I really tried my best to get through this, but this book was just impossibly boring. I had to give up halfway and skip to the end. The murder didn’t even happen until a third of the way through the book! Not to mention this book featured some of the most inane conversations between characters I’ve ever seen. I found myself having to go back and reread entire pages because I was so bored, my eyes were just glazing over. And even after all that effort I couldn’t tell you a single interesting thing that happened.

Anyway, I’ve read a lot of British Library Crime Classics and I’ve enjoyed all of the ones I’ve read so far, so I guess I was due for a dud eventually. Credit to Martin Edwards for writing an excellent introduction as always though, it was the highlight of this reading experience.

Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, for providing access to this ARC in return for my honest review.

Set in the 1940s this was not the classic crime I was expecting.

I felt the story was all over the place and though it bore all the hallmarks of
vintage detective stories - quirky characters, patient detectives, upper class
folk - it did not quite fit the bill.

It was amusing in parts, but the humour had to be forced and really did not do justice to the genre.

This is a lark of a holiday murder. Step back in time to a manor house murder with shades of P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie.

According to Goodreads, I have read 65 or so British Crime Classics, so it’s no surprise that I was very happy to get an ARC of “Murder After Christmas” by Rupert Latimer, the Christmas-themed reissue from 1944 that we get this time of the year. Unlike previous seasonal stories, this one was quite funny, full of tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in among the standard British mystery tropes.

Of course we must begin with the elderly rich relative, in this case Sir Willoughby Keene-Cotton, a cranky old man who decides to come to his niece’s house for Christmas (due to the "unpleasantness" (WW II) on the continent, he cannot go to his usual Italian house). The niece and her husband, of course, have invited him in the hope of getting in his good graces in terms of being remembered in his will. The rest of family, an aunt who has known Uncle Willy of old, her son (and his fiancée?), and an ex-wife and her family, make up the initial cast of characters, but with a rich man in town everyone seems to find an excuse to try to visit the Redpaths. When Uncle Willy is found dead outside in the snow on Boxing Day, the investigation ensues, with the local cops falling all over each other in trying to solve the mystery. But when did Uncle Willy die? And was he killed? Poisoned chocolates? Missing mince pies? Two different Santa Clauses? The red herrings, mysteries, lies, twisted paths all come together in a neat little package.

Read this with a sense of humor, with an enjoyment of the gentle mocking of Christmas traditions, with the light-hearted poke at golden age mystery set-ups. Have some fun.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

I'd say this was a very British, very quirky funny little book, that didn't feel so little because of its many characters. I'd describe it as more laden with humour than mystery. I'm glad I got to read this classic Christmas novel, but I don't think I fully enjoyed it either.

Ummmm, where should I begin?
Among all the titles I've read in the British Library Crime so far, and as a loyal fan for past 7 years, "Murder After Christmas" probably was my least favorite title. I liked the humor, but the plot was a SLOOOOOOW burn. Too many characters involved, and the humor sometimes made it hard to follow the plot development. I really did try to like it, but I had to give up at 50% mark. Jumped to the last two chapters and got it over with. I missed the chunk of the details, but reading the last two chapters was enough to reconstruct the mystery.

Would not recommend.

I have been trying older works by mystery authors being reprinted and enjoying the experience!
The very first chapter sets the book's tone (after the introduction, which provides a lot of background to better place the story in its time). It is a leisurely discussion amongst family members about Christmas. It is a time of shortages, but ulterior motives drive an offer to the lady of the house's stepfather. They are not too deeply hidden because the most entertaining part of the narrative was the several extremely frank discussions between several characters. Some felt reminiscent of other books, and some added flavour, while several would not have been out of place in a more modern setting in a recent book!
At the centre of the plot, we have a family consisting of a husband and wife, the husband's aunt and their son, who is planning to drop by for Christmas with his fiancee (or so she has been introduced). We have a rich man planning a stay over Christmas. He is a man with a lot of reach and money, and suddenly people are almost literally crawling out of the woodwork to ingratiate themselves with the Redpaths (the hosts). This ultimately provides hordes of suspects for a death that has not been universally accepted as murder.
It had a different narrative style from some of the others I have recently read. It takes a very leisurely pace down to the solutions, reversing backwards and then moving on again a couple of times.
I found the author's history interesting as well.
I would definitely pick up another book by the author because I found the incisive way that the accepted norms of 'society' were dealt with highly entertainingly. There was no way that I could have come to the right conclusion, which in itself satisfied me since the final reveal was not too outlandish to be unacceptable(at least, by me).
For readers who like Agatha Christie and are looking for something along the same vein, or if you have been reading up books from other mystery writers, I would highly recommend this.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I had a lot of fun in reading this novel, a mix of comedy of manners and mystery. It's a very entertaining story, full of fun and well plotted.
I loved the puzzled and the solid mystery kept me guessing.
I would be happy to read other books by this author, this one is strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Now when I chance upon a British Library Mystery Classics chosen by Martin Edwards on Netgalley, my hand will automatically request or download the book. I’m always curious to discover one of those forgotten classics and to see why Edwards chose to redeem it. In that particular case, I’m totally won over! It certainly belongs to the category because of its publication date: it’s a wartime mystery with lots of references to the Golden Age mysteries, but it’s not really… classic. More like, unorthodox, at the very least, or a pastiche.

