Marian Babson

Books: Mystery | Historical

Murder on a Mystery Tour (1987)

I had a lot of trouble getting into this story, because I could not figure out when it was set.

Part of the setting is an old English manor turned into a hotel that hosts weekend murder mysteries set in the 1930s. That part I got.

But there were no clues as to when the story itself was set, and I hadn’t realized when I started reading it was an older book.

There weren’t cell phones, and no one watched TV, but beyond that?

By page 17 I was confused.

‘Fortunately, we’re protected from the worst excesses by the fact that all Governments long go outlawed absinthe. Pernod isn’t nearly so dangerous.’

And then…

Bramwell Barbour was the creator of that sprightly multi-ethnic husband-and-wife detecting team, Adam MacAdam, the American-Scottish mulatto and his beautiful French-Eurasian wife, Suzie Chong. In keeping with the spirit of certain lifestyles prevalent in this last quarter of the Twentieth Century, the MacAdams maintained a marriage so open a juggernaut lorry could have been driven through it without touching either partner.

That didn’t help at all.

Almost all cases were equipped with wheels, now that porters had become a vanishing breed, and anyone who had lacked enough foresight to travel without a wheeled case deserved to struggle.

And that wasn’t much better.

But it was apparently too much trouble to check the copyright, so I just kept on being confused.

Which is fine, because the characters were also confused.

‘See here, Sir Cedric, you mustn’t let him upset you like this.’ Dix was earnestly trying to pour oil on the troubled waters. ‘Lots of the youngsters are going around saying things like that these days. They don’t mean it. Why, when the war breaks out—I mean, if war comes, they’ll be the first ones to join up and fight. You’ll see.’

‘You keep babbling about Ceylon,’ Eric complained. ‘What’s happened to Sri Lanka?’

‘Sri Lanka hasn’t happened yet,’ Midge threw back over her shoulder. ‘This is 1935.’

There were fun bits.

‘Thank God they can’t get at me.’ Cedric shuddered. ‘Lettie can remember all those ins-and-outs. Comes of having a trained mind. They’d trip me up every time.’

‘That’s why we murdered you first,’ Reggie said cheerfully.

It was interesting, but I would have been less confused had I checked the copyright.

Characters: Midge, Reggie, Amaryllis Barbour, Bramwell Barbour, ‘Lettie, Evelina T. Carterslee, Hermione, Cedric, Victoria Ransome, Petronella Van Dine, Stanley Marric, Brigid Chandler, Lauren Chandler, Dixon Carr,, Bertha Stout, Haila Bond, Asey Wentworth, Norman Dain, Alice Dain, Eric

Cover design by Amanda Shaffer

Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

September 2024 | Rating: 7/10