Murder of a Lady

Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third vintage crime “classic” reissued by the British Library that my reading group has tackled in the past few months, and it’s easy to see their appeal. This one is a locked-room mystery that starts off routinely enough, but later broadens its horizons to include some first-rate descriptions of the countryside surrounding the Highland loch where it is set, plus some psychoanalysis of the very small cast of suspects, which makes for some surprisingly tense reading. Unfortunately Wynne is not content to drive just one or two characters (e.g. the laird’s son and his wife) to the point of catharsis—every one of them needs to turn their life around, apparently—to the detriment of what is really quite a good book. Nor is the solution of the first murder especially believable, though the solutions to the next two are, and I have to say I was absolutely shocked at who Wynne chose kill off. I didn’t see that coming!
As with The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude, the cover of Murder of a Lady is taken from a set of posters promoting railway travel to destinations around Britain. They’re perfect.
But that’s just my own humble opinion…what do you think? Do let me know!

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