Mordecai Tremaine has been invited to Benedict Grame's country estate for Christmas, along with a variety of other guests. His host dresses up as Father Christmas each year on Christmas Eve to deliver envelopes for each of the guests to the Christmas tree. However, this year, Father Christmas has been found dead under the tree, and the gifts are nowhere to be found. Fortunately, Mordecai Tremaine is an amateur detective who has a talent for solving murders.

Murder for Christmas is a fantastic Golden Age mystery - country house and amateur detective included. The author has a comfortable style, and it was an easy and fun read. The clues were laid out, and one could attempt to detect along with Mordecai Tremaine.

I enjoyed reading this book and will enjoy rereading it as well. I hope the publishers continue to re-release additional books by Francis Duncan.

If you like classic, Golden Age detection, you will like this book.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The writting style was hard for me to get into. The murder doesn't even happen until the middle of the book. I couldn't understand why the book read the way it did until the end where it states the author wrote the novel between 1937-1959. Then I understood the writting style. I didn't see a lot of it coming. I was very surprised at the ending and the whys and hows. What a Christmas!

I've been reading quite a lot vintage crime for some time and not everything was as good as this book. Francis Duncan creates a wonderful atmospheric book where everything is not quite what it seems. I especially liked his writing, quite a notch above most writers nowdays.

Murder for Christmas returns to the Golden Age of mysteries.

4.5 star review of Murder for Christmas (Mordecai Tremaine) by Francis Duncan

Two of my favourite types of reads together Christmas and a murder mystery.  

This was a great quirky read which I thoroughly enjoyed; reminding me a little of the works of Agatha Christie.

When amateur detective Mordecai Tremaine arrives in Sherbroome to attend a party hosted by Benedict Grame, he has no idea what is about to happen.

Throw in snow falling, mulled wine, tipsy guests, presents under a tree and the scene is set although all is not as it seems as there is an air of tension between the guests.

When a body who looks like Santa Claus is found under the tree Mordecai feels he must investigate before another murder occurs.

The guests are an eclectic group and the
police detective, Superintendent Cannock, reminds me of Christie's Inspector Japp.

Murder for Christmas kept me guessing till the end and was extremely well written. I enjoyed the storyline and really liked the characters, particularly Mordecai Tremaine.

I received an ARC copy of this book through the publisher via Netgalley.

A good, clean, old fashioned murder Mystery! Interesting characters, I did guess it though, along the lines of Agatha Christie, however, not as good. I did enjoy it though! I highly recommend! Thanks! Enjoy!
carolintallahassee 👒

A golden age, style mystery murder. This has the feel of Agatha Christie - Miss Marple - and we love her. Mordecai Tremaine

A classic mystery, set in Sherbroome House at Christmas time. A home owned by Benedict Grame, a house full of festive cheer, guests all around a Christmas tree. Nicholas Blaise, Grame's secretary fears something is a miss and has invited Mordecai Tremaine to spend the festive season with them.

On Christmas Eve, a woman’s scream is heard, Father Christmas is found sprawled dead under the Christmas tree. Mordecai steps in to assist the local Constable to solve the crime. Very Hercule Poirot

Like all good mysteries there are clues, including foot prints at the scene, some are red herrings others lead us to the murder. But which are which? The finale reveals all.

This book makes for easy reading, a good plot, likable characters and is very suited to Agatha Christie fans. Mrs S enjoyed this one. Thank you for the advanced copy.

If you enjoy Agatha Christie’s characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple you are certain to respect the quiet intelligence of Mordecai Tremaine, the creation of Francis Duncan (a pen name for William Walter Frank Underhill).

Murder for Christmas contains all the best elements of a period mystery. The setting is Sherbroome House, an old estate house which has been lost by the original family to a new owner, Benedict Grame. The time is during the Christmas season. A house full of people, a large Christmas tree and a constant uneasy undercurrent that settles on the festivities.

Fearing something is wrong and hoping to keep any misfortune at bay, Nicholas Blaise, Grame’s confidential secretary and companion has invited Mordecai Tremaine to spend the holiday at Sherbroome House. Knowing he would not enjoy his Christmas if he was wondering about what was transpiring at Sherbroome, Mordecai accepts the invitation. ….”Mordecai Tremaine wanted to be more than a mere spectator in the stalls. He wanted to know what was taking place in the wings. He wanted to know how many acts the drama was scheduled to possess – how many of the case were aware of the significance of the parts they played.”

