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Death in Fancy Dress
At a soirée like this, anyone can be the life―or death―of the party
The British Secret Service, working to uncover a large-scale blackmail ring and catch its mysterious mastermind ‘The Spider’, find themselves at the country residence Feltham Abbey, where a fancy dress ball is in full swing.
When Sir Ralph Feltham is found dead. Tony, a bewildered young lawyer sets out to make sense of the night’s activities and the motives of the other guests. Among them is Hilary, an independently-minded socialite still in her costume of vivid silk pyjamas and accompanying teddy bear…
This classic country house mystery, first published in 1933, contrasts the splendours and frivolities of the English upper classes with the sombre over-hang of the First World War and the irresistible complications of deadly familial relationships -- with just the right amount of international intrigue thrown in.
This edition also includes the rare Anthony Gilbert short stories "Horseshoes for Luck" and "The Cockroach and the Tortoise," each first published in Detection Medley (1939).
The British Secret Service, working to uncover a large-scale blackmail ring and catch its mysterious mastermind ‘The Spider’, find themselves at the country residence Feltham Abbey, where a fancy dress ball is in full swing.
When Sir Ralph Feltham is found dead. Tony, a bewildered young lawyer sets out to make sense of the night’s activities and the motives of the other guests. Among them is Hilary, an independently-minded socialite still in her costume of vivid silk pyjamas and accompanying teddy bear…
This classic country house mystery, first published in 1933, contrasts the splendours and frivolities of the English upper classes with the sombre over-hang of the First World War and the irresistible complications of deadly familial relationships -- with just the right amount of international intrigue thrown in.
This edition also includes the rare Anthony Gilbert short stories "Horseshoes for Luck" and "The Cockroach and the Tortoise," each first published in Detection Medley (1939).
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
53 people are currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Gilbert
133 books38 followersAnthony Gilbert was the pen name of
Lucy Malleson
an English crime writer. She also wrote non-genre fiction as
Anne Meredith
, under which name she also published one crime novel. She also wrote an autobiography under the Meredith name, Three-a-Penny (1940).
Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.
She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.
Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.
Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.
The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.
Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
Her parents wanted her to be a schoolteacher but she was determined to become a writer. Her first mystery novel followed a visit to the theatre when she saw The Cat and the Canary then, Tragedy at Freyne, featuring Scott Egerton who later appeared in 10 novels, was published in 1927.
She adopted the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert to publish detective novels which achieved great success and made her a name in British detective literature, although many of her readers had always believed that they were reading a male author. She went on to publish 69 crime novels, 51 of which featured her best known character, Arthur Crook. She also wrote more than 25 radio plays, which were broadcast in Great Britain and overseas.
Crook is a vulgar London lawyer totally (and deliberately) unlike the aristocratic detectives who dominated the mystery field when Gilbert introduced him, such as Lord Peter Wimsey.
Instead of dispassionately analyzing a case, he usually enters it after seemingly damning evidence has built up against his client, then conducts a no-holds-barred investigation of doubtful ethicality to clear him or her.
The first Crook novel, Murder by Experts, was published in 1936 and was immediately popular. The last Crook novel, A Nice Little Killing, was published in 1974.
Her thriller The Woman in Red (1941) was broadcast in the United States by CBS and made into a film in 1945 under the title My Name is Julia Ross. She never married, and evidence of her feminism is elegantly expressed in much of her work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
September 10, 2022
Love the cover of this - turns out it's the best thing about the book!
This just seems all over the place with clumsy writing, odd plotting which reads as if the author suddenly remembers she hasn't actually told us what a cad a character is so suddenly plunges us into an old murder he committed that everyone knows about..., one of those settings where the official Secret Service (or something) co-opts a old chum of the family and a complete stranger to investigate ten years worth of suspicious suicides, and suddenly everyone knows the perpetrator is The Spider (yep, really!) and now the race is on to find out who is behind the alias.
I wouldn't mind a bit of nonsense culminating at a masked fancy dress ball but I do expect my plots to have a modicum of sense about them. This one lurches from one crazy revelation to a sudden burst of intuition that is accepted as verified knowledge. And ludicrous scenes such as the heroes driving across the moors at night and the driver suddenly hearing a walker's footsteps crunching the heather stalks over the noise of his engine! Is that even possible? I know it's a 1930s open car but weren't engines noisy then? And how discernable is a footstep across the moors anyway?
I really wanted to like this one not least for the sake of another GA female author but I found it a mess.
This just seems all over the place with clumsy writing, odd plotting which reads as if the author suddenly remembers she hasn't actually told us what a cad a character is so suddenly plunges us into an old murder he committed that everyone knows about..., one of those settings where the official Secret Service (or something) co-opts a old chum of the family and a complete stranger to investigate ten years worth of suspicious suicides, and suddenly everyone knows the perpetrator is The Spider (yep, really!) and now the race is on to find out who is behind the alias.
I wouldn't mind a bit of nonsense culminating at a masked fancy dress ball but I do expect my plots to have a modicum of sense about them. This one lurches from one crazy revelation to a sudden burst of intuition that is accepted as verified knowledge. And ludicrous scenes such as the heroes driving across the moors at night and the driver suddenly hearing a walker's footsteps crunching the heather stalks over the noise of his engine! Is that even possible? I know it's a 1930s open car but weren't engines noisy then? And how discernable is a footstep across the moors anyway?
I really wanted to like this one not least for the sake of another GA female author but I found it a mess.
November 26, 2019
This review can also be found on my blog
This story is narrated by Tony – a character with no depth and so little influence on the plot that it’s hard to remember that this book wasn’t written in a third-person POV. At the beginning of the story, he meets his old friend Jeremy. Would Jeremy live today he’d have founded several start-ups, tell every woman he meets all the details about it and – if they don’t return his calls – would complain that women never want nice guys like him. Jeremy has decided that he wants to marry Hillary – a young socialite who has not been consulted on this matter and is in fact engaged to someone else. That someone else is Arthur, a man who has slightly more depth than Tony but I didn’t feel the need to strangle him like Jeremy.
