This was a fun and easy to read classic detective story set in a small town during the visit of a circus. I enjoyed finding out about the various circus skills and there was an especially thrilling description of a high-flying trapeze act. The detective was an engagingly curmudgeonly character, dealing with various family troubles relating to his sister’s wedding as well as the main case.

Another in a series or recently released classic crime novels from the golden age of crime.

In this installment we are taken behind the scenes as the circus comes to town. "Perhaps — who knows — the seven Bengal tigers are wiser than most of us, and have an inkling of the tragedy that is coming to their cage so very soon." So, when tiger trainer Anton is found dead, it is up to DI MInto to solve the mystery, despite being on holiday.

An enjoyable way to spend an afternoon - within the pages of a classic mystery.

The story is set in a circus with an interesting pool of suspects for who killed Anton. Inspector Minto is in the area for his sisters wedding and takes over the investigations. The books humour has generally stood the test of time. The differences between a 1930s circus and a circus now are obvious. As is usual with mysteries of the period the plot is important and the characters development less so. Its an enjoyable read in an interesting setting.

Firstly, I am delighted that The British Library have taken on the task of reprinting so many Golden Age gems that we would, otherwise,perhaps not have the chance to read. This is one of many such reprints. With a foreword by Martin Edwards (in itself always, without exception, a delight) the Death of Anton is a wryly witty detective novel. An enjoyable read - although not a firm favourite of mine in the crime catalogue as a whole it's certainly entertaining and doesn't take itself too seriously!

Detective Inspector Minto is visiting his brother and sister to attend his sister’s wedding. The circus happens to be in town and over breakfast he meets one of the stars, the clown Dodo who shares his opinion on how porridge should be prepared. He happily invites his family to the circus enjoying the cachet of knowing the performers. He is quite miffed, though, when the tiger trainer is murdered. Can’t a fellow enjoy a vacation without a murder interrupting his relaxation.

Everyone would like the murder to be written off as a mauling by the tigers, but the poor tigers are innocent. Even the local police would rather let Minto handle it. So he does. In the process, the murderer strikes again. There is an efficient brutality to the killer’s methods and Minto shocked me with his reckless use of one of the performers as bait.



I enjoyed Death of Anton a lot. There is an acerbic wit that enlivens the prose, causing frequent small smiles of pleasure at one little comment or another. The mystery is fair with the clues falling into place without revealing too much. There is one false note, Minto’s brother is a Catholic priest who hears the confession of the murderer and tells Minto. Robert breaches the confessional six ways to Sunday by telling Minto he heard the killer’s confession and tells him who is not guilty. He would not have even mentioned it and it was not necessary to advance the plot. Otherwise, the story is great.

I received Death of Anton from the publisher through NetGalley. It is one of the British Library Crime Classics that reprints great mysteries from the past.

Death of Anton from Poisoned Pen Press
Alan Melville on Wikipedia

A rare miss from this series - after a nice bit of scene setting in the first chapter this begins to draaaaaag and, ultimately, I had to really skim the last few bits in order to finish. A hard no.

Carey's Circus has just arrived in a small English village and is the talk of the town. Detective Inspector Minto of Scotland Yard has also arrived in this small English village, at his brother's request. He's come down to either dissuade his sister from doing something rash and marrying this chap she's just met or help with the wedding arrangements. Minto happens to be staying in the same hotel as several of the circus performers and gets invited to a party after the first performance. Since there's not much else to do in a town this size, he, his brother, his sister and fiancé decide circus and the party it is for the evening entertainment. But pleasure quickly becomes work when the tiger man, Anton (who was having some difficulty with the biggest one during the show) is found dead and bloody in the tiger's cage during the party. Mr. Carey is quite eager for Minto to just carry out the investigation himself and not get the local police involved. Minto takes on the case and discovers there's much more than murdering going on in this circus.

I was eager to get my hands on this Melville mystery after discovering his Quick Curtain and loving it. This was not funny like Melville's Quick Curtain though it did have some moments of irony (like the clown's discussion with Minto over breakfast in the hotel about how the circus is just overflowing with crime...and then he finds out Minto's profession) and some snide and sarcastic remarks here and there. No, this was more straightforward, classic mystery. But that's not bad. I still enjoyed it. Melville wove quite a tale here, and keeps Minto and readers guessing for quite some time while the tigers' body count keeps going up. The plot line reads like something modern mystery/crime shows would love to snatch up. We tend to think of certain crimes as being new, but (view spoiler). An engaging read with quite the colorful cast (including not only the circus people and animals but also Minto and his siblings).