So well thought out and written, the details don’t overwhelm the plot but lead you to the right place at the right time. As I was reading this book I kept thinking that this would have been a great project for Masterpiece Theater.

Among the many prescient passages the following took my breath away: “It was all wrong that greed and hatred, fear and violence should find their way into the lovely places of the earth. It was all wrong that the cold winter beauty upon which he was gazing should be marred by man’s inability to live in charity with his neighbors and that murder should lie like an evil smudge across perfection.”

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks, Inc. for an ARC

An atmospheric Golden Age crime novel, from the pen of Francis Duncan, set around Christmas in a country village complete with country manor house. Mordecai Tremaine, a writer of romance, has been invited to spend his Christmas at the country home of Benedict Grame. Tensions appear to be at an all time high over the Christmas Eve - culminating in a dead body and one that looks just like Santa! It's a seasonal tale with all of the right ingredients to cosy up with over the festive season - think roaring fire and candlelight, snow falling! It's an overall enjoyable and well penned whodunnit although, perhaps, a little slow in places. Mordecai, himself, a delightful amateur sleuth. Recommended for a relaxing, festive read for lovers of the Golden Age.

Originally published in 1949, this is a classic golden age English country house murder. All the boxes are checked off: country house (✓), isolated by nature/weather/etc (✓), eccentric group of characters gathered together (✓), add one amateur sleuth to the mix, then add murder and stir well (✓). This reissue is being released in October by Sourcebooks and was originally written by Francis Duncan, aka William Underhill. There was also a mystery about the original author of the book itself, which is detailed at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/03/murder-for-christmas-mystery-of-author-francis-duncan .

I enjoyed the slightly innocuous sleuth, Mordecai Tremaine, he has a romantic gentle soul. Others have called him a male Miss Marple, but I would say Miss Marple is a lot more savvy and realistic. Miss Marple only appears fuzzy and harmless (remember she's called Nemesis several times). Tremaine really IS a sweetly romantic soul with a secret addiction to romance pulp magazines! :)

The plotting and development are competently delivered and the dialogue and description are very readable (and not very dated), but the secondary characters themselves were, for me, very difficult to keep straight. I had to keep going back and searching (bless you Kindle search feature!) to find out who was who. That was a relatively minor irritation, honestly, because the central characters were easy enough to sort out.

Veteran armchair sleuths will likely figure the solution out before the end of the book, but there were motives aplenty and some surprises and twists which I hadn't worked out before the denouement.

Golden age mysteries (especially locked room, and/or country house mysteries) are a special favorite of mine and this one is solid. I will absolutely be checking out any future offerings from this publisher and author, who apparently wrote at least 20 books, several of which feature amateur sleuth Tremaine.

Well written, solid and comfortable. Four stars.

I loved everything about this traditional country house murder that just happens to take place during the Christmas season. Very well written and richly detailed one can almost smell the mince pies.

Amateur criminologist Mordecai Tremaine has been invited to a country house Christmas party in Sherbbroome House by Benedict Grame. But at midnight Christmas Eve, a scream is heard, and as everyone rushed toward the noise they find the body of Father Christmas. With the help of the police Tremaine tries to find the guilty party.
An enjoyable and very readable Golden Age (written in 1949) mystery with the varied selection of guests. Probably more of a Goodreads 3.5 star rating, as I look forward to hopefully reading more in this series if they are to be reprinted.

Country house, locked room, amateur detective. Nothing is missing from this old-fashioned mystery set in the countryside of England in the depths of winter. Mordecai Tremaine is a new protagonist to me, but one I’ll be searching for on the backlists!

This was a well written and entertaining mystery with plenty of twists and turns, a few red herrings and a well thought out ending.
My one issue was that I really struggled to get into the story. That may be more a reflection of my state of mind than the quality of the story, however it still made my progress pretty slow and, unfortunately, affected my enjoyment.

*ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review*

Splendid British Golden Age murder mystery.

