The Act of Roger Murgatroyd - Light Entertainment

I was in the mood for something light, and happened upon The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, by Gilbert Adair in a pile of books my husband was going to donate to a charity shop. It looked like just the job, and it certainly was. It is a bit of a spoof on Agatha Christie - set up as a classic whodunit - but it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's Boxing Day, in a snowed-in manor on the edge of Dartmoor in the mid 1930's. All the characters you expect to see are there - an author, an actress, a vicar and his wife, a colonel and his wife and of course, the body in the attic - an attic which is locked from the inside! The body is that of Raymond Gentry, a gate-crasher to the Christmas Festivities at the manor and who, in the space of 48 hours, managed to turn everyone against him with his vicious tongue. When he turns up dead, no-one is too upset, except when they realise that there must be a murderer amongst them ... and one of them might be next. The guests decide that the best thing to do while waiting for the police is to try and persuade their neighbour, a retired police inspector, to come to the manor and wait with them. Needless to say, as the snow continues to fall, the police inspector decides to perform his own investigation, aided and hindered in equal measure by the author, one Evadne Mount, a formidable lady who writes crime thrillers for a living! Slowly we hear about the possible motives for murder from almost everyone at the manor ... but with so many suspects, will the real culprit ever be brought to justice? This is a book that will both entertain and keep you guessing. The characters are familiar yet have a little extra spice to them than your classic whodunit, and although the action, so to speak, is primarily people relating their own stories, it has a decent pace to it. This is the first in a trilogy featuring Evadne, but I fear I won't be venturing into book two any time soon. Not one that will stay a long time in the memory, but if you wanted something for a journey or for a holiday, then you could do a lot worse!

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 286 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.00 (borrowed from husband).
Formats available: print; unabridged audio cassette; ebook.