Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Napierville, IL: Poisoned Pen Press, 2019
Description
"The horror on the train, great though it may turn out to be, will not compare with the horror that exists here, in this house." On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea-but no one is at home. Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst. This classic Christmas mystery is now republished for the first time since the 1930s, with an introduction by the award-winning crime writer Martin Edwards.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Meredy
Six-word review: Classic mystery wrapped in red bow.
Extended review:
>128 [Mystery in White] came in for me at the library just in time. I started it the day it started, December 24th, and finished it when it ended, on Christmas night. Things can sometimes work out perfectly when you arrange them
This new paperback edition draws you in immediately with a delightfully atmospheric cover painting of a stalled train like the one from which our cast of characters escapes on foot through a blizzard. They find a mysteriously empty house with the fires burning and the teakettle aboil. And a menacing presence that soon points to murder.
The story is a thoroughly enjoyable classic Golden Age mystery, set in a snowbound English country house, and just right for filling those odd little nooks and crannies of time over a busy holiday. Most of the characters are absurd, but the principals are charming and likeable, especially young Lydia and Jessie the chorus girl.
The premise requires one's sense of the probable and the plausible to show considerable elasticity; and even at that, the ending is a stretch. But that doesn't matter. Even though a story like this is set in the known material world, without the intervention of magic and supernatural forces, it doesn't do to be too exacting about realism. Don't come here to appease your logical faculty but to satisfy your appetite for a lightweight escapist adventure in an appropriately creepy setting, with a helping of seasonal spirit to brighten the mood.
Extended review:
>128 [Mystery in White] came in for me at the library just in time. I started it the day it started, December 24th, and finished it when it ended, on Christmas night. Things can sometimes work out perfectly when you arrange them
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that way.This new paperback edition draws you in immediately with a delightfully atmospheric cover painting of a stalled train like the one from which our cast of characters escapes on foot through a blizzard. They find a mysteriously empty house with the fires burning and the teakettle aboil. And a menacing presence that soon points to murder.
The story is a thoroughly enjoyable classic Golden Age mystery, set in a snowbound English country house, and just right for filling those odd little nooks and crannies of time over a busy holiday. Most of the characters are absurd, but the principals are charming and likeable, especially young Lydia and Jessie the chorus girl.
The premise requires one's sense of the probable and the plausible to show considerable elasticity; and even at that, the ending is a stretch. But that doesn't matter. Even though a story like this is set in the known material world, without the intervention of magic and supernatural forces, it doesn't do to be too exacting about realism. Don't come here to appease your logical faculty but to satisfy your appetite for a lightweight escapist adventure in an appropriately creepy setting, with a helping of seasonal spirit to brighten the mood.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
I enjoyed my read of Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon. Set over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, this story, originally published in 1937, is about a small group of travellers whose Christmas plans get badly interrupted when their train gets stuck in the snow. Hoping to cut across the
They enter a large country house, with fires set, kettles on the boil and the table set for tea, yet no one is home. This is just the first disturbing thing about this house. With a creepy atmosphere and strange things happening, there are chills and tension aplenty leaving the reader wondering whether there is a live murderer (or more) wandering around or if this could be something supernatural. Unfortunately, the book couldn’t sustain it’s excellent plotting and the last third of the book was over-done, dated and melodramatic. I was quite disappointed as I really liked the book up to that point.
I suspect it is the last third of the book that has kept it out of the public eye for the last 75 or so years. Nevertheless, I am glad to have had a chance to read J. Jefferson Farjeon and if the opportunity arises again, I would certainly like to sample more of his work.
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country to a small railroad station and get a different train, they set out only to find the blizzard-like conditions are impossible to deal with. Finding a house where they can shelter in, seemed like a miracle.They enter a large country house, with fires set, kettles on the boil and the table set for tea, yet no one is home. This is just the first disturbing thing about this house. With a creepy atmosphere and strange things happening, there are chills and tension aplenty leaving the reader wondering whether there is a live murderer (or more) wandering around or if this could be something supernatural. Unfortunately, the book couldn’t sustain it’s excellent plotting and the last third of the book was over-done, dated and melodramatic. I was quite disappointed as I really liked the book up to that point.
I suspect it is the last third of the book that has kept it out of the public eye for the last 75 or so years. Nevertheless, I am glad to have had a chance to read J. Jefferson Farjeon and if the opportunity arises again, I would certainly like to sample more of his work.
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LibraryThing member simon_carr
A good fun murder mystery with a touch of the occult.
LibraryThing member infjsarah
Entertaining enough if a bit odd in places. A pleasant way to spend a few hours if you like old fashioned crime stories but probably instantly forgettable.
