This one was a bit far-fetched and over the top for my taste, and the characterizations didn't work very well, but I still found it a reasonably enjoyable bedtime read. ( )

This house party mystery was written in 1934. Jim Henderson finds himself one of six guests invited to Thrackley, Surrey by a Edwin Carson who says that he was a friend of Jim's father. With the other guests being relatively wealthly compared to him Jim has no idea was he is really there. But all will be revealed by the end of the weekend.
An enjoyable mystery though more of an adventure story than a murder mystery. ( )

Six people,five of them lucky proprietors of some fabulous jewellery, and one out of job,out of luck outsider are invited for a weekend at a remote and rather gloomy country house by a mysterious, wealthy collector of jewels and precious stones. They are an Ill-assorted lot waited on by a very lugubrious butler. And then things start to happen,of course...one of the servants is not who he seems to be,a guest disappears,there is a very interesting and well appointed cellar...This is not so much a" who done it" but more of a "how is it going to end".
But notwithstanding the great setting(an isolated country house always works for me) it did not impress me all that much. It feels like a not so successful imprint of P.G.Wodehouse. One expects to hear tally-ho any moment. No,not entirely my cup of tea... ( )

This novel was sent to me by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you.

Melville sets his sight on the country house mystery in this novel. A group of people, all but one owning priceless jewels, is invited to the isolated manor house of a noted jewelry collector. The owner Edwin Carson specifically asks them to bring their gems with them so that he can admire them (and maybe offer to purchase them???) The odd man out is Jim Henderson, invited because Carson was a friend of Jim’s father. The estate inhabitants include a mysterious butler, a suspicious chauffeur and Carson’s beautiful daughter Mary.

I really enjoyed Melville two previously reissued mysteries by Poisoned Pen Press, Death of Anton with its circus setting and Quick Curtain, a very funny burlesque of the theatre. This mystery fell flat for me. The humor felt forced, especially the portrayal of Jim’s friend Freddie Usher who was just too Bertie Woosterish for my taste. And there seemed to be a touch of mean-spiritedness in the descriptions of the characters. Why was it necessary to describe Lady Stone’s fat and flabby thighs when she is found in pitiful situation? The reader disliked her already for her overbearing, condescending personality. And the murder of a Scotland Yard detective intruded in what was a tongue in cheek plot.

Melville is an enjoyable writer but I found Weekend at Thrackley less satisfying than his two previous novels. ( )

The introduction to this Poison Pen Press edition of "Weekend at Thrackley" tells us that this is the first novel published in 1934 by Alan Melville, who later went on to have a good career as a scriptwriter, although he also published children's books and other novels. It sold well initially and for some years after and was even made into a film.

As a first novel, "Weekend at Thrackley" isn't the best golden age mystery you will ever read, but it isn't all that bad. Mr. Melville is clearly imitating some contemporary writers and he has some odd ideas about electricity. It's enjoyable if a bit contrived.

If you are a fan of golden age mysteries then give it a try.

I received a review copy of "Weekend at Thrackley" by Alan Melville (Poisoned Pen Press – British Library Crime Classics) through NetGalley.com. Originally published in 1934 by Skeffington & Son, Ltd. and reissued several times. ( )