Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries

by Martin Edwards (Editor)

The English country house is an iconic setting for some of the greatest British crime fiction. This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years, during which British society, and life in country houses, was transformed out of all recognition. It includes fascinating and unfamiliar twists on the classic closed circle plot, in which the assorted guests at a country house party become suspects when a crime is committed. In the more sinister tales featured here, a gloomy mansion set in lonely grounds offers an eerie backdrop for dark deeds.

Many distinguished writers are represented in this collection, including such great names of the genre as Anthony Berkeley, Nicholas Blake and G.K. Chesterton. Martin Edwards has also unearthed hidden gems and forgotten masterpieces: among them are a fine send-up of the country house murder; a suspenseful tale by the unaccountably neglected Ethel Lina White; and a story by the little-known Scottish writer J.J. Bell.

The Copper Beeches / Arthur Conan Doyle --
The problem of Dead Wood Hall / Dick Donovan --
Gentlemen and players / E.W. Hornung --
The well / W.W. Jacobs --
The white pillars murder / G.K. Chesterton --
The secret of Dunstan's Tower / Ernest Bramah --
The manor house mystery / J.S. Fletcher --
The message on the sun-dial / J.J. Bell --
The horror at Staveley Grange / Sapper --
The mystery of Horne's Copse / Anthony Berkeley --
The perfect plan / James Hilton --
The same to us / Margery Allingham --
The murder at the towers / E.V. Knox --
An unlocked window / Ethel Lina White --
The long shot / Nicholas Blake --
Weekend at Wapentake / Michael Gilbert

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Crime, Fiction, Anthologies, Mystery Thriller, British Literature

384 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2016

About the author

Martin Edwards has been described by Richard Osman as ‘a true master of British crime writing.’ He has published twenty-three novels, which include the eight Lake District Mysteries, one of which was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize for best crime novel of the year and four books featuring Rachel Savernake, including the Dagger-nominated Gallows Court and Blackstone Fell, while Gallows Court and Sepulchre Street were shortlisted for the eDunnit award for best crime novel of the year. He is also the author of two multi-award-winning histories of crime fiction, The Life of Crime and The Golden Age of Murder. He has received three Daggers from the Crime Writers’ Association and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America and has also been nominated three times for Gold Daggers. In addition to the CWA Diamond Dagger (the highest honour in UK crime writing) he has received four other lifetime achievement awards: for his fiction, short fiction, non-fiction, and scholarship. He is consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics, a former Chair of the CWA, and since 2015 has been President of the Detection Club.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Probably the best of the British Library crime collections I've read, doubtless because of the near-infinite supply of country house murders. This is a really good selection of which I had only read a couple before. Lovely for a sense of place and time.

[Helga · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside”.
Arthur Conan Doyle

Murder at the Manor is a great collection of classic short stories by authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Berkeley, Margery Allingham and many more. Each story is unique and outstanding; some you may even call spooky.
If you are a fan of classic murder/mystery stories that take place in a British country house, where there are a few people in the house at the time of the murder, where everybody has a solid alibi, where there is a butler who has something to gain and a Lord who has something to lose, then go for it.

[Veronica ⭐️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Murder at the Manor is an anthology of short stories celebrating the British country house mystery. This collection gathers together stories written over a span of roughly sixty-five years.

The book starts with a short history of the use of country houses in murder stories and also includes a brief background on each of the authors.

I loved this anthology of 16 neatly crafted, traditional whodunit cosy mysteries. Some criminals were caught, some got away with their crimes and yet others found themselves with an untimely end. All the stories were clever, unpredictable and carried along at a steady pace, unlike the fast paced thrillers we are used to today, and usually had a clever twist at the end.

If you enjoy stories by the likes of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle you can’t go past this intriguing anthology.

With my thanks to Poisoned Pen Press via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do enjoy these collections of Golden Age mystery stories, in this instance centered on incidents at British Manor Houses, subject of innumerable novels and films for years. Martin Edwards discusses the setting in his introduction and Arthur Conan Doyle addresses the phenomenon in a story included in this collection, as Watson and Holmes discuss a possible case in The Copper Beeches.

'Good heaven's!' I cried. 'Who would associate crime with these dear old
homesteads?
'They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon
my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a
more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside?
'You horrify me!'
'But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the
town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream
of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow does not beget sympathy...
and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close ... and there is but a
step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in
its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know
little of the law. (loc 215)

I enjoyed virtually all of these stories, with my lowest personal rating being a 3* for three of the fifteen. My favorites are The Secret of Dunstan's Tower by Ernest Bramah featuring his blind detective Max Carrados; A Horror at Stavely Grange by J.S.Fletcher, a "who and how" done it; The Mystery of Horne's Copse by Anthony Berkeley Cox; The Murder at the Towers By E.V.Knox which I found very witty; and The Unlocked Window by Ethel Lina White, an effective suspense story even if I did guess a bit before the ending.

I heartily recommend this collection for those who enjoy traditional British mysteries or want to give them a try. If you require hard action and lots of gore, this may not be for you. If you've enjoyed some Christie or Sayers or Doyle, etc., I suggest you give this and/or other of Martin Edwards edited collections a try. Lots of fun and good leads for future reading.


A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cozy in the Country Redux
Review of the U.S. Poisoned Pen Press eBook edition (February 2, 2016) of the U.K. Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries British Library Crime Classics original (February 1, 2016)

The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside. - Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

[3.875 average rating of the 16 stories, rounded up to a GR 4 star]
I saw this listed as a Kindle Deal of the Day back in November 2024 and thought... haven't I read this already? When I checked, I found that I had started an after-the-fact review which I ended up abandoning as Cozy in the Country. I eventually learned my lesson that the best way to rate a short story collection is to rate each one as I go through it, rather than wait to the end when I barely remember them if I don't have the benefit of notes.

