“Seven Dead” by J. Jefferson Farjeon

A petty thief in rural England is about to graduate to housebreaking. He spots a rather large, isolated house that appears to be empty, and finds an unlocked window near the kitchen. He debates on whether he should start upstairs or on the main floor, and decides on the latter. He pockets silverware in the dining room, and then notices a closed door with a key in it. He turns the key, opens the door, and within seconds is running from the house as fast as he can, dropping spoons along the way.

He walked in on seven bodies, six men and a woman.

In his flight, he literally runs into a yachtsman, Thomas Hazeldean, who collars him and brings him to the police. Detective Inspector Kendall takes charge of the case, which becomes more and more bizarre with each discovered clue. A cricket ball placed atop a vase. A note found under one body, offering an apology from the “suicide club.” A bullet hole in a painting of a young girl in the dining room. And the most puzzling clue of all: the key on the outside of the door, suggesting that the seven had been locked in.

First published in 1939, Seven Dead by F. Jefferson Farjeon (1883-1955) was published at the peak of the author’s popularity, according to Martin Edwards, the consultant for the British Library Crime Series and who writes the book’s introduction. The book is the fourth Farjeon novel republished by the British Library, and the second one involving DI Kendall (the first was Thirteen Guests). Farjeon wrote more than 60 works in crime and other genres. The son of a prolific 19^th century author and the grandson of an American actor, he first tried acting but was soon encouraged to turn to writing. And he was one of the stars of the Golden Age of Mystery and Detective Fiction.

J. Jefferson Farjeon

While Kendall focuses on the case, Hazeldean focuses on the girl in the portrait, who’s the owner’s niece and older than she was in the picture. If one suspects that a romance may be in the offing, one suspects correctly. Both she and her uncle are traced across the channel in Boulogne, and Hazeldean tracks her to a small pension, where nothing except the girl is at it seems.

Both the professional and the amateur detectives help provide the eventual solution. Seven Dead is a fast-paced read filled with police procedure, tracking across all kinds of modes of transportation (train, boat, airplane, and even bicycle) and across the passage of time. It’s another winner from the British Library Crime Classics.

Related:

“Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story.”

“The Z Murders” by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

“Thirteen Guests” by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

Top photograph of medieval houses in Boulogne, France, by Lode Van de Velde via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

“Thirteen Guests” by J. Jefferson Farjeon

The British created and perfected the classic country estate murder mystery – assemble a group of people (usually wealthy) for a long country weekend, add some underlying passions and tensions and a dash of romance, throw in a murder or two, and presto – you have yourself a mystery. Agatha Christie was well known for this sub-genre of the murder mystery.

J. Jefferson Farjeon’s (1883-1955) Thirteen Guests falls into that sub-genre, but with a number of unexpected twists and perhaps with even a poke of a little fun at this staple of the Golden Age of Mystery (1920s-1940s).

Lord Aveling of Bragley Court is hosting a hunting party weekend. Twelve guests are invited (13 is considered an unlucky number). But John Foss, a young man (not an invited guest) stumbles from the train at the local station, severely twists his ankle, and is taken in hand by one of Aveling’s guests, a beautiful woman named Nadine Leveridge. Good manners and hospitality being what they are in 1930s Britain, Foss is put up for the weekend in an anteroom at the manor. While immobilized with his ankle, he’s able to hear a considerable number of conversations in the hallway.

The guests include a Liberal Party member of Parliament, a stage actress, a sausage manufacturer (with his wife and daughter), an artist, a journalist, Mrs. Leveridge (a widow), a boilerplate mystery writer, and a couple whom seemed to be disliked by all of the guests. And there’s one uninvited guest, a man hovering around the station platform and then near the country estate.

The host has a secret, the guests have secrets, the servants have secrets – and a blackmailer is afoot. A man is found dead during the stag hunt, and then a second body is found.

J. Jefferson Farjeon

Besides having some fun with the mystery writer character, Farjeon tackles this mystery staple with something unusual. The story unfolds during different conversations between the guests, and it is only the reader and the author who see all of what’s happening. The local police inspector has his hands full untangling lies, misinformation, timing, and the events that have happened, but he proves up to the task (no bumbling country policeman here.)

Farjeon wrote more than 80 crime novels and other works. Thirteen Guests, first published in 1936, is one of three recently republished through The British Library Crime Classics series, the other two being Mystery in White and The Z Murders.

Thirteen Guests takes the classic country manor mystery to a new level. It’s one enjoyable mystery.

