Murder for Christmas

De: Francis Duncan

Narrado por: John Curless

A classic mystery for the festive season: mulled wine, mince pies...and murder.

Mordecai Tremaine, former tobacconist and perennial lover of romance novels, has been invited to spend Christmas in the sleepy village of Sherbroome at the country retreat of one Benedict Grame. Arriving on Christmas Eve, he finds that the revelries are in full flow - but so too are tensions amongst the assortment of guests. Midnight strikes and the party-goers discover that it's not just presents nestling under the tree...there's a dead body, too. A dead body that bears a striking resemblance to Father Christmas. With the snow falling and the suspicions flying, it's up to Mordecai to sniff out the culprit - and prevent someone else from getting murder for Christmas.

©2017 Francis Duncan (P)2017 Recorded Books

Murder for Christmas

I liked this book,but it took a lot of concentration to keep all the similar last names straight.Then throw in a woman named Dennis!Oy! It was a grand story and I liked Mordechi. Narration was swell.

A Good "Who Dun It" with lots of festive vibes!

Murder for Christmas (A Mordecai Tremaine Mystery) is simply delightful. Mordecai is no Sherlock Holmes nor James Bond, but he is cagy, cranky, and above all, earnest in his desire to solve the Christmas Eve/Morning crime. The ultimate culprit is pretty obvious from the start but the twists and turns the story takes to get Mordecai to the murderer are compelling. It is likewise stuffy British society at its best and worst and requires no additional thought or effort to enjoy the storyline. Another great holiday story worth the time!

I didn’t see the end coming

WOW. What a twisted plot. I love the narration by John Curless. I think Mortimer would make a great tv detective. The characters are wonderful. And the story moves along at a good pace.

Loved this classic mystery

Picture old Sherbrooke House, during the 1940’s, a genteel British country manor, owned by Benedict Graeme—a man who passionately loves Christmas. Among the many guests he invites to enjoy the holiday this season, is Mordecai Tremaine, a gentle older man, a lifelong bachelor with a love of romance, who is also an astute observer of human nature, and known to have abilities to solve mysteries. The reader quickly realizes there will eventually be a murder mystery for him to work on, in his quiet, methodical way.

This book was such a great find! Written by Francis Duncan (pseudonym for William Underhill) who wrote his first detective story in 1936, as a bit of a sideline, while he worked at another job. Lost to readers for many years, he seems to have been rediscovered, and becoming acquainted with old Mordecai Tremaine (the male version of Miss Marple?) was fun.

Do not look for this book to seem modern—it isn’t. The writing has the form popular at the time, in which the characters speak with the somewhat proper, even fussy, sort of polite style that may now sound a little stilted. Yet it’s such a pleasure to listen, keeping in mind that that book was written in an era when that was the norm.

There are lots of characters in this book, but luckily the narrator handles them very well. Everyone has assembled in this Grand house, in the village of Sherbrooke, to celebrate Christmas. Many do not initially know each other. But they all know that old Benedict loves a really big party for Christmas, and all are prepared to help him celebrate, until of course, the inevitable murder occurs, and then the reader joins Mordecai Tremaine in having to figure out the whodunnit part.

This book was fun to listen to. I’m hoping to find more in this short series featuring Mordecai Tremaine. If you enjoy discovering another author who wrote during the great classic British mystery period (think Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and others) you will love this book.

Good Story

I liked all the twist and turns.
Sometimes it was hard to keep up with the characters names. There are a lot of characters.