Preamble
If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
See also
These lists capture other detective/crime stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- The Father Brown mysteries
- Wylder’s Hand
- Various Sherlock Holmes tales
Review (4 out of 5)
I’m grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book, due out on 4 January 2024.
This novel offers an intriguing spin on the accidental detective and tangled inheritance affairs of so many country house mysteries. The amusingly named accidental hit author Arbuthnot Lancelot Swift—a Wodehouse/Dorothy Sayers reference? Wonderful literary overtones!—and the vicar’s daughter Valentina Olivia Charlotte Coulton-James, pair up to help solve first an apparent haunting, and then a murder that definitely wasn’t committed by a ghost.
Even if you don’t know Faith Martin as an accomplished, longstanding crime author, there’s lots here to show her love for the genre, which are a pleasure for the reader. Not only are there Golden Age echoes, but plenty of nods further back. For example, there is an air of The Adventure of the Speckled Band early on in Chapter 3, and Amy Phelps’ anxiety about being watched in bed, which shouldn’t slip by those attentive readers who want to take a shot at solving the mystery before the end. And the supernatural threat that materialises into a prosaic, venal one is very The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Set in the 1920s, Murder by Candlelight captures the little frictions generated by class inequalities not only amongst the pool of suspects (old friends and a niece and nephew, all enjoying the murdered lady’s largess), but also between Arbie and Val themselves. There are plenty of blind alleys offered, both to us and to them, and I really enjoyed the initial set-up of investigating a haunting, particularly appropriate for an October read.
I haven’t given this five stars, as it is a little over-written and under-finished, especially early on, as Martin tries to establish the period stylistically in her prose. This is understandable for the start of a series, but the effect could have been achieved with a tighter edit. For example, early on, when Arbie is left for the night to watch out for ghosts, Martin tells us: “He watched his hostess climb the stairs, a lone and lonely figure. For all her wealth and position, it struck him suddenly what a tragic figure she made.” It is de trop. (Of course she is alone. She has let him in secretly and is now going upstairs to leave him to the watch! The empathetic streak in Arbie could be better displayed in other ways.) I do think Martin could expect slightly better of her publisher both with the editing but also with the proofreading. (There is a “piece of mind” instead of a peace of mind, a “then” for a “than”, “immediately family” rather than “immediate family”.)
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
Dominique Gracia 