Editor Martin Edwards does a good job with his short bios for each author and includes interesting historical tidbits. I did find it disappointing that the original story sources and dates weren't provided in every single case. There was an almost century long variety here, stretching from Conan Doyle in 1892 to Michael Gilbert in 1971.

This still came out with an average 4 rating, which was also my sense back in 2019. I did enjoy re-reading this over the holidays even though it wasn't one of my typical Christmas themed BLCC reads.

The following individual ratings and synopses provide set-ups only and do not reveal endings, so I have not spoiler blocked them.

1. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches **** by Arthur Conan Doyle from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). The Holmes and Watson duo investigate the suspicious circumstances under which a young woman has been engaged as a governess at The Copper Beeches estate.

2. The Problem of Dead Wood Hall *** by Dick Donovan pen-name of James Edward Preston Muddock. No source is given for the story which could be from any of the 1886-1922 Dick Donovan stories. The fictional detective Dick Donovan investigates the deaths of two men who were apparently poisoned by an unknown substance based on the evidence of a bluish scratch on their necks found at the autopsies.

3. Gentlemen and Players *** by E.W. Hornung from Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (Raffles #1, 1899). Raffles and partner Bunny attend a cricket match at a country estate, where they are planning to do a jewel robbery. They discover their nemesis Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard is on the case seeking to prevent thefts. There was a lot of cricket terminology in this one which went over my head. Hornung was the brother-in-law of Conan Doyle.

4. The Well *** by W.W. Jacobs, best known as the writer of the classic The Monkey's Paw (1902). Unknown source for this story. Two cousins come into conflict when one tires to blackmail the other. A few weeks later, one of them is reluctant to retrieve his bride’s heirloom bracelet from the abandoned well on his property.

5. The White Pillars Murder *** by G.K. Chesterton, best known as the creator of the Father Brown mysteries. Unknown source for this story. Criminologist Dr. Adrian Hyde mentors two student detectives. He sends them out to investigate a murder at the White Pillars estate, where they arrive at a shocking revelation.

6. The Secret of Dunstan’s Tower **** by Ernest Bramah. This story originally appeared in The Eyes of Max Carrados (1923). Blind detective Max Carrados is asked to investigate a possible house haunting from which a legend says that it will herald a future death in the resident family.

7. The Manor House Mystery ***** by J.S. Fletcher. Story source unknown. Investigator Marshford is in the sitting-room at a country hotel pondering the murder of Septimus Walshawe when, one by one, several individuals arrive and provide various clues which may lead to different possible culprits.

8. The Message on the Sun-Dial ***** by J.J. Bell. Story source unknown. Detectives are baffled when a dying man leaves a message in his own blood on the sun-dial nearby to where he was murdered. It looks like the numbers 1306804. Meanwhile, cousin Bolsover stands to inherit £20,000.

9. The Horror at Staveley Grange ***** by Sapper, the pen-name of Herman Cyril McNeile, best known as the creator of private detective Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond. In this non-Drummond story, two members of a family have died due to an apparent haunting. Standish is called out to solve the mystery before the last member of the family meets the same fate.

10. The Mystery of Horne’s Copse ***** by Anthony Berkeley. Amateur detective Roger Sheringham tries to help his old Oxford acquaintance solve the mystery of why he found his cousin’s body in the middle of a forest copse three times, the first two of which looked like hoaxes, but the last of which caused the police to suspect him of an actual crime.

11. The Perfect Plan *** by James Hilton, best known for his books adapted for film such as Good-bye, Mr. Chips and Lost Horizon. The secretary to a magnate plans and carries out the perfect murder of his boss, but will he be undone through his own paranoia?

12. The Same to Us *** by Margery Allingham, best known as the creator of the amateur detective Albert Campion. This non-Campion story is from 1934, without a specified source. An eminent Chinese physicist/mathematician is invited to an exclusive house party. But then there is a jewellery theft.

13. The Murder at the Towers *** by E.V. Knox, who was the brother of Ronald Knox who wrote The Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction. This story is a comic parody of the country house murder and its standard amateur detective.

14. An Unlocked Window ***** by Ethel Lina White, writer of The Wheel Spins (1936) which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as The Lady Vanishes (1938). Two nurses are left alone in an isolated mansion at the same time as there is an insane murderer on the loose who targets nurses. This story was also adapted as a TV episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1965), which was one of “TV’s scariest episodes” as quoted by editor Martin Edwards.

15. The Long Shot **** by Nicholas Blake, penname of Cecil Day-Lewis who was the father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis, and also the creator of the sleuth Nigel Strangeways. Strangeways is attending a gathering at the estate of his old friend Gervase Musbury when suddenly the host falls out of a tree and murder is suspected.

16. Weekend at Wapentake **** by Michael Gilbert author of Stay of execution, and other stories of legal practice, (1971) which includes this story. Lawyer Henry Bohun tells a tale about visiting the house of a murdered man and realizing that the reason for the murder is a lost play Kenilworth by Shakespeare. Sir Walter Scott wrote Kenilworth (1821) on the same subject as the supposed play.

Trivia and Links
The British Library Crime Classics series are reprints of forgotten titles from the 1860's through to the 1950's. You can see a list at the British Library Crime Classics Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a Goodreads Listopia for the series which you can see here.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murderers, maniacs and things that go bump in the night...

Another in the British Library Crime Classics series, this is the third anthology of short stories edited by Martin Edwards, following Capital Crimes, stories set in London, and Resorting to Murder, stories with a holiday theme. This one, as the title makes obvious, is full of stories set in the traditional country house, so beloved of murderers that one can't help but wonder why all the owners didn't sell up and move into a nice little cottage somewhere. Though no doubt the twisted crime writers of the time would have tracked them down even there...

As Edwards says in his introduction, the country house is an ideal setting for the 'closed circle' type of mystery, where the suspects are defined by their presence in the house. It's from this that the old cliché of “the butler did it” arises, though in fact this rarely was the solution. (In one of these stories, though, the butler did indeed do it, but I'm not telling which one...)

