The Clock Strikes Twelve

 

The Clock Strikes Twelve / Patricia Wentworth
NY: HarperPerennial, c1944.

And my third Miss Silver novel in a row! (taking a little break now) 

This one is set at New Year's, a festive tale indeed. Really not all that festive, what with family in-fighting, thievery, and murder, but still. James Paradine is a rich man, whose firm is working on top secret wartime plans. He holds this grimly festive dinner, which includes his secretary -- a man who is also his niece's estranged husband -- and at the end of it announces that he knows one of the family has stolen these top secret plans, and that they must be returned to him that night before midnight. The culprit must confess to him in his study, where he will be waiting...

Of course that doesn't go well. The household all wander about, coming and going all over the house and beyond, so that nobody really has an alibi worth spit. And when midnight comes, James Paradine is found dead at the bottom of the parapet outside his study. 

Who did it? Miss Silver is there to assist the police with their investigations, although she only really appears half way through and it really feels like she is there just to fit this book into the popular series. She really wasn't necessary to this one, unlike the huge role she plays in other books like Anna, Where Are You? for example. 

The entire family have secrets beyond secrets. Everyone has an motive, family and non-family alike. These people are all fairly unhappy and selfish, for the most part, and so nobody really comes out well, murderer or not! 

The atmosphere of this novel is a bit suffocating; it takes place almost entirely within this grand house, crowded with family tripping over one another. And James Paradine's self-satisfied cleverness and bullying really gets him nowhere; a straightforward conversation might have saved him from being murdered. As usual, Wentworth really skewers people and their lack of self-knowledge. The characters are pompous, weak, egotistic, hard-headed, and yes, sometimes quite decent or to be pitied. 

The setting is one of the strong points, though, and the timeframe of wartime England is brought up in various ways -- like the mention of clothing coupons and how one of the characters makes clothes from upholstery fabrics to avoid the coupon ration. 

(For some discussion of the joyous level of clothing-talk in this novel, check out the not-to-be-missed Clothes In Books on this title.)

I enjoyed this one as well, and recommend it for holiday reading if you like books set at the time of year you are reading in. If you put it on your list now, you might get to it by New Year's, if you are anything like me!