The Santa Klaus Murder (British Library Crime Classics)
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When I received this book as a review copy from the German publishers I was so excited. I always love me a nice Christmas mystery book once in a while, especially around this time of the year to get me in the right mood for Halloween and Christmas all in once. So thanks to the German publishers for sending me this review copy in exchange for an honest review. Aunt Mildred, sister of Sir Osmond Melbury, once said that no good could come of the family’s gatherings around Christmas. Little did she know how true her words were. Sixteen family members plus friends and servants arrived at Flaxmere to celebrate Christmas season together but instead of enjoying the festive feasting and fun Christmas celebrations, they all end up being murder suspects. Sir Osmond, head of the family, organized a Santa Klaus costume for one of his servants to wear in order to distribute presents to everyone but Santa’s suit did not arrive in time so another one had to be ordered. While Santa was out and about to get ready; to surprise all family members, especially the children, with presents, Sir Osmond went to his study to receive a mysterious phone call. But he never returned. So when the door was discovered to be locked, his family went to look for him but when Sir Osmond was discovered, he was dead; shot in the head. They called the police and the main investigator very quickly finds out that everyone from Sir Osmond’s family had something to gain by his death. And this is when they all become murder suspects. WRITTEN VERSION OF THE BOARD GAME „CLUEDO“ When you open the book the first thing you see is a map of the ground floor of a huge country house which reminded me so much of the Cluedo board game. Actually the whole story and the setting did, which was great because I loved Cluedo while growing up. So if you’re looking for a classic murder mystery, set around Christmas time, with quite interesting characters, some family drama and a nice setting in a country house, basically cut off from all civilization, this one is the right book for you. The plot is very well written and unravels at a good pace. It was fun to “help” the police investigate the case and try to find out, who the murderer was. Unfortunately there were too many characters for me to handle. All the names sometimes got me all confused and I easily forgot who was who. I needed quite some time to figure out who the daughters were, who the grandchildren, and who only servants or friends were, which kind of killed the suspense from time to time since I spent half of the time trying to figure out who the persons were. It also didn’t help that some of them were called by their first names, then their last names and some even by nicknames. TOO MANY CHARACTERS CAUSE TOO MUCH CONFUSION I loved how this book was written in different points of views. Since I don’t read classics too often it took me some time to get used to the book, especially the writing. I do have mixed feeling about the writing to be honest. On the one hand I loved how the book consists of reports written by the investigator. Although he concentrated on the people’s feelings as well it was somewhat unemotional and it was really hard to connect to the characters. It was interesting to see how the story mainly focused on the investigations and not on the murder. It wasn’t bloody or scary; it was mysterious which I really enjoyed. The characters felt very flat sometimes. It’s obvious that the author wanted to create tension between the family members, but there was a distinct lack of drama. Sometimes it was kind of boring and it took me a while to read it because I had no intention to. It’s definitely not one of those books that keep you up all night wanting to know who the killer was and how it happened and why. I loved the setting of the English Manor and the English countryside. I also loved that the story is set around Christmas time. But to be honest I find myself a bit disappointed with the ending. It was nothing that really shocked or surprised me. It was just like “okaaaaay ….”. It wasn’t bad but I expected something different, something more shocking; something huge. I would definitely recommend the book though to everyone who loves murder mysteries, especially for the festive seasons and especially to those, who love classics. But it’s definitely not a book that I would want to reread. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would.
Ich muss gestehen, noch nie einen klassischen Krimi gelesen zu haben. Und hier habe ich genau das bekommen, was ich mir darunter vorgestellt habe. Es hatte diesen gewissen Cluedo Charakter, den viele von euch wahrscheinlich kennen. War es Tante Mildred im Arbeitszimmer mit der Pistole? Oder doch der Butler? Das Buch ist hauptsächlich aus der Sicht des ermittelnden Beamten Colonel Halstock erzählt. Doch besonders zu Beginn der Geschichte wird auch aus vielen anderen Perspektiven erzählt, was sich ereignet hat. Das fand ich zunächst etwas befremdlich und die ersten 100 Seiten waren auch relativ langweilig, denn hier werde nur die Geschehnisse vor dem eigentlichen Mord beschrieben. Da man aber bereits vom Klappentext her ungefähr weiß, in welcher Form der Mord stattfinden wird, wartet man die ganze Zeit gespannt darauf, dass es endlich so weit ist. Und man wartet und wartet und wartet ... ein Drittel des Buchs. Natürlich haben die hier beschriebene Ereignisse eine Relevanz für die Aufklärung des Falls. Das hat sie aber nicht unbedingt spannender gemacht. Wie gesagt werden die anderen zwei drittel des Buchs aus der Sicht des Colonels erzählt. Dafür wurde eine Form von Bericht verwendet. Es liest sich irgendwie wie eine Mischung aus Tagebuch und Polizeibericht. Nicht Fleisch nicht Fisch. Das hat mich manchmal doch in meinem Lesefluss gestört. Andererseits hatte ich aber immer ein sehr konkretes Bild von einem Herrn mit einem dicken, weißen Schnauzer im Kopf, der mit seiner Pfeife im Mundwinkel vor einem großen Schreitisch sitzt und handschriftlich die Ereignisse festhält. Fazit: Das Buch war nett für zwischendurch. Es hat meine Erwartungen absolut erfüllt, wenn auch leider nicht übertroffen. Für jeden zu empfehlen, der Lust auf einen leichten und, für mein Empfinden, recht klassischen Krimi hat.
