side-plot concerning an old, reputable gallery that's been connected with the Bruel House for decades. All the pieces come into play by the end, interwoven and twisted back and forth, paced nicely, with frequent enough changes of viewpoint and plot thread, until by the end the ultimately sad, but complete, solution is revealed. A rather autumnal, mellow sort of story all-in-all, but beautifully done. First-rate plotting, great settings and lots of detail (some of it very funny), and we also get to watch Sigrid slowly unbend a bit more - wonderful!

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

CORPUS CHRISTMAS – VG
Margaret Maron – 6th in series
Lt. Sigrid Harald's professional and private lives clash when an art expert is murdered in a New York historical house.

I hadn’t read any of this series but definitely need to change that. I really like Sigrid. She is smart and sharp and in a relationship with an author considerably older than herself. The characters in this book were well drawn and sympatric. It’s a good, classic mystery.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a new to me series by a favorite author...and I stayed up late last night to finish it

[Kilian Metcalf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm dutifully reading my way through the Sigrid Harald mysteries because eventually she and Deborah Knott will cross paths. I love the Judge Knott mysteries; Sigrid Harald not so much. There's a distant family connection, though, and soon Deborah and Dwight will be taking a delayed honeymoon to New York. When a relative asks Deborah to deliver a package to Sigrid, the two detectives, one professional, one amateur meet face to face. I don't think they are going to like each other. Deborah is all Southern warmth, charm, and extroversion. Sigrid is what we used to call a cold fish. All business, no visible emotion, intimidating and unpleasant IMHO.

I have a theory about mystery stories. Some people read them for the puzzle, the trail of clues, the timetables, the motives, and the roster of suspects. Others read them for the characters, the atmosphere, the interactions, and the puzzle part is secondary. We can read and reread the same mysteries because generally we forget the puzzle and don't even remember or care who the killer is. Now and then we get a master of the genre like Agatha Christie, Martha Grimes, or Dorothy Sayers, who are able to satisfy both kinds of readers.

The Sigrid Harald mysteries are the puzzle type, and the Judge Knott the character type. One is a police procedural, the other a cozy mystery. I definitely prefer the latter, so three stars from me for this book. The puzzle people will rate it much higher.

The reason I am plodding through these books without any real pleasure is because I want to see what happen when the two meet. Without a background understanding of Sigrid, the pleasure of reading about the two of them will be less. I'm looking forward to the joint book, and then I can stop reading about Sigrid Harald and leave her to her cold life in New York and return to the warmth of Colleton County, S. Carolina with Judge Knott.

[Mimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite really liking Margaret Maron's other books, this one didn't grab me. Not sure why, mystery was ok, the writing was very good, the minor characters were excellent and interesting foils. Oh I know. Sigrid is so self contained, that she has no friends. Now this isn't a bad thing per se, but friends often used for discussions or working things out or well, just friends. And it's hard to warm up to someone to whom you get no whys as to why she acts they way she does...And what is the attraction between her and her sweetie? I couldn't figure it out. What do they like about each other? Beats me. He's an artist and she seems completely indifferent to his paintings. I mean completely indifferent. Is that a turn on? Beats me. Maybe it will get clearer if I read more of this series. Perhaps I'm just frustrated as I don't have these questions about her other main characters in her other books.

[Scott Drake · Rating 2 out of 5]

First time reading something by this author and likely my last. Even the editing is scatterbrained. I had to reread passages in a few place because the conversation or situation was so unclear I couldn't proceed. This almost became one of those I put in my category: Started—never finished.

Worst of all, after forcing myself through the final 40 pages, not all of the plot turns were accounted for and the murderer was exactly as suspected. (And the Christmas tie-in wasn't even necessary to the story line either!)

Bah, humbug!

[Lael Braday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone from the Erich Breul House murders the resident art academic at Christmas just before a major artist's exhibit expected to rescue the museum. As always, there are plenty of suspects, and Maron keeps you guessing to the end. I love this series and am glad that she's writing another, but sad that this will be the last in the series. I deducted 1 star for the glossing over of the gay relationship where one man is "slow."

[Arlene Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome, never disappointed by a Maron mystery.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the historical aspect. The side story about the babies, I don’t understand why it was included, totally unrelated to the main plot; interesting, but when first mentioned I thought it was going to be MORE interesting; if Reader’s Digest did a condensed version of this book, that could be completely left out. The main plot kept me interested, altho it feels like it ended abruptly, & left dangling threads: so what happened with the house & museum needing money, no one ever found the letters or the artwork they mentioned that could solve their money problems. That felt frustratingly unsatisfying. I liked it as I was going along, but now that I’m done I feel disappointed in the ending.

