James Anderson (2)Critiques

Jessica Fletcher, a middle-aged widow in New England, writes a mystery novel in her spare time. Despite her objections, the novel ends up getting published and Jessica finds herself trapped in New York doing a round of publicity for the newly minted bestseller. After a weekend invitation to a party at the country house of her publisher turns into a real life murder mystery, Jessica transforms into a reluctant detective in order to extricate her nephew, Grady, from a murder charge.

This is a decent enough murder mystery and a respectable first installment to a series. The reader gets introduced to English teacher, Jessica, in her natural habitat of a quaint small town, and then follows her to her adventure as a fish-out-of-water in the big city. The murder that follows is an interesting enough story without being overly original or compelling. Jessica’s nephew is arrested for murder after his employer and a private detective are both killed, and the evidence points to Grady as the murderer with corporate espionage as the motive.

The real murderer is easy to spot early on; but I vaguely remember seeing the TV episode on which this novel is based several years ago, so that may explain why it was so easy to intuitively identify the culprit.

The most unappealing aspects of this book are the annoying characters themselves: Grady in particular, and—to a lesser extent—Jessica. Grady is just obnoxious in the extreme; it was actually quite satisfying to see him get arrested and face the possibility of execution when he is arrested on suspicion of murder! The fact that he actually steals…STEALS!...his aunt’s manuscript and then has the nerve to pass it off to various other people without her permission is just insufferable and really made me utterly despise him throughout the book. His constant insistence on forcing his aunt to do everything she doesn’t want to do, but that is advantageous to him & his girlfriend, is equally obnoxious…agreeing to publish the book, going to New York, staying in New York, accepting her publishers’ invitations, etc., etc., etc. I got so sick of Grady by the end of the book, I wanted to toss him off the side of a cliff myself.

And the fact that Jessica just puts up with it is equally infuriating. Grady violates her privacy while a guest in her home, steals from her, and bandies her manuscript all over, and then strong-arms her into having the book published against her will. Jessica just meekly takes all of his crap…and then some. Her attitude as a doormat then extends to her relationships with Kitt, and her publisher, and so on. That grew really tedious, really quickly. Jessica’s character is an older widow who has spent years working as an English teacher; one would really expect her to have more of a backbone than that. Hopefully, she’ll acquire more self-respect and grow a spine as the series progresses.

country-house, closed-circle-mystery, murder, murder-investigation, law-enforcement, spies, mysteries, England, false-identities, false-information, thievery, situational-humor, verbal-humor, sly-humor*****

Multiple plots, subplots, false identities, fascinating characters, and fun. I got this as an audio on the cheap and narrator Cornelius Garrett transformed it from delightfully confusing to absolutely hilarious by means of his accent adaptive talents.

jolly entertaining. proper drawing room mystery with jewel thieves, secret passages, butlers, etc.

Not as complex or as tongue-in-cheek as the first two installments in this trilogy, The Affair of the Thirty Nine Cufflinks also commits the cardinal sin of the "murder in an English country house" genre: the identity of the murderer is obvious from the get-go.½

This sequel to The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy takes place just six months later, with another country house party turned murderous at the Earl of Burford's estate—only this time a number of the guests are movie stars, while the earl's daughter is trying to decide between two prospective fiancés. The humour is a little bit less successful this time around though there are still some nice digs at the conventions of the genre.

A solid entry in the "murder at a country house party in interwar England" genre. James Anderson has his tongue just enough in cheek to add some extra enjoyment for the reader, but not so much that Affair of the Blood Stained Egg Cosy descends into farce. It's got about everything you could want from this kind of book—impoverished daughters of the gentry, Texan oil millionaires, blackmail, aristocrats, Ruritanian duchies, and so on—which make it an ideal read on a lazy, rainy weekend.½

Lots of misdirection in this story of 1930's england, a house party and thievery and skulduggery. I honestly didn't get the who dunnit until I was told. Gun collection features, with theft and a body that turns up in the lake, even though everyone is accounted for, apparently.

