I've read lots of George Bellairs' detective novels, and this one did not disappoint. A well written story about eccentric families, life in a small town in the 1950s, and how Inspector Littlejohn investigates all of this to get to the truth. As always, I loved the detail and the fact that a lot of the characters simply aren't very likeable but are all the more interesting for it.

Without telling her family, Little Miss Penelope Blow travels to London. For three days she visits Scotland Yard, saying she must speak to Inspector Littlejohn and only to him. Unfortunately, Littlejohn is away and her mission fails. When she returns to her lodgings, her nephew is there, in a temper, and carries her off home as quickly as possible. That same evening, she falls from her bedroom window while watering her window box and dies. The verdict is accidental death but Littlejohn, remorseful that he was not in time to help her, is not satisfied. Investigating the case, he finds a family at war. The Blows had once been the banking family of the town and although the family bank has now been taken over, the Blows are still full of self-importance. Unfortunately for Littlejohn, every member of the family seems to be barking mad and motive and opportunity are hard to find. This is quite an intriguing mystery with money at the heart of it. It has been reissued by Agora books and was the Crime Classics Review Club book for August.

Delightful classic English murder mystery. Perfect because you hate everyone except the detectives, and clever in tying up all the loose ends. Highly recommended.

This is another excellent Inspector Littlejohn mystery by the late George Bellairs. I haven’t read an Inspector Littlejohn novel that was badly written, and this is another excellent entry in the series.

In this novel, a 64 year old spinster falls to her death from an upstairs window in the family home, after she has been to London in a thwarted attempt to see Inspector Littlejohn. At first there doesn’t seem to be much if any motive for her murder, but there are certainly plenty of unpleasant people to suspect. Littlejohn always seems to me, to be just a tiny bit clairvoyant, he seems to pick up on and correctly interpret clues that I barely notice, In this case the murderer came as a complete surprise to me. It was someone that I didn’t even suspect until close to the end of the book, but as always, Littlejohn and Cromwell arrive at the solution to the murder in their own inimitable way.

Bellairs books are also a bit of commentary on society, even sometimes poking a little fun at it. His humor is subtle, and enjoyable, his characters are interesting, often a little eccentric and his plots are well constructed.
.

This is another re-issue of a George Bellairs crime novel featuring (now) Detective Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard. Although the book was published 1951, it is 194. While Littlejohn is in Court it is reported that an “elderly” Miss Penelope Blow has been asking for him requiring advice on the recommendation of a personal acquaintance. Before he has a chance to speak to her, a sergeant reports that she has died in an “accident” back at her home Bank House in rural Nesbury. With leave due to him he decides to visit the village on the day of her funeral. He finds that she had visited to discuss concerns that her sister Honoria was being slowly poisoned. Miss Blow’s death – the fall from a window has been recorded as “accidental”. With the Chief Constable of the area away, he meets local Inspector Neston and they carry out a rapid check of facts (against the clock) and information and strange stories start to emerge.
The extended Blow family – the two sisters and two younger male cousins Harold and Ralph and the latter’s wife Leonore live in Blow House – an asset of the private family Blow Bank established in the 18th century. The men manage the bank; the women were largely excluded from the earlier inheritance of their grandfather. As the tale unravels it becomes clear that this was not absolutely the case and that the bank is in difficulty due to malpractice. The façade of respectability is indeed just that.
As Littlejohn works through his investigation and discovers the truth of the matter a wider range of characters are introduced to the reader and tell their tales and alternative stories emerge. Typically of a Bellairs novel of this time – the live in servants are deeply imbedded in this telling. So too are many of the locals, local small business people but also the congregation of a Salvation Army Citadel supported by their late grandfather with a large bequest. “Batty” Aunt Penelope (while maintaining the period trope that old ladies are silly) is proved to have been perhaps the most sensible and straightforward of the family. Honoria – supposedly poisoned – is enjoying the attentions of a younger doctor. He, extracting large fees will be proved of questionable competence Family secrets will gradually out – secret loves, relationships, jealousies. There will be an examination of what is eccentric or unscrupulous behaviour – however hidden or “dealt with” by a family - and when it can cross over to something more, such as insanity.
With so many threads this is a story that takes some time and unravelling for the reader to determine the real crimes and who were responsible. It’s other great attraction is that it is bedded firmly in its time – so presents entirely other life styles and mores of the period, ones that are now gone and seem increasingly alien. It must be said though that some of the characters fall into “class based” caricatures – and the “rural idiom” used for some might be regarded as ridiculous rather than “lighter entertainment”. Maybe the hardest aspect to swallow now is the depiction of “insanity”; surely something that is now totally dead (I hope so anyway). But perhaps with the NHS imminent, but even then challenged, Bellairs was taking a necessary swipe at professional arrogance, incompetence and self interest.
This novel is twinned with a short story Death in Dark Glasses - an alternative view on bank fraud and how it could be managed unnoticed. Interesting, but not so entertaining as an awful family depicted in full flight.