[Camilla Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love this author's mysteries. I like Singrid, but this story was too full of old time artists with names I didn't recognize. Art galleries aren't my thing. Plus, I've read every one of her Deborah Knotts books, and I have to say that they are better than the couple in this series which I've been able to obtain from our library system. As the saying goes, the authors get better in their later works! However, I will try to read the rest of this series, if I can find them all. Not all of the earlier books are still available through the library system. Maybe I'll stumble upon the missing ones at a thrift store sometime.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really hearkened back to the first in this series, where we spent thirty percent of the book following the victim before he's killed, so our hero/lieutenant doesn't even show up on the scene until almost halfway through the book. This was fine for a first book because we're just getting to know our recurring characters anyway, but this far into the series, the style didn't work for me.

There were some fun scenes with Sigrid though. It makes me happy to see her sort of making friends with her coworkers.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A murder of a trustee for a historical house where a lot of art is displayed. The murder happens after a social gathering at the house. The investigating detective was at the gathering with her artist boyfriend. The story contains lots of talk about art, artists, and historical preservation plus fund raising to keep museums, etc operating. All the people who were at the gathering are suspects and the police delve into the victim's past to figure out who the killer is.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had all the makings of being an excellent mystery. A bit of history, an old house, lots of potential killers, set during a snowy Christmas, yet it just sort of fizzled. On the plus side, the writing itself was a pleasure to read. I enjoyed it for the most part, but considering the set up, the ending was sort of a whimper.

[Emily Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lieutenant Sigrid Harald and her team are called to an historic mansion in New York City to investigate a death. Lt. Harald had attended a dinner at the house the evening before with the painter Oscar Nauman. Because of the number of people at the dinner, there are quite a few suspects to investigate in order to find the killer.

[Crystal Toller · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a body is found at the Erich Breul House, Sigrid and her team are called in to investigate. Sigrid had just been at a party at the house the night of the killing because her lover, Oscar Nauman was considering doing a retrospective at the house. How Sigrid and her team discover the killer makes for an exciting read. I was really surprised by the ending. Another great addition to the series.

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a museum house with too many suspects, Maron pulls lots of threads together in this the sixth Sigrid Harald series.

Sigrid Harald must juggle police investigation with her evolving relationship with Oscar Nauman. The art is interesting, the plot tangled, and New York City is sparkling with Xmas lights. Oh the joy of a good mystery.

[Cynthia Grove · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good tale about the art world and the complexities of human life. There are a number of themes winding through this book each of which are worth serious consideration. This isn't my favourite story featuring Sigrid Harald which is why I've only rated it three stars, but there is more in it than simply the superficial mystery.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. A house museum holds an artist's retrospective as a found raiser and a trustee is found murdered. Lt. Sigrid Harald investigates.

Maron has done an excellent job of nailing the politics and workings of a non-profit historical house museum. Though I did find the beginning a bit slow. Overall, I was satisfied.

[Patricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unmerry Christmas

Marin is getting into the bad habit of rushing her denouements, cramming them into a page or two after indulgently sprawling over a few hundred pages with irrelevant detail. Disappointing.

[Tobinsfavorite · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best parts of this book make up for the following passage:

"[The bright sunlight] also revealed tiny lines around her eyes and nose so that Sigrid revised her estimate of age upward. Instead of thirty, Francesca Leeds was probably closer to forty. Nevertheless, she remained a stunning creature with the sort of poised assurance that often destroyed Sigrid's."

It's OK that she's maybe 40 instead of maybe 30. She's still stunning. Goody.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good novella, liked the mystery the the solution. Great insight into Sigrid in this book. Really enjoyed; it was an ebook and it needs some editing -- mostly for punctuation. End of sentences have no periods or quotation marks, etc.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice ordinary little mystery. Good guys and bad guys. Nice people and icky people. Comeuppances where they were deserved.

I got it for cheap at Amazon, it was worth the four bucks and the 10 hours. But I won't go looking for more from Ms Maron at full price.

[Michele Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lt. Sigrid Harold is invited to a dinner at Breul House-a NYC mansion turned art museum- by her artist boyfriend, Oscar Naumen. She finds herself back again the next day when one of the museum's trustees is found dead.

[Linda Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sixth book in this series that I've read. It ended rather abrudtly, and while I'm sure the story will be filled in with the seventh book in the series, it's my reason for giving it 4 stars rather than 5. (I do love this series and will be sad when there are no more to read.)

[mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Notable only for the art world background

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars...to be discussed with Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too much boring background details and introduc
tions to eat too many characters. It might get better, but I read 25%, and was irritated and sick of this book.

[Teresa Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little Christmas mystery for some light holiday reading.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read in the cosy mystery category