I have very much enjoyed the Nigel Strangeways books and this one did not disappoint. Nigel is reluctantly drawn into helping, but soon finds himself entangled with the interesting characters on the Ivy League campus. Blake's witty dialogue and descriptive prose are as strong as ever. Highly recommend for lovers of this genre.

Carissa B
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable read
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2021
This was my first encounter with Philip Blake's Nigel Strangeways series. The mystery takes place at "Cabot University," a fictional Ivy League institution. It was interesting to see New England and an American university through the eyes of a British character who reflected on these things. The mystery itself was ok - not that difficult to figure out, to be honest. Strangeways himself was an interesting enough character, although unfortunately this was the final book in this series, so the author naturally expected that the reader was already familiar with Strangeways' background and previous cases. I didn't particularly care for any of the other characters except for the headmaster, who was a fairly minor character. In short, I enjoyed the book and will read more books in the Strangeways series, but probably will not revisit this particular entry.

I have generally really enjoyed the books that I’ve read from this series. In fact, I purposely saved this one to read and enjoy when we went on vacation. However, I really had a hard time keeping focused on this book. Even though the characters were fairly well drawn, I found it hard to really relate to them. It wasn’t that the writing was bad or the story was poorly plotted. I think it was mostly the fact that the American academic setting didn’t really appeal much to me.. i did not pick out the murderer very early in the book, although, once I found out who it was, it seemed pretty obvious.

I didn’t dislike the book and I will probably read it again, but I don’t think it is among the best of the Strangeways series. While it wouldn’t be my first recommendation for a reader just starting out on the series, I do think that many readers who enjoy these vintage mysteries will like this book.

It is not very often that I give five stars. That is usually reserved for excellent authors like Charles Williams or Dorothy L. Sayers. I did enjoy the previous Strangeways novel I read but not nearly as much as this one. It is such a shame that this was the last one because the tone, pacing, the overall attitude are so spot on.

The fact that I pegged whodunnit fairly early did nothing to dampen my enjoyment. Setting this at an American university was such an interesting change. Strangeways reluctantly gets involved even though he is the proverbial fish out of water, unfamiliar with how American police conduct investigations.

The cast of characters are so interesting and add a great deal to the story. The end where the killer’s carefully maintained veneer of calm and sanity crumbles is written so well you don’t want to skim.
I highly recommend this to any golden age mystery lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in return for a fair and unbiased review.

Normally I enjoy Blake's books, and this one appears to be well-written. But I just can't seem to get through it. It's very slow-moving, and the characters are unusually one-dimensional. I keep losing track of who's who. I'm going to cry "uncle" and give it up. It might well be someone else's cup of tea.

The Morning After Death, by Nicholas Blake (pseudonym of Irish poet Cecil Day-Lewis), had its enjoyable aspects, though on the whole I was less engaged with the story than I had hoped to be.

The book is near the end of Blake’s Nigel Strangeways series, and perhaps the first chapter or two would have been more rapidly clear if I had had some previous acquaintance with Strangeways. These chapters introduced a majority of the major characters: Nigel Strangeways, amateur sleuth with apparent academic leanings; Chester and Mark Ahlberg, sons of a wealthy tycoon; their half-brother Josiah Alberg; Charles Reilly, aging Irish poet in temporary residence at Cabot University, a fictional Massachusetts institution; Sukie Tate, a graduate student working on a PhD thesis on Emily Dickinson.

When Josiah’s body is discovered crammed into a locker in a disused locker room in the basement of a college building, suspicion falls on Mark, who profits financially from the death and had been seen near Josiah’s room on the night of his disappearance; on Sukie’s brother John, a graduate student in disgrace after a conviction for plagiarism from Josiah; on Sukie, because of her intense championship of her brother; even on Charles Reilly, an apparent outsider to the situation.

Aspects of the book which impressed me favorably: the author’s skill with description, imagery, and sentence structure; the quotes from, and references to, the poetry of Emily Dickinson; the gripping and vividly realized climactic episode in which the reader is allowed into the mind of the murderer in pursuit of a final victim.

However, these were barely sufficient to counterbalance the lack of real interest I felt in any of the characters, including Strangeways himself. And I was annoyed by a gratuitous sex scene – gratuitous because it neither advanced the plot nor added anything (except contempt) to my understanding of the individuals involved.

Based on this book, I’d be willing to read others by this author, but I would be unlikely to seek them out.