Terrifies setting,and fun characters. My favorite: set the '30's at a British manor with lots of ill behaved elite.

Jane is a young impoverished gentlewoman who has recently lost her job and is invited to stay at her school-chum, Lady Gerry's, family's country home. Lady Gerry is the daughter of the Earl and Countess of Burford. Also coming for a visit on that fateful weekend are Richard, Lady Gerry's uncle; Mr and Mrs Peabody and their secretary; Algy Fotheringay, a pompous young friend of the family; and Giles Deveraux, a journalist writing a book on English country houses. Richard has been asked by the Prime Minister to negotiate a secret deal with a foreign country's government and he brings along with him an advisor as well as the two foreign diplomats with whom he is to negotiate. Mr Peabody, an American millionaire, has been a correspondent of Lord Burford's and is a fellow gun collector who was invited by Lord Burford to see his extensive collection. The party is rounded out by a Baroness whose car has suspiciously wrecked in front of the house. Unfortunately, few of the guests are who or what they seem to be as we soon find out that there is foreign espionage, jewel theft, revenge, murder and other intrigue. Detective Inspector Wilkins is called in to sort things out, however, he is "not sanguine" about the whole affair as he did not want to be promoted to CID in the first place. Many things are finally sorted out in a most unexpected manner.

I've had this book on my TBR list for a few years and have just finally gotten around to reading it. I had heard of it from a book listing cozy mysteries, as I had never heard of it or the author before. This book was written in 1975 and has two sequels.

I am very glad that I read this book. It is very much like a mystery from the Golden Age of Detection - it is set, I believe, in the 1930's before World War II - even though it was written in the 1970's. It has a little of everything - espionage, revenge, theft, murder, double-cross, romance, etc - but it all seems to work together. There is even a little humor thrown into the mix via Algy Fotheringay and Detective Wilkins. There are plenty of clues, I think enough to likely solve the murders, and while I did solve one murder, the identity of the second murderer caught me totally by surprise. The final ending was even more of a surprise, in a pleasant way. It came complete with a locked house from which the murderer could not possibly have escaped and ended with the Detective bringing all the suspects together at the close to sum up the case.

It was a very fun book and an easy read. As soon as I finished it, I promptly bought the two sequels and am starting on them right away. What a pleasant surprise in my TBR list!

I loved The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy, the first in this series, and went to some trouble to get this second volume, but was disappointed in it --perhaps the American movie atmosphere does not fit the British manor house setting --two sets of stereotypes do not blend well. There are 2 other issues 1) the humor is more heavy handed, notably when Lady Gerry, the daughter of the house, pretends to be a murderous schizophrenic, and 2) the story comes close to being a Hilary Waugh ( term I use due to the plot's overuse by that author) --a story in which one character is found in obviously incriminating circumstances, is cleared by the detective, and then found to the criminal after all -- in this case there is a subtle distinction because the "clearing" is not done by the real detective (Inspector Wilkins of the local Westshire police) but by supposedly brilliant Scotland Yard man St. John Allgood, who takes over and mishandles the investigation (until Wilkins solves the case at the end). Allgood is a blatant takeoff on Roderick Alleyn and John Appleby (and his manservant is based on Albert Campion's man). Incompetent Scotland Yard men are a tradition as old as Lestrade, but even so this is playing it close to the line, as Wilkins seems to accept the clearing at time.)

Very enjoyable mystery in the style of the Golden Age' country-house mystery. I think it succeeds partly because while bit does include almost every stereotype of the period, the characters come across as real people, or at least no less real than those in the actual golden age stories, which sometimes (as with Carter Dickson) were at least as frankly incredible.

This is the first of the Inspector Wilkins Series.

