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D.I. Price #1
The Taste of Murder
"Literate and amusing, with exceptionally believable characters." ― The New Yorker.
A free-spirited widow travels to the Riviera, where she meets a lord, accepts his proposal of marriage, and returns with him to England. Bunny, now the wife of Sir Charles d'Estray, is mistress of a vast estate that's fallen into decline. To rescue the property from bankruptcy, Bunny introduces the successful but distasteful measure of accepting paying guests.
In this atmosphere of deeply resented change, a poisonous plant has become the bitter brew of murder. And as a quarrelsome cast of d'Estrays, their servants and guests, and the mystified local police wander through a maze of mutual suspicion, Bunny finds herself not only the chief suspect but also a prime candidate for murder.
"Told with a devastating detachment which is equally brutal toward the English gentry, its middle-class emulators, and upstart cockney detectives." ― The New York Times.
A free-spirited widow travels to the Riviera, where she meets a lord, accepts his proposal of marriage, and returns with him to England. Bunny, now the wife of Sir Charles d'Estray, is mistress of a vast estate that's fallen into decline. To rescue the property from bankruptcy, Bunny introduces the successful but distasteful measure of accepting paying guests.
In this atmosphere of deeply resented change, a poisonous plant has become the bitter brew of murder. And as a quarrelsome cast of d'Estrays, their servants and guests, and the mystified local police wander through a maze of mutual suspicion, Bunny finds herself not only the chief suspect but also a prime candidate for murder.
"Told with a devastating detachment which is equally brutal toward the English gentry, its middle-class emulators, and upstart cockney detectives." ― The New York Times.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
264 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Cannan
47 books10 followersBorn in 1898, Joanna Cannan was the youngest daughter of Oxford don Charles Cannan, and his wife Mary Wedderburn. Part of a family of authors, Joanna Cannan was cousin to novelist and playwright Gilbert Cannan, sister to poet May Wedderburn Cannan, mother to fellow pony-book authors Josephine Pullein-Thompson, Diana Pullein-Thompson and Christine Pullein-Thompson, as well as to screenwriter and playwright Denis Cannan, and grandmother to cookbook author Charlotte Popescu.
Cannan worked as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse during WWI, meeting her her future husband, Captain Harold J. "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, in Oxford, during the course of that work. They were married in 1918, and Cannan (who never published under her married name) became the primary breadwinner for the family, after he was severely injured during the war, publishing approximately one book per year. Most of her pony books for children were written before and during WWII, at which point she began turning to detective novels for adults. Cannan suffered from ill health in the 1950s, and eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in 1961.
Cannan worked as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse during WWI, meeting her her future husband, Captain Harold J. "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, in Oxford, during the course of that work. They were married in 1918, and Cannan (who never published under her married name) became the primary breadwinner for the family, after he was severely injured during the war, publishing approximately one book per year. Most of her pony books for children were written before and during WWII, at which point she began turning to detective novels for adults. Cannan suffered from ill health in the 1950s, and eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in 1961.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
February 19, 2021
A cosy crime novel from 1950 chosen because I needed to read a book with "murder" in the title for an online challenge. Amazing how few crime novels actually have murder in the title. At least there are few on my shelves. So this was a Penguin Crime edition, with the old green cover, and able to be consumed in a single setting, or thereabouts. It took me a bit longer because I found it pretty tediously British for much of the first half, and did find myself skim reading. A student I used to teach back in the day recommended reading the first line of every paragraph, and everything that a character spoke as a way of "reading" a novel, without actually reading a novel. But this novel crammed multi-character dialogue in paragraphs that lasted a whole page, making density an issue, which further eroded interest and meant this strategy was lost to me.
There were some quite stunning sexist lines by the detective in the novel - women apparently are more gullible, are likely to commit crimes with less justification, cannot be relied upon to remember anything coherently, but are terrifically good at pouring tea, and this is established as the role of a good wife, or at least one that knows her place. The detective, you can well infer from this, is a bit of a dick. But then we should add the general xenophobia, which manifests most prominantly as an anti-French sentiment; so the lady of the house is not only guilty of being shrewd, perfidious and provoked to murder by peevishness, but she is also half French and has spent way too long living on the Riveria with free-wheeling types, and so must be the best candidate for the immorality murder demands. The rest of the house is too English, too upstanding and too much of the right class (upper class). Like I said, the detective is a dick. So too is the man of the house, for that matter, who I think should've been the one topped in the first chapter.
