Read this for an enjoyment of a lighthearted historical romp rather than a realistic mystery. Unfortunately, not every author is of Agatha Christie's qualities to withstand the test of time with the flying colours. Yet, as an foray into the field of old-time read this one can offer a bit of retro and nostalgic feelings, as when you watch one of those silly historical movies just for the pleasure of enjoying the another era's charm.

I really like cozy mysteries but in case of this book I found the plot silly, dumb and boring. I did not enjoy it at all and my attention span kept on wavering every now and then. I suppose this book wasn't for me after all.

A country house mystery that takes a bit of a left turn into some interesting and charming territory - we've got all our stock characters, but presented with a lot of humor through a cracked lens. The main sleuth, Jim Henderson, annoys a bit in his defense of the love interest, Mary Carson, as these characters often do. But, in a nice twist, Ms. Carson and the majority of other female characters are super active and take large roles in solving the case. A very good time.

Another great mystery from the Golden Age of Crime.

Jim Henderson hasn’t been the luckiest of man. Being unemployed for three years left him hanging only by his social position. When the mysterious Edwin Carson, a precious stone collector, summons Jim to his country house Thrackley for a weekend party, he knows he has nothing to lose. The old, secluded, abandoned-looking house quickly reveals to be beautiful on the inside. He quickly realises that even though the other six guests are very welcoming and hospitable, they are wealthy people bathed in expensive clothes and jewels. Why was he invited to be part of such company and treated like the most honoured guest? In midst of the dark, gloomy house, a secret is hidden in the shadows and things get more interesting when its discovered that part of Carson’s jewellery collection has been stolen.

It’s a good debut mystery novel by Alan Melville. It reminded me of the Agatha Christie novel “And Then There Were None” but even so, the story is still a unique work. It’s the type of novel that you start reading, go with the flow, enjoying the ride with the voice of an authentic mystery writer voice.

The setting is a classic, the old historical house in the country, isolated from the rest of the world. The lack of connection between the characters, including the owner, makes you question and try to define a reason for all of the strange summoning’s. The house is one I would definitely like to visit. Deep in Surrey, the first impression of the house is that it’s haunted. Gloomy, covered in vine and moss, surrounded by an equality dark and gloomy forest. The description of the place gives the plot a heavy and mysterious atmosphere, which brings the mystery plot to a completely different level. The inside, however, is completely different. The house is beautifully furnished and decorated, washed in luxury. I almost associated the double appearance of the house with the two faces the characters have.

The plot is also a classic and it might seem complex in the beginning, but by the middle, it was obvious to me how things would turn out. However, the story is very nice to follow and the build-up is great. The style of writing is fluid and easy to follow. The typical vocabulary of the 20s and the English way of writing made me fall even more for the novel.

The characters are what you would expect from a high-class group. I was surprised to see a strong, intelligent female character that was more than just there to look pretty. Considering the story takes place in the 1920s, it was satisfying to see her character developed and explored in a great way throughout the novel. The main male lead, Jim, is a great character to follow. Melville made him very human, considering in depth his actions and reactions to the events around him. You enjoy being in his company throughout the book as you try to figure out why he I part of the guest list along with his best friend Fitch. Their friendship and interactions give colour to the dark world of Edwin Carson and both men bring light to the gloomy setting.

I recommend this novel to all the fans of classical mystery books and the classic murder setting.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher Poisoned Pen Press and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book.

Melville sethttps://www.netgalley.com/member/shelf/feedback_sents his sight on the country house mystery in this novel. A group of people, all but one owning priceless jewels, is invited to the isolated manor house of a noted jewelry collector. The owner Edwin Carson specifically asks them to bring their gems with them so that he can admire them (and maybe offer to purchase them???) The odd man out is Jim Henderson, invited because Carson was a friend of Jim’s father. The estate inhabitants include a mysterious butler, a suspicious chauffeur and Carson’s beautiful daughter Mary.