That this novel was first published in 1975 and is still selling well with lots of fans all these years later, is a testament to it and the cosy mystery genre.
As a cosy parody, it has everything – literally everything. It becomes quite serious towards the end, and the answer is provided for pretty much everything.
I read it over a period of time which I think was a mistake, because I found it difficult to get properly engaged with the many storylines and characters, and the detective became lost in the various strands, which was a shame as he should have been quite an endearing character.
This is a jolly romp with plenty to keep you guessing, to be read over the course of a lazy weekend.

Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders, a series of short murder mysteries with a Cluedo-esque element.
She is also the author of the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington.½

This is the last of a very short series that is really a keeper to be reread again. This one has a fun filled twisty plot which gets beautifully unravelled at the end.

Amusing 1930’s country house murder a la Agatha Christie. Complete with poor friends, visiting Americans, the Lord of the Manor, spies, diplomats, lots of chasing people around in the night and a mysterious foreign countess. I didn’t figure out whodunnit & that is rare. It was good, had the right feel, but the layers of plot seemed a bit much for what reads as a lighthearted & cozy mysery

Yes, yes, I know. What am I doing reading a book like THE AFFAIR OF THE BLOODSTAINED EGG COSY. In my defence I used to be quite a SPLASHER (4MA speak for somebody who reads a wide range of crime book "styles") although in recent years I will admit I've moved more and more to the dark side. But every now and then I like a bit of a splash around in the lighter side of the genre, and I do rather like the eccentric side of the classic English country house sub-genre. Chuck in a slightly batty Lord; an unflappable Lady; a house with secret passages; a poor cousin / secretary / jolly young thing girl; a bit of spying and/or intrigue; an imperious butler; an exotic unknown female and some dashing around in the dark, and well I can be quite happy. Provided it's all done rather well, and doesn't veer too much into cartoon territory. Which THE AFFAIR OF THE BLOODSTAINED EGG COSY (henceforth to be known as THE AFFAIR ETC) avoids nicely.

Originally written in 1975, THE AFFAIR ETC has a very authentic 1930's feeling to it. And just the slightest dash of lunacy about it. The biggest part of the action takes place on one night, when there's a woman screaming; somebody gets locked in a linen closest; one man goes missing (his dead body shows up the next morning in the lake outside the house); one valuable necklace is stolen; the exotic female goes missing; alarms go off; people rush around; and a lot of stuff goes bump in the night whilst nobody thinks to turn on the lights. All of which culminates in the arrival of a very self-effacing detective, who seems to think he's been promoted above his abilities, and mostly seems to do his detecting by standing around and waiting for others to stick their feet in it... so to speak.

There's also a bit of business to do with a famous pair of guns; a famous gun collection; and a dirty, bloodstained egg cosy in the lavender bushes. Now it goes without saying that we're talking a very busy plot here, delivered with just a hint of really good farce. This is the second book from the Burford Family mysteries (actually the first in the series I believe) that I've read and I've got to say I really like these books. Light-hearted, enormously batty, good humoured and very entertaining, THE AFFAIR ETC is incredibly complicated. You'll be doing better than me if you can work out what's going on for most of the time, but I hope, like me, you really not going to care and just enjoy being very entertained.

I had this book for Christmas and have been looking forward to a bit of country house murder-mystery escapism. I wasn't disappointed - this novel really has all the ingredients of a goold old fashioned style who-dunnit. Aristocrats, people who are not whom they are supposed to be, diplomats. politicians, an American millionaire, a beautiful baroness. Two robberies and two murders, and most of the household creeping around a large country house, in the dark during a thunder storm. A clever intricate plot - with likeable characters - which fairly flies along at a good cracking pace. I will soon be getting hold of the next 2 books in this series which seem available from Amazon.

Assorted relatives gather at Alderly, the Earl of Burford's country home, for the reading of Great-Aunt Florrie's will. Of course, someone gets murdered in the night and Inspector Wilkins arrives to investigate.
This is yet another charming cozy mystery in the Alderly Affairs series.

