Murder at the Chase

October 13, 2014
Brown’s pleasing sequel to 2013’s Murder by the Book takes mystery writer Donald Langham and his girlfriend, Marie Dupré, to Suffolk, England, in the summer of 1955 for a romantic holiday. When Donald and Marie learn that a friend’s father, Edward Endicott, has disappeared from his locked study at his place in Humble Barton, they switch into sleuthing mode. Endicott, “an ex-Hollywood screenwriter who penned mystery thrillers,” was working on a biography of a Victorian-era Satanist self-described as a “confidant of the Devil himself.” Some in Humble Barton suspect supernatural forces are afoot, but a skeptical Donald and Marie work with the local police toward a rational solution, while enjoying country walks and providing comfort to a blackmail victim. For all the criminal goings-on, Brown doesn’t generate much suspense, but his well-told tale offers plenty of unexpected twists. Agatha Christie fans will find a lot to like. Agent: John Jarrold, John Jarrold Literary Agency (U.K.).

November 15, 2014
A mystery writer and an assistant literary agent delve into crime in the country. Donald Langham and his girlfriend, Maria Dupre, are at a garden party at his agent Charles Elder's London town house when they meet Alasdair Endicott, the sickly son of manly mystery writer Edward Endicott, who's just written his own first novel based on his experiences with ghosts. When Alasdair returns home to Humble Barton, Suffolk, to find Edward missing, he asks Donald, who's worked as a detective, to come down. Donald and Maria, who have already booked a room at a nearby hotel, gladly come to Endicott's Chase, where they meet former Hollywood star Caroline Dequincy, who'd like to be more than a friend to Edward. The police are called in when copious amounts of blood are found near the house. A walk in the woods with Caroline's bloodhound turns up a body. It's not Edward's but that of a man who claimed to be the 150-year-old Victorian satanist Vivian Stafford, who'd recently held several seances at his former abode, Stafford Hall, now owned by the avant-garde artist Haverford Dent. When Edward appears, he claims to have been on a walking tour and to be shocked over the death of the man he had been researching for his next book. As Donald, Maria and the police struggle to discover who Stafford really is and why someone wanted him dead, tragedy strikes again when the Rev. Marcus Denbigh is killed by a giant orrery, the mechanical creation of Dent. Is it accident, suicide or murder? Donald's second mystery (Murder by the Book, 2013) takes place in 1955 but reads like a country-house whodunit from the golden age, packed with fascinating characters, each boasting a motive for murder.

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November 1, 2014

Crime writer Donald Langham and Maria Dupre, a literary agent's assistant, have decided to take a vacation to romantic, rural Suffolk, where Donald plans to propose. It's 1955, and London is still recovering from the privations of World War II. When Donald learns that the father of a writer friend has vanished from his locked study at Endicott's Chase, near the village of Humble Barton, where Donald and Maria are staying, he is intrigued. It seems that Elliot Endicott had been writing a biography of Vivian Stafford, a notorious Satanist; could that be a clue to his disappearance? VERDICT Brown's charming English locked-room mystery (after Murder by the Book) features a well-crafted and exciting plot and two attractive protagonists who epitomize a postwar English generation willing to reach across class lines. For readers who enjoy classic Golden Age mysteries.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2014
Here's the second in a new series (following 2013's Murder by the Book) featuring British mystery writer Donald Langham and his rather attractive sidekick, his literary agent, Maria Dupre. Alastair Endicott's father has gone missing; Endicott asks Donald to help him find out how the man could have vanished from his locked study. Could the missing man's latest work in progress, a biography of a notorious satanist, be connected to his disappearance? A ripping-good period piece (it's set in the mid-1950s), the novel offers a pair of engaging protagonists, a compelling story (a good locked-room mystery is always a treat), and some seriously good plot twists. Brown has said online that his intent here was to debunk mysticism and the occult; and he definitely does that, but not in a mean-spirited way. It's a very well put together novel, with a solid rational core, but the author also does a fine job of exploring why people might believe so strongly in the occult, and why a charismatic occultist (modeled to some degree after Aleister Crowley), could attract such a large following.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)