The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I have known the Melbury family since the time when Jennifer, the youngest daughter, and I climbed trees and built wigwams together in the Flaxmere garden.

-- from The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay. I like that beginning. You can tell from the get go this is a country house mystery because "Flaxmere" just sounds like the name of a Stately Home of England. I adore country house mysteries, especially one set at Christmas. 

The Santa Klause Murder is a Golden Age crime novel first published in 1936. The British Library reprinted it in 2013 as part of its Classic Crime series. The BLCC series features many Christmas-themed mysteries and I'd like to read them all. My book club picked this one for our December meeting.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Santa Klause Mystery:

Ladey Evershot, who has no little ones of her own, is never behindhand in giving her opinion about other people's, and she seemed to have some idea that Santa Klaus was old-fashioned and the children would see through him. Well, I must say I like a bit of old-fashioned fun at this festive season myself.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Aunt Mildred declared that no good could come of the Melbury family Christmas gatherings at their country residence Flaxmere. So when Sir Osmond Melbury, the family patriarch, is discovered―by a guest dressed as Santa Klaus―with a bullet in his head on Christmas Day, the festivities are plunged into chaos. Nearly every member of the party stands to reap some sort of benefit from Sir Osmond's death, but Santa Klaus, the one person who seems to have every opportunity to fire the shot, has no apparent motive. Various members of the family have their private suspicions about the identity of the murderer, and the Chief Constable of Haulmshire, who begins his investigations by saying that he knows the family too well and that is his difficulty, wishes before long that he understood them better. In the midst of mistrust, suspicion and hatred, it emerges that there was not one Santa Klaus, but two.