Description
Posts
When I received this book as a review copy from the German publishers I was so excited. I always love me a nice Christmas mystery book once in a while, especially around this time of the year to get me in the right mood for Halloween and Christmas all in once. So thanks to the German publishers for sending me this review copy in exchange for an honest review. Aunt Mildred, sister of Sir Osmond Melbury, once said that no good could come of the family’s gatherings around Christmas. Little did she know how true her words were. Sixteen family members plus friends and servants arrived at Flaxmere to celebrate Christmas season together but instead of enjoying the festive feasting and fun Christmas celebrations, they all end up being murder suspects. Sir Osmond, head of the family, organized a Santa Klaus costume for one of his servants to wear in order to distribute presents to everyone but Santa’s suit did not arrive in time so another one had to be ordered. While Santa was out and about to get ready; to surprise all family members, especially the children, with presents, Sir Osmond went to his study to receive a mysterious phone call. But he never returned. So when the door was discovered to be locked, his family went to look for him but when Sir Osmond was discovered, he was dead; shot in the head. They called the police and the main investigator very quickly finds out that everyone from Sir Osmond’s family had something to gain by his death. And this is when they all become murder suspects. WRITTEN VERSION OF THE BOARD GAME „CLUEDO“ When you open the book the first thing you see is a map of the ground floor of a huge country house which reminded me so much of the Cluedo board game. Actually the whole story and the setting did, which was great because I loved Cluedo while growing up. So if you’re looking for a classic murder mystery, set around Christmas time, with quite interesting characters, some family drama and a nice setting in a country house, basically cut off from all civilization, this one is the right book for you. The plot is very well written and unravels at a good pace. It was fun to “help” the police investigate the case and try to find out, who the murderer was. Unfortunately there were too many characters for me to handle. All the names sometimes got me all confused and I easily forgot who was who. I needed quite some time to figure out who the daughters were, who the grandchildren, and who only servants or friends were, which kind of killed the suspense from time to time since I spent half of the time trying to figure out who the persons were. It also didn’t help that some of them were called by their first names, then their last names and some even by nicknames. TOO MANY CHARACTERS CAUSE TOO MUCH CONFUSION I loved how this book was written in different points of views. Since I don’t read classics too often it took me some time to get used to the book, especially the writing. I do have mixed feeling about the writing to be honest. On the one hand I loved how the book consists of reports written by the investigator. Although he concentrated on the people’s feelings as well it was somewhat unemotional and it was really hard to connect to the characters. It was interesting to see how the story mainly focused on the investigations and not on the murder. It wasn’t bloody or scary; it was mysterious which I really enjoyed. The characters felt very flat sometimes. It’s obvious that the author wanted to create tension between the family members, but there was a distinct lack of drama. Sometimes it was kind of boring and it took me a while to read it because I had no intention to. It’s definitely not one of those books that keep you up all night wanting to know who the killer was and how it happened and why. I loved the setting of the English Manor and the English countryside. I also loved that the story is set around Christmas time. But to be honest I find myself a bit disappointed with the ending. It was nothing that really shocked or surprised me. It was just like “okaaaaay ….”. It wasn’t bad but I expected something different, something more shocking; something huge. I would definitely recommend the book though to everyone who loves murder mysteries, especially for the festive seasons and especially to those, who love classics. But it’s definitely not a book that I would want to reread. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would.
Ich muss gestehen, noch nie einen klassischen Krimi gelesen zu haben. Und hier habe ich genau das bekommen, was ich mir darunter vorgestellt habe. Es hatte diesen gewissen Cluedo Charakter, den viele von euch wahrscheinlich kennen. War es Tante Mildred im Arbeitszimmer mit der Pistole? Oder doch der Butler? Das Buch ist hauptsächlich aus der Sicht des ermittelnden Beamten Colonel Halstock erzählt. Doch besonders zu Beginn der Geschichte wird auch aus vielen anderen Perspektiven erzählt, was sich ereignet hat. Das fand ich zunächst etwas befremdlich und die ersten 100 Seiten waren auch relativ langweilig, denn hier werde nur die Geschehnisse vor dem eigentlichen Mord beschrieben. Da man aber bereits vom Klappentext her ungefähr weiß, in welcher Form der Mord stattfinden wird, wartet man die ganze Zeit gespannt darauf, dass es endlich so weit ist. Und man wartet und wartet und wartet ... ein Drittel des Buchs. Natürlich haben die hier beschriebene Ereignisse eine Relevanz für die Aufklärung des Falls. Das hat sie aber nicht unbedingt spannender gemacht. Wie gesagt werden die anderen zwei drittel des Buchs aus der Sicht des Colonels erzählt. Dafür wurde eine Form von Bericht verwendet. Es liest sich irgendwie wie eine Mischung aus Tagebuch und Polizeibericht. Nicht Fleisch nicht Fisch. Das hat mich manchmal doch in meinem Lesefluss gestört. Andererseits hatte ich aber immer ein sehr konkretes Bild von einem Herrn mit einem dicken, weißen Schnauzer im Kopf, der mit seiner Pfeife im Mundwinkel vor einem großen Schreitisch sitzt und handschriftlich die Ereignisse festhält. Fazit: Das Buch war nett für zwischendurch. Es hat meine Erwartungen absolut erfüllt, wenn auch leider nicht übertroffen. Für jeden zu empfehlen, der Lust auf einen leichten und, für mein Empfinden, recht klassischen Krimi hat.