Dead March for Penelope Blow is the 18th Inspector Littlejohn mystery by George Bellairs. Originally released in 1951, this reformat and re-release by Agora is 278 pages and available in ebook format (earlier editions available in other formats). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

This is an engagingly written and well constructed silver age mystery. Full of Bellairs' well rendered characters, this one sees Littlejohn trying to sort out a convoluted "maybe" murder/accident along with poisoning and skullduggery and subsequent winnowing of a whole stable of potential murderers. The dialogue, though admittedly a product of its time, is well written and urbane, lightly witty and humorous. Although I have enjoyed all the Littlejohn mysteries, this one does work quite well as a standalone, and it's not necessary to have read the other books.

It's really lovely to see these gems being dusted off and re-released to new generations of readers. Bellairs (Harold Blundell) was a gifted writer and a technical master of construction.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

George Bellairs really knows how to masterfully entice and pull you in...and this book demonstrates exactly how well. What an enjoyable read, start to finish. Who can resist a delightful quintessential English village, interesting and peculiar characters and a fabulous twisty plot?

William Blow dies, leaving a trail of mysteries and unanswered questions behind. Not only are there secrets to discover but the plot thickens when Penelope Blow dies shortly after her visits to Inspector Littlejohn (who was inconveniently away). Why on earth did she die and how?

Sounds trite but this book was impossible to put down...it flowed well, was attention grabbing and chock full of wit and humour. I was invested the entire time.

The plot was very good but the characters were what made it compelling, very easy to visualize and become acquainted with which was a highlight for me.

Dead March for Penelope Blow is a wonderful representation of what Golden Era mysteries should be.

Thank you Agora Books for providing me a digital ARC!

Another jolly romp for Littlejohn. These stories take one back to a much simpler world. The characters and scenes are beautifully depicted and the reader has a real sense of the place and atmosphere. I have read several in the Littlejohn series and this one does not disappoint. A great title to choose if, like me, you enjoy a bit of gentle escapism to a time long gone.

Once again, an extremely enjoyable read from Bellairs. I generally find it’s easier when the victim is unlikeable. This was not the case here. The victim, Miss Penelope Blow, was kind, generous, wise and conscientious. She most certainly did not deserve her fate. Consequently, you are rooting for Littlejohn even more. And he feels more responsible and obligated by conscience to find her killer as it most likely could have been prevented if he’d been in the office when she came to see him.

Most of her family are incredibly unlikeable and unpleasant to the point where you’d be happy to see any of them hang. Littlejohn and Cromwell do their usual thorough job of investigating, trading highly on Cromwell’s ability to get staff to talk to him. There are a number of things going on with several different perpetrators. I found it disappointing that some got away with their crimes. Regardless, it was a great read and I can highly recommend it to anyone who loves Golden Age mysteries with old fashioned detective work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the George Bellairs Literary Estate for providing a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review

Typical Bellairs Inspector Littlejohn novel.A little greyhaired old lady calls several times at Scotland Yard desperate to speak to Littlejohn who unfortunately is away at a trial.Within days te little old lady,Penelope Blow is dead.This sets in motion another case for Littlejohn .
The deceased apparently killed in an unfortunate accident was a member of a small towns most prominent and eccentric family,they own everything and everybody and don't see any need for busybodies interfering in the family affairs.
But Littlejohn isn't one to be stopped and with his usual doggedness and ability to elicit information solves thie case,murder fraud deception but Littlejohn is more than equal to his task.
Recommended reading for lovers of golden age mysteries

Thanks to Net Galley and George Bellairs Literary Estate for this ARC. Another excellent instalment of inspector Littlejohn's adventures. Great writing. Love that these are being republished.

Dead March for Penelope Blow, by George Bellairs, is an entertaining mystery early in the lengthy Inspector Littlejohn series. Although the writing style does not attain the energetic heights of wit and brilliance of Bellairs at his best, it is engaging, descriptive, and varied. I particularly enjoy his small but telling touches of visual symbolism – for example, the statue of the pompous and pseudo-philanthropic founder of Blow’s Bank (and of the eccentric and often disagreeable Blow family) standing in weathered immobility over the changing bustle of village life, adorned with abundant pigeon droppings.



The death of Penelope Blow occurs early in the book, and the important circumstances which Littlejohn’s investigations must clarify are almost all past causative events prior to that death, rather than developments consequent upon that death. Nevertheless, the plot sustains a sense of forward momentum that kept me reading “just one more chapter”.