The Earl of Burford invites a Hollywood producer, an actor, and a scriptwriter to his country estate for the weekend, hoping that they'll decide to film their next swashbucker there. His daughter, Lady Geraldine, invites two prospective fiances down for the weekend in order to compare them before making a decision. Meanwhile, the Countess invites her distant cousin whom she has not seen for twenty-five years and her husband over. Along with a couple of uninvited guests, the house party assembles at Alderly for a weekend of socializing, drinking, and riding around the estate. But in the middle of the night, there is a gunshot, and one of the guests is found dead in her room with another guest standing over her holding the gun.
This is a fun and well-written mystery. There are also several hilarious scenes where Lady Gerry pretends to be a homicidal schizophrenic.

Written in the style of the classic 1930s country house mysteries, this book is laugh-out-loud funny. It's full of intrigue, murder, blackmail, and robbery as almost every guest at the house party plot and counter-plot against each other. Inspector Wilkins, the local policeman who is not sanguine about his chances of catching the murderer, nevertheless untangles the intricate plot and takes his place alongside Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey as a Golden Age detective.

Sounds just like my sort of book (a who-done-it) set in the 30's with all the glamour of that age but I'm afraid it failed to grip or excite. All the promise is there but it did not fulfill.

Third of the Alderley series. Once again a disparate group of people spend the weekend at Alderley, the country mansion of the Earl of Burford, and once again it leads to murder. This time it's for the funeral and will-reading of an elderly relative who has asked to be buried at Alderley. The second wife of Florrie's long-dead son feels entitled to the major share of the money after bringing up her orphaned stepdaughters. When she gets a deliberately insulting pittance, she accuses the others of having poisoned the old lady's mind against her -- and threatens to expose everyone's embarrassing secrets in revenge. It's no great surprise when she's killed during the night, and once again it's up to Chief Inspector Wilkins to sift through the many clues and motives on offer.

As with the first two books, it's fluff that I won't keep, but greatly entertaining fluff I'd be happy to read more of.½

Made you realise how good Agatha Christie was

Second in Anderson's series of affectionate parodies of the classic 1930s country house murder mystery. I thought this one was better constructed than the first, with enough there to make it possible to deduce who the killer was if you were paying attention. I did work out who the killer probably was fairly early on, but not his motive, which is very cleverly hidden. I missed some of the clues and was distracted by some of the red herrings, so wasn't certain until close to the end.

The Earl of Burford has discovered the joys of the talkies, and is having a wonderful time being a starstruck fan. So wonderful that he can't believe his luck when a Hollywood film producer wants to hire Alderley as a setting for his latest film, starring the Earl's favourite actor. Naturally, the producer wishes to assess the building and grounds for practicality first, and to encourage the Earl to agree asks if he can bring his star along as well. Thus starts a weekend house party which snowballs, continually acquiring invited and uninvited guests until the house is full of people -- many of whom are not quite what they seem on the surface. And when one of them ends up shot dead in the middle of the night, Inspector Wilkins has a job on his hands untangling the many motives which have brought the characters to Alderley.

Great fun to read, with some appealing characters. I'm being more ruthless about getting rid of books now, and this one isn't a keeper for me, but it was well worth the time spent reading it.½

A well-judged parody of 1930s English country house cozy murder mysteries with a rich cast of carictured characters and delicious references to Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, and their ilk. The complex plot and the motives were rigourously constructed but I felt that the parody added little to the genre. Easy targets may be hit brilliantly but they remain easy.

An affectionate and funny spoof of the classic 1930s country house murder mystery, with a great many nods to the masters and mistresses. Rather too many characters and their independent but interlocking intrigues for me to keep track of what was going on, and the characters and their intrigues aren't quite interesting enough for me to not care about that. I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I'd read all of the classic mysteries alluded to. And I'm not convinced that it *is* possible to work it all out without guessing, even if I adored part of the solution to the primary mystery itself. I don't regret buying this, but I'm glad I paid remainder price rather than cover price.½