Tied Up In Tinsel

Tied Up In Tinsel by MARSH, Ngaio. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9789997522382.

An English manor house on the moors! An ideal setting for a murder--and for one of Ngaio Marshs classic murder mysteries. The occasion is a Christmas party hosted by Mr. Hilary Bill-Tasman, landed proprietor of Halberds Manor and authority on antiques. Attending the festivities are a number of unusual characters, several of whom are perfectly logical candidates for murderer--and one of whom will elude the most prescient reader until tracked down by the indefatigable Superintendent Roderick Alleyn, whose wife Troy innocently involved him in all the sinister goings-on in the first place. Herewith the murder victim: Moult, the ill-favored, tippling manservant of Hilarys uncle, Colonel F. Fleaton Forrester. Moult is found missing and subsequently dead after portraying a Druid in the Halberds Christmas pageant. Herewith the murder suspects: Blore, Mervyn, Nigel, Cooke and Vincent, the staff of Halberds, all of whom are certified ex-murderers ("oncers"). Hilary is rehabilitating them. Blore, a baldish man with a loud voice, murdered his wifes lover. Mervyn killed a burglar with a flatiron. Nigel once made effigies, but became a religious maniac and killed a sinful lady. He is said to be cured. Cooke, "not one hundred percent he-man," was already in prison, but attacked a warder who approached him when he was not in the mood. And Vincent shut an offensive old lady into a greenhouse heavy with arsenical spray. And then there is Cressida Tottenham, Hilarys fiancée very beautiful and modern, somewhat vulgar, and severely disapproved of by Hilarys family; Bert Smith, Hilarys antiques partner, who affects a Cockney accent, has a blackly comic sense of humor, and knows a lot more than he lets on. And Hilary himself, arrogant, snobbish, and a bit of a hedonist. One of them killed Moult. Alleyn tries to find out who--and nearly gets killed himself in the process.