Several of the stories come from the Golden Age between the two wars, but there are also earlier and later ones. Many of the authors who appeared in the previous collections turn up again here and, as usual, they range from household names to the pretty much forgotten. One thing I've found, as I've read more of these short stories and some of the novels the British Library has revived, is that there's a good reason for why some authors have remained popular while others have faded from the public consciousness. While the anthologies are interesting for seeing how the genre developed over time, there's no doubt that the quality of the stories is variable, and with a few exceptions the better ones are from the authors whose names are still more familiar.

Although all of the stories contain a crime, some of them are really more horror than detective and, in fact, I tended to enjoy these more. Overall, I found this collection a little less enjoyable than the other two, though whether that's because the average quality is lower or just that I've surfeited on vintage crime for the moment, I'm not sure. However, as always, there are enough good stories to make the collection well worth reading. I'm not sure reading all of these anthologies so close together does them proper justice, but I do recommend them individually, depending on what setting you prefer to satisfy your murderous impulses... 3½ stars for me, so rounded up.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Paul Secor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This anthology is a reminder of why people still read and love Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes tales; why Holmes, Watson, and Conan Doyle are still revered; and why the vast majority of the other authors included have been forgotten.
One Conan Doyle Holmes story is included here, "The Copper Beeches". To my mind, it's not one of his best, but it leaves the other stories in this anthology in the dust.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another volume of British Library Crime Classics. This is a collection of country house mysteries ranging from "The Copper Beeches" by Arthur Conan Doyle to "Weekend at Wapentake" by Michael Gilbert. There are stories featuring Raffles ("Gentlemen and Players") and Max Carrados ("The Secret of Dunstan's Tower"), stories involving lesser-known characters by Sapper ("The Horror at Staveley Grange") and G.K. Chesterton ("The White Pillars Murders"). This is a very good mix of stories, styles, and authors, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A few of my favorites:

"The Copper Beeches" by Arthur Conan Doyle - Do I need to explain this? Sherlock Holmes is always fun.

"The White Pillars Murders" by G. K. Chesterton features a detective I have never heard of, Dr. Adrian Hyde, who is totally unlike Father Brown - tall, gangling, and awkward with a taste for the finer things in life. The case is actually solved by his two young assistants, who are World War I veterans. The solution to the crime is very surprising.

"The Secret of Dunstan's Tower" by Ernest Bramah concerns a mysterious bloodstain that appears on a staircase whenever a member of the Aynosforde family is about to die. Max Carrados is called in by a former school friend to investigate when the bloodstain appears, threatening the life of the elderly Mrs Aynosforde.

"The Manor House Mystery" by J.S. Fletcher is a traditional mystery with a neat little twist.

"The Horror at Staveley Grange" by Sapper features Ronald Standish, who is referred to as Sapper's "second-string hero." He is called in by an old friend to investigate the deaths of her fiance's father and older brother, and keep the same thing happening to the young man. The method of murder is rather bizarre and hard to believe, but the story is entertaining.

"The Mystery of Horne's Copse" by Anthony Berkeley features his amateur detective, Roger Sheringham, and Chief Inspector Moresby. It's a complex story with a lot of twists and turns. It was originally published as a magazine serial, which explains a lot. Personally, I think it ran on a little long, but it was still a good story.

"The Perfect Plan" by James Hilton - Hilton is best known as the author of Goodbye Mr Chips, Lost Horizon, and Random Harvest. However, he also wrote the occasional mystery (Murder At School). This is one of my favorite stories in the book - the tale of a much put-upon man who kills his employee in what he believes to be the perfect murder plot. However, there's a catch. Great ending.

"An Unlocked Window" by Ethel Lina White - White is best known as the author of Some Must Watch (filmed as "The Spiral Staircase") and The Wheel Spins (filmed as "The Lady Vanishes"). This story is about a nurse who is watching over an invalid in an otherwise empty house. The doctor on the case has called in another nurse to help her. Meanwhile, there is a serial killer loose - a medical student with a grudge against nurses. This is a well-written, truly scary story with a wonderful twist at the end. This is my favorite story of the entire volume.

The reason this book only gets four stars from me is simple - there is no index and the table of contents does not list page numbers. The book title is listed at the top of every page rather than the title of the story. This makes finding a particular story rather difficult. I have no idea why they did that, but it's annoying.

Otherwise, this is a very good collection of mystery stories and well worth trying.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with so many (most) (the vast majority of) story collections, this has high highs and low lows and quite a lot in between; I can't remember the last time I read a collection in which I loved every story. So often the way with story collections. The best thing about this one is that it provided a list of authors to be pursued later. (And a few to remember to ignore.)

There's something about the English manor house that just cries out to have murder mysteries set in it. Wealthy people cavorting are such a tempting target, and then there are the occasional fish out of water, the person of middle–class or American or other foreigner trying to stay afloat in alien waters (that's a mixed metaphor, isn't it…), people sneaking around the hallways at night conducting clandestine affairs, and of course the servants who must be avoided, got around, and taken into account. Many rooms, plenty of acreage, so many places to hide – so many rooms to get locked into and then murdered.

A couple were kind of brilliant – I loved "The Mystery of Horne's Copse"; that was a page-turner.

And I learned a couple of things. A Zingari blazer is something I've never heard of, but I've seen 'em. (They're not forgettable.) I still don't know what an "I.Z. tour" is, but "clock golf" is "a form of golf in which you putt from positions arranged on the circumference of a circle around the hole". Thus endeth my annotations.

I adored the line "there stood on this table a thing not often met with in a private house in England. It was a small, portable electric fan, such as one finds on board ship or in the tropics." Great scott! A fan! Revolutionary!

And I enjoyed the sort of meta fourth-wall-breaking "Mr. Ponderby–Wilkins was a man so rich, so ugly, so cross, and so old, that even the stupidest reader could not expect him to survive any longer than Chapter I. Vulpine in his secretiveness, he was porcine in his habits, saturnine in his appearance, and ovine in his unconsciousness of doom. He was the kind of man who might easily perish as early as paragraph two."

