Murder at the Villa Byzantine

January 31, 2011
In Raichev's middling sixth contemporary evocation of golden age whodunits featuring private detective Maj. Hugh Payne and his wife, mystery writer Antonia Darcy (after 2010's The Curious Incident at Claridge's), the couple reluctantly attend a birthday party for actress Melisande Chevret. The guests, an array of improbable eccentrics, include Stella Markoff, a woman who used to work for the rightful heir to the Bulgarian throne. When Markoff is later decapitated with a sword in the Villa Byzantine, the London home of her collaborator in a biography of another member of the Bulgarian royal family, the case appears open and shut, but Payne and Darcy are determined to look further. A sluggish plot goes hand in hand with the author's failure to rise to the challenge of making modern characters act and talk like ones from the 1930s without veering into parody.

April 1, 2011

A messy beheading sends bantering sleuths off on another investigative romp.

Renowned mystery writer Antonia Darcy and her husband Hugh Payne, a retired major, barely know their glamorous neighbor, aging actress Melisande Chevret. All the more reason to accept an invitation to the birthday party that she's throwing for herself at her grand residence, Kinderhook. For Antonia, the party is a study in social awkwardness by the many inappropriate comments of surly teenager Moon, the daughter of Stella Markoff, a Bulgarian emigré. The matronly Stella is working with renowned writer Tancred Vane on a biography of Prince Cyril, the brother of the late King Boris. Other guests include Melisande's mousy sister Winifred, her fiancé James Morland and playwright and raconteur Stanley Lennox. The plot thickens when Morland throws Melisande over for Stella, then darkens considerably when Stella is beheaded in Tancred Vane's home, the Villa Byzantine. Knowing the reputation of the Paynes, Morland visits Hugh (Antonia is away in America) to ask for help, which is readily supplied. When Antonia returns, the sleuthing accelerates, punctuated with droll and often inspired exchanges between the couple. Also in the mix are Morland's athletic sister Julia Henderson and a strange elderly spinster named Miss Hope, who tells fanciful tales of royal Bulgaria and seems a magnet for trouble. A second victim hastens Antonia's path to a solution.

Antonia and Hugh's sixth whodunit (The Curious Incident at Claridges, 2010, etc.) again wraps an intelligent mystery in a warm cloak of delightfully arch dialogue.

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March 1, 2011

A deadly birthday party has mystery writer Antonia Darcy and husband Maj. Hugh Payne up to their eyeballs in a murder probe. VERDICT This sixth series title (after The Curious Incident at Claridge's) offers a twisted plot with unusual characters and clever dialog that will appeal to fans of Golden Age mysteries.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
The last thing mystery novelist Antonia Darcy and her husband, Major Hugh Payne, want to do is attend a birthday party at the home of their neighbor, Melisande Chevret. But one must bow to certain social obligations. Of course, if they had known theyd soon be investigating a murder for which Melisande is a prime suspect, as is the victims own daughter, they might have stayed home. The Darcy and Payne novels are curious affairs. They sound like your typical genteel, drawing-room mysteries circa the early 1900s, until you notice that the characters are talking about blogging, the X-Men, Red Bull, and other distinctly modern things. Raichev clearly has a great deal of fun writing the books, giving these modern stories almost an Edwardian feel, and were rewarded with finely drawn characters, clever murder mysteries, and dialogue that sparkles. Best recommended to fans of golden age authors (Christie, Sayers, et al.) who can tolerate a little modernity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)