Death on Allhallowe'en

Carolus Deene is a college professor who does a little sleuthing on the side. His friend, Father John Stainer, tells him he thinks something nasty is going on in his little village of Clibburn near Kent. A year ago, a small boy died from pneumonia, but John thinks there's more too it. Now, coming again on All Hallowe'en, he's afraid more will happen and wants Carolus to look into it.

Of course he agrees, and heads to Clibburn to stay with John. When he meets a man named Connor, he seems shaken because he thinks someone has taken a shot at him. Carolus presses him (gently) for more information, but Connor refuses. It is then that he has a true mystery on his hands. He's determined to figure out what it is that Connor is hiding, and if it show more is connected in any way to the death of young Cyril a year ago.

What Carolus finds is that someone wants him out of the village, and soon. He's not easily intimidated, and he knows he may very well put himself in danger; but he proceeds with his investigation, sharing what he finds with the local police. It's interesting what you can discover when you ask people the right questions, isn't it?...

This is the first book that I have read by Leo Bruce, but it is certainly not going to be the last. I found this mystery so well done, in fact, that I did not know the murderer until nearly the very end, later than Mr. Deene did, himself. It was a delight to read, especially since it coincided with the Halloween time as well. (I do love to 'read the season', as it were).

Watching Carolus look for answers among the village people was definitely worth it alone. Some of them were first and foremost nasty humans that one would not want to spend time with; but there were others that were just those who wanted to live their lives. Yet all of them were connected in some way or another, even if it were only vicariously.

When the truth comes out, it is definitely a terrible sight. Even Carolus was disgusted by what he found. But human nature is uncontrollable, and things will occur even if we don't like them. Evil exists. Murder does happen, and it is never pleasant.

The book was a very good read, and the clues not so easy to find. But all in all, it made me respect Mr. Bruce and want to look for others he has written. Highly recommended. show less

I've been trying to read more Golden Age of Crime authors recently, and I came across this book. The story itself is not from the Golden Age of Crime, but the author is considered one of the original Detection Club members. He's also known for writing slightly more lighthearted mysteries, so that definitely made him a must read for me.

This was my official Halloween read and it was perfect; it was creepy, with its isolated, small village atmosphere, and it was a little chilling at times with the use of black magic and satanism being part of the plot. The events are told in retrospect, so while they are a tad disturbing, it's at a remove, making the read more enjoyable than confronting.

According to what I can find on the Internet, this show more is the 20th Carolus Deene mystery the author wrote. I had no problem however, with starting at this point; the book works perfectly fine as a standalone mystery.

I'm not sure what to say about the writing; it was good, and I found myself wanting to pick the book up, but the style is different; a lot of the information in the dialogue and story we are used to having nowadays is absent. Between this and being told in the third person, this is not a character driven book, but purely about the mystery, old-school style.

I'm also not sure about the plotting; the author seems to think that the reader had everything they needed to solve the mystery, but I think he is assuming an understanding of the characters' psychology, something that does not translate well over time. So when Carolus Deene performs his end of book explanations, it feels like he makes a lot of assumptions without actual physical clues, although by the end there are plenty of those too. In other words, it was good and I had no idea whodunit, but I'm not sure that was a failing on my part or his.

Either way, I'll definitely read more from this author.

I think this book might work really well for the first task in the 16 Tasks of the Festive Season, for the Welsh holiday, Calan Gaeaf. show less

long ago murder leads to blackmail and black magic and more murder in English village