Horses, tea, a big house with an east wing and west wing, servants and you can see we are well entrenched in the British empire. Not my favourite kind of crime. I prefer things to be a whole lot grittier than tea and fox hunting. My recommendation: only if you're into it.
There were some quite stunning sexist lines by the detective in the novel - women apparently are more gullible, are likely to commit crimes with less justification, cannot be relied upon to remember anything coherently, but are terrifically good at pouring tea, and this is established as the role of a good wife, or at least one that knows her place. The detective, you can well infer from this, is a bit of a dick. But then we should add the general xenophobia, which manifests most prominantly as an anti-French sentiment; so the lady of the house is not only guilty of being shrewd, perfidious and provoked to murder by peevishness, but she is also half French and has spent way too long living on the Riveria with free-wheeling types, and so must be the best candidate for the immorality murder demands. The rest of the house is too English, too upstanding and too much of the right class (upper class). Like I said, the detective is a dick. So too is the man of the house, for that matter, who I think should've been the one topped in the first chapter.
Horses, tea, a big house with an east wing and west wing, servants and you can see we are well entrenched in the British empire. Not my favourite kind of crime. I prefer things to be a whole lot grittier than tea and fox hunting. My recommendation: only if you're into it.
March 3, 2016
Not the best. A detective who doesn't know what he's doing, a landed family who deserve everything that is coming to them, lots of contrivance, lots of laying down of the author's values and a rather predictable plot. It's saved from being dreadful by two rather well drawn characters (Bunny and Lisa) who give the reader something to connect with, and by the fact that it shows that you didn't need to be a tip top writer to get published; first by Victor Gallancz and later by Penguin. Interesting to see what was selling in the fifties.
It cost a pound in a Norfolk charity shop and I enjoyed it (as much for the poor as for the good) so everybody gains.
It cost a pound in a Norfolk charity shop and I enjoyed it (as much for the poor as for the good) so everybody gains.
March 7, 2012
A 1950s detective book, written by Joanna Cannan, much better known to me as the author of a series which might be said to have founded the pony books genre (A Pony for Jean etc). The murder features a typical country house set-up: in this case, an impoverished squire (pillar of rectitude), with his horsey daughter(never really got over being a prefect of St Olaf's), unsuitable second wife whom he rescued with her daughter from a Bohemian life in France, hunting-mad son and an assortment of paying guests,from other county types, to a couple who are Jewish in origin but still quite nice (!! definitely her words not mine). The servants have been with the family forever, and the incoming Scotland Yard detective harbours lower-middle-class leftist leanings and resents the atmosphere of serfdom. So far, so conventional, and the detective's judgments are ruthlessly exposed as shallow and based on false assumptions. What gives this book a twist that makes it something more than the standard book of the time is the fact that the story is told from the point of view of Bunny, the lax Bohemian wife. She is sloppy, lazy and sensual, and appals the family by breakfasting in bed, wearing a too-short black dress as mourning and see-through nightwear, gossiping with the servants and saying those things that one does not say, but she is also warm, intelligent and honest, and able to see that the mores to which the family cling are too narrow to supply them with suitable behaviour for the predicament in which they find themselves and that their moral compass is narrow and impoverished. She is also in the process of casting off her second marriage, and the story of its breakdown runs parallel to the uncovering of the murder. I wonder sometimes if the author loaded the dice unfairly against the landed gentry by making them act out of type: would Sir Charles really have been willing to search his wife's bedroom? Wouldn't part of his code prohibit that as much as it would reading his wife's letters, say? But it's a very interesting, if light, depiction of class clashes from three different perspectives and bits of it are very funny. Here's Sir Charles talking to his self-possessed stepdaughter:
'Even though you've been brought up abroad you are half English, and English children are always truthful.'
'Mother of God!' said Lisa.
'Lisa!' said Sir Charles
'Sorry, I meant gosh,' said Lisa, 'But really....'
I also enjoyed the fact that because the daughter's horse is called Brandy and her brother's is called Champagne, the newcomer Lisa calls her horse Romanee-Conte (sorry can't do accents) so it won't feel inferior.
