Julia Fortnam has been retired for 92 days, two hours and 35 minutes, and boredom has started to set in. In fact, it’s getting so bad that she might have to actually start writing the book she has been talking about for so long. That’s not to say life in the charming Berkshire village of Little Clarsden is dull, just that Julia was expecting more from her freedom after she finally escaped the teaching profession.
By contrast, Julia’s estranged sister Frankie Grant has no shortage of things to occupy her on the small island of Koh Tao in Thailand. Rather, what she lacks is the funds needed to actually achieve anything. As volunteering at the Koh Tao Animal Clinic, her latest all-consuming cause, doesn’t pay even her meagre bills, Frankie feels she has little choice but to return to England and take up residence with Julia in Rose Cottage.
The sisters jointly inherited the cottage from their Aunt Lucy, whose will stipulates that they must either live there together for a year or, if one of them chooses to move out, the remaining resident inherits the property outright. As Frankie has only a matter of days to take up residence in accordance with the will, she makes an unannounced return to Little Clarsden, much to Julia’s chagrin.
Living together goes about as well as expected, but fortunately, the sisters are soon distracted from their enmity by Frankie winning two tickets to a Murder Mystery Weekend at Medfield House Estate in Somerset. An attempt by the charmless Charles Quinten to keep his stately home afloat, the murder mystery is being done on the cheap, relying on the local amateur dramatics society to play the roles.
The mystery proves to be a tad more realistic than anticipated, however, when Frankie and Julia discover a bona fide dead body hidden in a secret passage leading from the Great Hall. After the body promptly disappears and no one believes in their discovery, closely followed by a storm leaving Medfield House cut off from the wider world, the sisters must follow the clues to solve both the fictional and real murders.
Starting in a bucolic English village and then transferring to a country house setting, Jayne Chard’s More than Murder is an ingenious cosy mystery that also pays homage to the Golden Age of crime. This is a debut novel, although the author is a theatre and television producer whose credits include Silent Witness. From the secret passage to the creaking staircase to the storm-lashed windows, the atmosphere of Medfield House is exactly right for a nicely bloodless killing. Aside from the murder, the gently spooky ambiance and peculiar persons present enhance the sense of disquiet.
Moreover, when the murder mystery actors and guests find themselves trapped in Medfield House, they inadvertently form the classic closed circle of suspects, allowing for investigation of the murder via observation and deductive reasoning in the style of Poirot or Miss Marple. As Frankie and Julia follow the clues that have been deliberately laid to facilitate the murder mystery, they stumble upon clues accidently left by the real killer, plus a fair few red herrings too.
It’s lucky that Julia is a classic crime fiction buff, as everyone in attendance that weekend seems to have an agenda, a false persona or a combination of the two, and that’s before factoring in the actors. Chard has put together a great group of suspects, from the young lovers to the brash Americans to the likely conman and victim to those paid to entertain them, all of whom seem potentially homicidal. Everyone having a secret (or two) to hide makes it all the more tricky to unravel the motivation behind the murder and identify the killer.
The dynamic between Julia and Frankie – the bickering, the envy and the slowly dawning understanding – is just as complex as the murder mystery and nearly equally deadly. There are hints from the outset of a betrayal in the past, as well as of a dark and echoing family history, and their many personality clashes mean that their investigation is far from smooth sailing. Still, there remains plenty of heart in their relationship, and there never seems any doubt that they ultimately have each other’s back.
Happily, there is also plenty of humour in the sisters’ interactions too. Chard excels at witty banter and one-liners, and Mrs Robertson’s snide remarks are often a thing of beauty. Both the performance and the solving of the murder mystery give rise to plenty of misunderstandings, pratfalls and double entendres, leading to as many laughs as false accusations. And while annoying, even the self-importance and lack of self-awareness of Charles Quinten cause mirth.
The first in a planned series – there are certainly a number of characters living in Little Clarsden who seem ripe for a revisit – More than Murder is a vintage whodunit with a neatly twisting puzzle mystery at its heart. In solving both the theatrical murder mystery and the all too serious one, Julia and Frankie shine as amateur sleuths with perhaps more enthusiasm than skill, although they delight in cracking the case in the end.
For more cosy crimes solved by ladies of a certain age, try Robert Thorogood’s Death Comes to Marlow and Dee MacDonald’s Murder in the Scottish Highlands.
Chapters Crime Press
Print/Kindle
£4.99
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
