Murder Take Three

July 1, 2016

Donald Langham and Maria Dupre are looking forward to their wedding in May. But Langham is called away to the Highlands, along with his friend Ralph Ryland to investigate the alleged murder attempt on their former commanding officer Major Gordon. The major has refurbished an old castle, turning it into a hotel and is attempting to raise a German aircraft from the bottom of the loch, where it crashed in February 1945. The list of people who would want to sabotage the major's efforts includes Gordon's Byronesque layabout son, an aloof Hungarian countess, a German aircraft enthusiast, a retired academic investigating the castle's ghosts, and three staff members, including a young woman who is more than a family friend. The sleuths arrive at the estate in a snowstorm and are soon stranded. As the bodies begin to pile up, Langham and Ryland are running out of time to find the culprit. VERDICT This charming book, which follows Murder at the Chase, brings to the page well-defined characters and a classic locked-room structure. Recommend for anyone who loves English country house murders.

Copyright 2016 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.)