Murder at Holly House - Denzil Meyrick ***

By Brian Clegg

In a mystery, things are often not what they seem – but usually a book cover is a fair indication of what a book is. In this case it isn’t. You’d think this was a cosy Christmas murder mystery. No, it’s not. You would think it would centre on a murder at Holly House. It doesn’t. Admittedly there is a murder in the said building, but it’s a marginal part of the plot as a whole. Of itself, this isn’t necessarily bad, but there were other elements that put me off too.

The book is supposedly the memoir of a failure of a detective inspector, sent in the early 1950s to a village on the North Yorkshire moors as punishment for a misdemeanour. The village, Elderby, itself is decidedly reminiscent of the village setting of the old TV show Heartbeat, but somehow this village supports a police station with an inspector, a sergeant and a couple of constables. Inspector Grasby is faced with an increasingly complex situation as death follow death, aided or hindered by a female American intern at the already overcrowded police station, a narcoleptic sergeant, a landlady out of a gothic fantasy with a raven as a pet, and a clergyman father who seems to detest our hero.

It would give away too much to say how the plot develops, but it is definitely not in the cosy murder mystery vein. There are certainly some interesting developments, but I was never gripped by it. This in part was because of the nature of  the main character – Grasby is weak and self-serving, only becoming a hero by accident. His first person narration sounds more like that of a lesser P. G. Wodehouse character than a 1950s detective. The humour is heavy-handed. And, to add to the detachment from engagement, a lot of the characters have silly names, such as Superintendent Juggers, Lord Mitch Parsley, Mrs Gaunt, Lord Damnish and Sergeant Elphinstone Bleakley. 

The cover tells us that the feel good factor is off the scale and it’s a wonderfully entertaining mystery. I’m amazed they thought this if they were reading the same book. It was okay. I didn’t give up on it. But it was the worst Christmas mystery novel I’ve read in quite a while.

You can buy Murder at Holly House from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Bookshop.org

Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.