Not a Creature was Stirring

Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent who retired after the death of his wife, is invited to dinner at the home of Robert Hannaford. The Hannaford family originally made it's money in railroads but the current Hannafords are comprised of mostly disreputable losers who are being investigated for a variety of reasons. Robert Hannaford is also a cruel and vicious man.

Upon his arrival at the Hannaford family estate, Engine House, Gregor finds that Robert has been bludgeoned to death. The only people in the house are Mrs. Hannaford, dying from complications of multiple sclerosis and their seven dysfunctional adult children. Before long there are two more murders. There are a number of interesting subplots, including at least one for each of show more Hannaford's seven children.

Before Gregor retired he was the former head of the FBI Behavioral Sciences Department and as he starts to recover from his wife's death he's at loose ends. Soon Gregor is asked to act as a consultant to the police who are investigating the murders and begins to come alive again.

Gregor lives in the Armenian neighborhood of Cavanaugh Street in Philadelphia. In a parallel plotline, his parish priest, Father Tibor, has asked him to help locate neighbor Donna Moradanyan's boyfriend who disappeared when Donna became pregnant.

The mystery is well written and the characters are richly textured. I think this first book in the series shows some real potential. The author has introduced some characters that will obviously be regulars in future books and I would definitely read the next one. show less

Widower and retired FBI agent Gregor Demarkian has moved back to the Armenian neighborhood in Philadelphia where he spent his childhood. Just before Christmas, a local Armenian priest asks Gregor for a favor. Gregor is to go to Engine House, the Bryn Mawr mansion of the Hannaford family, as a dinner guest. In return, Mr. Hannaford will give Gregor a briefcase containing $100,000, destined for the Armenian church. Hannaford arrives to find a murder scene. Robert Hannaford is dead, and the murderer must have been someone inside the house. The pool of suspects is limited to Hannaford's seven children, all of whom he hated and who hated their father in return. The local police hire Gregor as a consultant. Solving the case becomes show more increasingly urgent and the pool of suspects narrower as more murders occur.

I enjoyed this first-in-series mystery. The holiday setting in a mansion with a limited number of suspects is similar to the vintage country house murder mysteries that are always a favorite with me. The cultural setting in Philadelphia's Armenian community is also appealing. I look forward to reading additional books in this series. show less

A retired FBI detective is offered $100,000 in cash by a wealthy eccentric to attend a Christmas Eve dinner at his country house outside Philadelphia. The detective arrives just as the man's battered body is discovered in his study. The detective, Gregor Demarkian is a credible stand-in for Hercule Poirot in this Agatha Christie like whodunnit. It's well-constructed with plenty of character development of the pool of suspects, the man's seven children. His invalid wife can be included too as a remote possibility. The local police call on Gregor's expertise as the mystery deepens with the suspicious deaths of two of the children. There's a real puzzle for Gregor to solve, which he does, and all is revealed in a dramatic show more conclusion.

Gregor's Armenia roots play a large part of his story. After the death of his wife from a lingering illness, he moved back to the Philadelphia Armenian neighbourhood where he grew up. There he is surrounded by a cast of oddball characters which support his sleuthing activity. An interesting side story about a young woman in the community is a good sidebar to the murder mystery.

This is the first book in a long series of Gregor Demarkian crime novels. Written in 1993 it shows its age, but the story is not stale. A good read which sets the stage for the rest of the series. show less

Gregor Demarkian, former FBI agent who retired after the death of his wife, is invited to dinner at the home of Robert Hannaford. The Hannaford family originally made it's money in railroads but the current Hannafords are comprised of mostly disreputable losers who are being investigated for a variety of reasons. Robert Hannaford is also a cruel and vicious man.

Upon his arrival at the Hannaford family estate, Engine House, Gregor finds that Robert has been bludgeoned to death. The only people in the house are Mrs. Hannaford, dying from complications of multiple sclerosis and their seven dysfunctional adult children. Before long there are two more murders. There are a number of interesting subplots, including at least one for each of show more Hannaford's seven children.

Before Gregor retired he was the former head of the FBI Behavioral Sciences Department and as he starts to recover from his wife's death he's at loose ends. Soon Gregor is asked to act as a consultant to the police who are investigating the murders and begins to come alive again.

Gregor lives in the Armenian neighborhood of Cavanaugh Street in Philadelphia. In a parallel plotline, his parish priest, Father Tibor, has asked him to help locate neighbor Donna Moradanyan's boyfriend who disappeared when Donna became pregnant.

The mystery is well written and the characters are richly textured. I think this first book in the series shows some real potential. The author has introduced some characters that will obviously be regulars in future books and I would definitely read the next one. show less

Gregor Demarkian is ex-FBI. He lives somewhere in the Philadelphia area. His priest asks him to attend a dinner at the large country estate of a wealthy man. The priest has been promised a large donation if he can get Mr. Demarkian to attend. When he arrives, the estate is a crime scene, and Demarkian encounters an investigating officer that is not his favorite. However, the police need his help on this one, and as the death toll mounts, his ability to make sense of things becomes invaluable. Although this book has a Christmas setting, it is one which could be read any time of the year as Christmas is very marginal to the plot. It's a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I found the plot seemed to drag in a place or two, but overall I show more continued to care about the outcome and kept plugging away. As far as the family members are concerned, the only one that was likeable in any manner was the sister who wrote novels. It was a nice start to a series. I have the second one already on hand to read next year. show less

This is the first mystery in the Gregor Demarkian (retired FBI agent) holiday series. Demarkian is invited to Christmas Dinner by multi-millionaire Robert Hannaford. The seven adult Hannaford children are also coming home for the holiday. But just before Demarkian arrives, his host is found murdered in his study. Who did it? Why? The plot is somewhat plodding, and the characters not sufficiently fleshed out, but I see promise, and I think Demarkian is a hero I could come to care about. So, I’m rounding up my 2.5** to 3***

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An Armenian-American widower and FBI veteran who is co-opted by a wealthy family to investigate a suitably Byzantine series of murders. It was well described in beautiful detail of setting and character, but the family are almost all really unpleasant people (apart from one sister who is a best-selling fantasy novelist) and I guessed the culprit correctly at quite an early stage.