Related:

“Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story”

“The Z Murders” by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

Top photograph: A country manor by Jon Luty via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

“The Z Murders” by J. Jefferson Farjeon

A familiar, common train journey, arriving at London’s Euston Station. Richard Temperley is returning home, temporarily to stay with his sister until his flat becomes available. The discomforts of travel are mitigated by an upgrade to a first-class car, except for the elderly man snoring all the way to the end.

It’s still early, so Temperley is advised by a porter to visit a nearby hotel, which casts a friendly eye on people sleeping for a few hours in the lounge by the fire. As he arrives, he notices a beautiful young woman rushing from the lounge. In the lounge he finds his snoring train companion, ostensibly sleeping near a window. Except he isn’t snoring. He’s dead.

Thus begins The Z Murders by J. Jefferson Farjeon, first published in 1932 and republished last fall by the British Library as part of its Crime Classics series. Farjeon (1883-1955) was a prolific writer during the Golden Age of the mystery and detective novel, from the 1920s through the 1940s. He wrote some 63 crime novels during his career, not to mention plays and short stories and three novels in the 1940s under the pseudonym of Anthony Swift. He’s not well known today, but he was quite popular in his lifetime, as was admired by such writers as Dorothy Sayers.

The Z Murders is about a serial killer, surprising to those of us contemporary readers and television viewers who think serial killers are a 20^th century (and later) phenomenon. As mystery writer Martin Edwards notes in the introduction, serial killers actually first appeared in crime and detective fiction in the 19^th century. But in The Z Murders, what appears to be random killings turns out to be a rather diabolical plan.

J. Jefferson Farjeon

And the beautiful young woman, Sylvia Wynne, that Temperley sees rushing from the hotel lounge is at the center of the murders. She knows far more about what’s happening that she wants to tell, but Temperley can’t believe she’s the killer. In fact, he’s rather smitten with Miss Wynne, and throws caution and good sense to the wind as he follows and joins her in uncovering what’s happening, simultaneously trying to keep Scotland Yard at bay.

Edwards points out that two features of The Z Murders – a hint (or more than a hint) of romance and occasional humor are Farjeon trademarks, helping to lighten what can be some fairly intense writing. Several of the scenes, involving the villain, are still intense when read more than 80 years after they were written.

It’s another good mystery, and there are still several in the Crime Classics series I haven’t read. I hope the British Library keeps adding new titles.

Related:

My review of Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story.

Top photograph: The original 1932 book cover for The Z Murders, published by the Crime Club.

“Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story”

It’s Christmas Eve. A train headed north from London becomes blocked by a massive snowfall that shows no sign of letting up. In a third-class compartment, occupied by a brother and sister, a psychic researcher, a young rather nervous young man on his way to visit a rich aunt, a rather obnoxious man who seems full of hot air and himself, and a show girl, discussion turns to what to do.

Finally, the psychic researcher suddenly bolts from his seat to go look for human habitation nearby. Four of the others follow, leaving the obnoxious man behind. Fighting their way through swirling snow, the group eventually finds a rather large house, its door open, fires burning in the fireplaces, and water boiling for tea.

And no one is in the house. But there is a body buried in the snow outside.

While this may sound like an Agatha Christie story like Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None, the similarities are slight and superficial. Instead, it is Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon. Originally published in 1937, it was republished late in 2014 as part of the British Library Crime Classics series, and became a surprising hit in U.K. bookstores.

Farjeon was the son of Benjamin Farjeon, a popular and prolific novelist in the 19^th century who was inspired to write by Charles Dickens accepting one of his stories for publication. The son wrote numerous mystery novels, including on, No. 17, that was made into a movie by Alfred Hitckcock. Farjeon’s sister, Eleanor, was a poet and writer of children’s stories. Writing clearly ran in the family.

J. Jefferson Farjeon

Mystery in White is rather light holiday fare, even (as it turns out) a murder on the train and the body in the snow. There’s a bit of holiday levity, particularly with the brother and sister characters, David and Lydia Carrington. The psychic researcher turns out to be a fairly decent detective, and he’s instrumental in eventually solving the murders as well as another murder buried 20 years in the past.

The British Library has published some 25 novels in the Crime Classics series, including two additional stories by Farjeon: The Z Murders and Thirteen Guests.

Mystery in White is a rather fun read, particularly if it’s the holidays and it’s snowing outside.

Related: My reviews of other British Library Crime Classics

Mavis Doriel Hay’s Death on the Cherwell.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s The Santa Klaus Murder.

Mavis Doriel Hay’s Murder Underground.

John Bude’s The Lake District Murder.

John Bude’s The Cornish Coast Murder.

Charles Warren Adams’s The Notting Hill Mystery.

Photograph by Bobbi Jones via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.