Stately Homicide

Benjamin Jurnet #3

by S.T. Haymon

Weaves a dark, psychologically acute tale of murder with detection in a stately English home

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1984

About the author

"One of the purest lyric voices in the mystery field" New York Times Book Review

Sylvia Theresa Haymon was born in Norwich, and is best known for her eight crime fiction novels featuring the character Inspector Ben Jurnet. Haymon also wrote two non-fiction books for children, as well as two memoirs of her childhood in East Anglia.

The Ben Jurnet series enjoyed success in both the UK and the US during Haymon’s lifetime: Ritual Murder (1982) won the prestigious CWA Silver Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association. Stately Homicide (1984), a skilful variation on the country house mystery, was praised by the New York Times as a 'brilliantly crafted novel of detection...stylish serious fiction', and favourably compared to the work of Dorothy L. Sayers.

Reviews

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detective Inspector Ben Jurnet is visiting Bullen Hall in the Norfolk countryside to collect some earrings which he has commissioned for his girlfriend Miriam from a jeweller who has one of the workshops on the estate. He is invited to attend the party that evening for the departing curator and as he is at a loose end he decides to do so even though he hardly knows anyone who will be there. After the party the new curator, Chad Shelden, is found dead in the moat and Jurnet is sent to investigate.

It is soon clear that many of the people attending the party are potential suspects in a case of did he fall or was he pushed? Jurnet is morose and missing Miriam who is on holiday in the Greek islands and finds having met all his suspects in a social setting is something of a disadvantage. Many secrets both from the recent and the distant past are going to come to light and more people will be dead before the mystery is solved. Those familiar with Norfolk will have no difficulty in identifying the stately home on which Bullen Hall is based.

I enjoyed reading this well written and well plotted country house mystery and I thought the ending was exciting and atmospheric. The mixture of characters is very well handled and I really liked Percy the reformed burglar and his new found interest in literature. The twists and turns of the Appleyard family history is well done as is the like to the long dead Anne Boleyn. If you like classic crime novels in the tradition of the Golden Age of British crime fiction then try S T Haymon – a much underrated author in my opinion. The series can be read in any order.

[Thistledown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated. I didn't warm to the homophobic detective. Not keen on incest! But the whodunnit element seemed well enough done to me.

[Lucienne Boyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, the good old days when sexual sin incorporated "adulterer, sodomite, lesbian and rapist" all in one category. The book was written in the 1980s but has a much more old fashioned feel to it - and not in a good way. With its combination of a slow moving plot, a not particularly appealing detective who, it seems, is meant to be an ordinary bloke but at times comes across as merely vulgar, and the heavy-handed treatment of its "deviancy" theme, it wasn't one for me!

[Yves Lefevre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, although the plot is a little slow in starting and stops a little too abruptly.

[Deb]

At this time I had a boyfriend who worked at the Rue Morgue in Bolder CO so I read a lot of mysteries!

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow, didn't care about the characters, the setting of an English estate turned museum boring.