In some remote English village, an unpopular lady with a deep religious root who is known for her habits of meddling into people's private businesses and her overly zealous attempts trying to convert the villagers' "malicious" ways of living is found murdered one day. After some serious deliberation, the local law enforcers decide to employ an additional help from the Scotland Yard, Inspector Littlejohn, to speed up the investigation process. The crime is solved rather rapidly with minimum surveys on the crime spot with some back-and-forth interviews of the locals before Inspector Littlejohn cracks the case. "Death of a Busybody" is a quintessential vintage crime novel of the golden age detective fiction era. Fine writing with a believable plot make it an overall enjoyable read.

The pace of "The Death of Busybody" is quite slow at the beginning and the extensive use of the local accents and dialects slowed me down somewhat. The plot probably isn't the most original one. I have came across something similar in the past. About half way done, when Littlejohn spots the discrepancy of the murderer's alibi, the culprit and his motive are quite obvious. But a little surprise that comes at the end helps to make this "typical" vintage mystery a genuine good read. As plain as the plot could be, Bellairs' writing somehow is captivating and engrossing.

Thanks Netgallery and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advanced reading copy for my honest review. The British Library Classic Crime series has not been a disappointment so far.

When George Ballairs penned his Inspector Thomas Littlejohn stories their humor appealed to war-weary British readers in need of a little light escapism. His third novel Death of a Busybody was published in 1942.

I have long wanted to read some of Poisoned Pen Press's British Library Crime Classics. The cover art of the series is gorgeous. And I am glad I requested this little gem, as it provided a bit of fun and relief I needed in these contemporary grim times.

The Rev. Ethelred Claplady of Hilary Magna and its smaller satellite sister city Hilary Parva is returning to the vicarage after pastoral visitations when he discovers Miss Tither laying face down in his cesspool.

The deceased had her nose into everybody's business, especially calling out the foibles and failings of her neighbors and pressing them to turn from their sinful ways. In her quest for the Christian improvement of humanity, she supports charities that carry on such good works as reclaiming fallen women. Miss Tither has made numerous enemies, all with a motive to do her in.

The murder depresses the Rev. Claplady who feels that all his efforts have fallen on 'stony ground.' (Sounds like a pretty accurate view of basic humanity!)

The murder 'has come at a most awkward time' and local authorities agree to call in Scotland Yard, bringing Inspector Littlejohn to investigate.

We meet colorful local villagers and become privy to the equally colorful rumors and gossip. It turns out that Hilary Magna is rife with sin.

I loved the humor. The gardener digging potatoes has "a huge backside protruding like some monstrous, black toadstool." Miss Tither's tongue was a weapon "which she used like a pair of bellows, fanning a spark of a whisper into a consuming fire of chatter, a holocaust of pursuing flame." I loved the rumor network reporting Miss Tither's death, with the story changing until it is reported that the "vicar's done it."

With another death, things get even more complicated, eventually revealing a charity fraud. "What a queer, even grotesque crime it is," said Sir Francis when the complicated relationships and animosities are revealed.

Death of a Busybody was a light fun read with a satisfying twist and wonderful characters. And to think, Bellairs wrote over fifty Littlejohn novels! That's a whole year of reading!

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I absolutely loved the Agatha Raisin books about Hamish McBeth and this one was even better. I loved it.

Delightful vintage mystery selection from the long Inspector Littlejohn series. The murder of a malicious gossip in a small village turns out to be the final piece in a complex series of events. The well-drawn characters in the village and the ferreting out of what actually happened is entertaining and a wonderful diversion. Inspector Littlejohn is a great character. I particularly enjoyed the humorous tone and the audacious names of some of the characters, including Ethelred Claplady.

I am happy to see worthy books of this era back in print so kudos to the British Library Crime Classic series .

I received an ARC of this novel via Net Galley in return for my honest review.

Death of a Busybody was originally published in 1942, the third book George Bellairs wrote and the third to feature Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard. This time, Inspector Littlejohn is called to the villages of Hilary Magna and Parva to solve the murder of the local nosy parker. Miss Tither is one of those annoying people who makes it her mission to question, snoop, and poke her nose into everyone’s business. Now, in a typical murder of a busybody, the motive would be some extortion scheme, but Miss Tither was never motivated by greed, but by a salacious self-righteous fascination with sin. She was constantly telling tales to expose those she considered sinners.

When she is found dead in cesspool, drowned in the water after being knocked on the head, the problem is not too few suspects, but too many. There’s twin villages full of options because Miss Tither has been a very busy busybody.



