Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony

I’ve been looking forward to reading Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony since the moment I saw the cover. Actually, it was even before that. I knew that the annual Christmas book British Library Publishing releases in their Crime Classics series usually comes out in October, so as soon as I saw it listed in online shops, I started to get excited. Because few things are better than reading a festive mystery in the lead up to Christmas. And if you’re a library user like me, it can be hard to get your hands on anything seasonal in the time that you would actually want to be reading it. I found myself reading the collection A Surprise for Christmas back in October, for just this reason. 

Dramatic Murder opens with Doctor Harley and a journalist, Katherine Mickey, driving through the snowy landscape of Scotland up to Possett Island where they have been invited by Dimpson McCabe, widely known as Dimpsie, a playwright and broadcaster, for a Christmas party at his castle. 

The fine snow that had been falling since they left Edinburgh was thickening, and the sky was black with large powdered flakes. They collected on the windscreen, and the wiper, pushing them aside, groaned protestingly. The car sped onwards, eating up the road which stretched like a long, white ribbon, bordered by fir trees that were jet-black in the half light. At the side of the road a signpost pointed the way down a narrow cutting between the trees; painted in black and red it had a sinister appearance and the words POSSETT ISLAND stood out bleakly. Doctor Harley swung the car off the road and it skidded slightly on the soft snow. (17)

Outside a small cabin at the edge of the loch, they are met by Dimpsey’s manservant, Benson, who has been waiting for the guests to arrive. Benson directs them to drive straight over the ice, which he assures them is perfectly safe, the ice being a foot thick and gravelled. 

As they got out of the car they noticed that the snow had stopped falling, and Possett Castle stood out sharply against the dark blue sky. It was built of grey stone, which looked black in the evening light, and its turrets and crenellated battlements were witchlike, reminding Katherine of an illustration to an old book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Although every window was brilliantly lit, there was something cold and forbidding about the exterior, and as they approached the entrance she became aware of a peculiar throbbing which seemed to reverberate through the air. (18-19)

The sound is coming from a generator, and perhaps the sound outside makes it all the more unsettling when they enter the castle and find the place eerily quiet. Doctor Harley and Katherine find their way to Dimpsey’s studio wing, which appeared to be the only part of the house not lit up from outside. There they find a magnificent tree—which is so beautifully described, but I’m going to preserve that joy for when you read the book—and that is where they find their host. Apparently, he has been electrocuted while fixing the bulb on a string of lights with a frayed cord. The frayed cord, the lights being plugged into the wall, and the fact that his slippers were wet, prove to be a deadly combination.

It looks suspicious, but the verdict at the sheriff’s inquest is Accidental Death. Besides, from the looks of things, more people benefited from Dimpsey being alive than from his death. It isn’t until everyone is back in London when the body count begins to rack up that it becomes clear there is a cold blooded killer among the group. 

Dramatic Murder—what a great title! The murder is certainly dramatically described, but I think it’s such a startling image that I want you to experience it within the context of those opening pages, so I’m not going to quote it, or even describe it, here. Adding to the drama, Dimpsie is a playwright, and most of the suspects to his murder are predominantly rooted in the theatre world. I loved getting to see the dynamics between the cast and crew, and the lengths that they are willing to go to for the purpose of furthering their careers. As someone who has dabbled in acting, myself, and spent years in ballet, I always find it fun to get to experience an ever so slightly exaggerated version of the theatre world on the page.

Elizabeth Anthony does such a good job of spinning out the solving of the murder, and making the reader feel smart for figuring it out ahead of the characters. I know, I did! Inspector Smith, who is investigating the case, seems almost disinterested at times, and in my mind this feels very much like Katherine’s investigation. She uses her journalistic skills to get her into all sorts of trouble in the course of getting the scoop and finding her dear friend’s killer.

It was not until I had finished this book that it occurred to me it wasn’t very Christmassy. The murder takes place near the start of the book, when Doctor Harley and Katherine arrive at Dimpsie’s castle for Christmas. But the guests leave the private island in Scotland fairly promptly and the rest of the book takes place in London post-Christmas. Now, I only mention this as an observation. As I said, it wasn’t until I had finished reading that I even noticed that the book as a whole wasn’t all that Christmassy. It was a great book, with the added benefit that you could read this anytime in the winter and still enjoy it because it isn’t overly festive. Making this book, in my mind, the ideal gift to give at Christmas. You could start this one Christmas Day or Boxing Day, but not feel behind the times if you start it in January, either.

As Martin Edwards mentions in the introduction, the author of Dramatic Murder was born Barbara Frances Courlander and only wrote this mystery and one other, Made for Murder, under the pseudonym, Elizabeth Anthony. A year before Dramatic Murder came out in 1948, she published a non-genre novel under her own name called, The Cup and the Song. She also wrote plays, and at least one song and a short story, but her career as a novelist was very short, which is so disappointing. This book kept me glued to the page from the atmospheric opening right through to the breathtaking conclusion. This truly is “A Lost Christmas Murder Mystery”, as it says on the beautiful cover of this edition. A lost book by a lost author. Thankfully, lost no longer.

Thank you to British Library Publishing for kindly sending me a copy of Dramatic Murder for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.

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