LibraryThing member smik
Subtitled A Christmas Crime Story, this novel is a variant on a classic mystery plot. Passengers on a train held up by snow drifts on an English countryside railway struggle through the the snow storm to a large country house which they find deserted yet visitors are obviously expected: the table
The plot was fairly tangled and seemed to have the occasional change of direction. The narrator tried, reasonably successfully, to audibly differentiate between each of the characters. One of the older members of the party from the train, Mr Maltby, takes charge and searches for clues about the house owners. He is rather quirky himself, claiming that he is able to commune with the ghost of Charles I, and he makes use of the paranormal in the final denouement of what turns out to be a murder mystery. The owners of the house are discovered stranded in a car in a nearby ditch and are brought back to the house, and a story of what happened in the house twenty years before is revealed.
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is laid for tea and fires are burning. The group of seven or eight people are unknown to each other and at least one of them is an unsavoury character.The plot was fairly tangled and seemed to have the occasional change of direction. The narrator tried, reasonably successfully, to audibly differentiate between each of the characters. One of the older members of the party from the train, Mr Maltby, takes charge and searches for clues about the house owners. He is rather quirky himself, claiming that he is able to commune with the ghost of Charles I, and he makes use of the paranormal in the final denouement of what turns out to be a murder mystery. The owners of the house are discovered stranded in a car in a nearby ditch and are brought back to the house, and a story of what happened in the house twenty years before is revealed.
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LibraryThing member Liz1564
The novel was sent to me by Poisoned Pen Press via Net Gallery. Thank you.
The subtitle of Mystery in White is “A Christmas Crime Story”. On Christmas Eve six passengers leave a snowbound train in an attempt to reach a station on another track so they can get to their Christmas destinations.
The story starts out very slowly as Farjeon again and again, it seems, describes his characters as they settle into their surroundings, tote up the tab for the food they consume, and watch the snow pile up outside. Then about three-quarters of the way through the novel, suddenly the plot really thickens. New characters are introduced into the little community, three murders are revealed, lost fortunes and missing wills are found.
The mystery is lightweight. It seems to me that Farjeon spent so much time building up his characters that he forgot about the plot and had to fall back on the old chestnut of “funny” feelings from the physics and the convenience of incriminating letters surfacing. (why, oh, why, don’t those letters get flushed or burned rather than just torn up and tossed in a trash basket for snoopy sleuths to find?)
Still, this is a Christmas crime story and everything is neatly tied up at the end.
The subtitle of Mystery in White is “A Christmas Crime Story”. On Christmas Eve six passengers leave a snowbound train in an attempt to reach a station on another track so they can get to their Christmas destinations.
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Instead, they become lost and stumble on a large house with a conveniently open front door. Joined by a seventh train passenger, they make the wise decision to shelter in the warm house and await the absent tenants. The train passengers include an amiable young brother and sister, a chorus girl who may be psychic, a nervous young accountant, a blowhard businessman, a cockney thug, and an older gentleman who is an investigator of psychic phenomena. Who among these folks will be a victim of a crime and who will be the perpetrator?The story starts out very slowly as Farjeon again and again, it seems, describes his characters as they settle into their surroundings, tote up the tab for the food they consume, and watch the snow pile up outside. Then about three-quarters of the way through the novel, suddenly the plot really thickens. New characters are introduced into the little community, three murders are revealed, lost fortunes and missing wills are found.
The mystery is lightweight. It seems to me that Farjeon spent so much time building up his characters that he forgot about the plot and had to fall back on the old chestnut of “funny” feelings from the physics and the convenience of incriminating letters surfacing. (why, oh, why, don’t those letters get flushed or burned rather than just torn up and tossed in a trash basket for snoopy sleuths to find?)
Still, this is a Christmas crime story and everything is neatly tied up at the end.
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LibraryThing member Momonaco
The beautiful cover of this book captured my attention - the train caught in the snow, just like Agatha Christie's Orient Express. There was great promise at the start of the plot, but I set the book aside and couldn't get back into it at all, I got completely lost and gave up.
LibraryThing member souloftherose
A recent reprint under the British Library Crime Classics imprint, this 1937 mystery is set during an unprecedented snowfall at Christmas (despite what films would have you believe, it never snows at Christmas in the UK). A group of travellers get stuck on a snow-bound train and decide to attempt
'The horror on the train, great though it may turn out to be, will not compare with the horror that exists here, in this house.'
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walking to the nearest station for help. As they walk the snow continues to come down and they eventually seek shelter in a nearby house. The door is unlocked, the fires are built up and the kettle is boiling.... but the house is completely empty. As they try to solve the mystery of what has happened in this house one of the passengers reveals that a murder was committed on the train shortly before they left it. Was one of these travellers responsible for that murder? And what happened to the occupants of the house? I thought this could have done with a little more suspense but this was a solid golden age detective story, very suitable for curling up with when it's cold outside.'The horror on the train, great though it may turn out to be, will not compare with the horror that exists here, in this house.'
