In the Crypt with a Candlestick
A Mystery
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A wonderfully comedic mystery full of sharp drama, sly wit—and a smidgeon of murder—in the vein P. G. Wodehouse, Julian Fellowes, and Agatha Christie.
Sir Ecgbert Tode of Tode Hall has survived to a grand old age—much to the despair of his younger wife, Emma. But at age ninety-three he has, at last, shuffled off the mortal coil.
Lady Emma Tode, thoroughly fed up with being a dutiful Lady of the Manor, wants to leave the country to spend her remaining years in Capri. Unfortunately her three tiresome children are either unwilling or unable (too mad, too lefty or too happy in Australia) to take on management of their large and important home, so the mantle passes to a distant relative and his glamorous wife.
Not long after the new owners take over, Lady Tode is found dead in the mausoleum. Accident? Or is there more going on behind the scenes of Tode Hall than an outsider would ever guess?
In the traditions of two great but very different British authors, Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse, Waugh's hilarious and entirely original twist on the country house murder mystery comes complete with stiff upper lips, even stiffer drinks, and any stiffs that might embarrass the family getting smartly brushed under the carpet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The literary in-jokes that suffuse this mildly amusing satirical mystery from Waugh (Honeyville) start with the name of the central family, the Todes of Tode Hall, one of England's most famous stately homes and a lucrative tourist attraction because it was the site of a hit TV series, Prance to the Music in Time. After the death of nonagenarian Sir Ecgbert, his widow, Lady Tode, decides to pass off managing the estate to a younger generation. But instead of choosing any of their three oddball children, she selects her nephew Egbert, which naturally doesn't sit well with his cousins. Egbert and his annoyingly flighty and narcissistic wife bring along Alice Liddell, whose grandmother once worked at Tode Hall, to manage it. When Lady Tode turns up dead in the family mausoleum, Alice investigates. The mystery doesn't amount to much, and the subtle wit may be lost on American readers, especially those unfamiliar with The Wind in the Willows, Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, the girl who inspired Alice in Wonderland, and much more. Fans of the author's grandfather, Evelyn Waugh, though, may want to check this out.