Notes on content: Just a few mild swear words. No sexual content. Possible affairs are mentioned but nothing is proven or described. Three deaths and two mild injuries and one severe injury. Some blood described, but nothing super gory even with the tigers involved. The power of suggestion and imagination does most of the work.

"Death of Anton" features Inspector Minto, a Scotland Yard inspector, when travels for personal reason but involuntarily gets entangled in a murder case. On the apparent level, the death of the circus' highly publicized tigers trainer is caused by the unfortunate accident, mauled by his emotionally disturbed tigers. Inspector Minto's acute sense of smelling crimes, however, tells him something sinister is behind the entire setup. His sleuth work reveals there is another case behind the "accident." With a bit of luck and intense elbow grease, Inpsector Minto successfully solves the puzzles in no time, and alters the outcome, favorably, of his own personal family matter.

Alan Melville's sense of humor, the exuberant voice and the unique circus setting contribute a lot to the success of the story. "Death of Anton" is, by all means, a hidden gem. Another delectable reissue by Poisoned Pen Press. Highly recommended.

Older style of writing with more than one mystery happening in the book. The detective was on the location when the murder happens but as it is not his jurisdiction doesn't really want to be involved. He is quirky and has as an interesting was of solving crimes once he starts.

The Death of Anton is a great fun! Lion-tamer Anton, the star attraction at the Carey Circus, has been found dead in the lion cage and it appears that his cats have killed him. Inspector Minto of Scotland happens to be a guest at a party given by Dodo a circus clown and so is on the scene when the body is recovered. Very quickly he determines that the cause of Anton’s death is not the beasts but rather three neatly placed bullets in his chest. Who among the colorful residents of the traveling circus hated Anton enough to kill him and why? Is it his understudy who has been demoted to roustabout because he couldn’t handle the cats. Or the young trapeze artist whose wife was too friendly with Anton. Maybe it was the owner who was hoping Anton would buy the circus or even Dodo who found the body. Then, again, it could have been someone outside the circus who was worried that Anton might have discovered some shenanigans in the field where the circus was pitched.

Minto,in town for his sister’s wedding to an innocuous vacuum-cleaner salesman, has his hands full because his suspects keep getting themselves murdered! It doesn’t help that Minton’s brother is the local parish priest who actually has had the murderer confess to him and is bound by the seal of the confessional not to reveal the murderer.

The mystery is atmospheric and funny. Minto is a droll detective and the other characters are quirky. So pop some popcorn, find a comfy chair, and enjoy an afternoon’s read ( )
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This totally prove to me that I was born in the wrong decade and maybe even the wrong country because I adore the golden age of British crime novels among other things.

I'm grateful that Poisoned Pen Press is bringing a lot of these back because not only are they great reads, but they have that true English wit that was really roaring then.

Detective Minto of Scotland Yard is in the village only for his sister's wedding and soon finds himself wishing that he'd never come. The Lion Tamer is found murdered at the Circus also in town and to complicate his detecting, even more, the murderer confessed to Minto's Brother, but being a priest, he can't say who did it. Yet every time Minto thinks he has the person, his brother pipes up with you're wrong, but can't say more. How flipping frustrating!

Then there is the whole marriage thing with their younger sister Claire. She's always been headstrong and often jumps her way into trouble without thinking ending up needing to be saved by her brothers. This time she's decided to marry a vacuum salesman. Priestly Robert doesn't like him, but can't put his finger on why, so he asks his brother up early to try and talk her out of it.

Oh, the trouble that can happen when you stick your nose in other people's business, especially when there are Lions, Clowns, and weddings, oh my.

Carey's Circus is in town and everyone is excited to go see the wonders, especially the seven Bengal tigers! Detective Inspector Minto is there because his niece is getting married. He's not too enthused about her potential mate but he loses interest in him when they find the lion tamer in the tiger cage dead. Everyone thinks the cats mauled him but it was bullets that took his life...

Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published December 5th.

Anton figured out something he shouldn't have and he paid for it with his life. When Minto starts asking questions he knows he has several possible murderers. But when he discovers why he was murdered, it limits the possibilities.

What's worse, as he keeps searching for clues, he finds that the proposed bridegroom is not really selling vacuum cleaners...

His brother heard the killer's confession of the crime but he cannot disclose who it was. His niece is going to hate him for stopping for wedding. And if he's not careful, he might get eaten by a tiger...

This is story of greedy bad men who are willing to kill to keep their profits. More than one person is hurt because they suspect something. But, in the end, Minto solves the case. He also ends the circus but that's just a side note. That wasn't their biggest enterprise.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital copy of this book.