Muder After Christmas has all the ingredients of a classic mystery: an isolated mansion, a rather unpleasant, filthy rich old man with a large cast of relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, all of them with a good reason to wish for some of the old man’s money and with secrets to protect. Add to this a lot of snow, a mounting sense of foreboding, a Christmas party where people come and go, and the dead body of poor dear Uncle Willie discovered in the snow, right after Christmas (it doesn’t count as a spoiler of it’s in the title, right?) But don’t expect to be terrified or anguished at any point!

The tone is clearly comedy, lots of repetition jokes in the first part before the murder (and before Christmas) and quite a number of slapsticks scenes (the policemen jumping into the snow to test some hypothesis). It’s not one of those books where, like in an Agatha Christie novel, you’re given all the cards and clues and you can play detective on your own alongside a dead serious Poirot.

You have to be in the right mood to enjoy this book but if you’re OK to play along there are many parts where you’ll laugh out loud! Of course, you shouldn’t be nitpicking with red herrings. Some accusations don’t quite hold up and some characters are goofy well beyond any pretense of realism and credibility, but I believe that’s not the point of the book. I know nothing of Rupert Latimer but judging by the date of publication and the author’s obsession with mince pies and Christmas food, I believe that he mostly wanted to forget the war for a moment and provide light-hearted entertainment to British readers who certainly had their share of tragedy and deprivation.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.

I love these Golden Age mysteries! So many red herrings and a cast of wonderfully eccentric characters, make this a chaotic, compelling and amusing read. Rupert Latimer wrote this one which is very much in the style of yesteryear. It was deeply enjoyable but especially difficult to try to work out. Murder After Christmas is a little gem, great for Christmas and I just love the cover design!

This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley.

An entertaining crime story from the British Library crime classics series. It is always interesting to read works written during the Second World War and to get an insight into how this period was perceived at the time. The Christmas setting was also very enjoyable. A good one to read in the run up to Christmas to get into a festive mood (murder aside, of course!).

A little bit Keystone Cops, a little bit Clue, this was a very entertaining murder mystery set during the Christmas season at the beginning of WWII. First printed in 1944, reissued through the British Crime Library, I enjoyed the vast and veried cast of characters who all... jokingly they say....would love to see their cranky uncle die. Well, as long as they are the heirs. When he obliges and dies on the day after Christmas, the second act finds everyone pointing the finger at everyone else. The police don't get much help from the family and the crime is solved pretty much by accident. A piece of history everyone should read and enjoy.

I LOVE that the British Library is republishing classic murder mysteries! I wouldn't ve known about Rupert Latimer's Murder After Christmas otherwise. It's a true delight, and I found myself trying to deduce which madcap relative was telling the truth about rich, elderly, cantankerous Uncle Willie's death. From missing chocolates to a sinister snowman, the vagaries of elderly memories, and conscientious objectors, this war-era book would've pit a smile on readers' faces then, and will be sure to have the same result now.

4.3/5

Another Christmas story, another mystery, another crime.

This I must say is not my favourite Christmas read so far this year but it was a bit of fun, a bit quirky, There is humour, there is mystery and intrigue, there is a bit of that Christmas feel (mince pies anyone!?).

For me it was a quick, easy read that was entertaining without being too full on. It had its quirks and made my giggle but there was still enough mystery for me to keep reading.

All in all a good book and a bit of fun.

A fun mystery in the style of a Golden Age Mystery (and could be even categorized as one but it is slightly out of the time period by two or three years, WWII is definitely mentioned). It pokes gentle fun at some of the red herrings and surprise twists used during those time periods while still using them to very good effect.

