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When Miss Pongleton is found murdered on the stairs of Belsize Park station, her fellow-boarders in the Frampton Hotel are not overwhelmed with grief at the death of a tiresome old woman. But they all have their theories about the identity of the murderer, and help to unravel the mystery of who killed the wealthy Pongle . Several of her fellow residents even Tuppy the terrier have a part to play in the events that lead to a dramatic arrest. This classic mystery novel is set in and around the Northern Line of the London Underground.
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LibraryThing member BrokenTune
Gerry had arranged with Beryl on Sunday that she should drive him to Euston and take the Alvis back to Beverley House.
“Urgent business,” he had said to her—“and confidential. I’ll explain on the way to the station.”
“Urgent business has become a sort of disease,” Beryl had thought.
“It is business,” Gerry told her, as they drove to Euston, “but not Oundle, Gumble, and Oundle’s business. It’s to do with the murder, and it’s really nothing to do with me at all. It’s awfully difficult to explain and I hate making a mystery of it to you, Beryl. After Basil’s mysterious complications I expect you’re about fed up with mysteries, but I can’t tell you the whole story because it affects two other people.”
“You needn’t tell me a thing if you don’t want to. I’ll take it on trust,” Beryl assured him. But she did sound a bit fed up, he thought.
Oh, Beryl, I hear you. So much fuss and no clear train of thought that makes anything any clearer.
And what is worse, this book was like watching a game of cricket when you have no idea what is going on - you can fall asleep after 10 minutes, wake up a day later, and the score still seems to be exactly the same.
Gawd, I was so bored.
“Urgent business,” he had said to her—“and confidential. I’ll explain on the way to the station.”
“Urgent business has become a sort of disease,” Beryl had thought.
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“Gerry has caught it from Basil.”“It is business,” Gerry told her, as they drove to Euston, “but not Oundle, Gumble, and Oundle’s business. It’s to do with the murder, and it’s really nothing to do with me at all. It’s awfully difficult to explain and I hate making a mystery of it to you, Beryl. After Basil’s mysterious complications I expect you’re about fed up with mysteries, but I can’t tell you the whole story because it affects two other people.”
“You needn’t tell me a thing if you don’t want to. I’ll take it on trust,” Beryl assured him. But she did sound a bit fed up, he thought.
Oh, Beryl, I hear you. So much fuss and no clear train of thought that makes anything any clearer.
And what is worse, this book was like watching a game of cricket when you have no idea what is going on - you can fall asleep after 10 minutes, wake up a day later, and the score still seems to be exactly the same.
Gawd, I was so bored.
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LibraryThing member EricaObey
Sorry, but I wound up too bored to even skip to the end and find out whodunnit. Basil, the protagonist, is a blithering idiot, and his friends are equally stupid, even if it's just for putting up with him.
LibraryThing member missizicks
Very enjoyable. Plenty of mystery before the culprit is unavoidably revealed. A bright, accessible style of writing. Less macabre than some of her contemporaries' novels can be. Perfect easy reading for the summer.
LibraryThing member smik
The structure of this novel hinges on the two tenets of motive and opportunity and much of the plot focusses on constructing a timeline to show who was in the right place at the right time to commit the murder. This strategy wears a bit thin as the novel progresses.
Dorothy L. Sayers appears to have
“This detective novel is much more than interesting. The numerous characters are well differentiated, and include one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail.”
(Dorothy L. Sayers Sunday Times)
For me, the victim's name, Euphemia Pongleton, feels like a joke that went wrong: something that was meant to amuse the reader but somehow doesn't. Miss Pongleton is found strangled, "lying like a heap of old clothes", half way down the circular staircase of Belsize Park station, with her dog's leash wrapped around her neck. Her nephew Basil actually discovers the body but, for a variety of reasons, is anxious to keep that fact hidden from the police investigation. He confides in the real murderer who doesn't become an obvious suspect until towards the end of the novel.
The author does allow a little humour to poke through every now and then, and there is some pleasure in extracting the truth from the muddle of characters and their motives for doing away with Miss Pongleton. There is also the tangle of a stolen broach, a missing string of pearls, and a missing will. All this lends a complexity to the plot which the author does well to untangle.
Dorothy L. Sayers appears to have
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approved of it:“This detective novel is much more than interesting. The numerous characters are well differentiated, and include one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail.”
(Dorothy L. Sayers Sunday Times)
For me, the victim's name, Euphemia Pongleton, feels like a joke that went wrong: something that was meant to amuse the reader but somehow doesn't. Miss Pongleton is found strangled, "lying like a heap of old clothes", half way down the circular staircase of Belsize Park station, with her dog's leash wrapped around her neck. Her nephew Basil actually discovers the body but, for a variety of reasons, is anxious to keep that fact hidden from the police investigation. He confides in the real murderer who doesn't become an obvious suspect until towards the end of the novel.