Who removed the screws from Penelope Blow’s windowbox, so that it was unsecured when she fell to her death? Who is poisoning Honoria Blow, and why? Bellairs scatters clues to these and other puzzling questions throughout the narrative. Some of the clues prove to be hints to guide the alert reader – and others are red herrings to mislead the alert reader.



I enjoyed the assortment of characters, major and minor: the Blow family, their servants, the local police, the Salvation Army members, the various doctors, bankers, shopkeepers, clergy, etc., of the community. Even when the characters are basically stock types – the Loyal and Elderly Family Butler, the Mercenary and Untrustworthy Landlady, the Retired Military Man – they often prove to have some unexpected characteristics that give them at least a semblance of human complexity.

This review has been posted on Amazon. I am appreciative to Agora books for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Dead March for Penelope Blow is another entertaining, fast paced British Golden Age mystery by that sage observer of human nature, George Bellairs. Situated just a few years after the close of the Second World War, Bellairs trademark humor and ability to convey meaning in the smallest of nods, glances and raised eyebrows is ever present in Penelope Blow. It seems hard to imagine that yet another (another) book about an aged spinster, hidden money and a nefarious Will in the likes of Patricia Wentworth and Agatha Christie could be entertaining, and yet, it is! It may seem extreme to state it, yet it is true, Bellairs possesses an insight into human nature and quick packed narrative to rival, or shall we say compliment the great Maeve Binchy herself. Certainly Bellairs real-life job as a banker has given him much insight into human frailty. I adore reading Bellairs, and in reality, his books are to me "lime sherbet"-- that cleansing of the pallet that I need in a voracious reading life. I read Bellairs in between heavier non-fiction and the like. I'm about halfway or more through the Littlejohn series, and will certainly be saddened when it is complete. Dead March for Penelope Blow, like Murder Makes Mistakes (his top effort to date) doesn't meander or lose track of the themes. This was a fun read and I thank Net Galley for the offer of this honest review in exchange for an early copy.

My thanks to Netgalley and Agora Books for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I was delighted to receive this novel, having been a long time fan of George Bellairs and his lead characters, Inspector Littlejohn and Sergeant Cromwell. Of Scotland Yard. I’ve read many of the nearly sixty books in this series and it’s a delight to see them being gradually reprinted. This novel, first published in1951, depicts a world as it was in my childhood, of which I have fond memories. This novel is the sort that got me hooked on detective fiction in my early teens, although I was reading Agatha Christie, Niago Marsh, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. But George Bellairs belongs up there with these greats.

This time the setting is the market square of a small town, gradually emerging after the war from its pre-war existence. The story centres around the failing remnants of what used to be a notable, highly regarded family who owned the town’s bank, now taken over by a larger national bank, but the family continues to try to cling onto their former life and status, living in the next-door bank house with servants. The author catches the change of society perfectly. He is, after all, a bank manager himself in his day to day life. But I wish that he wouldn’t try to mimic local accents in print. To me, it just comes across as silly and interferes with the flow of the action. Whilst the language is still very much of today, a few words crop up which are no longer in common usage. It’s a joy to be challenged by them. But a sad indictment of the way our written English language has slipped, that what was probably very ordinary, possibly street phraseology, now seems very well written.

The lack of modern technology employed in police work today is not a problem. This is a straight forward crime to be worked out. But the lack of such things as search warrants did concern me. The inspector and his sergeant could search the house by entering through the back door when tipped off by the servants that the family had all gone out. Some aspects of policing have definitely improved.. Bellairs has written a terrific end scene. I could see it played out in a Brian Rix style Whitehall Theatre farce. All in all a wonderfully written trip down memory lane and highly recommended.

What is there to say about this book - written by George Bellairs - story of murder, intrigue and families - I just love this book. Written with a lighter hand than some of Bellairs mysteries, I found it both charming and sad in what human nature does to families. It is a murder mystery with lots of twists and turns and a satisfying ending. Could not put it down till the end

I've read several of George Bellairs's Inspector Littlejohn books, but this is my favorite so far. Miss Penelope Blow, an elderly lady from a small town banking family, travels to London to seek Littlejohn's help. He is away and Miss Blow won't speak to anyone else at Scotland Yard. She is dragged away from London by one of her male cousins; and, once home, she immediately falls from a window and dies. Simultaneously, her sister Honoria is hospitalized on suspicion of being poisoned. So how is this funny? First, Littlejohn's interview with Mrs. Minshull, a Blow family servant, is conducted at her sister's crowded parlor accompanied by a veritable menagerie: a dog with puppies, a jealous cat, a canary, and a talking budgerigar (parakeet in U.S. English). They punctuate and interrupt the interview by growling, whining and spitting, with the parakeet repeatedly squawking "God Bless Winston Churchill." Second, Bellairs has a gift for dialects and for portraying simple folks attempting to put on upper-class airs and speech. Besides these humorous gems, there are plenty of suspects, red herrings, and secrets to keep a reader entertained. Will Littlejohn and his trusty assistant, Detective Sergeant Cromwell, get to the bottom of Miss Penelope's fall?