This review has been posted to Amazon.

I remember reading and enjoying several of Nicholas Blake’s Nigel Strangeways mysteries many many years ago, in “real paper” editions. But I had never read The Morning After Death, which is the last in the series, and features Strangeways as a visiting scholar at a fictional Ivy League school, Cabot University. So I was happy to receive a review copy of Agora Books’ new e-book edition. And it did not disappoint.

All of the titles in this series date back many decades, with the earliest written in the 1930s and the latest, this one, in the 1960s. As a result, although written as contemporaneous mysteries, they now feel more like unintentional historicals. But The Morning After Death weathers the years pretty well. Author Blake (pen-name for UK Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis) provides enough background that readers can imagine the big automobile carrying five (!!!) adults in the opening scene, or the ritual of Ivy League football, with “Cabot men” following the band on a parade through town after a victory against Yale, towards the end. The plot is also fun, with several characters having motives ranging from accusations of plagiarism to just wanting money. I did have a pretty strong idea early on of whodunnit, but the aforementioned plethora of motives kept me from being sure of my conclusion until very near the end. Readers may have a little more discomfort with some of the gender roles – especially a James Bond-ish scene where Strangeways ignores his relationship with his UK girlfriend, Clare, for an almost fatalistic quick fling (“Oh well, he sighed to himself”) with a much younger female student – something that would set off lots of alarm bells today.

All-in-all, however, The Morning After Death was a fun quick read, and I’ll probably go back and read (or re-read) some of the earlier titles in the series. I tend not to give a lot of five-star reviews, and there are just enough flaws in the book to bump it down to four stars. But four stars from me is still a solid “read” recommendation, especially if you like Golden Age mysteries. And my thanks again to Agora Books and NetGalley for the review copy!

his is the 16th installment in the Nigel Strangeways mystery series by Nicholas Blake. While I admit that I have not read the entire series, I have read several. I enjoyed reading all that I have, except this one. For me, the tone was all wrong. Not a single character was likable, not even Strangeways, which left me cold. Additionally, the character interactions felt forced and unreal, not at all like the other books in the series. Finally, this one was way too obvious - easy to figure out, and grittier than I like. Nothing in the story struck a chord with me, which is unusual. Like I said earlier, I have enjoyed several other books in the series, just not this one.

I usually enjoy a Nigel Strangeways mystery but The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake just misses the mark. The dialogue is stilted and has no natural rhythm. The characters are two dimensional. The suspect with the perfect alibi is obviously the killer. If you are just starting to ready Nicholas Blake, start with another of his excellent stories.

I found this book to be boring from the first few sentences I read in it. It was just not my cup of tea. I didn't care for it, but other people may feel differently than I do.

"The Morning After Death" written by Nicholas Blake, pseudonym of Cecil Day-Lewis who was appointed poet laureate of the United Kingdom in 1968, is a tightly structured mystery set in New England at fictious Cabot University. Amateur British investigator and classical scholar, Nigel Strangeways, is at Cabot doing research. He hasn't been there long before Professor Josiah Ahlberg is found dead in a locker in Hawthorne House's basement where Strangeways is staying. Hawthorne House was built and endowed by Josiah's wealthy father. Josiah's two half-brothers are also faculty at Cabot and fall under suspicion for Josiah's murder. John Tate, a former student suspended for plagiarizing one of Josiah's papers, is also a suspect. There are red herrings to keep mystery fans entertained and plenty of suspense. This is a very enjoyable book.

2.5 stars

I am a fan of vintage detective fiction and have previously read and enjoyed several Nigel Strangeways. I appreciate the intelligence of the language of the older mysteries in particular.

This was the last published of this series, which ran from 1935 to 1966. I notice with other series that spanned this time period that the later ones often foundered trying to capture societal changes. The authors writing in the 30s in my opinion often didn't do well in the 60s and this is no exception.

Psychologist and pseudo amateur detective Nigel Strangeways is visiting the U.S. and gets involved with a murder at a small New England private school. The plot was typically complex with some contrived alibi avoidance contortions.

The book fell flat for me because of the young female character Sukie. We are supposed to believe that after having been nearly raped by one character that she puts the whole episode aside and becomes friends with her attacker. She also has a somewhat unfathomable relationship with the protagonist which adds nothing to the story and is a bit of a head scratcher.