Overall, very worthwhile.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

[Sherwood Smith]

Copy provided by NetGalley

For the last several months I've been enjoying these short stories whose publishing history ranges roughly over sixty-five years, the heyday of the British country house mystery, written by names still famous today, and writers once famed and now fading.

Martin Edwards has written an engaging and informative introduction, and at the start of each story gives more specifics about each writer, highlighting their most famous works, and sometimes why this particular story was chosen. I was glad to see that the anthology was not comprised of the most famous stories by each author, often seen in many anthologies; though I recognized a number of authorial names, every one of the stories was new to me.

The early ones show the relative roughness of the form as mystery writers were beginning to assemble their tropes. Somewhere along the line the English mystery shifted from its pulpy origins to an acceptable literary game for the respected auteur, though the funniest story in the entire group, penned by E.V. Knox (brother of Ronald Knox, and editor of Punch) pokes fun at the subgenre with a hilarious deftness. The prose and characterizations show a steady advancement in polish and sophistication over the course of the anthology, though those early ones are not without charm and vigor.

The anthology offers a wide range of types of country house mysteries, from horror to psychological puzzle, locked room to dying clue; female writers as well as male, though male writers (and sleuths) form the preponderance here. Some of these sleuths are posh, others everyman; they range from two-fisted adventurers to plump bon vivants, and of course there are the police and Scotland Yard detectives.

Altogether it's a winner of an anthology, even for someone--like me--who doesn't read many mysteries. I found myself intrigued by the variety as well as the introductory data (which sent me looking up some promising reads that I never otherwise would have heard of), and I enjoyed the bite-sized tales, suitable for reading in a single evening when one is too tired, or too distracted, to sink into the length of a novel.

Because there was an effort made to select lesser-known works by famous people, as well as significant stories by lesser-known writers, I would say that this anthology would appeal to the dedicated mystery reader as well as to the now-and-then mystery reader like me.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy.

There is something about these dark, late autumn evenings that are perfect for a bit of old fashioned mystery and suspense. Murder at the Manor – edited by Martin Edwards brings together a fabulous collection of short stories, mysteries that are set in that favourite golden age setting of the country house. As Edwards explains in his introduction, country house crime stories remain as popular as ever. Their appeal is driven particularly by nostalgia for a bygone era. The stories in this collection were written over a period of approximately sixty-five years, and cover a period in which society in Britain and life in those country houses was changing. These stories therefore cover a period before, after and naturally during that period typically referred to as the Golden Age of crime fiction. There are some real gems in this collection, with several well-known authors of these kinds of tales, including Arthur Conan Doyle, E W Hornung, G K Chesterton, Margery Allingham, Ethel Lina White and Nicholas Blake.

It is always hard to review an entire collection of stories, so rather than trying to talk about each story – I will endeavour to give just a flavour of this superb collection, which I just loved. Each story is prefaced with a short bio of the author, setting the story which follows in the context of the author’s body of work. Several of the authors were new to me, some old friends.

In this collection we are treated to a glorious mixture of mystery story ingredients, country house parties, poison, jealousy, strange inscriptions, bizarre and unexplained phenomenon, wills, suspense, jewel theft, amateur sleuths and ingenious policemen.

Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2015/...

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of Golden Age mystery short stories compiled by Martin Edwards. All the stories take place in a country house, which is of course the quintessential setting for these mysteries, especially if a butler is in attendance.

The collection includes stories by the masters such as Conan Doyle, Chesterton and Nicholas Blake, but it was lovely to find some real gems by lesser known authors. Of these I particularly enjoyed three stories
- The Well by W. W. Jacobs
- The Perfect Plan by James Hilton
- The Murder at the Towers by E. V. Knox
The first two built up the tension well, only to have a sudden unexpected twist of fortune that shattered the murderer’s plan and ensured justice was done, and the third one was a witty parody of the genre with the wonderful detective Bletherby Marge.

These collections can sometimes be a bit variable, but this was a strong one and I enjoyed dipping into the stories.

[PugMom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of "manor house" mysteries. Short enough to read in one sitting when the mood strikes. Gives you a taste of some authors you might not have read before or even heard of! I highly recommend!

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this anthology of short murder mystery stories, by several different authors and in different styles - some with police investigators, others had private detectives solving the crime, most had the murderer caught and punished, at least one where the murderer got away with it! Some were traditional, a few had scary or psychological twists - definitely something for everyone!

I recognized several of the author’s names - like Arthur Conan Doyle, Margery Allingham and G.K. Chesterton - and several new names have come to my attention through the GR group, Reading the Detectives. This was a great opportunity to try out each author’s style to see if I’d like to read further mysteries penned by them. I will admit, even in a good collection like this, some stories held my attention better then others, and I usually only read one or two stories at a time - similar settings and plot devices made it seem repetitive otherwise. I couldn’t help wondering if it was because I’ve read so many mysteries (they are my favorite genre), that I kind of saw where things were heading, or because these writers have penned some of the most iconic stories, and they have been borrowed from so often, that it’s hard NOT to know whodunnit?

No matter - for fans of the genre, or if you want to dip in and out and be entertained and try out some lesser known but no less deserving mystery writers, these British Library Crime Classics anthologies are great fun. I’ll be looking for more to enjoy, even though I read this one for the Book for All Seasons challenge to read an anthology.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually don't like books like this, with different authors, some I've never heard of. I'll admit it, I'm a reading snob. I like stories, long or short, that have an ending that makes sense; which is why I don't like psychological thrillers. In those, the criminal does the deed for no other reason than he/she simply wants to. I want a clear reason: Colonel Mustard in the dining room with the rope for the inheritance in the will.
So, having said all that, let me say that I was stunned to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book! All the stories were entertaining, had well rounded believable characters, red herrings in a concise plot and a villain the reader loves to hate. Some had funny dialogue, some romance and one or two even had a ghost. What's not to love? Only one failed to grab me from the first page, but even that one was worth sticking with it once it got going.
The editor, Martin Edwards, gave a brief biography on each author at the beginning of each story, and even those were interesting.
I highly recommend this book, even to reading snobs like me. Oh, and on the editor's ability to lure in, if not actually convert a reading snob, BRAVO, MR. EDWARDS, BRAVO!!!

