not preferred subject matter but fairly well written and would try author again w another title ( )

Very generic, dull story. Single point of interest are the supernatural trappings, but they're used and written very badly. The main characters are terminally thick, making the story drag on longer than it should and causing me to throw up my hands in annoyance when they almost die but get saved by absurd good fortune. Solution to the "mystery" obvious from like halfway through. Ridiculous pointless unconvincing love plot. The whole supernatural thing makes *no sense* and only served to draw more attention to the criminal activities. Quotes heavily from Margaret Murray on the supposed existence of a witch cult. Ends with not all the criminals getting their comeuppance and the main characters being glad because it means less annoyance for them. The country squire whose daughter the main character falls in love with and marries was totally in on the evil criminal plot so he doesn't want the plot exposed b/c it might tarnish her reputation! It's all ok cause he apparently dies very soon after the main action finishes so no worries. All the characters talk the same, there's 0 characterisation, the dialogue is dull as anything, it's all dull, even the action is dull. Just. Blurgh ( )

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

High Eldersham is somewhat reminiscent of Sanford from Hot Fuzz -- a village that looks idyllic but harbours unsavoury secrets. The idea of a witchcraft cult is ridiculous, but Burton carries off this story with aplomb. His hero, Desmond Merrion, strikes the right balance of clever amateur and recognizer of police authority, and the story is well paced and kept me turning the pages, even as I predicted certain elements of the plot. For a first in series, it works very well indeed, and I'm looking forward to more of them. ( )

The wonderful British Library Crime Classics keep coming I'm glad to say.
Another mystery set in a sleepy village peopled by mistrustful residents.
When the landlord of the Rose and Crown Samuel Whitehead, a former London police sergeant is found murdered Scotland Yard is called in.
Detective Inspector Young finds that people are reluctant to give information and during his investigations he uncovers a witches coven and drug smuggling between Belgium and England.
It all culminates in an exciting finale with a satisfying end.
Great read!
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )

Strangers are not welcome in the East Anglian village of High Eldersham, nor do they ever seem to prosper there. For a time it seems that Samuel Whitehead, the retired police sergeant who has taken over the lease of the 'Rose and Crown', is an exception---until he is found dead with a knife wound in his back... Arriving on the scene, Detective-Inspector Robert Young of the CID is soon aware of a strange atmosphere in the village. A slightly shamefaced Constable Viney recounts to him various odd occurrences involving newcomers to High Eldersham - the persistent ill-health of one, the contamination of another's dairy production - all of which Young takes with a large grain of salt. A local man with a grudge against Whitehead seems a likely suspect, but investigation reveals Ned Portch guilty of nothing worse than unauthorised pig-killing; an activity that alibis him for the time of the murder. Though his efforts seem to clear Portch, Young's attention is caught by an odd detail: the presence in Portch's house of a crude wax doll with a long pin driven through it. Feeling that he is getting out of his depth, Young sends for a friend of his, an ex-Naval Intelligence officer called Desmond Merrion, whose wide experience has been helpful in the past. Without revealing his own suspicions, Young arranges for Merrion to have a few minutes alone in Portch's living-room, from which Merrion emerges having drawn the same conclusion - and, furthermore, able to report that the label on the pin driven through the doll reads "Samuel Whitehead"...

Having established himself as a successful writer of mysteries with his Dr Lancelot Priestley series, published under the name "John Rhode", in 1930 the prolific author Cecil Street adopted another pseudonym, "Miles Burton", to embark upon a second series of mysteries focused upon the intelligent and urbane amateur detective Desmond Merrion. The Secret Of High Eldersham is an auspicious debut, mixing together clever detective work and action scenes, with an atmosphere of the supernatural thrown over the whole - and a lightly sketched-in love story, to boot.

Though holding hard to the thought that it was certainly no unearthly presence that drove a knife into Samuel Whitehead, Young accepts that hidden forces are at work in High Eldersham; and while he pursues conventional paths of inquiry, he gives Merrion the task of conducting a more esoteric one. Merrion's research into the history of witchcraft convinces him - in spite of PC Viney's sudden, inexplicable illness - not that the people of High Eldersham are actually using dark powers to chase away strangers and revenge themselves on their enemies, but that someone in authority has revived "the old ways" to gain power over the villagers and to create a smokescreen for various criminal enterprises. A problem for Merrion is that the obvious suspect is Sir William Owerton, the local magistrate, who has a reputation for arcane scholarship, and to whose daughter, Mavis, Merrion finds himself strongly attracted. For the girl's sake, Merrion keeps his suspicions about Sir William from Young.

After his manservant and helper, Newport, observes a midnight ceremony in the local graveyard, Merrion determines to be an eyewitness of the next gathering of the coven; knowing full well that, even if the villagers' dark practices do not constitute a danger in themselves, as he firmly believes, he is nevertheless dealing with people willing to kill to keep their secrets. Further investigation suggests that the meeting will be held upon a wood-ringed promontory of land jutting into the river that winds around High Eldersham. Approaching silently by water, Merrion manages to conceal himself in some bushes behind the stone altar around which the coven gathers, from where to his horror he witnesses not only the initiation of a new member, but the baptising of a wax doll with the name "Mavis Owerton"...