Mystery in White

 

Mystery in White / J. Jefferson Farjeon
Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, 2016, c1937.
237 p.

This is my Christmas read this year! This was republished fairly recently, and I thought it looked like a good choice for some fun holiday reading. I was right - it had snowstorms, Christmas, mysterious strangers, murder, spirits and seemingly abandoned country houses with fires going and tea laid. And a ragtag group of characters thrown together when their train gets stuck in an enormous snowfall. 

There are a brother and sister, an old man who investigates hauntings, a pimply clerk going to visit his maiden aunt, a beautiful young woman, a pompous blowhard, and an unexpected add-on from another compartment - a bit of a shady character. They discuss leaving the train and hiking through the snow to the next station, not so far away, but are rather anxious about the idea, until the old man sees something and leaps out of the train. Then one by one they feel obliged to follow, to make sure the old man makes it. They all make it, but not to the station, rather to a large country house with an unlocked front door after they are lost in the storm. They enter to find fires going, tea laid out, and no-one there. But they are desperate so they pile in, and this becomes a kind of locked room mystery. 

I found the development of the plot to this point (a chapter or so in) quite quick and action-oriented. It slows down a fair bit once they are all in the house, with a bit too much guilty reflection on using the house going on, like seriously, who would be mad that you came in out of a blizzard and sought shelter? But otherwise, there is a great atmosphere developed in the house with a portrait that seems to glare down at them, and a foreboding sense of doom in one of the upper bedrooms, and a kitchen knife out of place on the floor... 

Add to this very realistic characters who are selfish, neurotic, guarded, anxious, and of course there's some good old sexism thrown in too. The plot eventually makes sense, with some extra information finally revealed, and it's interesting if a bit sensational. But the psychology of all the characters and how they watch each other and have private thoughts about one another is the delight of this book. The people are so very peopley. 

Christmas is a bit incidental, except that it happens on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, and Lydia (the sister) is determined to bring a bit of Christmas spirit into the dreary proceedings. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a well made mystery, definitely of its time, with a slightly corny edge but lots of fun nonetheless. It combines the snowed in train trope with some 'ghost story for Christmas' vibe and has a bit of sparkle too. I thought it was a fun seasonal read!