Death of a Busybody is a scrupulously fair mystery. We learn the important facts as soon as, and even sometimes before, Inspector Littlejohn. We are party to all of the investigation which is conducted with professionalism and respect for the law and the public. There is a lovely, gentle humor in the book, making it clear that Bellairs may smile and find amusement in human foibles and vanities, but he clearly loves humanity in all its varieties.

It’s useful to remember that some of the devices that may seem old today, were probably much fresher in 1942 when this was released. I have read so many hundreds of mysteries, that I recognized who the killer was long before I knew the motive or even the connection to Miss Tither, but in 1942, that “wrongness” I recognized was 75 years newer. I think many alert readers will twig to that pretty quickly, but it does not spoil the mystery. The story is not just a whodunnit after all, but also a whydunnit, and that is the real mystery. That is complex and the investigation is painstaking in presenting the facts, just as it should be.

I enjoyed Death of a Busybody quite a bit. It’s an excellent police procedural that highlights the systematic procedural method of investigation, the very best of investigation that keeps the investigators mind open to different ideas, that follows the evidence, not impulses and hunches.

Death of a Busybody will be released September 5th. I was provided an e-galley by the publisher through NetGalley.

Death of a Busybody at Poisoned Pen Press
George Bellairs author site

A classic British village mystery. This book although originally published in the 40's still holds up.
Interesting characters, secrets and twists and a well written whodunit.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read a digital galley of this novel.

I am so grateful to Poisoned Pen Press, the British Library Crime Classics series and Martin Edwards, editor of this novel, for bringing books such as this back into circulation so they can be enjoyed by readers who particularly enjoy the classic crime novels. This one was first released in either 1942 or 1943 (there's a little difference between the copyright date and the date Edwards states in his editorial introduction) but it was definitely sometime when World War II was still being fought. There are many small clues like black-out curtains on the windows, petrol shortages, land girls doing jobs on the farms and some mention of rationing, but rationing had not reached the extreme levels which later years made necessary. There is a tea shop which specializes in all sorts of sweets and there is definitely no shortage of sugar at this point. There also is not a single mention of fighting on any front and that is quite at variance with most mystery novels set in this time period.

Author George Bellairs was a new writer for me but I am glad I've discovered his works now. From the standpoint of depicting the villages of Hilary Magna and Parva in typical country style Bellairs has held true to the expected in a novel of this time period. The people who live in Hilary Magna or Parva, though, now that's where things get very interesting. The people in the villages are perfect in their types, but then Bellairs reveals a little more and a little more until you find you didn't really know some of the people at all. There are twists I never expected to see. The village busybody has been killed, her body left in a really unusual place and there is even a mystery of how she actually died. Motives are everywhere but they just don't seem to lead anywhere.

The book deals with a very serious subject, yes, but the author doesn't hesitate to inject some lightness into the atmosphere when things start to get too oppressive. Bellairs steps outside the novel often to relate little things which humanize his characters to a great extent. For example the Scotland Yard Inspector goes into the tea shop and buys his wife two pounds of fudge and has it sent to her through the post. The reader is told that they later had a conversation about the fudge and Mrs. Littlejohn "was delighted with her husband's kindly thought of her at a crucial moment in his case, but, on hearing the price, said he had paid at least four times more than the stuff was worth". Bellaires also finishes up all the stray ends by telling the reader what happened to some of the characters after the story was finished and they had gone on with their lives. This was a very nice touch and let me feel good about characters I had been spending my reading time with.

This is one of those recently re-issued books readers who love the village mystery will want to read and add to their collection. George Bellairs is an author I want to put on my list of favorites so I can help him solve his next case. He didn't exactly need my expertise this time, but you never know if he might in the future.

I was unfamiliar with George Bellairs, who wrote several dozen cozies over four decades featuring Scotland Yard detective Thomas Littlejohn. Poison Pen Press has reissued the third in the series, Death of a Busybody, and I hope they reissue the entire lot! George Bellairs deserves to be rescued from obscurity.

Miss Ethel Tither, the eponymous busybody, takes it upon herself to be God’s scourge on earth to ferret out moral turpitude in all of its guises. From the irreligious to lazy scalawags to the good-time girls (and their secret sugar daddies), there are plenty in the village of Hilary Magna and environs who are glad she’s dead. But which one of the villagers was desperate enough to shut her up permanently?