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LibraryThing member Maydacat
Not your typical closed-room murder, but still with a small group of finite characters. A group of travelers decide to abandon their train after it gets bogged down in a snowstorm and walk to the next station. Not a smart move, they are saved from certain death when they stumble on a lone house.
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Unlocked, seemingly unoccupied, there is a fire bring, tea ready to be made, and bedrooms readied. But no one around. Thus starts a spooky tale of intrigue and murder, murders in the past as well as the present. First written in 1937, this tale loses none of its appeal in its retelling now. Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
A different spin to the 'manor house murder' subgenre. The few paranormal aspects to this were just the right amount to lend a certain spookiness to the story while not stretching my credulity too far.
LibraryThing member janerawoof
Escapist old-fashioned mystery.
LibraryThing member Ameise1
It's an amusing, cozy mystery.
On Christmas Eve, a train gets stuck in a snowdrift near Hemmersby. Six different people sharing the compartment leave the train to walk to Hemmersby. Since a snowstorm is raging and they cannot see anything, they get lost and thus come to an 'empty' house. The
On Christmas Eve, a train gets stuck in a snowdrift near Hemmersby. Six different people sharing the compartment leave the train to walk to Hemmersby. Since a snowstorm is raging and they cannot see anything, they get lost and thus come to an 'empty' house. The
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fireplace is heated, the tea water boils and there is enough to eat. But where is the owner? In search of him, the stranded people notice that something is wrong with this house. Someone died, there is a big secret in this house. The intruders try to uncover the secret. Show Less
LibraryThing member BrianEWilliams
The Dec 24th, 1937 11:37 train from Euston Station in London gets stuck in a blizzard. It is soon trapped in the snow, unable to go either forward or backward. A group of stranded passengers leaves the train in search of shelter. After a difficult trek through the storm they come upon a house, all
The dialogue was stilted at times. Characters tended to lapse into a chatty verbosity that turns tedious. A minor annoyance in the scheme of things.
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set up to receive guests, but there is no host. A sinister creepiness begins with their arrival at the deserted house and becomes omnipresent until a spooky but satisfying conclusion. It's a brilliant suspense story told against the background of a winter storm. The dialogue was stilted at times. Characters tended to lapse into a chatty verbosity that turns tedious. A minor annoyance in the scheme of things.
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LibraryThing member BrokenTune
THE first thing David did on emerging from the front door was to pitch head first into a mound of snow. For a moment or two he nearly suffocated, while countless soft, icy pellets invaded his back as though he were being bombarded by silent salvos from heaven. Then he scrambled out, and strained
Alright, this was a fun book. Despite the excellent, yet misleading, cover, this story does not take place on a train but is essentially a country house mystery.
Our protagonists are a group of strangers who share a compartment on a train and get stuck in a snowstorm just days before Christmas. As they all dislike being stranded, they set out to try and walk to the next station - which may or may not have a connections that are still running.
But... they never get there. The weather conditions worsen and they need to turn in to a nearby house for shelter. They enter looking for its occupants, but no one is there even though the fires are laid on, the tea set is laid out, and the kettle is boiling.
What a great start to a Christmas mystery!
The characters were really cute, too. We have a couple of young women, one of the women's brother, a young clerk suffering from some sort of anxiety disorder, a guy who is a known psychic, and an older chap who is described as "the old bore". We also get to meet a man suffering from shell shock.
I loved the characters. You'd think they were all straight out of the catalogue of British country house mysteries, but each one had a little bit more to them - I especially liked that the author included characters who were going through some mental distress. It is still not that often that I have come across depictions of characters suffering from shell shock in the original 1920s/30s mysteries. They are not really part of Christie's setup and it took me to discover Sayers and Tey to find a representation.
The mystery itself is convoluted and the solution is contrived - the psychic gets involved a lot, and at one point I flashbacks to The Haunting of Hill House - but there is also something gripping about the part of the mystery, which really takes quite a gritty turn.
Almost as good as Death of an Airman, and the book made me laugh a lot.
But first things first. Is anybody getting hungry? Come along, staff. Step on it. We mustn’t keep the family waiting for dinner. I may not be honest and sober, but I am punctual!” Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Smith glanced at each other, then followed the girl obediently into the kitchen.
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ears choked with snow for a repetition of the shout. Already he had lost his sense of direction, for all he could see was a bewildering succession of snowflake close-ups, almost blinding vision. During the forty-five minutes he had been in the house the weather had travelled from bad to worse. Snow rushed at him unbelievably from nowhere caking him with white. He would have retreated promptly saving for the knowledge that somewhere in this whirling maelstrom was a man in a worse plight; but how to find the man, if his despairing cry was not repeated, seemed a stark impossibility.Alright, this was a fun book. Despite the excellent, yet misleading, cover, this story does not take place on a train but is essentially a country house mystery.
