The Corpse in the Snowman

“The Corpse” is a Golden Age Mystery (first published in 1941) with all of its comforting, typical tropes. Country house, private detective, landed gentry, bumbling bobbies…. I enjoyed my first of the Nigel Strangeways series, and will definitely read another as they are republished in the US.

Despite the age of this book it does not feel dated. This is a good read about a death and a body found hidden in a snowman. An easy read which was just the right length. I enjoyed this book and would read more by Nicholas Blake.

This is vintage Nicholas Blake, just could not put it down, and when it finished I wish there would have been more. This is a classical mystery set in 1940, but perfectly relevant to this age in some ways. There really isn't anything that can compare with the storytelling style of Nicholas Blake, he has a real way with twisting a mystery, drawing characters and telling a story that just pulls you into the story and the era.

If you like historical mysteries or reprints of novels from the Golden Age of Mystery, you should definitely read at least one of Nicholas Blake’s novels. The Nigel Strangeways mysteries are challenging puzzles where human psychology plays a major role. The Corpse in the Snowman is an excellent manor house mystery that pits Nigel Strangeways and his wife Georgia against a cunning criminal, but is that criminal also a murderer?

Elizabeth Restorick is beautiful and troubled, a hedonist and an addict. Her family is stunned when her body is discovered. But is it a suicide, or a murder made to look like suicide. At the urging of Georgia's cousin and the Restorick family, Nigel explores the possibilities. Is it the enigmatic doctor from London who has been treating Elizabeth’s addiction, or her spurned suitor ? A jealous friend or a member of the family embarrassed by her behavior or seeking her inheritance? The case is a complicated one, made more so by the strange circumstances surrounding her death.

The Corpse in the Snowman is a fascinating mystery that stands the test of time. If you enjoy traditional manor house mysteries, The Corpse in the Snowman is an excellent choice.

4 / 5

I received a copy of The Corpse in the Snowman from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

A Golden Age crime classic from Nicholas Blake featuring his amiable amateur sleuth Nigel Strangeways, this time investigating a series of odd occurances, with a series of even odder eccentrics in situ, at Easterham Manor. Mr Strangeways is, of course, always perfectly placed to investigate even the strangest of requests and this one begins with a most bizarre scenario. Prose perfect in almost every way, this series, as a whole, is a delight to read. This particular tale isn't up there with the absolute best of Strangeways but still remains an enjoyable read indeed.

Nigel and Georgia Strangeways visit a cousin who takes them to her neighbor's dinner party. .Supposedly Nigel is to determine if the home has a ghost that's making the cat behave in strange ways. After observing odd behavior by all the dinner guests, Nigel suspects he's been asked to be here for a different reason. The following morning one of the family members is found dead, and it seems that everyone has their own secret.

Interesting story, a bit like reading an Agatha Christy novel. There is a death to be solved and a handful of suspects. Nigel needs to figure out the who and why.

I enjoyed The Corpse in the Snowman by Nicholas Blake* a vintage murder mystery with a complicated plot. There’s a death and a body hidden in a snowman that is only discovered when a thaw sets in. It is set in 1940 in an isolated country house with a closed cast of characters and an amateur detective, Nigel Strangeways, helping the police and eventually solving the mystery. There are numerous twists and turns and red herrings before the murderer is revealed.

Easterham Manor in Essex, the home of the Restorick family is cut off from the neighbouring village by snow. Strange things have been going on. On Christmas Eve the family and their guests had gathered in what was said to be a haunted room waiting to see if the ghost would appear when Scribbles, the family cat sprang at a corner of the room and repeatedly struck her head against the wall and turned herself into a whirling dervish.

Some weeks later Nigel Strangeways and his wife Georgia have been invited by Georgia’s cousin, Clarissa to stay at the Manor’s Dower House to investigate the cat incident. The next morning Elizabeth Restorick is found hanged and naked in her room, a hint of a smile playing on her painted lips. Was it suicide, or a murder made to look like suicide? Nigel is convinced it was murder and finds there are plenty of suspects. Elizabeth was a drug addict – so, was she killed by the doctor who was treating her addiction, or by Will Dykes, a romantic novelist in love with Elizabeth, or her friend Miss Ainsley, described as a ‘nondescript sort of fribble‘ -a frivolous or foolish person – or by one of the family?

The title and the first chapter give away a vital element of the plot – the snowman, built by the Restorick children, twins John and Priscilla, melts to reveal a corpse hidden inside. But at this point the identity of the corpse is unknown and as I was reading the rest of the book I kept trying to work out who it could be. It wasn’t too difficult, but it did detract a little from the mystery and I didn’t enjoy it as much as his earlier book Malice in Wonderland.

*Nicholas Blake was the pseudonym of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis (1904 – 1972), one of the leading British poets of the 1930s. He began writing mysteries in 1935 to supplement his income from poetry and published his first Nigel Strangeways detective novel, A Question of Proof in 1935. The Corpse in the Snowman aka The Case of the Abominable Snowman is the 2nd in the series.

Nicholas Blake was a pseudonym of the Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis under which he wrote a series of mystery novels featuring the private investigator Nigel Strangeways. It seems there are twenty in the series, published between 1935 and 1968, which is good news for me as The Corpse in the Snowman is my first and I enjoyed it so much I will certainly be reading more of them!

This book is set in winter, as you will have guessed from the title – and yes, there is a snowman and yes, there’s a dead body hidden inside it. We know this from the very first chapter, but what we don’t know is whose body it is and how it has come to be in such a strange and macabre hiding place. To find out what is going on, we have to go back several weeks to the moment earlier in the winter when Nigel and Georgia Strangeways arrive at Easterham Manor in Essex, home of the Restorick family. They have been invited by Clarissa Cavendish, an elderly cousin of Georgia’s who lives on the estate and who has become convinced that there is something badly wrong at the Manor.

Clarissa’s fears are proved correct when, the day after the Strangeways’ arrival, the beautiful Elizabeth Restorick is found dead in her bedroom. It looks like a suicide, but Nigel is sure it is murder – and with a large party of guests gathered at Easterham for the festive season, there are plenty of suspects to choose from.

All the elements of a classic mystery novel are here – a country house cut off by snow; a locked room murder; an amateur detective working alongside the local police; family secrets, clues and red herrings – but a lot of attention is also given to themes such as drugs and drug addiction (with some interesting insights into the attitudes of the time). Published in 1941, the war is in the background but doesn’t really have any influence on the story; it’s set in those early days of the war when not much seemed to be happening and apart from a reference to blackout curtains and Nigel’s complaint at having to travel to Essex in wartime on an old woman’s whim, it is barely mentioned at all.

Although Nigel Strangeways is very ordinary as far as literary detectives go (there’s nothing to make him stand out amongst the Poirots, Campions and Wimseys of the genre), I did like him and will be happy to spend more time in his company. I was intrigued by mentions of his wife Georgia’s past career as an explorer; she doesn’t have a very big part to play in the novel, but I enjoyed what we do see of her. As for the other characters, there are a good variety of them within the Restorick household, ranging from an author who is in love with Elizabeth to a doctor whose speciality is ‘nervous disorders’ in women. I particularly loved Clarissa Cavendish, who is obsessed with the Georgian period and speaks of it as ‘in my day’ as if she had actually been alive at the time.

I am so pleased to have discovered Nicholas Blake and I’m sure I’ll be trying another of his books soon!

This book is very much of its time - you need to put aside any thoughts about female and class equality. Like other detective novels of the period it is enjoyable and the plot is ingenious. There is perhaps one coincidence too many, but it is a fun read.