I really enjoyed Melville two previously reissued mysteries by Poisoned Pen Press, Death of Anton with its circus setting and Quick Curtain, a very funny burlesque of the theatre. This mystery fell flat for me. The humor felt forced, especially the portrayal of Jim’s friend Freddie Usher who was just too Bertie Woosterish for my taste. And there seemed to be a touch of mean-spiritedness in the descriptions of the characters. Why was it necessary to describe Lady Stone’s fat and flabby thighs when she is found in pitiful situation? The reader disliked her already for her overbearing, condescending personality. And the murder of a Scotland Yard detective intruded in what was a tongue in cheek plot.

Melville is an enjoyable writer but I found Weekend at Thrackley less satisfying than his two previous novels.

Classic British cozy house party.

I really enjoyed this British cozy. I found it to be very entertaining and revisiting the early 1930’s was wonderful. Plenty of twists and turns and some unexpected happenings combined to ensure my enjoyment. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

Six people,five of them lucky proprietors of some fabulous jewellery, and one out of job,out of luck outsider are invited for a weekend at a remote and rather gloomy country house by a mysterious, wealthy collector of jewels and precious stones. They are an Ill-assorted lot waited on by a very lugubrious butler. And then things start to happen,of course...one of the servants is not who he seems to be,a guest disappears,there is a very interesting and well appointed cellar...This is not so much a" who done it" but more of a "how is it going to end".
But notwithstanding the great setting(an isolated country house always works for me) it did not impress me all that much. It feels like a not so successful imprint of P.G.Wodehouse. One expects to hear tally-ho any moment. No,not entirely my cup of tea...

This delightful mystery doesn't have murder at its heart, instead its an elaborate jewel theft. A man with a notable jewel collection has invited several folks to a weekend at his country home. One of these invited, for no apparent reason, is a WWI vet who is down on his luck.

The other guests are invited as potential victims to the weekend at a gloomy country house. Mischief ensues, with plenty of tricky if not twisty plots.

Another masterful entry in the series of classic crime stories, this was Melville's first novel. Melville, who went on to be a popular entertainer, created a real winner in this humorous and rich book.

When Jim Henderson receives and invitation to a weekend party at Thrackley Manor in rural Surrey, he has no idea how it will change his life. Henderson finds himself as one of a party of six being hosted by the reclusive and mysterious Edwin Carson. Carson is known to be a jewel collector and everyone but Jim is dripping with them making Jim wonder why he was invited. Then he meets Carson’s daughter Mary and discovers that the chauffeur is really an undercover Scotland Yard man sent there to investigate Carson. Will Henderson and his friend be able uncover the truth, will the guests ever be allowed to leave the house, and does Mary like Jim as much as he likes her?

This book has been re-published as part of the British Library Crime Classics. Set in the 1930’s this is a charming little mystery. Jim Henderson is a handsome and appealing young man with a mind for details and an insatiable curiosity. Though not from a privileged background, he behaves like a perfect gentleman. Mary Carson is a bit of a mystery in the beginning but her courage is the key to unlocking this mystery. I thought the author did a great job of creating the atmosphere for this mystery. His descriptions take the reader right into the house and gardens and keeps you engaged. The story moved at a very comfortable pace and I had some difficulty putting this one down. This is a great example of the classic British crime novel.

The introduction to this Poison Pen Press edition of "Weekend at Thrackley" tells us that this is the first novel published by Alan Melville, who later went on to have a good career as a scriptwriter, although he also published children's books and other novels. It sold well initially and for some years after and was even made into a film.

As a first novel, "Weekend at Thrackley" isn't the best golden age mystery you will ever read, but it isn't all that bad. Mr. Melville is clearly imitating some contemporary writers and he has some odd ideas about electricity. It's enjoyable if a bit contrived.

If you are a fan of golden age mysteries then give it a try.