Village spinster Miss Penelope Blow travels to London to see Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard. Before the Inspector returns, Penelope’s nephew Harold forces her to return home. By the time Littlejohn visits, the town is playing a Dead March for Penelope Blow at her funeral.

Despite Penelope’s death being ruled accidental, Littlejohn investigates. Miss Penelope has fallen to her death from her second floor bedroom while watering her daffodils in a flower box. By all accounts, the flower box was sturdy. Could someone have pushed Penelope to her death?

The eight suspects include Penelope’s sister, Honoria, her nephews, Ralph and Harold, and Ralph’s wife Leonore. The servants also within the house include her confidant, Minshull the housekeeper, Frazer the cook, Jelley the footman, and Mrs. Peevey the charwoman. The Inspector quickly determines that Penelope was trying to ask him to investigate the possible arsenic poisoning of her sister, Honoria. After Penelope’s death, the family doctor reveals that arsenic poisoning truly is the cause of Honoria’s sickness. Earlier, another sister has died in the house of similar symptoms without suspicion. What is going on in the Blow family home? Who is targeting the sisters and why? Inspector Littlejohn is determined to find out!

Dead March for Penelope Blow is a traditional silver-age British police procedural. World War II is thankfully over and people can get back to their usual skullduggery. This is a perfect book for armchair detectives. All the clues are in plain sight though the red herrings are spotlighted more clearly. It is a fun and quick read. 4 stars!

Thanks to Agora Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve read and enjoyed a few late Golden-Age mysteries by George Bellairs, featuring Inspector Littlejohn, and so I was happy to be offered an ARC of this title by the publisher, Agora Books, and NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Dead March for Penelope Blow was published in the early 1950s and is about 1/4 of the way through the loooooong Littlejohn series. Since it was published in the 1950s, and we’re now in the 2020s, it reads like a historical mystery, even though it was undoubtedly intended to be contemporaneous when written. Luckily, though, I like historical mysteries!

Littlejohn’s cases often seem to be set in archetypal English countryside villages or towns, and this one is no exception. The Blow family has been “big fish in a small pond” for a long time, although we have early hints of cracks in this status, especially since the cornerstone Blow’s Bank was taken over by another firm. Sadly, as often seems to happen with later generations of “important families”, most of the Blows seem a bit reprehensible, and the one Blow who isn’t, Penelope, dies early on. Since Penelope was a friend-of-a-friend of Littlejohn’s, and had even been trying to meet with Littlejohn just before she dies, he gets involved, and the rest of the book is a thoroughly enjoyable 1950s investigation, looking into both the past and present to figure out whodunnit.

All-in-all, I quite liked this book, since both the characters and the setting rang true. Please note that for me, 4 stars out of 5 is a really good ranking, and means I really do recommend the book. I just try to fight “star-flation” a little bit, so I reserve 5 stars for a very few absolute favorite books that I am going to read and then re-read again. Probably no more than one in thirty or forty books that I read gets 5-stars from me. And my thanks again to Agora and NetGalley!

Excellent, another great novel from the author George Bellairs, he truly was a master. In this novel Inspector Littlejohn investigates the murder of Penelope Blow, she had arrived at Scotland Yard on three separate days enquiring after him whilst he was giving evidence in court elsewhere. Fortunately the policeman on the gate kept a business card she’d left and when he saw her obituary in the newspaper he also kept that to show Inspector Littlejohn on his return. Immediately Littlejohn was suspicious and after making a couple of calls he approached his superior to investigate the crime. My thanks to Crime Classics, Netgalley and Agora Books for allowing me read this and give an honest review.

There’s no marching in this novel, 18th in the lengthy series featuring Chief Inspector Thomas Littlejohn, but there is the dead. Kindly spinster Penelope Blow belongs to a once prominent family of diminished finances. When she tumbles out of a window, the local police initial think it an accident. But the “accident” happens right after Miss Blow traveled to Scotland Yard in an unsuccessful attempt to her banker and Littlejohn. Littlejohn is suspicious, and his suspicions are proved right.

But who would want to kill an inoffensive old lady? Her snobbish nephews, the younger wife of one of the nephews, and Penelope’s self-centered sister — none seem to benefit from Penelope’s death. But clearly somebody did….

Author George Bellairs has penned another great gem in this series. As always, the characters are thoroughly entertaining, and Dead March for Penelope Blow has more twists than usual. In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Agora Books in exchange for an honest review.