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not a bit like those delightful detective stories. In a detective story all the people in the house are gaping imbeciles, who can't understand anything, and in the midst stands the brilliant sleuth who understands everything. Here am I standing in the midst, a brilliant sleuth, and I believe, on my soul, I'm the only person in the house who doesn't know all about the crime.
~"The White Pillars Murder"

Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries (2016) edited by Martin Edwards is another fine addition to the British Library Crime Classics series which brings back into print short stories and novels from the classic age of detective fiction. Stories which have in most cases been out of print for far too long. Most of them come from the Golden Age--the period between the world wars--with a few from earlier and later. All them are worthy examples of that grand tradition of bringing together groups of people for a weekend or so at large home in the British countryside to dress for dinner, have a party, and...most likely...witness or commit murder.

We start with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and end with Michael Gilbert and in between we find well-known authors such as G. K. Chesterton and Nicholas Blake as well as names that most readers will find unfamiliar--Dick Donovan, J. J. Bell, and possibly J. S. Fletcher. As with all collections, the quality varies, but Edwards is quite good at selecting stories in a more narrow range of excellence. Overall, an entertaining look at a delightful sub-genre of crime fiction. My favorites include "The Murder at the Towers" by E.V. Knox; "The Perfect Plan" by James Hilton; "The Mystery of Horne's Corpse" by Anthony Berkeley; and "The Message on the Sun-Dial" by J. J. Bell (roughly in that order). ★★★★

A synopsis of the stories:

"The Copper Beaches" by Doyle: The Holmes classic which emphasizes the Great Detective's commentary on evil in the countryside--"But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folks who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser."

"The Problem of Dead Wood Hall" by Dick Donovan: Two men who had paid court to the same woman die in mysterious circumstances. No evidence is found to prove accident, natural causes, or murder, but our narrator has a go at find the answer. He's sure that two murders have gone unavenged--but will he be able to find the evidence to bring the villain to justice?

"Gentlemen & Players" by E. W. Hornung: Raffles, the Gentleman Thief, plots to steal a coveted necklace from under the nose of a Scotland Yard man delegated to defend the jewels from another well-known thief. Bunny thinks his friend should concentrate on cricket while the Yard is on the hunt, but those sparkling diamonds and sapphires are difficult to resist....

"The Well" by W. W. Jacobs: A man murders a blackmailing hanger-on who might spoil his chances at matrimonial bliss. But he learns (the hard way) that you really shouldn't hide the body on your own property. And especially not somewhere that your lady-love might lose a precious bracelet.

"The White Pillars Murder" by G. K. Chesterton (not a Father Brown story): Dr. Adrian Hyde, an unorthodox detective, has taken on two assistants/apprentices and sends them to White Pillars to discover who has killed Melchior Morse. In the course of their investigations, they decide that maybe detecting is not the life for them after all.

"The Secret of Dunstan's Tower" by Ernest Bramah: Bramah's blind sleuth, Max Carrados, is called upon by his friend Dr. Tulloch to get to the bottom of a "ghostly" haunting that is causing his patient to slowly slide towards death. Carrados is certain there is a villainous human hand at work.

"The Manor House Mystery" by J. S. Fletcher: featuring the mystery of Septimus Walshawe who has died of poisoning. It is inconceivable that the man has committed suicide, but no one is able to discover the method--until our detective Marshford arrives on the scene. But was it murder after all?

"The Message on the Sun-Dial" by J. J. Bell: A dying man leaves an illegible scrawl on the nearby sundial as a pointer to his murderer. Will anyone be able to decipher it?

"The Horror at Stavely Grange" by Sapper: Ronald Standish is called upon to discover how two men in the Mansford family have met their deaths...before another Stavely Grange heir falls victim.

"The Mystery of Horne's Corpse" by Anthony Berkeley: A man keeps finding the corpse of his cousin (and the man who would be his heir). But when he brings the authorities to examine the body, it disappears. Is he going crazy? Or is someone trying to drive him there?

"The Perfect Plan" by James Hilton: As the title suggests, a man devises the perfect plan to murder his hated employer. He follows through on it and, to all appearances, gets clean away with it. But his own conscience puts a spoke in his wheels.

"The Same to Us" by Margery Allignham: Mrs. Molesworth scores a social coup when she convinces the Chinese scientist, Dr. Koo Fin, to attend one of her week-end parties. It's just her luck that burglars strike on that very weekend.

"The Murder at the Towers" by E.V. Knox: A marvelous send-up of the country house plot. Great fun from the first line: "Mr. Ponderby-Wilkins was a man so rich, so ugly, so cross, and so old, that even the stupidest reader could not expect him to survive any longer than Chapter I."

"An Unlocked Window" by Ethel Lina White: Domestic suspense in the form of two nurses alone with a patient in an isolated house. There is a serial killer on the loose with a preference for those nightingales in white....

"The Long Shot" by Nicholas Blake: The lord of the manor is killed--poisoned by ginger-beer that it seems nobody could have poisoned. Nigel Strangeways uses a handkerchief to get the culprit to give her/himself away.

