Had a hard time getting into this book and must admit was a bit disappointed by the author putting her feminist, political stance so completely aside in this book. I don't know I had expected something a little bit different from the normal social cliches and there was really only one instance where she made a comment about male/female relations.

It was nice enough and very standard Golden Age mystery, maybe a bit too much detail about Parliament.

I had a hard time getting into this book. This was at least partly because I knew very little about the British political system. Once I did a little research into that, it was a lot easier to read. I also felt that the story moved quite slowly and that it was cluttered up with a lot of unnecessary details. Maybe all that political maneuvering and the parliamentary details would have been more interesting if I actually understood the system, but as it was, I felt these details just served to distract me from the actual meat of the story. I also found the ending to be less than satisfying, relying as it did on a detail that most readers would not know.

I looked up the author of this novel and found that she was a member of Parliament, and clearly knew her subject matter. This is apparently the only mystery that she wrote, although she did write several other books.

Vintage mysteries are way up there on my list of favorites, and I liked this one enough to read it to the end, but it won’t make my list of favorites. I think that readers who enjoy the leisurely pace of Golden Age mysteries, and who have some understanding of how the British government worked back when this was written, would enjoy this novel.

I had a really hard time getting into this mystery. Maybe that was because of the slightly detached political point of view the hero has; though that changed later on as he gets closer to the suspects. Maybe it was because of my lack of knowledge about the British legal system in general and the House of Commons in particular; however, I could see someone familiar with the day-to-day working of the House really enjoying all the minute details in the setting. The biggest drag, for me, was that it just took forever to really go anywhere. For a long time, it was just political maneuvering despite the dead body.
The political setting does add an interesting level of intrigue to the mystery. It also gives a rather believable excuse for all the secrets kept from the police. Despite that, the police's actions, on the whole, were a little unbelievable. You could tell that the author was much more familiar with politics than police investigations. Then the ending was…well I’ll just say I thought it was the weakest part of the whole story.
The biggest detractor for me was the swearing, cursing, and ‘mild’ profanity. It was used quite frequently throughout the book. Overall, I didn’t enjoy it that much.
I received this as a free ARC through NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press. No favorable review was required. These are my honest opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced digital copy of The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson. This is from the British Library Crime Classic library selections and was written in 1932.

Ms. Wilkinson was one of the first women elected to parliament and this book reflects her specialized knowledge of how parliament works, the building in which it meets and other bits of information which were specific to parliament at the time. The solution to this mystery requires an understanding of some of the physical aspects of the parliament building as well as the details regarding the division bell itself. There is a learning curve to be overcome in reading this if you are not familiar with the British system of government, and more specifically of how it functioned in the 1930’s.

While the book is well written, it is also much more in the style of novels from that era, which resulted in some of the novel’s structure being cumbersome. Initially, it was difficult to get into the book, largely because of the writing style. In addition, there were some terms, referring to various individuals and their place within the government, that were not familiar to me. I’m not sure if this is because the terms have changed over time, or if it was due to a personal lack of familiarity with parliament.

Those issued resulted in the book being a slow start for me. As I became more accustomed to the author’s style as well as the terms used within the book, my reading pace and my enjoyment of the novel increased. In summary, this book is enjoyable from the standpoint of experiencing writing in this particular era. The mystery itself is an entertaining one, although early in the novel I knew as much of the “how” as I possibly could without specific knowledge of the building. Because the solution to the mystery hinges on some physical aspects of the building, the reader does not have the opportunity to put together clues to reach a solution unless they possess this specialized knowledge.

parliament, mystery, suspense, amateur-sleuth

I truly enjoyed this book. The sleuthing seemed quite good and included some interesting red herrings, the characters are interesting and engaging even when they dissappear into the fog never to be referenced again, and the descriptions were perfectly clear. As an American, I had to do more research to comprehend some of the activities but that's not a problem for a history geek. I think that it's a shame that she never had the time to write more, but she worked hard at a thankless task in difficult times.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Really enjoyed this story. It was the perfect combination of historic fact and mystery. It was not a complicated plot and there were a few plot holes that were mildly annoying but I think fans of old time mystery stories will enjoy this book a lot. It is a very quick read and I finished it wishing that this author had written more. I am so thrilled that this publisher is bringing more of these stories back.....I think they will create a whole new generation of readers who appreciate this kind of mystery.

"The Division Bell Mystery" is a mystery set in England and originally published in 1932. It's mainly set in the House of Commons, and it's written by "one of the first women to be elected to Parliament." It provides an inside look at the building, the people in it, and the time period. This aspect in itself kept my interest.

The mystery was a clue-based puzzle mystery. I wasn't surprised by whodunit as it wasn't difficult to guess. But the main character--a parliamentary private secretary--is besotted by a woman who should be a suspect (so he isn't thinking logically) and is more concerned with calming the political crisis. He's simply supposed to be helping the police and others who are working to solve the crime. However, he did poke around some on his own, too. The group of people investigating the crime do combine clues to solve whodunit and finally solve the "locked room" aspect.

There was no sex. There was some bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

An American financier apparently commits suicide in a dining room in the House of Commons in the middle of negotiating a loan to the British government. The police are not so sure it was suicide...

This was a short and relatively easy read, although there were many many paragraphs of "interesting" facts about parliament and the workings of the Commons. Sadly it was founded on the premises that a) a man would fall desperately in love with a woman known to be engaged to another man because of her beauty and therefore be prepared to shield her from the consequences of her actions, b) the preservation of the government is more important than the pursuit of justice, so it is acceptable to hamper the police in their investigations, and c) the word of a gentleman/MP is more to be trusted than that of some one from a lower class.

Also, what purpose did Robert's friend Don Shaw serve? He was very prominent in the opening chapters and then faded away. The role of Sancroft the journalist was a murky one - was he to be trusted more or less than the police?

Really not for me.

Interesting book from start to finish, the mystery is pretty good, but for me the background setting od English Government in early 1900 was more intriguing. Given that Ellen Wilkinson had been member of the house, made it very real. This was her first and only mystery book and I felt it was very well plotted and narrated. Anyone interested in these older style mysteries would enjoy this one very much.

I love these classic mysteries. This was especially interesting because it gives the reader a glimpse of the inside workings of parliament and a political scandal. Not much has changed since 1932.