Xmas Fancy Dress Hide-and-Seek, and Murder

The Night of Fear Moray Dalton

 

published 1931

 

This book is very clearly set over Christmas – we are actually given a start date of 22^nd December, and it goes on over some time - but most disappointingly, Christmas just doesn’t come into at all, no-one seems to notice or care that the House of Death should  simultaneously be a house of festive cheer. Very upsetting. But – its saving grace - the murder takes place during a game of fancy dress hide and seek. Fancy dress hide and seek! What opportunities for absolutely everything, including all that is implied in the policeman’s remark that ‘It’s years since I played hide and seek but my recollection is that we hid in pairs.’  There is also a character who is blind – so there is some not very well-resolved consideration of what advantage that would give him (or not) in the business of both hide and seek and murder. (And then, how does he know that girl is red-haired? A great moment… )

Then also I found the picture above showing people searching in fancy dress, including the pierrot who plays a big part in the story, so obviously this was going to make a Christmas blogpost. (Earlier this year I discussed my great fascination for harlequinade, and the costumes involved, and the fact that it was the goto fancy dress for the middle section of the 20^th century. I also have a Pinterest board featuring my extensive collection of relevant pictures.)

I’ve done another book by this author, The Strange Case of Harriet Hall, and both are good solid examples of Golden Age crime fiction. Early in this one, we find out that the servants have all gone off to a dance in the village hall by bus, and I admired this wholesale elimination of suspects – often a feature of country house murders, but not usually so efficiently managed. Though as it turns out, not quite all the servants caught the bus…

I very much liked the reference to one of the guests: ‘Mrs Storey was always very affable with the servants. Her tips when she gave any were small. She cherished the illusion that if she discussed the weather and enquired after their ailments and their relations a shilling would do as well as half a crown.’

Also traditional – foolish young men who are wearing lavender pyjamas or have names like Rags and Bunny. A young woman who has ‘the light lashes that are supposed to connote a tendency to double-dealing’, which must make life simpler for sleuths, and whose fancy dress is ‘a silk shirt and flannel slacks’ belonging to her brother.

The murdered man turns out to be a dubious character who writes about true life crime cases – he’d be making his fortune via a podcast these days – and one of his old cases is thought to be involved. It’s narrowed down, and the splendid name of Mockbeggar Hall emerges. I was a tad disappointed that more didn’t come of the cold cases…

Moray Dalton (a woman) is good on clothes:

 

 ‘Diana, who loved her pretty clothes, passed her hands caressingly down the soft shining folds and chose her favourite, a rose-coloured velvet that fitted her slender body like a sheath and flared out at the hips into flounces of lace of the same shade.’

An American lady is ‘wearing a fur coat over her dress of hydrangea blue chiffon’ indoors, because she feels the cold of the inadequately heated British house…

When I read the Rector’s Daughter  I came across the word ‘groovy’, meaning staying in your channel, or groove, not trying new things – and here it is again: ‘Criminals as a class are groovy, a fact for which we, at the Yard, are grateful’. They stick with their usual methods.

All in all, a most enjoyable Golden Age mystery, if not quite as festive as I would have liked. And of course, we have Dean St Press to thank for republishing it.

The search - NYPL Digital Collections

Jugend - NYPL Digital Collections

"Masqueraders" - NYPL Digital Collections

Pour les soirées de l'été cette robe en fine dentelle l'égèrement apprètée. - NYPL Digital Collections