The author isn't a first-rate detective story writer: starting a book after the murder is always a mistake, I feel, giving the reader no time to get to know the dramatis personae before seeing them under suspicion. I found it hard to differentiate between the paying guests because of this, and the action moves a little too slowly. The detective is underused, not to say almost pointless, and treated with a nasty authorial snobbery and many other characters are sketched in too faintly. But the central foursome of Bunny, Sir Charles and the two daughters are very well drawn, and make up for much. There's an unconventional ending and a very good, proper detective book denouement with a surprising twist and a motive that is both hard to spot and satisfyingly substantial. I'm going to track down more of her books.
'Even though you've been brought up abroad you are half English, and English children are always truthful.'
'Mother of God!' said Lisa.
'Lisa!' said Sir Charles
'Sorry, I meant gosh,' said Lisa, 'But really....'
I also enjoyed the fact that because the daughter's horse is called Brandy and her brother's is called Champagne, the newcomer Lisa calls her horse Romanee-Conte (sorry can't do accents) so it won't feel inferior.
The author isn't a first-rate detective story writer: starting a book after the murder is always a mistake, I feel, giving the reader no time to get to know the dramatis personae before seeing them under suspicion. I found it hard to differentiate between the paying guests because of this, and the action moves a little too slowly. The detective is underused, not to say almost pointless, and treated with a nasty authorial snobbery and many other characters are sketched in too faintly. But the central foursome of Bunny, Sir Charles and the two daughters are very well drawn, and make up for much. There's an unconventional ending and a very good, proper detective book denouement with a surprising twist and a motive that is both hard to spot and satisfyingly substantial. I'm going to track down more of her books.
July 13, 2020
I enjoyed this light hearted romp of a murder mystery.
A country house, an odd family forced to take in paying guests to make ends meet and a murderer amongst them all.
There were A LOT of horse and pony talk in this book but that didn't take anything away from the wit and humour of the book.
A fun first read of Joanna Cannan for me.
A country house, an odd family forced to take in paying guests to make ends meet and a murderer amongst them all.
There were A LOT of horse and pony talk in this book but that didn't take anything away from the wit and humour of the book.
A fun first read of Joanna Cannan for me.
March 15, 2019
I almost didn't finish
This book started out slow and confusing. Too many characters introduced too quickly. I almost quit, but decided to keep going. Glad I did as the last third was hard to put down.
This book started out slow and confusing. Too many characters introduced too quickly. I almost quit, but decided to keep going. Glad I did as the last third was hard to put down.
August 6, 2017
A toothpaste can kill a person. It's like a perfect murder.
September 30, 2018
The premise behind the plot is excellent, and the writing clear, butI found the book entirely irritating. To be sure the guying of Inspector Price and his post-1945 Labour values is not as gross as it was to become in later books, but there is not one main character who is in the least bit likeable.When satire, and I assume the portrayals are meant to be satirical, is so widely scattered, it becomes totally ineffective.
One is, I suppose, meant to sympathise with Bunny and her daughter Lisa who find themselves largely despised by the family into which she has married and who is Price's (and others') main suspect. However, they were just as unlikeable in their presumptions as the rest of the cast.
Not one of the author's better works but mercifully short.
One is, I suppose, meant to sympathise with Bunny and her daughter Lisa who find themselves largely despised by the family into which she has married and who is Price's (and others') main suspect. However, they were just as unlikeable in their presumptions as the rest of the cast.
Not one of the author's better works but mercifully short.
July 14, 2023
I finally managed to finish this one! It was definitely a struggle. I liked the Guy Northeast books, particularly Death at the Dog, so I was sure I would enjoy this one too, but it was so dull. The main characters were all fairly cardboard, the only ones who came close to being interesting were Bunny and her daughter Lisa.
I usually give up on a book if I'm not enjoying it, which is why I give so few 3 stars reviews, but I'd got about halfway through this one before I admitted that it just wasn't going to liven up at all, and by then it seemed such a waste of the time I'd already spent on it not to finish it. I shall stick to my rule in future.
I usually give up on a book if I'm not enjoying it, which is why I give so few 3 stars reviews, but I'd got about halfway through this one before I admitted that it just wasn't going to liven up at all, and by then it seemed such a waste of the time I'd already spent on it not to finish it. I shall stick to my rule in future.
October 21, 2019
Got through it
This is called a DI Price book. I generally hated him, but he wasn't really the main character. I actually went to the end, read who did it and then went back and read the rest of the book. That's something I never do! I wanted to make sure them main character didn't end up going to jail. The writing was hard to follow and the writer kept changing how she referred to the characters, making it very hard to keep them straight.
