The Draycott Murder Mystery by Mary Harriet (Molly) Thynne (1881-1950) was published by the Frederick A. Stokes Company in 1928 and reprinted by Dean Street Press in 2016 with an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans. It was originally released under the title The Red Dwarf in the UK by Thomas Nelson & Sons. It was the first of six mysteries Thynne published between 1928 and 1933. Why she stopped writing is an eternal conundrum. All of her books are competent readable mysteries.
Tina Draycott nee Tina Baxter nee Tina Allen is found dead one evening in the front room of the farmhouse rented by young John Leslie, who had been out for a long tramp across the country. Shot with no weapon nearby, suicide is promptly ruled out. The victim was newly arrived in the village of Keys to visit her sister; she had met few people and had no known local acquaintance beyond her sister. Certainly Leslie did not recognize her and was stunned by the discovery of a dead stranger in his home.
The unfortunate Leslie could not provide an alibi however, and despite lack of motive police suspicion fastened on him. Leslie’s fiancé Lady Cynthia Bell marshalled a formidable array of resources, including the foremost counsel of the day Sir Edward Kean, whose invalid wife was staying in the country with her friends the Staveleys. The Staveleys were also hosting a recently retired Indian Civil Servant named Allen Fayre, long-time friends of the Keans, Staveleys, and Cynthia. Fayre assumes the role of chief investigator at the urging of Cynthia. Needless to say, his forays were not welcomed by the authorities or Leslie’s counsel. He was nonetheless quite productive
The victim was known to be twice divorced with some questionable associates, so Fayre not unreasonably begins to look into her past for the killer, and the past is where he finds answers.
The characters and much of the action are of another time and place, when the affluent classes gathered at one another’s homes for weeks on end. Feeding, entertaining, and clearing up after a crowd for an indefinite period is hard to imagine now. The characters and their relationships to each other are integral to the story. Everyone at that level of society knew everyone else at least casually, generally meeting in the school room, creating a complex history that evolved into a kind of extended family.
Cynthia’s mother has forbidden her daughter’s entanglement with John Leslie, which she considers a mesalliance; how Cynthia works around maternal disapproval provides some amusing moments.
I always enjoy Thynne’s books. This one is a vivid picture of life for the monied class between the wars, as well as an adeptly structured and written mystery. The leisurely pace of activity contrasts sharply with the contemporary focus on driving action, and present-day readers may find it off-putting along with the complicated relationships. Especially for students of Golden Age crime fiction.