However, it seems that neither Jeremy nor Arthur will get what they want because Hillary now proclaims she wants to marry Ralph. Everybody knows that Ralph once committed a murder and got away with it but since the victim was a French prostitute his social standing isn’t completely ruined. Everybody is convinced that Ralph has some sort of hold over Hillary and he does but she doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it and it seems she would also marry him if he wasn’t blackmailing her because bad boys are cool or something. Hillary reads like a female character written by a man who really hates women which is quite an achievement since there’s actually a woman behind the Anthony Gilbert pen name.But then it’s not like Baroness Orczy liked women much.
And then I thought for a while that this book goes in an interesting direction after all. Because more than halfway through the book Tony, Jeremy and Arthur sit together and talk about how someone really should murder Ralph. Since I read Portrait of a Murderer by the same author, a story where the reader knew who the killer was, I thought this would now also turn out to be a book where we witness the murder ‘live on-page’. But no, it continues like a typical murder mystery with our trio of definitely not loveable amateur detectives doing some sleuthing, find the killer and now I thankfully don’t have to read about any of them ever again because I hate them all.
tl;dr: I disliked all the characters too much to really care about the story.
This story is narrated by Tony – a character with no depth and so little influence on the plot that it’s hard to remember that this book wasn’t written in a third-person POV. At the beginning of the story, he meets his old friend Jeremy. Would Jeremy live today he’d have founded several start-ups, tell every woman he meets all the details about it and – if they don’t return his calls – would complain that women never want nice guys like him. Jeremy has decided that he wants to marry Hillary – a young socialite who has not been consulted on this matter and is in fact engaged to someone else. That someone else is Arthur, a man who has slightly more depth than Tony but I didn’t feel the need to strangle him like Jeremy.
However, it seems that neither Jeremy nor Arthur will get what they want because Hillary now proclaims she wants to marry Ralph. Everybody knows that Ralph once committed a murder and got away with it but since the victim was a French prostitute his social standing isn’t completely ruined. Everybody is convinced that Ralph has some sort of hold over Hillary and he does but she doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it and it seems she would also marry him if he wasn’t blackmailing her because bad boys are cool or something. Hillary reads like a female character written by a man who really hates women which is quite an achievement since there’s actually a woman behind the Anthony Gilbert pen name.
And then I thought for a while that this book goes in an interesting direction after all. Because more than halfway through the book Tony, Jeremy and Arthur sit together and talk about how someone really should murder Ralph. Since I read Portrait of a Murderer by the same author, a story where the reader knew who the killer was, I thought this would now also turn out to be a book where we witness the murder ‘live on-page’. But no, it continues like a typical murder mystery with our trio of definitely not loveable amateur detectives doing some sleuthing, find the killer and now I thankfully don’t have to read about any of them ever again because I hate them all.
tl;dr: I disliked all the characters too much to really care about the story.
November 12, 2022
Rather disjointed Golden Age mystery centring on a mysterious blackmailing ring that is believed to have triggered a number of wealthy suicides. Tony Keith returns to the country house where he grew up, now leased by Sir James Nunn and his wife Eleanor, who was married to the previous owner Percy Feltham (himself a suicide and believed to be a victim of the ring). After a fancy dress party, the current owner Ralph Feltham is found dead, but is he another victim, a criminal himself, or has a scandalous love affair caused his death?
This started very slowly and the relationships between the characters were rather confusing. However, it developed into a pleasant if not exciting mystery and the ending was quite satisfying, although the gathering of key evidence was rather unconvincingly haphazard. There are some genuine clues and red herrings planted that become clear in the end, the denouement is snappy rather than the drawn out endings that often irritate me, and Gilbert has created a few endearing characters.
This started very slowly and the relationships between the characters were rather confusing. However, it developed into a pleasant if not exciting mystery and the ending was quite satisfying, although the gathering of key evidence was rather unconvincingly haphazard. There are some genuine clues and red herrings planted that become clear in the end, the denouement is snappy rather than the drawn out endings that often irritate me, and Gilbert has created a few endearing characters.
October 18, 2022
This is not the best mystery I have read by Anthony Gilbert, pseudonym of Lucy Malleson, but it had some fun elements. Lawyer Tony Keith is in India when he meets an old school friend, Jeremy Freyne. The two travel back to England together, where Jeremy informs Tony he is in love with his cousin, Hilary. The only problem is that Hilary is engaged to Arthur Dennis of the Foreign Office. She is also shortly about to celebrate her 21st birthday, when she will come into money left by her father.
Hilary's beloved father was involved in a scandal, that meant he took his own life. Her stepmother, Eleanor Nunn, is now remarried and the family live at Feltham Abbey. She asks Tony to visit as something is wrong, but, before Tony and Jeremy head off to family home, they are informed of the 'Spider,' who is blackmailing the wealthy and causing them to commit suicide. Of course, the Spider is involved in a convuluted plot, which sees Tony and Jeremy attempting to discover why Hilary has suddenly decided to marry her horrible cousin, to the detriment of both Arthur and Jeremy. There is murder, scandal, and the unearthing of secrets, before the author sets all to rights, but I am not keen on GA books revolving around gangs or other organised crimes. Still, good to see more of Gilbert's books back in print, even this is not her best.
Hilary's beloved father was involved in a scandal, that meant he took his own life. Her stepmother, Eleanor Nunn, is now remarried and the family live at Feltham Abbey. She asks Tony to visit as something is wrong, but, before Tony and Jeremy head off to family home, they are informed of the 'Spider,' who is blackmailing the wealthy and causing them to commit suicide. Of course, the Spider is involved in a convuluted plot, which sees Tony and Jeremy attempting to discover why Hilary has suddenly decided to marry her horrible cousin, to the detriment of both Arthur and Jeremy. There is murder, scandal, and the unearthing of secrets, before the author sets all to rights, but I am not keen on GA books revolving around gangs or other organised crimes. Still, good to see more of Gilbert's books back in print, even this is not her best.
