A Little Murder
Marcia Beasley is found shot through the head at her home in St Johns Wood, London, wearing nothing but a coal-scuttle. While Detective Sergeant Greenleaf struggles to get sense out of Marcia’s upper-class relatives and a terrifying charlady who demands cocoa and Ginger Nuts, Marcia’s niece Rosy Gilchrist unearths more than she ever wanted to know about her aunt’s colourful past.
This delightful dark comedy is set in a London that is recovering after the Second World War. Chocolate truffles and not-quite-cream buns have reappeared, ladies shop in Marshall and Snelgrove, and Tommy Trinder is on the stage – but like the losses and the battle scars, unsettled scores still remain. Rosy finds herself embroiled with a series of dubious characters that includes the wondrously-named artist Clovis Thistlehyde, a young lady desperate for a mink coat, several irascible academics, a woman in a pork pie hat, and a mysterious man with a wooden leg. All is washed down with the contents of numerous decanters. Wittily and fluently written, with a neat plot that twists and turns to a satisfying conclusion, A Little Murder is a fine entertainment.