I received a review copy of "Weekend at Thrackley" by Alan Melville (Poisoned Pen Press – British Library Crime Classics) through NetGalley.com.

3.5 stars- this was a lovely example of a Golden Age of Detective Fiction mystery from an author I had not previously encountered. I would certainly read more from his oeuvre after this outing with him... what bumped this up for me from a typical mystery of this type was the authorial voice. It had a distinct flavor of Wodehouse to it, which is my catnip. Well, that and the fact that it is a isolated country house mystery. And a little romance splashed in to boot- yes, all around, this had all the elements that please me and it delivered. Looking forward to exploring more of his work in the future

Weekend at Thrackley by Alan Melville
Jim Henderson, home from the Great War these three years, is having difficulty finding a job. One day, he receives an invitation to a country house party from a man he doesn’t remember but who claims to have been a friend of his late father’s, one Edwin Carson. When Jim asks the feckless Honorable Freddie Usher, if Jim could borrow his evening dress for the weekend, he learns that Freddie, and the famous Usher diamonds he inherited, have been invited as well. It seems that Edwin Carson is a fancier of jewels and reportedly a retired jewel thief. The first mystery in this charming British light mystery is why Jim was invited, bereft of jewels as he is?
When Jim and Freddy arrive at Thrackley, they meet the other weekend guests: Raoul, the exotic Spanish dancer who shimmers as she walks, the bickering Brampton siblings, he a painter after the cubism style, she a novelist with a long rope of pearls, and formidable Catherine Lady Stone, who wears a ruby choker, and the lovely Mary Carson, the host’s daughter, as unadorned as our friend Jim. Their host, a curious and unattractive man who wears spectacles so thick one cannot see his eyes, keeps his distance from his guests, leaving them to entertain themselves. Oddly, he only has three servants, all of them male.
After an evening of a fine dinner and bridge game, the guests retire. During the night, Catherine Lady Stone wakes to someone rifling through her jewelry box. The next morning, we are told that she was forced to return to London in the early hours due to a family emergency. Thenceforth, with each scene, mystery piles on top of mystery.
The author’s voice reminds me of the droll wit in Dudley Do-right cartoons. That light-hearted delivery is maintained throughout the well-paced story. Some of my favorite parts included comments on writing. At one point, the Brampton brother observed that his sister once plotted mystery novels on long walks, but when she took to plotting as she laid on a couch, she changed to romance. If you are in the mood for light entertainment, this 240-page book would make a fine weekend read. For extra bonus, as a British Library Crime Classic, it has really cool cover art, and an introduction by Martin Edwards, author of The Golden Age of Murder.

Although this book is advertised as a Golden Age English manor house mystery, it has little to do with that tradition. It was written at the right time, and take the right form. An varied group of people are invited to the isolated country home of a mysterious wealthy eccentric none of them know, and the weekend is filled with mysterious happenings, hidden passages, shocking revelations and--of course--murder.

However, in a proper example, a well-crafted mystery with clues and detection is the solid center of the tale. The author is free to add humor, social commentary, romance; or even literary touches like character development, mood, tone or style; or include an exposition on some topic of the author's interest.

Weekend at Thrackley differs by using a Victorian Penny Dreadful mashup of a plot--think Sweeeny Todd--as its core and surrounding it with a barely connected, P. G. Wodehouse-style, comedy of moronic upper-class twits choreographed into a complex dance of twittery. In more talented hands this could be an offbeat classic, but the author appears to be playing at his styles without the boldness required to make the story either hair-raising or laugh-out-loud funny.

The only successful practitioner I know of this hybrid style is Joesph Kesselring, writing about the same time, most famous for Arsenic and Old Lace. In the case of both authors, the point seems to be that evil foreign influences represented by physical ugliness and greed pose dire threats to wholesome, attractive, oblivious, trusting and honest natives. The conflict is wildly exaggerated for comic and dramatic effect, but the political point seems serious.