Published in 1935 and with an Introduction by Martin Edwards, this is another book rescued from obscurity by the program sponsored by the British Library. I am glad I read it, but I tend to like for the mysteries I read to be more serious than this one was. The Anton of the title is the star attraction of a circus where he puts his seven ferocious Bengal tigers through their paces in the center ring. At least he did until one fateful night. A Detective Inspector of Scotland Yard just happens to be in this small town making final preparations for his sister's wedding so naturally he becomes involved in solving the questions surrounding Anton's death. Minto is definitely unorthodox in his investigation techniques. If this story had been presented in a more serious way, I would have enjoyed it more, but still a good reading experience and an interesting example of crime fiction written between the world wars.

Alan Melville takes the readers under the big top in Death of Anton.  In the world of acrobats, clowns and daredevil trainers, Carey’s Circus is uniquely successful.  In fact their arrival in town is deceptively lacking the bang and flash of a traditional carnival.  Deception is one of the main themes throughout as Inspector Minto struggles to determine who killed Anton the tiger trainer and subsequently tried to make it look like his Tigers had mauled him.  Why would Carey kill the main attraction? Was it a jealous husband, or a rival for his position? Or is it related to the strange after dark activities on the circus grounds?  Inspector Minto has his hands full and that is not even considering his sister’s prospective marriage.  Another distinctive part of Death of Anton is that Minto’s brother, a priest, knows the identity of the killer but cannot say and Minto cannot get that from him.

Melville’s mysteries are entertaining, but without the substance that makes for a memorable story.  His police officers are not particularly realistic.  So long as you know this and accept it, you will have fun reading his books.  

4 / 5

I received a copy of Death of Anton from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of mild swearing by one character. At one point the author even made a joke of it. I didn’t appreciate that. I don’t think I’ll be looking for any more by this author. It’s a pity because the rest of the book is wonderfully witty, gentle, humorous, terrifying, and intriguing.
It was a bit predictable. I knew who the murderer was pretty early on. I guess that’s good because so did the detective and he’s telling the story. The hero is not quite what I expected. He’s almost a spoof on other detectives. In fact, they, and detective fiction in general, are very gently mocked through the whole book.
I should have, but didn’t, see the complication that was set to dog our hero’s investigation. It was unique. Even hinting at it would be giving away the best part of the mystery. The rest was pretty obvious.
I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley and Poison Pen Press. No favorable review was required, and these are my honest opinions.

This was a very fun book to read, simple and naïve story. Just something to enjoy on a lazy day. The story is very typical for the era but I love the slant of the of the circus and the multi stories running through it - all very farfetched but oh so enjoyable

"Death of Anton" is a mystery set in England that was originally published in 1936. It's a clue-based puzzle mystery, and a humorous one at that. The reader knows more about what's going on than the detective, but he snooped around, asked questions, and thought things out until he solved the case. Since we learned several clues before he did, it wasn't difficult to figure out whodunit (and what was going on) before the detective.

Even if we'd been told whodunit from the beginning, I still would have read the whole story because I really enjoyed the humor. The main characters were interesting, and the detective had an entertaining view of life. For one thing, he found it ironic that his brother (a Catholic priest) and 7 tigers all knew whodunit but couldn't tell him, so he had to sort it out for himself.

There was no sex. There was a fair amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this entertaining mystery.

Excellent ! Engaging,entertaining,atmospheric and a page turner.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advance copy of Death of Anton, a detective novel originally published in 1936, set in a small English town and featuring holidaying DI Minto of Scotland Yard.

DI Minto is on holiday before his sister's wedding. The small town she lives in does not have much to recommend it but the circus is in town. The star attractions are staying at his hotel so he gets to know them and when the tiger tamer is found dead in the tiger cage Mr Carey the circus's owner asks him to discretely investigate.

I enjoyed Death of Anton. It is a good murder mystery in that I didn't have a clue about the perpetrator but it doesn't take itself too seriously, eg Mr Melville is able to have DI Minto talk seriously about intelligent tigers and their ability not to harm innocent people. The plot is well paced, and despite the exotic setting, believable. It starts with scene setting, gets to the murder and then widens into a search for the motive and perpetrator.

As in all Golden Age mysteries the plot's the thing so the characterisation isn't particularly strong. The reader learns little of DI Minto outside of his ability to solve cases and the other characters aren't much better but it doesn't really matter because they are only there to enhance the plot.

Death of Anton is a forgotten gem of a novel which I have no hesitation in recommending as a good read.