The first third of the novel plods along a bit too predictably; however, after that, Bellairs (née Harold Blundell) lards the novel with plenty of twists and surprises. I never saw the end coming. Here’s to hoping that there will be more reissues soon.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I received this book free from NetGalley, Poison Pen Press, and British Library Publishing in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I had never heard of this author or his inspector Littlejohn, and came across this book by chance on the NetGalley page of a publisher I had enjoyed other books from. The cover and the description promised a cozy, old-fashioned mystery, and that's exactly what I got.

Miss Tither, local busybody of a small country village, is found dead by the vicar (one Ethelred Claplady; had to mention him, because I love his name) in the cesspool behind his house. Miss Tither had been on the warpath against any salacious behavior for years, meddling and moralizing, trying to make every last sinner repent, and had made an enemy out of most people she met. The local police ask for help from Scotland Yard, and inspector Littlejohn promptly joins the local constabulary in the search for the killer.

There was nothing earth-shattering about this, but I nevertheless really enjoyed this. It reminds me of cozy Agatha Christie novels you can just lose yourself in on a rainy (or in my case sunny) day.

Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is called to assist DC Harriwinkle in the village of Hillary Magna when the village "busybody" Miss Tither is murdered. She displayed a "holier than thou" attitude and aimed to make people repent of their errant ways. Lots of people, as you can imagine, have motives, and a recently changed will provides an interesting twist. Suspicion even falls to the vicarage. Bellairs' carefully crafted plot will cause many to second-guess or change their minds along the way about whodunit. My biggest problem with the book is the naming of charcters. I'm not certain how intentional it was, but I felt the author was finding a way to belittle the church with his names. I'm glad British Library is bringing back these classics, and I thank Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advance readers e-galley for review purposes.

Here you have a very straight forward mystery. Start off with a grizzly crime, in a very horrid setting, find the witnesses, suspects, and motives, then start breaking alibis, and finish by ferreting out liars, and con men by the droves.
It is very character driven, and by character I mean ‘characters’. There are quite a few who could live just as easily in a comedy or a farce. Mr. Thornbush is a prime example of one trait so over emphasized that it was really quite amusing.
I would have given it a better rating because the style was good as was the plot, but the use of one really foul word, several ‘lesser’ words, and a lewd scene, mostly implied, spoiled it. After the first one, I was on edge for the rest of the book.
Thank you, NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the free ARC.

Good mystery set in small English village at start of World War II
The highlight of this Golden Age mystery was its unusual setting--nearly rural--and many of its main characters, who were laborers or lower class. It provided a background that is different than most English mysteries of the time.
Docked a star for its overlong descriptions of minor characters.

I enjoy reading traditional mysteries and there's nothing better than a good village mystery novel. George Bellairs is a good writer and this is among the best of his Inspector Littlejohn series I've read so far.

Bellairs' strengths are his elegant prose and his gentle wit. These Inspector Littlejohn police procedurals are made more enjoyable by Bellairs' ability to create interesting characters and to give a good sense of place, whether its a small village (in this case) or in foreign locales in some of his later offerings.

Sgt. Cromwell does not figure prominently in this one, but Littlejohn is likable and though I missed Cromwell and the gentle humor often associated with him, there was plenty of wit in describing the village characters and in their interactions.

I wholeheartedly recommend this to fans of Golden Age British mysteries.

I also read Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs. Miss Tither is very unpopular in her village because of her propensity for discovering everyone's secret sins, confronting them with the error of their ways, and exhorting them to repent. Obviously, she is going to end up dead. She meets her end in the Vicar's cesspool. It is up to Inspector Littlejohn to track down her murderer. This was a predictable but enjoyable book. I knew who did it from pretty much the moment the character was introduced but that did not detract from my enjoyment of the rest of the book. Bellairs also had some very nice descriptions of the British countryside.

I enjoy reading books from the era of the Golden Age, if you don't you may find this book a little slow. It isn't full of thrills and spills and bad language, but it has a good storyline, wonderful characters and a story that keeps you reading and gives a good feeling at the end. The good guys win too.

Death of a Busybody, except for one rather dark relationship, is a light-hearted mystery bordering on the cozy. Miss Ethel Tither, the village gossip and spiritual judge, has been found drowned in the vicar’s cesspool. A head injury revealed that she must have been attacked at another location and then her body moved to the place where she died. These are suspects galore for Miss Tither, in her quest to save souls, saw nothing wrong in making public the sins of the villagers so they could confess and repent. Her targets ranged from young women who seemed far too intimate with their beaus to married persons cheating on their spouses. She did not blackmail her victims, but bothered them with threat of exposure and religious tracts.

