Inept Detective Vs. Mysterious Small Town

Murder at Holly House, Denzil Meyrick

Everyone seems to have loved this book; I see it on bestseller lists. I bought it because, well, hey, period murder mystery (1952) in England, in a country house. Even the protagonist, a slightly inept police inspector (Frank Grasby) seemed intriguing. Plus it took place at Christmas. In Yorkshire.

Sorry, I was less than enchanted. After awhile, Frank's ineptness just got tiring, Christmas wasn't acknowledged much at all, and Our Hero just got into more and more absurd situations. The mystery is overshadowed by another sinister thing going on in the village.

The female protagonist turns out to be too good to be true, but deathly dull at the same time, and, after reading it, I don't remember many of the supporting characters. By the last half I just wanted to know if they caught the bad guys and who the dude stuffed up the chimney was—an anticlimactic revelation, incidentally—and get it over with.

I doubt if I would have ever read another Frank Grasby mystery. Sadly, the author passed away just as this was published. I'm sad to hear that, but not about not being tempted to read another story about the character.
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