I usually love any kind of mysteries, but I think I'll pass on this series.
This is called a DI Price book. I generally hated him, but he wasn't really the main character. I actually went to the end, read who did it and then went back and read the rest of the book. That's something I never do! I wanted to make sure them main character didn't end up going to jail. The writing was hard to follow and the writer kept changing how she referred to the characters, making it very hard to keep them straight.
I usually love any kind of mysteries, but I think I'll pass on this series.
June 10, 2019
First published in 1950. Really nice country house murder mystery farce! Cast of characters is a wee bit confusing at first, but you soon sort them out. A few literary allusions that I'm not well educated enough to catch, but not so many that one loses track of the story (but I may have missed a witty something or three.) Highly recommended!
August 20, 2017
Enjoyment
Great story telling and very enjoyable reading. Shows how self deluded people can be just because of their name. I had a thought of who the killer was many times I enjoyed reading this thanks to the author and endeavor press
Great story telling and very enjoyable reading. Shows how self deluded people can be just because of their name. I had a thought of who the killer was many times I enjoyed reading this thanks to the author and endeavor press
August 29, 2020
Boo
Very hard to read. Several people speaking in paragraphs with no paragraph separation to signify who was speaking. I skipped to the end just to find out who the murder was. Will not get another of her books.
Very hard to read. Several people speaking in paragraphs with no paragraph separation to signify who was speaking. I skipped to the end just to find out who the murder was. Will not get another of her books.
November 12, 2020
(4.25 stars) Not the most auspicious start, with a lot of heavy-handed social satire and not much else, but eminently worth persevering through the first couple of chapters. Engaging characterization, astute plotting, and dry humor.
September 11, 2017
Enjoyable read
Enjoyable light read. I finished reading it a few weeks ago, so my memory is a bit hazy. It kept me guessing for quite a while. It became obvious towards the end.
Enjoyable light read. I finished reading it a few weeks ago, so my memory is a bit hazy. It kept me guessing for quite a while. It became obvious towards the end.
June 25, 2020
An excellent read!
August 25, 2024
This is an excellent mystery set in a British country house, which the family has turned into a hotel. I agree with a criticism that the book should have started with the characters interacting instead of with a murder. I wanted to see the obnoxious murder victim interacting with the suspects instead of just learning bits about her in the policeman’s interviews. The murder victim and other characters are well drawn. The servants’ personalities are revealed much more than is usual in a book of this type. Reviews of this and other Inspector Price books contain much griping about how nasty Price is. One review complained about his misogyny. You must understand that the author doesn’t like Price either. The author is far from gushing about the gentry but clearly thinks Price’s hatred of them is absurd. The author was tired of the popular British aristocrat-sleuth; the inspector Allyn type whom the gentry “approve of” because he knows which forks to use at dinner. Price is much more fun. His prejudice makes the interrogations more than the usual dry stuff about who was where at what time. The solution is a good one. I also enjoyed No Walls of Jasper an inverted mystery by Cannan
October 2, 2025
Published in 1950, this is the first in a series of mysteries featuring D.I. Price. Ronald Price is called in from London to investigate a poisoning at a country house. Post-war, D.I. Price believes in socialism, council houses, state education and equality. He is not a fan of the local squire and makes uneducated assumptions.
Sir Charles lives with his horrible daughter, Patricia, dense son, Hugo and two younger children (barely mentioned) as well as his second wife, Bunny and her daughter, Lisa. Bunny and Lisa are the only two characters, above stairs, that are likeable, although I enjoyed Lisa's sleuthing partnership with the young boot-boy.
Bunny has insisted Sir Charles takes in paying guests as his house costs so much to maintain and one of them has been found dead. It is not long before Bunny is a suspect - mainly because she lived in France, from what I could tell. This is not the best book I have read and it is an infuriating read at times, with everyone being utterly unable to think beyond stereotypes. I don't think I will read on and can't recommend highly.
Sir Charles lives with his horrible daughter, Patricia, dense son, Hugo and two younger children (barely mentioned) as well as his second wife, Bunny and her daughter, Lisa. Bunny and Lisa are the only two characters, above stairs, that are likeable, although I enjoyed Lisa's sleuthing partnership with the young boot-boy.
