Gently's Working Christmas
Review of the Constable Kindle eBook edition (2010) of the Rinehart and Company hardcover original (1957).

Gently fished around in the pockets of his waistcoat and, after several failures, brought up a solitary, shop-soiled peppermint cream. ... Gently shrugged into his ulster and brought out his last, fluff-engrained peppermint cream. - Gently's trademark snacks make only a few appearances in Landed Gently.

Scotland Yard CID Chief Inspector George Gently is invited to spend Christmas with the Chief Constable of Northshire and to enjoy some local pike fishing. He is instead pulled into a local investigation when a guest at a neighbouring estate is found murdered on Christmas morning.

The Chief Constable is an interfering type and is quick to make decisions about the culprit. Gently is pushed aside but quietly draws his own conclusions to the case and explains all in the end as usual.

This had a lot of the standard tropes of the isolated country house seasonal mystery and it would make for perfect reading at that time of year. The foolishness of the Chief Constable was overdone though, and was somewhat of a drag on my enjoyment.

See cover at https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/...
I could not trace a copy of the 1957 original cover, but this 1982 edition from Dell Publishing at least has an appropriate cover. Image sourced from Goodreads.

Other Review
Landed Gently by Katrina at Pining for the West, October 2017.

Trivia and Link
The George Gently books were adapted as a TV series Inspector George Gently (2008-2017) with actor Martin Shaw in the title role. Very few of the TV episodes are based on the original books though and the characters are quite different. The timeline for the TV series takes place in the 1960s only. A trailer for the first episode can be seen here. ( )

I first ran across Chief Inspector Gently in the British TV series of the same name. All episodes were typically British dark, bordering on noir, and excellent, except for the pilot which was almost enough for me to junk watching. I’m glad I gave the show an extra chance.

I happened to notice that the series was based on a plethora of books by Alan Hunter, a name totally unknown to me, but, who, having written about fifty of these novels must have been more than popular in the fifties and sixties; so I located and ordered several (don’t you just love union catalogs.).

“Landed Gently” was the first I read. It concerns DCI Gently’s first Christmas holiday out of London in many years. He has been invited to indulge in his favorite pastime, fishing for pike, at the country estate of Chief Constable Daynes Broke in Northshire. On the train north he is accompanied in his first class compartment by a young American lieutenant, an ebullient and self-confident individual, who, it turns out, will be staying at Merely Hall with Lord Somerhayes, just across the fields from Broke’s manor.

Merely Hall, a rambling, enormous, old manor –the map in the beginning is confusing, be sure to check the compass rose– is also the site of a business where they produce tapestries. And we learn a lot about tapestry making. But when Lt. Earle is found at the bottom of the stairs with his head bashed in, and CC Broke and the local inspector are anxious to not involve Lord Somerhayes in the investigation, Gently notes certain anomalies in statements and actions. He also feels Somerhayes keeps trying to draw him into the investigation.

We soon realize that the widow Janice Page was the subject of more than friendly interest from several participants, including Earle and that Somerhayes’ will had an unusual beneficiary.

While the language seems a bit stilted to the modern ear more used to the overused and ubiquitous “motherfucker,” the book has an appeal that keeps drawing one back into it. I’ll have to read a couple more Gently’s before passing final judgment, however.

One phrase I particularly enjoyed was, “I believe Americans mature more slowly than Englishmen.” I also suspect that all the names are puns of some sort. ( )

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Gently plans on a quiet Christmas fishing for Pike but finds himself trying to reel in the murderer of a likable American service man. Since this happened at a Lord's castle the case must be handled as gently as a fishing rod.The Chief Commissioner was such a caricature that it detracted somewhat from the story. ( )

Fourth in the Inspector George Gently series, and the first that I've read. This one was first pubished in 1957, and this affects some of the background details, but doesn't make much difference in the basic plot.

Gently is invited to spend Christmas at a country house. On the train down he meets a young American from a US Air Force base, who has wangled himself an invitation to the neighbouring country house. Lt Earle has an interest in both the tapestry workshop based at Merely, and in the young woman who runs the workshop. Gently likes the man, and isn't happy to hear that he's been found dead at the bottom of the grand staircase on Christmas morning. At first glance it looks like an accident, but Gently isn't satisfied with first appearances. He soon shows that it's not an accident, and then isn't satisfied with the suspect preferred by his hosts.

For a short novel, there are a surprising number of red herrings and plot twists. The clues are there, but neatly buried in competently written distractions. I'm inclined to find some more of this police procedural series. ( )