October 26, 2024
In Death in Fancy Dress the prose is born to the purple and every aspect is heightened to extremes. Haggard and white-as-a-sheet faces abound. The melodrama is strong with this one, full of dashing young men and bold beauteous women. All are exemplars of their sort. The villain has already gotten away with one murder (she was French). Not an average gherkin in the jar. Anthony Gilbert was Lucy Beatrice Malleson (who was also Anne Meredith), better known for her Arthur Crook series. Given the melodrama we can't expect the plot to make much sense or even be subject to organization or logic. Little is really believable and its best just to go along for the ride, the good moments interspersed with the incredible. And Gilbert even dredges up the oldest cliché in mystery writing. That takes a lot of gall, even in 1933. The vaunted fancy dress ball is given short shrift -- I was hoping for a gloriously detailed account of the costumes, escapades, and flirtations but it all peters out fairly quickly as everyone is mostly watching the love interest of four of the men in attendance. Also the title of a mystery novel by J Jefferson Farjeon from 1934. The British Library Crime Classics edition also includes two short stories by Anthony Gilbert: "Horseshoes for Luck" (1939), an old case of Inspector's Field's involving murder by saddle horse; and, "The Cockroach and the Tortoise" (1939), in which old Inspector Field reminisces about his fallible youth, acknowledging that an ambitious man, as he was then, "doesn't make mistakes like that." Death in Fancy Dress is passable but average at best. Readers should save this one for when they've exhausted their other reading material. [2½★]
March 25, 2020
I have no idea why this book was chosen to be reprinted as part of the British Library crime classic series. It is extremely dull, with unbelievable characters, and what plot there is centres around a suspicion of blackmail amongst the upper echelons of society. After about 110 dreary pages there is finally a murder - the villainous Ralph Feltham. The book then meandered around for another hundred or so pages until finally the murderer is unmasked and the blackmailers dealt with.
There are so many other, better written 'golden age' writers to enjoy, don't waste your time on this poor effort.
There are so many other, better written 'golden age' writers to enjoy, don't waste your time on this poor effort.
December 14, 2022
More entertaining that I first thought when I began reading, Death in Fancy Dress is a neat, pleasant mystery. While not breaking any boundaries here, it was still better than average.
July 26, 2023
Review of the audiobook narrated by James Byng.
This is my first Antony Gilbert story, and I enjoyed it. There’s a country house gathering (which I always like), a murder, and lots of suspects. Gilbert’s characterization was more detailed than some GAD books, which made the story more interesting. As usual, I had no idea whodunnit until the end.
The narrator was new to me, and he was fine, although I did sometimes have trouble distinguishing one male voice from the others. His female voices were quite good.
This is my first Antony Gilbert story, and I enjoyed it. There’s a country house gathering (which I always like), a murder, and lots of suspects. Gilbert’s characterization was more detailed than some GAD books, which made the story more interesting. As usual, I had no idea whodunnit until the end.
The narrator was new to me, and he was fine, although I did sometimes have trouble distinguishing one male voice from the others. His female voices were quite good.
May 20, 2022
Wonderful mystery published in 1933. Gilbert is right there with Agatha Christie.
October 21, 2024
Actual Rating: 3.25
February 24, 2020
Blackmailers and boyfriend trouble...
Tony Keith meets his old schoolfriend Jeremy Freyne in a bazaar in India and they decide to travel home together. Tony is a lawyer who seems to take on sensitive international missions and has contacts with the Secret Service. Jeremy is a kind of adventurer – a man with no profession and no money who survives on his wits, hurrying from one madcap scheme to another. But now he’s decided it’s time to marry Hilary, so thinks it would only be gentlemanly to pop home to England and inform her. But when they arrive in England, Tony gets two urgent messages – one from his Secret Service contact and the other from Lady Nunn, Hilary’s stepmother, both requesting him to go to the Abbey where Lady Nunn lives to avert a horrible danger. Jeremy of course tags along since danger and Hilary are the two things he cares about most...
There has been a recent spate of suicides, all people who were rich and well-connected. The authorities have concluded that blackmailers are at work, ultimately driving their victims to despair, and they think that someone who lives at the Abbey or in the surrounding area is involved. This is what Tony’s contact wants him to look into, giving assistance to the man they already have on the spot – Arthur Dennis, who at first impression is a soft-spoken gentle sort of man but who turns out to have a steely resolve and muscles to match. When Jeremy finds out that Hilary has become engaged to Arthur he is determined to win her anyway, but both men are a bit gobsmacked when she then informs them that she intends to marry someone else instead, her cousin Ralph. So when Ralph turns up dead during a fancy dress party, the two men are determined to find out who killed them, to save themselves from suspicion and to restore Hilary’s rather dubious reputation.
Anthony Gilbert is a pseudonym used by Lucy Malleson, who also wrote Portrait of a Murderer, a book I enjoyed very much, under yet another name, Anne Meredith. This one unfortunately didn’t work so well for me. While the set up is quite interesting, the plot feels loose and untidy with quite a lot of intuitive leaping required by our intrepid heroes. But it’s really the characterisation that lets it down, I think, with none of them developing much depth and most of them being quite unappealing. Tony might as well not be there for all the impact he has on the plot. Jeremy is more fun, especially at the beginning when we learn about his wild ways, but he seems to fade rather into the background as the thing progresses.
