July 1, 2016
Donald Langham and Maria Dupre are looking forward to their wedding in May. But Langham is called away to the Highlands, along with his friend Ralph Ryland to investigate the alleged murder attempt on their former commanding officer Major Gordon. The major has refurbished an old castle, turning it into a hotel and is attempting to raise a German aircraft from the bottom of the loch, where it crashed in February 1945. The list of people who would want to sabotage the major's efforts includes Gordon's Byronesque layabout son, an aloof Hungarian countess, a German aircraft enthusiast, a retired academic investigating the castle's ghosts, and three staff members, including a young woman who is more than a family friend. The sleuths arrive at the estate in a snowstorm and are soon stranded. As the bodies begin to pile up, Langham and Ryland are running out of time to find the culprit. VERDICT This charming book, which follows Murder at the Chase, brings to the page well-defined characters and a classic locked-room structure. Recommend for anyone who loves English country house murders.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2016
Here's the third mystery featuring crime-writer Donald Langham. It's December 1955, and Major Cartwright, Langham's former commanding officer (in Madagascar and India), thinks someone may be trying to kill him. He's hired a private investigator, who asks Langham to accompany him to the major's home to see if there's anything to the man's misgivings. After Langham arrives, it isn't long before another of the major's houseguests is found dead. Full of moody atmosphereBrown makes the most of his setting, a castle in the Scottish Highlandsthe novel is claustrophobically suspenseful, with a likable protagonist and a cast of supporting characters who could have walked, with minor changes, off the pages of an Agatha Christie novel. This promises to be a fine series, if future installments are as good as the first three have been.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
April 1, 2016
Snow isolates a Scottish Highland castle, providing the perfect setting for a murder mystery. Donald Langham and Maria, his fiancee, are planning not only his move to her apartment as soon as they wed, but also a welcome-home party for Charles Elder, her boss, who'll soon be released from prison after serving a short sentence for gross indecency. Donald, the author of several popular mysteries, has also worked as a private detective for his old army buddy Ralph Ryland. So when Ralph asks him to accompany him to Scotland to investigate who might have shot at Maj. Gordon, their former commanding officer, Donald naturally agrees. Gordon has turned a derelict castle into a comfortable hotel whose current guests are all suspects in the attempt to murder either him or Dutch engineer Hans Vermeulen, whom Gordon has hired to raise a German plane that crashed in Loch Corraig near the end of World War II. In addition to the servants, the castle's current residents include the stunning but cold Hungarian aristocrat Renata Kaldor; professor Hardwick, who's checking the premises for ghosts; German aircraft expert Ulrich Meyer; Gordon's shy ward, Elspeth Stuart; and his son, Gabriel, a supercilious, second-rate poet with a bad reputation with women. While he and Ralph try to find out more about the mysterious Dornier aircraft that may provide a motive for the shooting, Donald calls on Maria to check alibis for the day someone took a shot at the major and Vermeulen. When murder strikes after a heavy snowstorm, it's clear that the killer must be one of the current residents. Though it's set in the mid-1950s, Brown's third (Murder at the Chase, 2014, etc.) is a typical golden age whodunit whose limited number of motive-rich suspects will neither break new ground nor raise your blood pressure.
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April 18, 2016
Brown’s engaging third Langham and Dupré mystery (after 2014’s Murder at the Chase) is set principally in the Scottish Highlands during the winter of 1955, when memories of WWII still linger in the hearts and minds of the British. Thriller writer Donald Langham gets a call from his old army chum Ralph Ryland, now a private detective, asking him to help their former commanding officer, Major Gordon. Gordon fears that he may be the target of a murderer. The two set off for Loch Corraig Castle, the major’s home, which he’s turned into a hotel. Other guests at the castle include a Hungarian princess, a paranormal investigator, a self-proclaimed poet, and a Dutch engineer who’s in the area to salvage a Nazi plane that crashed into the loch at the end of the war. While Langham’s fiancée and literary agent, Marie Dupré, does the legwork in London, he and Ryland delve for the truth around the murky waters of the loch in this suspenseful outing. Agent: John Jarrold, John Jarrold Literary Agency (U.K.).