Bunny has insisted Sir Charles takes in paying guests as his house costs so much to maintain and one of them has been found dead. It is not long before Bunny is a suspect - mainly because she lived in France, from what I could tell. This is not the best book I have read and it is an infuriating read at times, with everyone being utterly unable to think beyond stereotypes. I don't think I will read on and can't recommend highly.
November 5, 2020
Really wanted to like this book....
I really wanted to like this book, because I did like the premise in the description. And there were lots of really good reviews. But there were just too many characters for me to keep track of. I had trouble keeping track of who was who. I got confused before I reached the third chapter. I don’t like giving up on a book, it feels more like my failing rather than the book’s. But, sadly, I did give up on it. Since the only “flaw” I found were the confusing number of characters (for me), I do recommend it anyway because of her writing style.
I really wanted to like this book, because I did like the premise in the description. And there were lots of really good reviews. But there were just too many characters for me to keep track of. I had trouble keeping track of who was who. I got confused before I reached the third chapter. I don’t like giving up on a book, it feels more like my failing rather than the book’s. But, sadly, I did give up on it. Since the only “flaw” I found were the confusing number of characters (for me), I do recommend it anyway because of her writing style.
September 22, 2017
A lovely crime drama written in and set in the 1950's .. typical English Country House setting, characters and dialogue. Although it rubbed along swimmingly, sadly there was no defined lead, and whether this should have been the Detective or the Lady of the house should have been decided by the Author. A Poirot or Miss Marple figure would have lifted the whole tale .. However, I could definitely see this as a B&W film ..
August 14, 2020
Good twists and turns
Major problem is the author uses an old style of writing, i.e. a long paragraph that contain several different voices discussing a situation. Having an entire page filled with back and forth diverse people presenting his or her point of view slows the tale and causes the reader to lose interest. Further, one must look for the quotation marks to know when the shift occurs.
Major problem is the author uses an old style of writing, i.e. a long paragraph that contain several different voices discussing a situation. Having an entire page filled with back and forth diverse people presenting his or her point of view slows the tale and causes the reader to lose interest. Further, one must look for the quotation marks to know when the shift occurs.
October 3, 2025
The detective in this series is unlikeable and inept. Assigned to a murder with which he has no sympathy (upper class hunting crowd in a small village) he is determined to prove his chosen culprit guilty. I am curious if the detective changes over the series but doubt very much that I will read more.
While the first half of the book drags, the action does pick up, and it is a well plotted book with twists.
While the first half of the book drags, the action does pick up, and it is a well plotted book with twists.
November 9, 2017
Murder Included was a good mystery, well plotted and believable, but never in my life have a read an author who was so adverse to using periods or to dividing sentences into paragraphs. She obviously has never met a complex sentence she doesn't like. It really took a while to get used to those very long, convoluted sentences.
June 8, 2021
Poisoned in her bedroom by...
Not normally a fan of historical fiction I got this book by mistake. However not one to put a book down without giving it a chance I kept reading it. I'm glad I did as it turned out to be a enjoyable read. While some of the clues were a little obvious, all in all it made for a nice murder mystery.
Not normally a fan of historical fiction I got this book by mistake. However not one to put a book down without giving it a chance I kept reading it. I'm glad I did as it turned out to be a enjoyable read. While some of the clues were a little obvious, all in all it made for a nice murder mystery.
October 6, 2025
Since this is the first in a series I will gently say I found the plot somewhat tangled. The characters were cartoonish and the interpersonal relationships a bit odd. If the author intended a quirky multi murder mystery with dialogue that seems incongruous she succeeded. Or perhaps this writer’s wry humor was over my head.
September 16, 2021
It was rather formulaic in the selection of characters - poor country house squire, horsey people. I didn't really warm to it because the detective was unpleasant and prone to jumping to conclusions based on his prejudices.
Want to read
December 19, 2019Synopsis: murder had arrived at Aston Park Guest House to upset guests and family; an elderly cousin of the Estrays was found dead in her bed.
February 13, 2020
Not well written
This novel was so poorly written that it was difficult to read. Badly edited. Will not read this author again.
This novel was so poorly written that it was difficult to read. Badly edited. Will not read this author again.
July 26, 2022
Not sure if I liked it or not
Couldn't stay with the plot. Could have had more drama, . I am only one person among lots of who loved Iitall
Couldn't stay with the plot. Could have had more drama, . I am only one person among lots of who loved Iitall
May 4, 2024
Hugely entertaining. Lots of U and Non-U digs and jibes! Great stuff!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews