Saturday 23 March 2019

The Sittaford Mystery

               An Isolated country house in the snow.
              A seance.
              A murder.
              A small village nearby where the murderer most likely hides in plain sight.
              This was an atmospheric thriller and murder mystery, replete with all the tropes that have made Agatha Christie so well loved and much read. There is no Poirot in this novel and there is no Ms Jane Marple. Just a loose ensemble of characters who may or may not be the leads. Indeed the investigation is driven by a character driven by the strong desire to protect someone who is too wily to see the danger they are in. Dartmoor; What a great location for such events as a chilling murder mystery (Well, I did say "in the snow", b'wah Hah!) with possible supernatural ingredients.
               It begins with a message from beyond the veil. When a playful seance becomes a precursor to a brutal slaying, when Captain Trevelyan (what a very Dartmoorish name.) is thumped over the head with a sandbag.
                Captain Trevelyan. In his study. With a sandbag.
                It all sounds very Cluedo does it not? Or is it that Cluedo sounds very Sittaford Mystery?
                Very enjoyable mystery. To think I wasted so many years not reading Agatha Christie because I foolishly believed them to written for old ladies with blue rinses in their hair.
                 Funny how times change. Now it is all the young ladies who have blue rinses in their hair.