There is a lot of babbling and being vague in the manner of speaking. Sometimes I wanted to shake the characters to get them to come to the point or to spit it out already. But if you stick with it, the pay off is worth it for there are plenty of twists and they may not turn out the way you think they will.

And please British Library keep up finding crime classics that can entertain new generation of readers for years to come.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.

This Golden Age mystery was a madcap delight. Thanks to Martin Edwards Murder After Christmas is set to find another group of fans. When I saw the ARC was available I had to have it. I have learned over the years that Martin Edwards knows The Golden Age of Detecting and I will be given a very good read. He's done it again.
Set in England in 1944 it takes the holiday, stately home, eccentric cast...and turns it on its head. Full of a bushel full of red herrings and enough twists to make you dizzy, this was a Christmas treat come early. Poor Uncle Willie, found on Boxing Day, dead in the snow, dressed as Santa. The secret? We don't know if it was old age that done him in or a tragic accident or was he bumped off by poison? The police to their thing and the assorted mob of family, friends, etc. all take oddball and madcap to the extremes. Like P. G. Wodehouse sort of oddball.
The story twists and turns so much that I gave up trying to figure out who did what to Uncle Willie and just went along for the ride. I was thoroughly entertained and I hope that Martin Edwards decides to reprint the rest of the few books Rupert Latimer wrote.
My thanks to the publisher Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

There are some murder mysteries that are easy to follow and it becomes pretty clear early on who is behind everything. Then there are those, like the Murder after Christmas, where everything becomes so complicated with so many red herrings and misdirections, that you have no clue who has been murdered or what's going to happen. That's not to say that I didn't thoroughly enjoy this read, I really did, but I couldn't guess who was behind it all. There were also moments of 'that's right, I'd forgotten about that...'
The murder takes place just after Christmas, which not only occurs a good way into the story, but it also isn't obvious that it even is a murder at first. An elderly gentleman has died and it's obvious to everyone that he hasn't got long left in this world at all.
Although I didn't know who the murderer was, or how things were going to play out, I still really enjoyed this book. It's very much a classic British mystery, as well as having all of the fun of Christmas thrown in there as well.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

A house in the country, a rich old relative, a bunch of greedy relatives, some who seem to have waltz straight past eccentricity to downright nuts, so what could go wrong, right? Well, things of course do go wrong for Uncle Willie, but for the reader, who doesn't want a bit of murder for Christmas?

"Murder After Christmas" at times seems a bit of a parody of classic golden age British mysteries, All of the tropes are trotted out but tongue is firmly in cheek as they are given a nice twist, Uncle Willie is not unpleasant as much as he is just plain annoying (we all have elderly relatives who don't want to be a bother, making them even more of a bother) and the family is typically unfazed by Uncle Willie biting the big one, almost to an extreme as is their lying and obstruction of the detective involved (no one in golden age mysteries ever just says, "I don't remember, and I think I need to talk to my lawyer," they just make up elaborate stories that are sure to catch up with them. The mystery drags on as do so many of the Golden Age stories but this time the author seems to be making a game of it. Frank and Rhonda and their aunt Pauline are great characters who, while a bit eccentric, seem salt of the earth compared to the rest of the characters, there is Christmas atmosphere galore, full of mince pies, snowman, and "dancing around the Christmas tree" (I so want to go to a party where people unabashedly dance around the Christmas tree..) and while the whole thing gets a little campy...isn't Christmas, a bit campy?

A nice, light hearted, silly, imaginative read. and it has my new favorite character name, Rhonda Redpath! If only the Redpath's had a party each holiday season where someone gets a knife twisted in them!

This is a confusing tale of two deaths, times of death, and who inherits.
Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published October 4th.

Those who could inherit decide to mess things up a bit so no one knows when the precise moment of death is.

The cops don't give up. They question everyone, offer ideas that get shot down, and then try again.

After visiting with the folks there for Christmas, there are several ways they could have died. But the one cop doesn't stop his search and he eventually unravels the truth...

Author Rupert Latimer weaves a novel that’s equal parts Golden Age mystery and P.G. Wodehouse. The large cast of family members, neighbors, hangers-on and constabulary are humorous without becoming silly or twee. The family’s laugh-out-loud antics and the sly comments on wartime England along with a surprisingly puzzling mystery add up to a wonderful read.

Sadly, Rupert Latimer (pen name for Algernon Vernon Mills), sickly from boyhood, died relatively young and produced only a few murder mysteries; I can only hope that British Library Crime Classics chooses to rerelease every last one.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.