Nothing says Christmas like a country house party with snow and a murder or two, so to get into the spirit of the season I turned to Thou Shell of Death by Nicholas Blake (Collins, 1936), the second title in the Nigel Strangeways series. Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of Cecil Day-Lewis (1904 – 1972), the UK Poet Laureate from 1951 until his death. His protagonist in 16 of his books is Nigel Strangeways, an upper-class Oxford-educated amateur investigator in the style of Lord Peter Wimsey or Albert Campion. He is the nephew of a police official, giving him status with and access to official law enforcement groups. This series first began in 1935 and ended in 1966, with a hiatus during World War II while he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information. This experience gave him fodder for the Strangeways mystery released after the war, Minute for Murder (Collins, 1947), reviewed here: https://happinessisabook.com/fridays-forgotten-book-minute-for-murder-by-nicholas-blake/

Sir John Strangeways, Nigel’s uncle and Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, gives Nigel the task of watching over Fergus O’Brien, the fearless air hero of the recent war who has been receiving anonymous threatening letters. O’Brien has retired to a quiet village in the country and invited the Commissioner to provide a detective to stay with him for a few days. Some of the people O’Brien suspected of sending the letters would be present for the holidays and the detective could investigate without their knowledge. Nigel finds a motley crew, with plenty of underlying antagonism among the various ill-assorted personalities.

Despite Nigel’s best efforts, O’Brien is found dead in his workshop on Boxing Day. His papers have been searched and his will is missing. Local police are inclined to call it suicide, O’Brien was known to be in failing health. Nigel doesn’t think so, and when O’Brien’s batman, now serving as butler, is savagely attacked the next day, the police agree the situation needs a more thorough look and call in Scotland Yard.

The solution is positively serpentine. I had to read through it all twice to understand the logic completely. Following in the footsteps of Lord Peter Wimsey, Nigel falls in love with one of the suspects and clearing her becomes a driving force behind his investigation.

Only the second book in the series but Blake utilizes a number of Golden Age tropes successfully: country house party, anonymous letters, snow providing clues, evidence pointing to the detective’s love interest, questions of identity, this book has it all. Blake had to have studied the genre carefully to fold them altogether so well and so creatively.

Essential holiday reading for the Golden Age enthusiast. Notice the back of the first edition dust jacket from Collins, below, provoking questions about the Nicholas Blake pseudonym.