For several years, Benedict Grame, a rich eccentric billionaire, has invited his friends to celebrate a traditional Christmas celebration in his mansion in a remote British village. However, this year he has also invited celebrated amateur detective Mordecai Tramaine. On Christmas Eve, a woman’s scream rends the night. Santa is found sprawled dead under the Christmas tree. Will Mordecai be able to assist the local Constable to solve the crime? What is the meaning of the mysterious footprints to and from the murder scene? Does the secret passage between rooms impact the murder? What secrets are hidden among the guests, residents, or even Benedict himself?

The fun in this novel is trying to determine where all the clues lead. Some lead to the solution. Some lead to other activities unrelated to the murder. Some are pure red herrings. All are explained by the finale, which is challenging to determine prior to the last ten pages in the book.

This novel, which was previously published in 1949, is the second in the Mordecai Tremaine series of five books. Murder for Christmas can be read without any further exposure to the series. The language is easily understood by modern readers.

This book is highly recommended for fans of Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout and John Dickson Carr. Anyone who enjoys a good mystery and especially readers who like playing armchair detective will enjoy Murder for Christmas. 5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark, and netgalley for an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review. Murder for Christmas (Mordecai Tremaine Mystery) will be published on October 10, 2017.

This was quite an old-fashioned detective, mystery story, a little in the style of Agatha Christie. The action takes place in an old manor house where a motley group of strangers and acquaintances are invited to spend Christmas with the philanthropic householder.
While the descriptive prose is attractive, there are a lot of characters introduced at once, either in person or mentioned in passing, so it is difficult to keep track of who is who in the story initially. Although I found it slow to begin with, the action picked up and I must admit I did not guess the guilty party until it was revealed at the end.

Mordecai Tremaine has been unexpectedly invited to spend Christmas with acquaintance Benedict Grame and friends. Mordecai has only met Benedict and his secretary once at a party, but he was intrigued enough to accept the invitation due to the post script added by the secretary about being worried something is going on. Mordecai arrives to find a very eclectic assembly of guests who seem to have not much in common except knowing Benedict and always being invited to his manor for Christmas. When Santa - or rather one of the guests dressed as Santa – is found dead under the Christmas tree, Tremaine is asked by the police constable to help him get an insider’s perspective on things among the guests (Tremaine previously helped a Scotland Yard friend of the constable with a murder mystery). As is usual, it seems most everyone at the party has secrets to hide and Tremaine must tease out which one was worth killing over.

Mordecai Tremaine is an odd duck in the amateur detective department. Oh, he’s got the usual uncanny ability to notice details and such, but he’s a sentimental old man. It’s mentioned more than once that he’s a hopeless romantic and still has hope in humanity. What a difference from the cold, heartless, jaded average detective. This is a rerelease of a book that was originally published as a contemporary of Agatha Christie’s and Sayers’ novels. It feels like an old classic in many ways, except the aforementioned attitude of the main character. I did figure out the murderer relatively quickly after the body was found thanks to one clue but it took me most of the rest of the book to figure out why that person did it. A delightful British countryside murder mystery that anyone who likes the old classics should enjoy. And for those who get turned off by the typical detective, you might want to give the kindly old Mordecai Tremaine a try.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. One shooting that isn’t gorily described, a fist fight, and someone jumps from an upper story but the results are left entirely up to readers’ imaginations.

A fun, Golden Age mystery set in a snowbound country home at Christmas. The amateur detective is a little contrived and the murderer a little obvious, but the setting is triumphant, making this a worthwhile read.

This is a great classic cozy mystery in the British tradition. A country house at Christmas with the gregarious host and guests from all walks of life, some with shady pasts. The amateur detective with some experience in solving murders. It all adds up to a wonderful read that I really enjoyed.

Benedict Grame is having a Christmas party at his country estate. The party includes his family, friends and Mordecai Tremaine, a retired tobacconist and amateur detective invited by Grame's private secretary. Grame likes to decorate the tree and dress up as Santa Clause every year. When Santa is found dead, Mordecai steps in to investigate.

The writing is so well done and the book just flows along. The plot is interesting and has lots of red herrings to throw off the reader. I highly recommend this book. A great addition to your holiday mystery collection.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The characters are intersting. Mordecai is an interesting amateur detective and I really enjoyed how he solved the mystery. This one kept me guessing until the end.