"Weekend at Wapentake" by Michael Gilbert: A couple of servants do murder for the sake of an inheritance...that they wouldn't have gotten anyway.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. The Copper Beeches - A.C. Doyle - Violet Hunter, governess, needs Holmes opinion on whether she should accept a position.
2. The Problem of Deadwood Hall - D. Donovan - Two deaths, by an unknown poison, two years apart. By whom and why.
3. Gentlemen and Players - E.W. Horning - Can Raffles succeed in his plan.
4. The Well - W.W. Jacobs- What happens when Carr tries to blackmail his cousin, Benson.
5. The White Pillars Murder - G.K. Chesterton - who did kill Melchior Morse.
6. The Secret of Dunstan's Tower - E. Bramah - Blind detective Carrados investigates the curse at the tower from 1662.
7. The Manor House Mystery - J.S. Fletcher - By whom and why was Walshawe poisoned.
8. The Message on the Sun-dial - J.J. Bell - An indebt cousin meets his wealthy cousin at the sundial.
9. The Horror at Staveley Grange - Sapper - Can private detective Ronald Standish find the murderer.
10. The Mystery of Horne's Copse - A.Berkeley - 1931 twice now Hugh Chappell has discovered his cousin's body in Horne's Copse, and the body disappears. Then he is found dead. Roger Sheringham investigates
11. The Perfect Plan - J. Hilton - Secretary Scarsdale plans the perfect murder of his boss.
12. The Same To Us - M. Allingham - Mrs Molesworth 'sweekend party includes the famous Dr Koo Fin. But who steals her diamonds.
13. The Murder at the Towers - E.V. Knot - Amateur detective Bletherby Marge is asked to solve the murder of unlikeable Ponderby-Wilkins.
14. An Unlocked Window - E.L. White - A person is killing nurses.
15. The Long Shot - N. Blake - Who killed Musbury.
16. Weekend at Wapentake - M. Gilbert - Who will inherit what.
An entertaining set of short stories.

[Farseer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of 16 reprinted crime stories set in British country houses. Mostly focused on the Golden Age of Detection. This is one of the anthologies edited by Martin Edwards and published in the British Library Crime Classics series. (One minor complaint, Mr. Edwards: I would have liked to see the year of publication of each story).

I'm giving it 5 stars. I guess objectively 4 would be appropriate, after all many of the stories are not perfect, but when I enjoy every single story in a collection by different writers I have to reward that. Overall, quite solid, atmospheric and well-written, even if the mysteries were not always the greatest.

The stories are:

Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Copper Beeches”: A Sherlock Holmes story. Quite an intriguing situation and an entertaining tale, although not one of the best stories in the canon because it seems easy to guess what was going on and Holmes did not get to do that much detecting.

Dick Donovan’s “The Problem of Dead Wood Hall”: Contrasting with the impossibly bright detectives in other stories, a very down to earth and matter-of-fact first-person narration by the investigator. Again, quite enjoyable, although once more the guilty party seems evident (and the police look rather incompetent for not seeing it). I guess that in a short story it's difficult to plant red herrings. There's just not much room. Still, it turns out that the interest is not in who did it but on whether it will be proven to a jury's satisfaction. One of the problems of Golden Age detection, of course: as soon as the detective exposes the fault in the murderer's alibi and makes the accusation, the murderer confesses, even though a theory is one thing and proof is a different one. Not so here.

E. W. Hornung’s “Gentlemen and Players”: features a crook as protagonist: Raffles. As always in this anthology, good writing and a very enjoyable atmosphere. The plot is fine, if nothing extremely special.

W.W. Jacobs’ “The Well”: No detective here; just a very good psychological story about a crime, a bit in the vein of The Tell-Tale Heart. And the moral of this story is: don't hide the body inside your property.

G.K. Chesterton’s “The White Pillars Murder”: Not a Father Brown story, but one involving the detective Dr. Adrian Hyde, and particularly his two assistants. The resolution is on the nonsensical side, with one of the assistant solving the puzzle with just a flash of inspiration and insight, with no real investigation. However, I have to confess that I enjoyed the rather outrageous solution.

Ernest Bramah's “The Secret of Dunstan’s Tower”: The blind detective Max Carrados works on a problem about a seemingly haunted manor. Blood appears at night on the stairs, every night one step higher, and when it reaches the top floor there will be a death, according to tradition. A very intriguing premise, although as sometimes happens you have to wonder how no one else was able to find out what was going on. A thrilling but not really practical way to commit a crime.

J.S. Fletcher’s “The Manor House Mystery”: A good mystery with several turns of the screw as new information becomes available and changes the case. Once more, very enjoyable, and my only reservation is that the investigator did nothing. His role was just receiving news.

J.J. Bell’s “The Message on the Sun-Dial”: Another psychological tale from the point of view of the criminal. Quite good, although the resolution, involving a "dying message clue" was not the best part.

Sapper's “The Horror at Staveley Grange”: A haunted room where two healthy men died of heart failure, and a suspect who asks for the detective's help. It's a recurring theme in the anthology: well-written and atmospheric. Once again, the crime turns out to be more thrilling than practical. Those Golden Age criminals sure came up with convoluted ways of murdering!

Anthony Berkeley's “The Mystery of Horne’s Copse”: A really good story about someone who keeps finding a murdered corpse, only to have the body disappear as he tries to alert the police. The longest story in the book and enjoyable throughout. Once you know the solution, though, you have to wonder at how many things could go wrong with the criminals' plan.

James Hilton’s “The Perfect Plan”: Another excellent story about an almost perfect murder, also with psychological content. This time, the murderer's plan is better thought-out, although not lacking in complexity and spectacularity.

Margery Allingham’s “The Same to Us”: Quite short story with no detective, which paint an amusing portrait of a vain hostess.

E.V. Knox’s “The Murder at the Towers”: An outright but fond parody of the Golden Age manor crime story. There's a lot of room for parody there, and I found this short tale quite funny.

Ethel Lina White’s “The Unlocked Window”: Yet another very good psychological tale, this time from the point of view of an increasingly terrified nurse who is the next victim chosen by a maniac serial murderer.

Nicholas Blake's “The Long Shot”; A classic country manor murder story. Not the best in the book but quite adequate.