Arthur – well, it’s an odd thing, but I often find women writers in those far off days (it was published in 1933) are far more forgiving of their male characters than male writers of the same era. Arthur frankly bullies and threatens Hilary and she admits to being frightened of him, but I think we’re supposed to find him attractive! When he orders her around as if she were a disobedient child and then grabs her so violently he bruises her arm, I rather went off him, I’m afraid. But Hilary is drawn as a wild child who needs a strong man to control her, and seems to accept that need herself, though she can’t decide which bullying tyrant to pick – there are so many! I’m sure none of this would have been problematic at the time – after all Cagney was shoving grapefruits in women’s faces to great acclaim in the cinema at roughly the same period – but it makes it feel rather more dated than most of the vintage crime I’ve been reading recently.
However, the working out of the plot is entertaining – not totally convinced it’s fair-play but then I rarely manage to work them out even when they are, and I certainly didn’t get close to guessing this one. The book also includes two bonus short stories, Horseshoes for Luck and The Cockroach and the Tortoise, and to be honest I enjoyed both of them more than the actual book! Overall, then, not one of my favourites from the BL Crime Classics series, but still an enjoyable enough way to while away a few hours.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Tony Keith meets his old schoolfriend Jeremy Freyne in a bazaar in India and they decide to travel home together. Tony is a lawyer who seems to take on sensitive international missions and has contacts with the Secret Service. Jeremy is a kind of adventurer – a man with no profession and no money who survives on his wits, hurrying from one madcap scheme to another. But now he’s decided it’s time to marry Hilary, so thinks it would only be gentlemanly to pop home to England and inform her. But when they arrive in England, Tony gets two urgent messages – one from his Secret Service contact and the other from Lady Nunn, Hilary’s stepmother, both requesting him to go to the Abbey where Lady Nunn lives to avert a horrible danger. Jeremy of course tags along since danger and Hilary are the two things he cares about most...
There has been a recent spate of suicides, all people who were rich and well-connected. The authorities have concluded that blackmailers are at work, ultimately driving their victims to despair, and they think that someone who lives at the Abbey or in the surrounding area is involved. This is what Tony’s contact wants him to look into, giving assistance to the man they already have on the spot – Arthur Dennis, who at first impression is a soft-spoken gentle sort of man but who turns out to have a steely resolve and muscles to match. When Jeremy finds out that Hilary has become engaged to Arthur he is determined to win her anyway, but both men are a bit gobsmacked when she then informs them that she intends to marry someone else instead, her cousin Ralph. So when Ralph turns up dead during a fancy dress party, the two men are determined to find out who killed them, to save themselves from suspicion and to restore Hilary’s rather dubious reputation.
Anthony Gilbert is a pseudonym used by Lucy Malleson, who also wrote Portrait of a Murderer, a book I enjoyed very much, under yet another name, Anne Meredith. This one unfortunately didn’t work so well for me. While the set up is quite interesting, the plot feels loose and untidy with quite a lot of intuitive leaping required by our intrepid heroes. But it’s really the characterisation that lets it down, I think, with none of them developing much depth and most of them being quite unappealing. Tony might as well not be there for all the impact he has on the plot. Jeremy is more fun, especially at the beginning when we learn about his wild ways, but he seems to fade rather into the background as the thing progresses.
Arthur – well, it’s an odd thing, but I often find women writers in those far off days (it was published in 1933) are far more forgiving of their male characters than male writers of the same era. Arthur frankly bullies and threatens Hilary and she admits to being frightened of him, but I think we’re supposed to find him attractive! When he orders her around as if she were a disobedient child and then grabs her so violently he bruises her arm, I rather went off him, I’m afraid. But Hilary is drawn as a wild child who needs a strong man to control her, and seems to accept that need herself, though she can’t decide which bullying tyrant to pick – there are so many! I’m sure none of this would have been problematic at the time – after all Cagney was shoving grapefruits in women’s faces to great acclaim in the cinema at roughly the same period – but it makes it feel rather more dated than most of the vintage crime I’ve been reading recently.
However, the working out of the plot is entertaining – not totally convinced it’s fair-play but then I rarely manage to work them out even when they are, and I certainly didn’t get close to guessing this one. The book also includes two bonus short stories, Horseshoes for Luck and The Cockroach and the Tortoise, and to be honest I enjoyed both of them more than the actual book! Overall, then, not one of my favourites from the BL Crime Classics series, but still an enjoyable enough way to while away a few hours.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
May 8, 2021
This was a strange book, both in terms of pacing and in terms of story. Granted, half the pacing problem was that the characters weren't very likable, which will suck the tension out of anything. But I don't think it was just that that made everything feel strangely non-urgent. The blackmailer, the question of who would marry Hilary, the eventual murder... it never felt like anyone in the book really felt these problems were a matter of grave importance. Maybe that was because the narrator had no stake in any of it, maybe that was because the writer was trying too hard to be witty with everyone's dialogue.
But the story was also a weird one, in large part because the cad and bounder and eventual murder victim seemed not that different from the narrator's wonderful best friend. There was just something a bit odd about the underlying assumptions or morality of the whole thing.
Also,
But the story was also a weird one, in large part because the cad and bounder and eventual murder victim seemed not that different from the narrator's wonderful best friend. There was just something a bit odd about the underlying assumptions or morality of the whole thing.
Also,
March 10, 2025
Wow, talk about plodding! The murder doesn’t happen until you are over halfway done with the book. That’s way too much build up in a mystery. I actually forgot I was reading a mystery and instead was reading it like it was a mediocre piece of 1930’s literature.
The premise, a criminal nicknamed “The Spider” is blackmailing upper class twits, was not exciting or gripping. My initial reaction was that maybe they shouldn’t be cheating or stealing or selling govt secrets if they don’t want to be blackmailed. The fact that multiple people chose to commit suicide because of the blackmail was again not a behavior I felt was worthy of sympathy. Sure, blackmailing is awful and also the behaviors being blackmailed were awful. And choosing to abandon your family and friends via suicide is awful. There were no “innocent” victims.