Weekend at Thrackley acquires considerably more weight if you consider how in 1934 totalitarian fascism and communism were spreading both internationally and more quietly among England's elite, while most of English society would ignore both the ideological and military threats until long after the shooting had started. Thrackley is surrounded by over-the-top walls and hedges--which seem to be a double metaphor for the military protection of the English Channel, and the disconnect between the elite and the people. The actual foreigner in the plot lacks virtue but is treated sympathetically, the danger all comes from English people corrupted abroad. The main character served honorably in WWI, but has been neglected by his country for the 15 years of peace.

The main difference between this book by Alan Melville and Joseph Kesselring's play--aside from the quality of the writing--is Melville wanted to tear down the walls separating the upper class from the people, and let in sunlight to cleanse the afflictions aristocrats had acquired abroad; while Kesselring's darker vision saw the US as ruled by a domestic murderous elite in league with foreign forces. Melville was a conservative looking to return to Victorian virtues, Kesselring a populist looking to smash the elite and return power to the people. And both of them were more right than wrong.

I recommend this book as a mildly entertaining black comic farce, with a schoolboyish message interesting in the context of its times. It's not a classic English detective story, nor a chilling tale of horror, nor a fully realized comedy; but it has enough aspects of each of those things to keep the pages turning.

This house party mystery was written in 1934. Jim Henderson finds himself one of six guests invited to Thrackley, Surrey by a Edwin Carson who says that he was a friend of Jim's father. With the other guests being relatively wealthly compared to him Jim has no idea was he is really there. But all will be revealed by the end of the weekend.
An enjoyable mystery though more of an adventure story than a murder mystery.

Jim Henderson, unemployed for three years since WWI, gets an invitation from a friend of his father for a free Weekend at Thrackley. The mysterious owner, Edwin Carson, has something rather different planned than a typical country house weekend.

The residents are Mr. Carson's daughter, Mary; his butler, Jacobson; and four other burly male servants. The guests are Freddie, Jim's rich club mate; Lady Stone, a wealthy socialite; Raoul, a beautiful female entertainer; and finally poor—but still maintaining the facade—twins, Marilyn and Henry.

Weekend at Thrackley is a British debut mystery originally published in 1934. At the time, it was a best seller. It hasn’t held up as well as the Christie canon unfortunately. There are many long and irrelevant descriptions of people, places and bridge games that can safely be skimmed with no impact to the main plot. The biggest issue is that the plot itself has been remade a countless number of times since 1934. Think of the movies Clue and Murder by Death without the humor. Overall, even though I adore British golden age mysteries, I can't recommend Weekend at Thrackley. 2 stars.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

I chose Weekend at Thrackley as a 'change of pace' read since my genre of choice this year has been one great psychological thriller after another. If you only eat one type of food eventually you'll get bored and to me, it is the same with books. I try to vary my reading diet and this was a great example of why I am glad I do. I was unfamiliar with the author, Alan Melville, but I am loving the fact that publishers are re-releasing many out of print mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, written in a much simpler time.
Jim Henderson is unemployed and barely able to support his lifestyle. An invitation to a gathering in the country arrives from a Mr. Carson who claims to have known Jim's father. Jim is in no position to pass on an offer of free food and lodging and when he finds out his friend Freddie is going, they take off for what hopefully will be a relaxing weekend. A creepy house in a desolate location, some unusual guests, and oh yes, murder all made this a great beach read.
No spoilers here, but if you like this type of story, Weekend at Thrackley moved along at a nice pace and all of the quirky characters often had me laughing at their actions. I plan to see what else Alan Melville has written.
I received an e Arc from Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley.

There's no such thing as a boring or bad British Library Crime Classics book! Weekend at Thakeray is a delightful pastiche, part classic Golden Age country house mystery and part a parody of the genre.
Even if there're some plot hole this book is absolutely delightful and it made me laugh loud.
I really appreciated the comedy of manners, the cast of characters and the general atmosphere.
Anothery forgotten gem that was a really pleasant read.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for this ARC

Classic British country house mystery, originally published in 1934 and now available again as part of the British Library Crime Classic series.