My recommendation is to pick up some of the earlier series entries if you want to explore this character. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The final installment in this classic British crime series. This time, Nigel investigates murder at an Ivy League college on a visit to the States. I liked the dedication, where he apologized to his Harvard friends for refraining from including them in the book. I love this series, but this was not my favorite. Some of it aged decidedly poorly (such as the attitudes of all the characters toward attempted rape), and it both went on too long and ended too abruptly. Enjoyable for all that and worth finishing the series out.

The Morning After Death is a classic mystery of the genre best epitomized by Ellery Queen. The reader's goal is to determine who did it with the clues presented. The detective waits till the end to reveal who did it and how the clues led him to this conclusion. Nicholas Blake adapts this approach adding an exciting chase scene after the killer is revealed.

This 10th book in the Nigel Strangeways series has Nigel traveling to America to do academic research in the library of Cabot University. A friend from his undergraduate days at Oxford University is now Master of Hawthorne House at Cabot and invites him to stay there as long as he needs to complete his readings. Nigel meets resident professors and the graduate students they supervise, one of which is murdered there one night. Because of his background as a private investigator in England, the victim's family recruits Nigel to find out who did it.

A particularly interesting aspect of the book is the intellectual conversations between the characters on politics, religion, and social norms in the mid-20th century and the behavioral differences between Americans and the British. So besides figuring out who did the murderous deed, the reader can learn more about intellectual life in the mid-20th Century.

The Morning After Death is the 16th (and final) novel in the Nigel Strangeways series by Nicholas Blake. Originally published in 1966, this reformat and re-release from Agora is 229 pages and available in ebook format (other 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 (and many other Agora editions) are currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

I hadn't read the Strangeways series for many years until Agora reformatted and re-released them in electronic format and made them easy to find and access for a new generation of readers. The series was released from the 1930s to the 1960s and presents a capsule glimpse into social mores and culture of the time. This entry sees Strangeways visiting an old friend from Oxford at an Ivy League school near Boston (fictive Harvard) when a murder is uncovered and Nigel is dragged unwillingly into the fray to uncover a murderer and clear up a clever crime.

Nicholas Blake's amateur detective Strangeways stars in one of those classic civilized British series that I revisit again and again. I've reviewed a number of the books previously and they're always very entertaining. The situations are outlandish, the characters often caricatures, the dialogue is quippy, but despite all that, they're always fun to revisit. I'm honestly not sure if I had ever read this entry before, because I can't remember a Strangeways novel which wasn't set in Great Britain, but this one is a good addition with a cleverly plotted mystery, well written dialogue and finely rendered characters.

I would recommend this one to lovers of golden and silver age mysteries. There are some bits of dialogue and prose which do show their age, but all in all it's a well engineered and satisfying read. It works perfectly well as a standalone, they all do.

Four stars.

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

Did not finish. Neither interesting nor engaging. I was looking forward to this book. Disappointing.
Thank you to Netgalley, author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Review Nicholas Blake is a great British classic crime writer with his main character being Nigel Strangeways. In this book, Nigel is in the US at Cabot University (seems like Harvard). He is visiting Hawthorne House and the master, Zeke Edwardes; the two had been friends at Oxford. Nigel makes friends with a faculty group, an Irishman Charles, tutor Mark Ahlberg, Business School person, Chester Ahlberg, and Mark's girlfriend Suki working on a thesis about Emily Dickenson.

During a freshman ordeal called the Spooky Treasure Hunt, a freshman finds a dead body in a locker in the basement in an unused room (which had been there about 5 days). The body is Josiah Ahlberg, classics professor and older brother of Mark and Chester. Zeke asks Nigel to help solve the murder, and Lieutenant Brady is happy to have his help. The Ahlbergs' father, a millionaire, was also an alumnus and had built and given Hathorne House to the university. It turns out that Josiah was to inherit half his father's fortune, and Chester and Mark to split the rest (if they didn't get in trouble). The major suspects in the murder appear to be Mark, and Suki's brother who supposedly plagiarized a paper of Josiah's and was kicked out of the university. Chester was at a conference in England, but could possibly have made a round trip back with enough time to be the killer.

The killer is very clever, but so is Nigel. The story keeps one interested and gets very exciting in the final few pages as the Cabot football team is playing a very close important football game.

This was a tough read for me. I did not realize it was a book in a series and I think being more familiar with the character of Nigel might have made a difference. I found the language used in this book hard to follow and spent more time trying to figure out what the characters were talking about which took away from my following the plot.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read. All thoughts are my own.