There were also weird class dynamics in the book. The upper class gentry were “the right sort”. Wealthy businessmen were tacky and gauche. Servants and the working class were stupid and grasping and couldn’t be trusted. Hmmm.
What has actually been happening is that during the last year men and women have been committing suicide with alarming frequency; and it's noticeable that they are practically all people in what we term the superior walks of life. Either they're people of rank and position, or they're people with money.
You see, there are obviously numbers of cogs in a machine of that size, men and women who very likely know nothing of the value of the information for which they're paid, but who are essential, like tiny parts of any technical machin-ery. We calculate that the Spider must have two-thirds of the ladies-maids and butlers in society in his pay. And probably numbers of other small fry, secretaries, confidential clerks and the like.
I gave it a weak two stars for the depiction of a weekend party at a country estate which is a setting I love to read about.
The premise, a criminal nicknamed “The Spider” is blackmailing upper class twits, was not exciting or gripping. My initial reaction was that maybe they shouldn’t be cheating or stealing or selling govt secrets if they don’t want to be blackmailed. The fact that multiple people chose to commit suicide because of the blackmail was again not a behavior I felt was worthy of sympathy. Sure, blackmailing is awful and also the behaviors being blackmailed were awful. And choosing to abandon your family and friends via suicide is awful. There were no “innocent” victims.
There were also weird class dynamics in the book. The upper class gentry were “the right sort”. Wealthy businessmen were tacky and gauche. Servants and the working class were stupid and grasping and couldn’t be trusted. Hmmm.
What has actually been happening is that during the last year men and women have been committing suicide with alarming frequency; and it's noticeable that they are practically all people in what we term the superior walks of life. Either they're people of rank and position, or they're people with money.
You see, there are obviously numbers of cogs in a machine of that size, men and women who very likely know nothing of the value of the information for which they're paid, but who are essential, like tiny parts of any technical machin-ery. We calculate that the Spider must have two-thirds of the ladies-maids and butlers in society in his pay. And probably numbers of other small fry, secretaries, confidential clerks and the like.
I gave it a weak two stars for the depiction of a weekend party at a country estate which is a setting I love to read about.
April 27, 2022
If you know Gilbert at all, it's for the books about not-too-scrupulous attorney Arthur Crook. But this pre-Crook novel features two young men helping Scotland Yard unmask the sinister blackmailer known as The Spider. Rumor has it that the Spider is in the vicinity of the house lived in by Tony's aunt and her second husband. His school friend Jeremy is in love with Tony's cousin Hilary, but she's engaged to someone else. Despite her engagement, she's spending too much time with caddish Ralph, whom the men suspect of being allied with the Spider. It's rather dated now, of course, but it's good fun nonetheless.
July 1, 2023
Another resurrected golden age crime thriller. Somehow, the ones based around gangs never did it for me, feeling too Hollywood gangster. This one didn't resolve the gang and its crimes to my satisfaction, although there were some nice character studies. Not a favourite.
June 14, 2021
I found this rather tedious going. The first quarter or third of the book is spent introducing the narrator and his fellow investigator, who is supposed to be this marvelously bon vivant adventurer type in the globetrotting British set of the early 1930s. These two have a meeting with a high-level government chap who spends several pages describing and putting them on the trail of the Spider, who has been blackmailing so many upper crust ladies and gents that there's been a big wave of suicides in the decade since the Great War. This sends them to a country manor where the suspects which of course include romantic interests are gearing up for a big costume ball.
There's too much exposition and not enough action. A couple of characters are made distinct, but mostly they're not. One woman is named Hilary and one is named Eleanor, and good luck telling them apart. Everybody knows before the ball that there's going to be a murder because they've all thoroughly talked through the possibility, so when they find the body the next morning, there's precious little surprise or drama. The mechanics and logistics of the situation are worked out, but it's not very interesting being led through them.
There's too much exposition and not enough action. A couple of characters are made distinct, but mostly they're not. One woman is named Hilary and one is named Eleanor, and good luck telling them apart. Everybody knows before the ball that there's going to be a murder because they've all thoroughly talked through the possibility, so when they find the body the next morning, there's precious little surprise or drama. The mechanics and logistics of the situation are worked out, but it's not very interesting being led through them.
August 29, 2020
A complicated story that combines blackmail in high society skulduggery at the Foreign Office with the matrimonial meanderings of a young woman that no fewer than 3 men want to marry. One of these is the wicked Ralph Feltham, and when he's found murdered, no one is all that sorry. Unfortunately suspicion falls on all the attendants at the fancy dress party of the night of the murder, including Hilary, the young woman, her fiance, her other admirer, her stepmother, her stepfather, and her step-aunt.
I found the book a little frustrating because the tension was maintained by everyone refusing to answer questions, first and foremost Hilary. There were also many dark references to her father's suicide (related to some espionage affair a decade earlier), the wickedness of the blackmailing mastermind called The Spider, who was somehow believed to be associated with the Feltham manor, and so on and so forth. Several people are described as having incredible charm, but the patter that constitutes their dialogue doesn't really support that.
So all in all an OK book for lovers of the Classic British Mystery, but not an exceptional example of the genre.
I found the book a little frustrating because the tension was maintained by everyone refusing to answer questions, first and foremost Hilary. There were also many dark references to her father's suicide (related to some espionage affair a decade earlier), the wickedness of the blackmailing mastermind called The Spider, who was somehow believed to be associated with the Feltham manor, and so on and so forth. Several people are described as having incredible charm, but the patter that constitutes their dialogue doesn't really support that.
So all in all an OK book for lovers of the Classic British Mystery, but not an exceptional example of the genre.