The author does allow a little humour to poke through every now and then, and there is some pleasure in extracting the truth from the muddle of characters and their motives for doing away with Miss Pongleton. There is also the tangle of a stolen broach, a missing string of pearls, and a missing will. All this lends a complexity to the plot which the author does well to untangle.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
I enjoyed the setting and characters in this Golden Age mystery. This isn't really a 'detective' story, even of the cozy variety, since none of the main characters do any real investigating and the police are mostly "off stage". Instead, the reader pieces together clues from the actions, statements
I did like the way it all came together in the end & the brief glimpse into the police thinking that came right before that.
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and reactions of the various people involved. The author does at one point deliberately prevent the reader from information available to the characters but by that time I had already a firm suspicion. I did like the way it all came together in the end & the brief glimpse into the police thinking that came right before that.
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LibraryThing member BrianEWilliams
This is an entertaining Golden Age whodunnit murder mystery set in England in the 1930s. A female resident of the Frampton Private Hotel (an upscale boarding house) in London is strangled with a dog leash on her way to her dentist. Miss Euphemia Pongleton was wealthy, but tight-fisted with her
The police are in the background for most of the story as Miss Pongleton's family and other residents of the Frampton go about protecting each other from suspicion. It's not a police procedural mystery in the usual sense: any sleuthing is done by amateur detectives. In the end the amateurs succeed in identifying the killer for the police.
It's a puzzle type of murder mystery, with the whereabouts of the various suspects at the time of the murder being important to determine. Much of the story is taken up with putting this information together. It is briskly paced and easy to read. The British slang in the dialogue is dated from today's perspective, but can be deciphered without difficulty.
As in most British Library Crime Classics, there is an informative Introduction which provides commentary on the story and background information about the author. The Introduction in this book is by Stephen Booth, a British mystery writer. It's worth reading.
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money, and was not liked. No one really mourns her passing. A Frampton housemaid's boyfriend is an early suspect. Miss Pongleton caught him with a stolen broach and threatened to turn him into the police. He was working in the Underground station where she was killed at the time of her murder. He was therefore thought to have motive and opportunity.The police are in the background for most of the story as Miss Pongleton's family and other residents of the Frampton go about protecting each other from suspicion. It's not a police procedural mystery in the usual sense: any sleuthing is done by amateur detectives. In the end the amateurs succeed in identifying the killer for the police.
It's a puzzle type of murder mystery, with the whereabouts of the various suspects at the time of the murder being important to determine. Much of the story is taken up with putting this information together. It is briskly paced and easy to read. The British slang in the dialogue is dated from today's perspective, but can be deciphered without difficulty.
As in most British Library Crime Classics, there is an informative Introduction which provides commentary on the story and background information about the author. The Introduction in this book is by Stephen Booth, a British mystery writer. It's worth reading.
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LibraryThing member Vesper1931
Miss Euphemia Pongleton of the Frampton Private Hotel is found dead on the stairs of the Belsize Underground station. Not well liked so there are a few suspects including the possible beneficiaries of her will.
Unfortunately I found the majority of the characters annoying, with a too talky and
A NetGalley Book
Unfortunately I found the majority of the characters annoying, with a too talky and
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repetitive style of writing which was probably indicative of the style of the 1930's (The book was written in 1934).A NetGalley Book
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LibraryThing member Andy_Dingley
Clunking narrative, marginal characterisation and a dreadfully blunt reveal. Not recommended.
The setup is good. A residential hotel in North London with a spread of people living there, one who finds herself no longer living. But from there it's downhill. We never meet the first suspect, he's kept
Most of the way through, the author tires of frying up red herrings for us and simply announces "the butler did it"; three times in successive chapters, just to make sure we get the message. Arrest, reconciliations and curtain. There is no drama in this novel. We flip immediately from having literally no clue to suddenly having all of them.
Rewritten, this could make a decent screenplay. The structure is decent, just the focus of the writing is crudely handled, going from a string of distractions suddenly to the conclusion.
The setup is good. A residential hotel in North London with a spread of people living there, one who finds herself no longer living. But from there it's downhill. We never meet the first suspect, he's kept
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offstage. The second is a Woosterish chap who couldn't make himself seem more guilty if he wore a signboard, so clearly it's not him. A typical bit of '30s English morality surfaces as the two jewel thieves are treated so differently: the working class one dismissed and sent to live in Yorkshire (and think yourself lucky it's not Dartmoor, lad), whilst the middle class one kept by his aunt's money and with flexible ideas on property possession is lauded by all.Most of the way through, the author tires of frying up red herrings for us and simply announces "the butler did it"; three times in successive chapters, just to make sure we get the message. Arrest, reconciliations and curtain. There is no drama in this novel. We flip immediately from having literally no clue to suddenly having all of them.
Rewritten, this could make a decent screenplay. The structure is decent, just the focus of the writing is crudely handled, going from a string of distractions suddenly to the conclusion.
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