Jim Henderson is not sure why he was asked by an old friend of his late father's to a weekend house party in the country, but he decides a few days of hospitality and free meals might be enjoyable, especially after he finds out his friend Freddie Usher is also going.

When they arrive, the setup is quite strange. It's a mixed group of guests with not much in common. Their host Mr. Carson is an odd and ugly man with no servants except for several quite thuggish men. They soon find out that Mr. Carson has an unhealthy obsession with fabulously expensive jewels which he keeps in specially designed rooms in the cellar. It's not coincidence that several of the guests have brought along some dazzling gems. Except for Jim -- and he is puzzled as to why he was invited at all.

This Golden Age mystery is a very enjoyable read. Lots of mysterious goings on along with some humor and a little romance. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review.

What fun these British Library Crime Classics are! Absolute little gems saved from obscurity for the reading pleasure of twenty-first century mystery lovers. “Weekend at Thrackley” is no exception. The setting is almost archetypal; a group of disparate people are invited to a large country house for the weekend. All of the action in the book takes place over that long weekend.

For all that the set-up of the book is conventional, things are seriously quirky, and I mean that in only the nicest way. The host of the party, Mr Edward Carson, is very odd indeed, and the guests are an ill-assorted bunch; none of the people who are invited actually know why they were invited. (But they all turn up anyway.) The butler, Jacobson, is both morose and sinister, although the food provided to the guests is top-notch. (I wish I had been there for dinner.) Ulterior motives abound.

I don’t like spoilers, so I am not going to give any. It would be difficult to describe accurately the goings-on without giving away a lot of the pleasure of discovery in any event. Let me just say that you will not be disappointed by the end.

I really enjoyed “Weekend at Thrackley,” and am glad that the editors brought it back to life.

Jim Henderson is unsuccessfully job-hunting and scraping by when he gets an invitation to spend a Weekend at Thrackley. Edwin Carson, his host, is a wealthy man famed for his jewel collection, some of questionable provenance if rumors are true. Carson claims to have known Henderson’s father and even Henderson himself as a boy. Since his good friend Fitch is also invited and a free meal is a free meal, he readily accepts.

When they arrive they see an old country manor completely covered in ivy surrounded by a dark, encroaching forest. It seems as though it will be one of those dank, moldy, and dreary places. The instant they step inside, though, they discover a beautifully decorated home rich in luxury and good taste. Their meal is outstanding and their guests are an interesting mix. There’s a wealthy society grande dame famed for her charitable events and tireless organizing. Add in a brother and sister duo of artistic inclination, a beautiful and famed actress, and Carson’s daughter Mary and you have everybody except the four servants. Henderson wonders why he is really there, though, since everyone else is wealthy and also known for having some exquisite jewelry. Yet Carson treats him as the most honored guest.

Things get curiouser when Jim recognizes the chauffeur, an old classmate who confesses he’s actually a police officer undercover trying to find Carson’s jewelry collection because a good portion is stolen.



Weekend at Thrackley is a refreshing tonic after some serious and disturbing reading. It’s deliciously snarky. Something tells me Melville really did not have much tolerance for fools. I will confess it some ways it is quite ridiculous. Let’s just say if I bought a house, completely refurbished it and poured a fortune into it, I would feel an attachment. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it a lot. Perhaps I was just in the right mood to overlook a few plot points and suspend my disbelief. Perhaps it was because it was just so archly sardonic. Perhaps it was Mary’s surprising ruthlessness. Putting them together, I was happy to just go with the story, no matter how silly in some ways, and enjoy it as it is.

Weekend at Thrackley will be released August 7th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Weekend at Thrackley at Poisoned Pen Press.
Alan Melville at Wikipedia
Death of Anton
Quick Curtain