March 6, 2020
It’s ok.. an easy read but nothing special, also all the characters were just awful. I had no sympathy for anyone didn’t care who the girl wanted to go with and tbh the whole mystery was appalling I was surprised it got solved. I didn’t like the main character he was a bit of a dweeb and an idiot. It’s a meh book for me
November 2, 2022
This was just about an ok read for me. I found it pretty disjointed. At the beginning it made perfect sense, but then seemed to get all a bit absurd. The secret services employing two men, who were not police officers, just friends of the family concerned, to investigate a situation where a gang of criminals were at work, blackmailing people to the point of suicide. I'm not sure the author had a plot in mind, or just put things down as they occurred to her.
A disappointing read, that was published at the time when there were many great books available.
A disappointing read, that was published at the time when there were many great books available.
June 8, 2022
An interesting mystery, with a clever premise but not always the clearest in its writing with a set of male characters who could feel a little interchangable. Or maybe that was just me! Still enjoyed it though.
December 27, 2023
A solid BLCC entry.
Always nice when the murder happens at a big party. A very good English country house murder mystery.
I actually read this in 2022 but it didn't get on my GR so I'm adding it here, even though I didn't reread it.
Always nice when the murder happens at a big party. A very good English country house murder mystery.
I actually read this in 2022 but it didn't get on my GR so I'm adding it here, even though I didn't reread it.
April 12, 2020
A nice little mystery! Reminded me of those Boys Own adventure books I loved when I was younger.
A nice paced plot involving a country house, blackmail and murder.
Very enjoyable indeed.
A nice paced plot involving a country house, blackmail and murder.
Very enjoyable indeed.
January 25, 2025
I found it rather boring. Plodding writing and characters that don't engage the reader.
October 27, 2023
Not my favorite British Library Crime Classic.
March 25, 2021
My rating 3.75. This was a very enjoyable read, it's difficult to believe that the author also wrote Portrait of a Murderer under the pseudonym Anne Meredith.
A country house murder. Although the subject matter was serious, tracking down the head of a large scale blackmailing ring which had led to a number of deaths, the actual book was a light quick read. Written in 1933 there are links back to the First World War which would still be fresh in people's mind.
Much of the book actually concerned Hilary Felton's relationships (with three men wanting to marry her) which I felt gave the author time to really describe her characters. I liked all three of the 'heoroes' and thought they were well imagined and very distinct and different (Arthur Dennis was the more interesting character of the three men but I especially liked Jeremy Freyne.) I could also see the attraction of the villainous Ralph Felton to Hilary Fenton and the connection between the two. Sir James Nunn, a middle-class self-made millionaire was also a likeable, and liked, character which seems to have gone against the grain of other crime novels of the period where a self-made millionaire was invariably unpleasant or bombastic and pushy. It was his idea that the prize for the fancy dress ball would actually go to the person who had looked the best but who had spent the least on their costume due to the financial situation of some of the guests.
Another difference between this and other crime books of the period was the attention given to the women in the story. Mrs Ross, Sir James Nunn's widowed sister, was enchanting. Not a beautiful, pretty or even young woman she was very attractive to men, talkative, witty and unexpectedly insightful. Whilst I was not so keen on Hilary Felton, being one of the 'gay young things', you could understand her distress and turmoil as the story went on. Perhaps the most interesting character was Lady Eleanor Nunn, wife to Sir James and step-mother to Hilary. A member of the aristocracy, she had worked closely with her first husband who shot himself when he was accused of treason during the First World War, after which she had gone out to work for James Nunn to support herself and her step-daughter. A strong woman who was very much in love with her second husband.
As the murder didn't actually happen until well over half-way through the book the ending did feel slightly rushed but there was plenty of misdirection and certainly I didn't manage to discover the murderer before the end - but that's not unusual! Although it may have been rushed I found the ending to be very moving and was well satisfied when I had finished the story. I would have said that I would look out for other books by this author but I understand from Martin Edward's introduction that this book was actually different to her previous books and is certainly different from the next book Portrait of a Murderer.
This edition also includes two short stories relating to Inspector French reminiscing about cases he had dealt with, the first involving an accident that turns out to be murder and the other a gem theft.
A country house murder. Although the subject matter was serious, tracking down the head of a large scale blackmailing ring which had led to a number of deaths, the actual book was a light quick read. Written in 1933 there are links back to the First World War which would still be fresh in people's mind.
Much of the book actually concerned Hilary Felton's relationships (with three men wanting to marry her) which I felt gave the author time to really describe her characters. I liked all three of the 'heoroes' and thought they were well imagined and very distinct and different (Arthur Dennis was the more interesting character of the three men but I especially liked Jeremy Freyne.) I could also see the attraction of the villainous Ralph Felton to Hilary Fenton and the connection between the two. Sir James Nunn, a middle-class self-made millionaire was also a likeable, and liked, character which seems to have gone against the grain of other crime novels of the period where a self-made millionaire was invariably unpleasant or bombastic and pushy. It was his idea that the prize for the fancy dress ball would actually go to the person who had looked the best but who had spent the least on their costume due to the financial situation of some of the guests.
Another difference between this and other crime books of the period was the attention given to the women in the story. Mrs Ross, Sir James Nunn's widowed sister, was enchanting. Not a beautiful, pretty or even young woman she was very attractive to men, talkative, witty and unexpectedly insightful. Whilst I was not so keen on Hilary Felton, being one of the 'gay young things', you could understand her distress and turmoil as the story went on. Perhaps the most interesting character was Lady Eleanor Nunn, wife to Sir James and step-mother to Hilary. A member of the aristocracy, she had worked closely with her first husband who shot himself when he was accused of treason during the First World War, after which she had gone out to work for James Nunn to support herself and her step-daughter. A strong woman who was very much in love with her second husband.
As the murder didn't actually happen until well over half-way through the book the ending did feel slightly rushed but there was plenty of misdirection and certainly I didn't manage to discover the murderer before the end - but that's not unusual! Although it may have been rushed I found the ending to be very moving and was well satisfied when I had finished the story. I would have said that I would look out for other books by this author but I understand from Martin Edward's introduction that this book was actually different to her previous books and is certainly different from the next book Portrait of a Murderer.