All the familiar village types are here: the gentle vicar, the friendly pub owner, the comforting tea room owner, various farmers, maids, and handymen. It is up to Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard, with the help of the local constable Sam Harriwinckle, to unravel the mystery. Bellairs manages to poke fun at over zealous religious folk and charity scams aimed at gullible 50 year old spinsters. If there was one part that I found mildly irritating it was the attempt at writing the local dialect spoken by the rustics. But since it was originally published in 1943, one can forgive the author for following the custom of the time. Even the great Dorothy L Sayers has been known use this device for local color.

An enjoyable afternoon read.

4 and 1 / 2 stars

Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard gets called in to investigate the death of Miss Tither who was hit on the head and then drowned in the vicar’s cesspit.

As he goes about interviewing various witnesses, suspects and villagers he gets the assistance of Inspector Oldfield and PC Harriwinckle. He meets interesting people, some friendly and loquacious and some secretive and short.

The murderer comes as somewhat of a surprise but the motive for the crime is not.

I love the use of language in this book. It is quite an adventure to figure out exactly what the villagers are saying. The dropping of h’s and making up their own words is absolutely delightful and makes the book all the more authentic. The settings of the little villages he goes to are charming and descriptive.

This book is very well written and plotted like all of Mr. Bellairs’ novels. It is almost a cozy little story. Inspector Littlejohn is likeable and even though we don’t get much background on him, we get hints of the backstory here and there. I really like the writing of George Bellairs and will continue to read his novels.

I want to thank Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for forwarding to me a copy of this delightful book to read.

"Death of a Busybody" is a mystery that was originally published in 1942 and is set in England. The characters were described with a humorous touch and village life was described in passing as the detective investigated, so the story had some interest beyond the investigation.

Inspector Littlejohn and the local constable followed up on obvious leads and questioned many people. Inspector Littlejohn slowly uncovered what happened until he was finally able to put it all together. There were clues, and the reader (having more clues) can guess whodunit before the Inspector. But the mystery was more complex than I expected.

There was no sex. There was a minor amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable, interesting mystery.

First published in 1942 , Death of a Busybody is the third in George Bellairs’ series featuring Inspector, later, Superintendent, Thomas Littlejohn. The series, published from 1941-1980, ran to over fifty books.

Bellairs, who died in 1985, has been unjustly neglected until the recent reissues. In his lifetime he was rated highly by the author and reviewer, Francis Iles (Anthony Berkley) ,who was a great spotter of crime-writing talent.

Martin Edwards opines in his useful Introduction that Bellairs was so prolific that his work varies in quality -“but his best novels supply pleasant entertainment”. This book exemplifies the good qualities of Bellairs’ work. To me, they are well-crafted and intelligent contributions to the genre.

The “busybody” is Miss Ethel Tither, inhabitant of Hilary Magna, a village deep in the English countryside. When her body is found in the Rev. Ethelred Claplady’s cesspool by Isaiah Gormley, the local police call in Scotland Yard in the person of Inspector Littlejohn.

Miss Tither, fuelled by religious conviction, had been the very active and vocal guardian of the morality of the inhabitants of the area, regularly dispensing unwanted tracts and unwelcome comments and advice. The suspects are, therefore, many and various- adulterers and atheists, fornicators and floozies: all have reason to hate her.

Littlejohn, with some help, locally from Police Constable Harriwinckle, and, from Detective Sergeant Cromwell in London, carries out one of his usual painstaking investigations. Miss Tither’s will provides some interesting leads concerning a relative and religious charities she was interested in. Among the locals, Mr. Lorrimer also gives information and fuel for thought on possible suspects.

The cast of characters, including the apiarist vicar, a choleric coroner, a psalm-quoting suitor, a snobbish tea-shop owner and an alcoholic farmer, as well as the victim herself, are delineated in vivid pen-portraits.

The humour is gentle, but Bellairs shows he has no time for hypocrisy and greed, and ensures that the perpetrator suffers the ultimate penalty while conceding that madness may have played a part.

The writing is clear and the plotting, fairly straightforward. The murderer is not too difficult to spot and one alibi uses a well-known trick of classic crime writers.

I am a great fan of Bellairs’ novels with their casts of lovable eccentrics.This is a good one to start with if you are unfamiliar with his work.

Highly recommended. Four stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advance copy.