Reading the Detectives discussion

Welcome to our first group read of 2025! The Wintringham Mystery by Anthony Berkeley was first published in 1926 and is a stand-alone mystery by the author, originally serialised in The Daily Mirror under the pseudonym, A. Monmouth Platts. Prizes were offered by anyone who could explain the mystery and one winner was Agatha Christie, who entered under her husband's name! Although published in the newspaper as The Wintringham Mystery, it was later released as a novel under the title, Cicely Disappears. Now republished for the first time in 95 years, lovers of GA crime have the opportunity to enjoy this long out of print mystery.

Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew – who recognises Stephen from his former life – decides that an after-dinner séance would be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!

With Lady Susan reluctant to call the police about what is presumably a childish prank, Stephen and the plucky Pauline Mainwaring take it upon themselves to investigate. But then a suspicious death turns the game into an altogether more serious affair…

This classic winter mystery incorporates all the trappings of the Golden Age – a rambling country house, a séance, a murder, a room locked on the inside, with servants, suspects and alibis, a romance – and an ingenious puzzle.

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread. Happy Reading for 2025!

Still shocked at the failure to call the police, whether they thought Cecily’s disappearance was a prank, until there was actually a death! And then the routine withholding of evidence because Stephen and Pauline wanted to have a hobby together, yikes! That’s why, on reflection, I’d lower my rating to a solid 3-3.5 stars, for entertainment value, and unrivaled ability to jam every plot device imaginable into this overstuffed plot..

Especially after my rereading of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie’s tightly plotted, assured first mystery, I can’t help wondering if Christie famously couldn’t figure out the solution because it was so convoluted and she didn’t want to bother…I honestly don’t remember all of it, even though I only read it about a week ago. I know Martin the sleazy butler was secretly married to the companion, and tried to kill Stephen by cutting the branch, but got killed himself, and Cecily’s disappearance was a prank until it wasn’t, and the butler’s scary, tough cousin came disguised as the new maid, but was also in on the plot, and something about jewels, and a priest hole, and an ex-convict among the house party, and phew!😅 deep breath! Lots happening…

I think Christie saw it as a challenge and it was obviously very convoluted so too many readers couldn't work it out! Still, this was very much a novelty, wasn't it? I was interested to read it, but, as a novel, it was a bit of a mess.

I found it quite entertaining, especially Stephen and Bridger at the start, and Stephen's disastrous attempts to be a footman! I was sorry not to see more of Bridger and pleased he helps to solve the case.

But I must agree the mystery plot didn't really hang together, maybe because of the competition element, as you say, Susan.
I also thought they should have called the police much earlier on.

Susan wrote: "I think Christie saw it as a challenge and it was obviously very convoluted so too many readers couldn't work it out! Still, this was very much a novelty, wasn't it? I was interested to read it, bu..."

Yes, I agree - just when I thought it couldn’t get any more complex, he threw a new twist at us, like the scary new maid - I figured she was significant in some way, but we really couldn’t know her true import, could we? I don’t think it could truly be called fair play as a plot, but I know they hadn’t founded the Detection Club yet, so…

I’m glad I read it though - I can imagine being enthralled, waiting for each new installment!

Judy wrote: "I found it quite entertaining, especially Stephen and Bridger at the start, and Stephen's disastrous attempts to be a footman! I was sorry not to see more of Bridger and pleased he helps to solve t..."

I wanted more Bridger, too!

This may have worked well as magazines episodes with each entry ending on, or starting with, a failed solution.

My review from my first read in 2022:
At times this seemed more like a Golden Age spoof than one written during the time period. Reminiscent of the author's The Poisoned Chocolates Case with all the tentative solutions.

I enjoyed my re-read as it is amusing if unrealistic.

Judy wrote: "I found it quite entertaining, especially Stephen and Bridger at the start, and Stephen's disastrous attempts to be a footman! I was sorry not to see more of Bridger and pleased he helps to solve t..."

I was also sorry to not see more of Bridger. Stephen ignored him for quite a while after they both arrive at their new home.

Lady Susan seems awful at the start, bullying Millicent, but is great later in the book. I wonder if Berkeley started to like the character more as he got further into writing the book.

I enjoyed it --even the absurd, improbable actions. LIke Lady Susan inviting Stephen to live as her guest, the whole witchcraft disappearance, and Julius as the scary,slimy fiance who nevertheless can't keep her from walking and talking with Stephen. It did seem like a spoof which made it fun.

This was a disappointment for me, but I think I just don't click with/get AB. Many of you have touched on the key issues for me-someone disappears for days and you don't call the police? Lady Susan being so changeable- her later persona didn't fit with her bullying of poor Millicent. I couldn't believe Millicent marrying Martin, falling tree branches as a murder weapon which then kills the murderer, the secret passage which Martin uses to visit Millicent, Stephen being on the one hand so bereft of friends and contacts that he works as a footman and on the other so popular with everyone that he is welcomed as a guest once fired as a footman and subsequently gets a job there-it was all too much even for a detective novel.

Also, the speculation thread with Pauline's father-does it really work out in the end? After speculating away a fortune, can we really believe that his latest venture is secure?

I rather gave up on trying to understand the mystery, and just enjoyed the ride and the happy ending.

Frances wrote: "This was a disappointment for me, but I think I just don't click with/get AB. Many of you have touched on the key issues for me-someone disappears for days and you don't call the police? Lady Susan..."

For me Lady Susan is just old, wealthy, and therefore can afford to be eccentric. You can be very nice to one person and harass another one.
The murder-by-branch was something out of a bad episode of a show, but I enjoyed the way it was written, it made for a fun, easy evening read.

Ha, that list of things that are a bit far-fetched is very true, Frances! Cristina, I must agree that the murder by branch sounds like something in an unlikely episode of a mystery series - maybe Midsomer Murders? But I enjoyed it despite all the unlikely elements.

Finished it. The beginning was wonderful but it kind of petered out after the seance. I too had problems with the character of Lady Susan. Poor Millicent seemed to get the short end of the stick from Lady Susan as well as the author. Imagine the oily Martin as husband! I wish there had been more of Freddie.

I enjoyed this enormously. Perhaps a major factor for me was what a delightful companion Stephen was along the journey. There were certainly many improbabilities but I was having so much fun that I didn’t care.

I haven’t had time to read a mystery for a while, and was very glad I decided to join the group for this one. Definitely want to read more Berkeley.

Good to hear, Abigail. I also found Stephen a fun character. More Berkeley titles seem to be becoming available at the moment so you should be in luck there, hopefully.

I've just read a couple of good blog reviews of the book, thought I'd share the links for anyone who's interested. They go into a lot of detail about the plot so I've put them in the spoiler thread:

https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress...

https://theinvisibleevent.com/2022/01...

Just finished the book, and just read through the earlier comments. Most of my gripes have been mentioned, although I would add the way that some characters find their way fluently round rooms that are so pitch dark that other characters cannot even see each other. And Cicely failing to make her presence known when she's been shut in the cupboard and Stephen and Pauline are in the drawing room having come indoors after searching for her outside, is pretty hard to credit. In the final chapter summing up, Cicely says she kicked with her feet and Stephen says he heard some banging but thought no more about it. Really!? When he'd just been searching for someone who'd inexplicably disappeared? Give me a break.

There was enough eccentricity to keep me reading, but I thought the plot slowed in the final quarter - Stephen repeatedly suspecting the wrong person, and making other mistakes, wore a bit thin.