This edition also includes two short stories relating to Inspector French reminiscing about cases he had dealt with, the first involving an accident that turns out to be murder and the other a gem theft.
April 22, 2022
This is a classic British country house crime novel. The time is post-war, and well-to-do people are suddenly committing suicide at an alarming rate. The government suspects that all the suicides are related and at the centre of it all is blackmail by a mysterious 'Spider'
The writer of the story, Tony, has just returned from India with his long time friend, Jeremy.
As soon as they land, Tony has multiple people urging him to go visit his relative Eleanor (Lady Nunn). They suspect she is being blackmailed by the Spider.
She lives with her husband (Nunn), his sister (the charming widow Meriel Ross) and adopted daughter Hillary. Hillary's fiancé Dennis (a government spy) is also trying to discover the identity of the 'Spider'.
When Tony and Jeremy land at the country house finally, they find that Hillary has broken with Dennis and engaged herself to her ne'er-do-well cousin, Ralph Feltham.
After providing a lot more reason to hate Feltham, he gets his comeuppance. He is murdered.
Now Tony, Jeremy and Dennis need to find the murderer as well as the 'Spider'.
The merry widow Merial Ross and the irrepressible Jeremy an interestingly drawn characters, even if a little cliched.
Apart from some of their humorous conversation (Jeremy trying to sell insurance against wolves for example), the book is extremely tedious in many ways.
I read a lot of books set in this time. However, even for me, the slang was too much.
Nothing is stated directly by anyone, and I had to re-read a lot of conversations to understand what they meant. For the simplest of things, each character talks a paragraph.
The characters are poorly drawn too - just as a caricature. Ralph is 'wicked' Eleanor a 'stressed woman', Hillary a 'silly young girl' Nunn a 'businessman' and Tony has no particular character at all.
The detection happens so much in the background and the explanation in the end is so hurried that I was left baffled.
I would rate this book 2.5 stars and would recommend skipping it in favour of rereading some Edgar Wallace.
The blurb at the start of the book says that this author's books didn't sell that well. I am not surprised.
**Spoiler alert**
**
The writer of the story, Tony, has just returned from India with his long time friend, Jeremy.
As soon as they land, Tony has multiple people urging him to go visit his relative Eleanor (Lady Nunn). They suspect she is being blackmailed by the Spider.
She lives with her husband (Nunn), his sister (the charming widow Meriel Ross) and adopted daughter Hillary. Hillary's fiancé Dennis (a government spy) is also trying to discover the identity of the 'Spider'.
When Tony and Jeremy land at the country house finally, they find that Hillary has broken with Dennis and engaged herself to her ne'er-do-well cousin, Ralph Feltham.
After providing a lot more reason to hate Feltham, he gets his comeuppance. He is murdered.
Now Tony, Jeremy and Dennis need to find the murderer as well as the 'Spider'.
The merry widow Merial Ross and the irrepressible Jeremy an interestingly drawn characters, even if a little cliched.
Apart from some of their humorous conversation (Jeremy trying to sell insurance against wolves for example), the book is extremely tedious in many ways.
I read a lot of books set in this time. However, even for me, the slang was too much.
Nothing is stated directly by anyone, and I had to re-read a lot of conversations to understand what they meant. For the simplest of things, each character talks a paragraph.
The characters are poorly drawn too - just as a caricature. Ralph is 'wicked' Eleanor a 'stressed woman', Hillary a 'silly young girl' Nunn a 'businessman' and Tony has no particular character at all.
The detection happens so much in the background and the explanation in the end is so hurried that I was left baffled.
I would rate this book 2.5 stars and would recommend skipping it in favour of rereading some Edgar Wallace.
The blurb at the start of the book says that this author's books didn't sell that well. I am not surprised.
**Spoiler alert**
**
May 22, 2023
Looking for a story that is devilishly clever with quite a few twists and turns? Then, Death in Fancy Dress by Lucy Malleson under the pen name of Anthony Gilbert, may be just the reading twist for you.
The story is told by one Tony Keith, a young attorney who readers meet as he he finishes a public inquiry for Hutchinson, Keith and Murray in India. It is there that Tony meets childhood friend Jeremy Freyne, a bit of an adventurer who has been away from England for a number of years. He has decided that he is in love with the beautiful Hilary Feltham whose late father, Sir Percy Feltham, was Tony's guardian.
The two are surprised to fine that Hilary is engaged to another, Arthur Dennis, a member of the Home Office. And further, on their arrival back in England, Tony receives two letters: one from Hilary's step mother, Eleanor Feltham Nunn; and one from Edward Philpotts of the Home Office. Eleanor is in a bit of a panic — unusual for her — and asks Tony to come to her aid, as well as Hilary's; Philpotts wants the two men to go to the Feltham estate to help Hilary's fiance delve into a deadly scheme of blackmail against the Felthams.
That's the basic premise but we also then find at the family home Eleanor's current husband James Nunn, a wealthy owner of an insurance firm, and his sister, Merial Ross, a very talkative, overly honest or just plain cutting woman. And finally, there is Eleanor's nephew by marriage, the ne'er-do-well but highly attractive Ralph Feltham.
Plenty of potential victims and suspects who all meet for a celebration of Hilary's 21st birthday celebration, a fancy dress ball. There will be a murder but it may take you by surprise who it is.
Everyone has a motive it seems and all will be tarnished depending on how things turn out. There plenty of clues, suspicious moments, red herrings and it all makes for a delightful read. Gilbert has taken a rather staid country home mystery and added a bit of zing with loads of twists, strong characters and dialogue and that special something that keep the reader guessing.
And if that is not enough, the British Library Crime Classic book also includes two short stories that are equally entertaining: Horseshoes for Luck and The Cockroach and the Tortoise.
