Algernon Vernon Mills (1905-1953) only wrote a few books, using the name Rupert Latimer. Murder After Christmas (MacDonald & Co., 1944; Poisoned Pen Press, 2022), a look at Christmas in England midpoint through the second World War, seems to be his last. Crime historian Martin Edwards wrote the introduction for the British Library reprint as well as an article for CrimeReads about the time the book was released in the United States, https://crimereads.com/murder-after-christmas-an-unusual-and-amusing-mystery/.
The premise is comprised almost entirely of Golden Age mystery tropes. An elderly wealthy man is surrounded by relatives who would love to be named in his will. Most of them have something to hide. The elderly man goes to visit a few of the relatives for Christmas. He annoys everyone he meets. He is found dead dressed in a Father Christmas costume a day after he announces his plan to change his will. Nothing about the plot is as simple as it sounds.
The stepdaughter of Sir Willougby Keene-Cotton, Rhoda Redpath, invites him to stay with her and her husband Frank for Christmas when she hears the hotel where he’s staying has been commandeered for the war effort. She and Frank joke in a most serious fashion about being so charming to the old man that he will bequeath some much-needed money to them. His arrival turns the household on its ear, as someone must fetch and carry or otherwise wait on him every waking minute. He enthusiastically falls in with the plans for the Boxing Day party, which is a resounding success. After the party Sir Willoughby is found dead outdoors in the snow.
The coroner classifies the death as accidental but Chief Constable Smythe feels that the situation deserves full investigation. He hands it off to Superintendent Culley and Culley, who rivals a terrier in his persistence, turns over every rock to determine what actually happened.
The overall tone of the narrative is light-hearted; dialogue is amusing. The Redpath household is markedly similar to the Lampreys in Death of a Peer by Ngaio Marsh (Collins Crime Club, 1941) or the Manciple family in Murder Fantastical by Patricia Moyes (Collins Crime Club, 1967). The Redpaths seem to walk a fine line between eccentricity and outright lunacy. Conversation with them is often perplexing, and Culley walks away bemused and befuddled more than once.
Latimer also borrowed a trick from an earlier Nicholas Blake mystery, which I recognized right away. He deployed red herrings, misdirection, multiple motives, and plot twists like a pro. The final exposition is enchanting in its complexity and completely unexpected, while the breezy style continues to the end. A different author could have made something quite menacing from the situation and the characters. A most interesting spin on the conventional Christmas mystery.
Quite aside from the mystery, the details about Christmas and Boxing Day holidays at that time is fascinating. Most of those traditions have been replaced.
Starred review from Kirkus Reviews, whereas the reviewer at Publishers Weekly didn’t care for it at all.