Michael Gilbert’s “Weekend at Wapentake”: Another tale with more focus on the horror of the crime than on the detection, with a couple of servants who murder the old lady they are taking care of.

[Toast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another superb collection of classic detective fiction in short story form using the Manor House Mystery as its theme. These are just great. I do love these British Library Crime Classics, right down to the covers.
Toast

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of crime stories from the first part of the twentieth century all set in and around English country houses. I have to confess I found some of the stories just didn't hold my attention but two of them were really excellent.

The Anthony Berkeley story about a man who keeps finding his cousin apparently dead is ingenious and the solution relatively simple when all is revealed by the inimitable Roger Sheringham.

I also enjoyed the Michael Gilbert story which features a will and some interesting legal problems. Gilbert is an author I've not read before but I shall certainly be looking out for more by him after reading this story.

This is an interesting collection and there are some good stories in it though some I felt were a little long. The book is worth reading for the two stories I have mentioned above. I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley for review.

[Rebekah Giese Witherspoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Ponderby-Wilkins was a man so rich, so ugly, so cross, and so old, that even the stupidest reader could not expect him to survive any longer than Chapter I. Vulpine in his secretiveness, he was porcine in his habits, saturnine in his appearance, and ovine in his unconsciousness of doom. He was the kind of man who might easily perish as early as paragraph two.

This wonderful collection of whodunit short stories was a great way to sample many new-to-me mystery authors without the time commitment of reading a full-length novel. And I really enjoyed the country house settings.

Recommended for: Fans of Golden Age mysteries.

Where I found it: Library ebook.

[EuroHackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found this collection to be quite disappointing. So much BS only tangentially related to the country house setting, and some pretty terrible humor to boot. Only 4 of the (new to me, having previously read the entire Holmes canon) stories were standouts:

*The Secret of Dunstan's Tower by Ernest Bramah - series character, the blind detective Max Carrados
*The Horror at Staveley Grange by Sapper - series character Ronald Stanish
*The Same to Us by Margery Allingham - a standalone short that takes on classism and racism still alive and well today, unfortunately
*The Long Shot by Nicholas Blake - series character Nigel Strangeways

[Cindy Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for anyone who loves Golden Age mysteries! They were not terribly complicated mysteries because these were the original stories that featured tropes which are regularly used in mysteries now, but they were engaging and well-written. It introduced me to some new (or rather old) writers that I had never heard of, and now I want to find more of their stories.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me months ago: I loved Martin Edwards’ Resorting to Murder so much, I think I’m going to pick up a few more of his collections. I might have a new editor to watch for!
Me now, fresh out of library books: Why the hell do I own so many compilations?!



This being the first in a line of Martin Edwards short story compilations to come, I’m not sure what to think of his choices now that I can see several tables of contents at once. On the one hand, it’s promising that there’s an Arthur Conan Doyle story right off the bat. It shows that he’s not so concerned with finding ‘hidden gems’ from lesser known authors that he avoids the successful writers. On the other hand, the first story in Resorting to Murder was also a Conan Doyle. So are the firsts in Serpents in Eden , Continental Crimes , and all the other compilations I’ve picked up. I’m not sure if he just loves Doyle, if it was a requirement of his contract with the publishers, or if he’s trying to stimulate a feeling of comfort and familiarity in the reader. (Maybe the Sherlock Holmes fandom is like the more recent Supernatural fandom - instead of having a gif for everything, there’s a murder for everything.)

So the chosen Conan Doyle story on our first go-round is The Copper Beeches, a tale of a governess who takes a post at a home in the countryside where some very strange rules must be followed and her new master’s personality takes a frightening turn. While the actual plot was well put together, the first section of story involved a great deal of Holmes making fun of Watson's writing skills. ('[...] emerged in no very sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings.' [p.-]) It was Holmes at his most obnoxious and I wish I would have known in time to skip those first few pages. Again, though, the actual story was enjoyable.

The Problem of the Dead Wood Hall (by Dick Donovan) is that the death of a wealthy guest matches perfectly the earlier death of a completely unrelated man. Apart from the fascinating descriptions and the generous time spent setting up the investigation, the story sets itself apart by being a well thought-out plotline that was as realistic as it was entertaining.

Conan Doyle's brother-in-law, E.W. Hornung, created the gentleman thief Raffles for his mysteries. I've been wanting to get my hands on some Raffles stories for years, but never put much effort into it since, for whatever reason, my regional library system only stocks Hornung's work in French. Gentlemen and Players didn't leave me especially interested, so maybe it's for the best. In it, Raffles and his associate get themselves invited to a weekend of cricket and a shot at robbing the wealthy houseguests, but they aren't the only thieves in residence. The best that I can say is that, unlike Christie's accursed bridge games, you don't need to understand cricket to understand the plot.

W.W. Jacobs, author of The Monkey's Paw, gives us the horror/mystery of The Well, where a woman's fiancé finally ends his personal plague of a greedy, dishonest friend. It bears enough similarities to a Poe story we're all familiar with that I naturally won't title-drop it, but also shares a technique of Poe's I love wherein we know what happened and the drive of the plot is the ticking clock of discovery and madness.

I've been learning new words in my reading choices lately, which I'm finding delightful. The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse taught me that carse is a Scottish word for 'fertile lowland alongside a river', bulldozing my way through K.J. Charles's Society of Gentlemen series has taught me a measure of delightful period terms for sex acts, and G.K. Chesterson's The White Pillars Murder has added 'polymath' to my education, which is 'a person knowledgeable in a variety of subjects'. Sadly the new word is about all I enjoyed out of it. Two amateur detectives in training are sent out to stumble their way through their first solo investigation. It's a little silly and the characters aren't terribly likeable.