The story is told by one Tony Keith, a young attorney who readers meet as he he finishes a public inquiry for Hutchinson, Keith and Murray in India. It is there that Tony meets childhood friend Jeremy Freyne, a bit of an adventurer who has been away from England for a number of years. He has decided that he is in love with the beautiful Hilary Feltham whose late father, Sir Percy Feltham, was Tony's guardian.
The two are surprised to fine that Hilary is engaged to another, Arthur Dennis, a member of the Home Office. And further, on their arrival back in England, Tony receives two letters: one from Hilary's step mother, Eleanor Feltham Nunn; and one from Edward Philpotts of the Home Office. Eleanor is in a bit of a panic — unusual for her — and asks Tony to come to her aid, as well as Hilary's; Philpotts wants the two men to go to the Feltham estate to help Hilary's fiance delve into a deadly scheme of blackmail against the Felthams.
That's the basic premise but we also then find at the family home Eleanor's current husband James Nunn, a wealthy owner of an insurance firm, and his sister, Merial Ross, a very talkative, overly honest or just plain cutting woman. And finally, there is Eleanor's nephew by marriage, the ne'er-do-well but highly attractive Ralph Feltham.
Plenty of potential victims and suspects who all meet for a celebration of Hilary's 21st birthday celebration, a fancy dress ball. There will be a murder but it may take you by surprise who it is.
Everyone has a motive it seems and all will be tarnished depending on how things turn out. There plenty of clues, suspicious moments, red herrings and it all makes for a delightful read. Gilbert has taken a rather staid country home mystery and added a bit of zing with loads of twists, strong characters and dialogue and that special something that keep the reader guessing.
And if that is not enough, the British Library Crime Classic book also includes two short stories that are equally entertaining: Horseshoes for Luck and The Cockroach and the Tortoise.
November 13, 2023
Death in Fancy Dress was the October book for the #maidensofmurder readalong. I’ve loved getting to read a great selection of British library crime classics as part of this but I had mixed feelings on finishing this particular book.
Anthony Gilbert is the pen name of Lucy Malleson, an English crime writer who adopted the pseudonym so that she could write detective fiction. Death in Fancy Dress is considered to be one of her weaker offerings which gels with my experience of the book.
I found the start extremely slow and not a lot seemed to happen. I also got a bit confused who everyone was and impatiently waited for a body to drop. Over 100 pages later and I was still waiting!
It did pick up a little in the middle with a masked fancy dress ball and a hunt for the ‘Spider’, who is involved in a blackmail scheme, but then all fell a bit flat again at the end.
It hasn’t put me off trying a few more books by this author but as much as I wanted to like it, this one wasn’t for me.
Anthony Gilbert is the pen name of Lucy Malleson, an English crime writer who adopted the pseudonym so that she could write detective fiction. Death in Fancy Dress is considered to be one of her weaker offerings which gels with my experience of the book.
I found the start extremely slow and not a lot seemed to happen. I also got a bit confused who everyone was and impatiently waited for a body to drop. Over 100 pages later and I was still waiting!
It did pick up a little in the middle with a masked fancy dress ball and a hunt for the ‘Spider’, who is involved in a blackmail scheme, but then all fell a bit flat again at the end.
It hasn’t put me off trying a few more books by this author but as much as I wanted to like it, this one wasn’t for me.
October 1, 2024
The main thing I learned from reading this book is that "Anthony Gilbert" is a pseudonym for a woman named: Lucy Malleson. I felt surprisingly let down by this revelation, especially because the most famous ( and best!) Golden Age writers of mystery fiction were women, so why did she decide to use a masculine name? I guess we'll never know...
To get to the book itself: this was not a masterpiece by any means, but a nice example of the genre as it existed in the mid-1930's. It holds up fairly well some 80+ years on, although some of the plot points would not carry the same degree of puzzlement now as then due to modern scientific proofs, etc. As far as characters go, they are mostly one-dimensional, with not a lot to distinguish them from any of the others. I find this is a common flaw in the mysteries of that time period. The characters are more like chess pieces being moved around on a board, or Stately Home, as in this case!
However, one element sets this story well above the rest, including Dame Agatha's plots, by actually presenting a more concrete conundrum for the sleuths to be chasing! In other detective literature of the time, the overriding "evil" situation, which provides the motivation for the investigation, is usually woefully vague and non-specific. There is just an aura of dread that seems to involve international spy rings, missing plans or papers, or generalized smuggling, etc. I much prefer the forthright blackmailing menace that we encounter in this book! At least it presents something tangible that we can recognize.
As for the killer-culprit, I was almost surprised, but towards the end, everyone else had been eliminated, so it was the only viable solution left!
To get to the book itself: this was not a masterpiece by any means, but a nice example of the genre as it existed in the mid-1930's. It holds up fairly well some 80+ years on, although some of the plot points would not carry the same degree of puzzlement now as then due to modern scientific proofs, etc. As far as characters go, they are mostly one-dimensional, with not a lot to distinguish them from any of the others. I find this is a common flaw in the mysteries of that time period. The characters are more like chess pieces being moved around on a board, or Stately Home, as in this case!
However, one element sets this story well above the rest, including Dame Agatha's plots, by actually presenting a more concrete conundrum for the sleuths to be chasing! In other detective literature of the time, the overriding "evil" situation, which provides the motivation for the investigation, is usually woefully vague and non-specific. There is just an aura of dread that seems to involve international spy rings, missing plans or papers, or generalized smuggling, etc. I much prefer the forthright blackmailing menace that we encounter in this book! At least it presents something tangible that we can recognize.
As for the killer-culprit, I was almost surprised, but towards the end, everyone else had been eliminated, so it was the only viable solution left!
December 12, 2022
Some excellent characters in this book: good, bad and amusing, but with one very silly young woman who unfortunately has a major role. The Golden Age authors are much better at country house mysteries than they are at crime syndicates and this could have been better if Gilbert stayed with her strength.
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