Our protagonists are a group of strangers who share a compartment on a train and get stuck in a snowstorm just days before Christmas. As they all dislike being stranded, they set out to try and walk to the next station - which may or may not have a connections that are still running.
But... they never get there. The weather conditions worsen and they need to turn in to a nearby house for shelter. They enter looking for its occupants, but no one is there even though the fires are laid on, the tea set is laid out, and the kettle is boiling.
What a great start to a Christmas mystery!
The characters were really cute, too. We have a couple of young women, one of the women's brother, a young clerk suffering from some sort of anxiety disorder, a guy who is a known psychic, and an older chap who is described as "the old bore". We also get to meet a man suffering from shell shock.
I loved the characters. You'd think they were all straight out of the catalogue of British country house mysteries, but each one had a little bit more to them - I especially liked that the author included characters who were going through some mental distress. It is still not that often that I have come across depictions of characters suffering from shell shock in the original 1920s/30s mysteries. They are not really part of Christie's setup and it took me to discover Sayers and Tey to find a representation.
The mystery itself is convoluted and the solution is contrived - the psychic gets involved a lot, and at one point I flashbacks to The Haunting of Hill House - but there is also something gripping about the part of the mystery, which really takes quite a gritty turn.
Almost as good as Death of an Airman, and the book made me laugh a lot.
But first things first. Is anybody getting hungry? Come along, staff. Step on it. We mustn’t keep the family waiting for dinner. I may not be honest and sober, but I am punctual!” Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Smith glanced at each other, then followed the girl obediently into the kitchen.
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LibraryThing member Vesper1931
On Christmas Eve the train leaving Euston station in London is caught in a snow storm. Some passengers from the third class decide to walk to find the next railway station and hopefully get to their destinations. But thankfully for them they come across a house, an unlocked house with a dining
Though it was an enjoyable tale I did find the over use of the vernacular annoying at times, and there were times when it was just too much talking nonsense, but this is probably the reflection of the era it was first published - 1937
A NetGalley Book
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table set for tea. As they try to solve the secrets of the empty house a murder occurs.Though it was an enjoyable tale I did find the over use of the vernacular annoying at times, and there were times when it was just too much talking nonsense, but this is probably the reflection of the era it was first published - 1937
A NetGalley Book
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LibraryThing member antiquary
This story has apparently been one of the most popular in the British Library Classic Crime reprint series. On the whole, I think it deserves to be. It begins with a party of travelers stranded in a train by snow. One compartment full decide to leave the train and find their way to a country house
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which is obviously ready to receive guests --fires lit in fireplaces, tea (in the British sense of a meal) prepared etc. --but no-one is there. The original group is briefly joined by a rough character who calls himself Smith and later by a father and daughter for whom the house had originally been prepared. There end up being several deaths, but unlike a "Ten LIttle Indians" scenario the victims are not drawn from the isolated group. The crimes are solved chiefly by an agreeably rational member of the Society for Psychical Research, although the references to ghosts are only a peripheral element. The polic appear only at the end and are given a rather misleading explanation of events. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Entertaining enough but nothing special. A Poirot style feel to it, but set in the English countryside - unspecified - between the wars, as social change was just spreading through the nation. A train becomes snowbound and one carriage full of passengers elect to depart (de-train) to a nearby
Enjoyable at Christmas time especially to fans of the Christie style of writing. The characters are all a bt one dimensional but the interactions work well, and the basic plot is intriguing and well set up. Ideal for a lazy evening by the fire.
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station in hope of making their important connections there. But the snow is so deep (unprecedentedly so in the UK) that they get lost and end up at a house - open and welcoming with fires burning and tea laid out waiting, but no occupants. The Snow gets so deep that it's obvious no-body could be travelling, and so they make the best they can of their situation. Between the young things and a portentous Old man they begin to discover some of the secrets.Enjoyable at Christmas time especially to fans of the Christie style of writing. The characters are all a bt one dimensional but the interactions work well, and the basic plot is intriguing and well set up. Ideal for a lazy evening by the fire.
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LibraryThing member lamour
In this 1937 original murder mystery story, we meet a group of people in a train carriage who are strangers to one another and are all heading to Christmas celebrations in various places. A huge snow storm hits and stops the train's progress. The group decides to walk five miles through the storm
Strange events and even stranger characters frighten the members of the group and some mysterious deaths lead to the group facing the mystery of the house and its past owners.
A fun read.
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to another train station but become confused and lost and just chance on a large house where the door is unlocked, the fires set and the tea service prepared and on the table.Strange events and even stranger characters frighten the members of the group and some mysterious deaths lead to the group facing the mystery of the house and its past owners.
A fun read.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1937
ISBN
9781464206634