In addition to learning 'polymath', The Secret of Dunstan's Tower by Ernest Bramah and his blind detective have taught me about the explosive properties of nitrogen iodide. Seriously, I had to look that stuff up, because not knowing what it was made the climax rather confusing for me. Its stable as a liquid but when you allow it to dry the slightest touch, even with a feather, will set off a small explosion. I'm definitely going to have to remember that for future reference. But as the detective was in town to investigate a family curse coming true, I must say that, for the weak writing and required understanding of chemistry, the curse was thought out and extremely interesting. I'll forget the story in a few days, but this is a damn good curse. It really went the extra mile to make it memorable for the following generations.

J.S. Fletcher's The Manor House Mystery unfortunately sorts itself out on its own. Several people over the course of the story walk into a man's office offering information and suspects, until finally one arrives with the solution. The protagonist doesn't contribute a thing. Is the man a clever and capable detective, or just a popular sounding board for his friends? You decide.

The Message on the Sun-Dial by J.J. Bell was interesting and entertaining, but I can’t help but feel that the ending was too sudden. There was a great deal of room to stretch out that last scene. A man dies, leaving a cryptic series of numbers scrawled in blood at the base of a sundial. There could have been a great deal stuck between the discovery and the solution (most of the story was set-up), including the search for what the numbers might have been, i.e. a code, a combination, etc.

Sapper's The Horror at Staveley Grange reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes story but I can't remember which one. You'll probably know the one I mean when you read this one. There's something about elaborate night time terrors that's so textbook Conan Doyle. Apart from that, the plot was ingenious, and I quite admired how the killer thought it out (i.e. if I do this, the victim will likely do this, so I must do this, which will make them do this, which will enable me to do this...). It was put together like that board game, Mouse Trap, but with a more consistent success rate. A young lady calls on a friend to look into an deadly haunting that killing off the relatives of her fiancé.

The Mystery at Horne's Copse (by Anthony Berkeley) seems fairly obvious to the police. A man calls them multiple times, claiming to have found his cousin's dead body on the trails outside his home, but each time there's no corpse, only the paranoid, increasingly disturbed caller. Not only is the plot great, but because the story was published as a serial each short chapter is sharp and ends on a cliffhanger. It's an entertaining format, and it was very interesting to see such a well-written portrayal of a man slowly going mad.

The Perfect Plan by James Hilton lays out the killer within the first sentence, and the story is about the ‘why’ and the ‘what next’. A man is murdered by his secretary.

I’d read The Same to Us by Margery Allingham somewhere before and it was just as funny this second time. A theft occurs during a high-society party.

I was prepared to not like E.V. Knox's The Murder at the Towers. I don't care for mystery parodies/satires as I've never read a one that didn't stray too far into farcical. A detective is called in to investigate a silly and improbable murder and, much to my surprise, rounds things up with a clever twist ending that managed to startle a laugh out of me, and gave me a great deal more respect for the author's skills.

I've read An Unlocked Window by Ethel Lina White somewhere before, and absolutely adore it. It's got a rising tension and a clever twist, and a very satisfying ending. After a series of unfortunate coincidences a pair of home carers find themselves alone and vulnerable in their employer's home while a serial killer is on the loose.

Nicholas Blake's The Long Shot was one of my favorites of the book, simply because I've noticed that most of the others were enjoyable for me not as a whole, but through one or two remarkable aspects. In The Long Shot, a weekend party kills its host during a shooting game. The mystery is perplexing and the solution is clever, and the cast is enjoyable. It was a well-rounded, memorable murder mystery.

While the story of the Weekend at Wapentake (by Michael Gilbert) was interesting enough, I'm a little confused as to what started the whole thing. A young solicitor visits an elderly former staff member regarding a memorandum uncovered during his latest case: a note for the staff member to revisit an elderly client regarding dying intestate. A story is told of a plot, a fire, and a tragic loss. Again, why did it catch the young solicitor's notice? The elderly client died some time ago, his own clients are relatives of hers, yes, but she wasn't his case and her affairs had been settled.


EDITING:
Nothing wrong in the editing.

ENJOYABILITY:
Didn't enjoy it half as much as Resorting to Murder , so I'll give it less than half a score.

THEME:
Everything fits the theme.

THE VERDICT?
The one thing I hate most about writing book reviews about mediocre books is that you're stuck with them for much longer than you'd like, and long after you're done reading.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries is a collection of stories from mid-20th century British mystery writers. The stories weren't so much linked by manor homes but more so by the English countryside. Some of the writers, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton and Margery Allingham, are more famous than others. Each story had a brief author bio, which detailed the author and highlighted their most famous detectives.

I'm not usually a fan of short stories but this collection grabbed my attention. I'd already read The Copper Beeches by Doyle but all of the other mysteries were new to me. I had a great time with these stories, although I figured out a villain in one of the stories before getting to the ending. In The Murder at the Towers, it was hard not to laugh at Police-Inspector Blowhard and Bletherby Marge's names. I don't know enough about the golden age of mystery books to know if this was intentional on the author's part or if these were typical British names.

My only criticism was that there are no page numbers in the Table of Contents in this of this book, which makes it difficult to locate stories.

[Caz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love a classic British crime story, set in a Country House, written by the great of the Golden Age and I wasn't disappointed by this collection. And what's more, most of the time, the Butler didn't do it. OK they might seem dated, the plots seem a little hackneyed but they are / were original and in the space of a matter of pages - little masterpieces. Worth a read on a quiet evening in.
Toast

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun selection of mostly Golden Age country house mysteries. Many were written before the conventions of the genre were established, so felt a little clunky compared to more modern, polished stories. Taken as light reading, and as a look back at how mysteries have changed through the years, the collection is worthwhile and interesting.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of short stories, clever, many humorous and surprising. This is a fun read for those who love mysteries, especially those from the Golden Age of British Mystery. While not all were five stars, the mix and range make the book a five star read.

[Jeff Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who doesn't love a good mystery at an English manor? This anthology includes about a dozen stories of varying lengths by a multitude of authors. Some I loved, others were just okay, but overall an enjoyable trip through stories that did their murderous best to measure up to Sir A.C. Doyle.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than the usual number of poisonings.