The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay

There is his sister, Aunt Mildred, who feels hard done by.

Yet it soon turns out there are many more suspects that might have wanted to do away with Sir Melbury outside his own children as Colonel Halstock, Chief Constable of Haulmshire, discovers when he is called in to investigate. Youngest of the brood Jennifer is now in a dilemma as she loves a man, Philip her father doesn’t, in fact invited this Christmas is Oliver who Sir Osmond is clearly much the keener on, shame then when he comes to be the one, dressed up as Santa, who discovers Sir Osmond shot in the head on Christmas Day and becomes the prime suspect. Edith and Eleanor have been wiser marrying the men that their father deemed fit though one was lucky marrying someone she could love, the other a man she would have to despite loving someone else. Hilda married and had a daughter, Carol, with someone Sir O didn’t like and who since being widowed hasn’t been disowned yet nor has she been helped. For the daughters it is quite a different affair. Well, bar his son George who being the son and having extended the line is safe in the knowledge he will be left with plenty. Lording it, quite literally, over them all is Sir Osmond Melbury who has spent much of his life dictating his children’s life through bribery over the inheritance they will or won’t have dependent on their actions. The Melbury family have all come together for Christmas despite the fact that there are several fractures within them. Of course, none of us anticipated the shocking tragedy which was to occur, but I always do feel that families which have once broken up are best kept separate. The children are excited and noisy and everyone is on edge, being afraid that things won’t go smoothly and that Christmas Day will not be quite the festival of good will which we have a right to expect. Those days of waiting for Christmas, after the family has collected at Flaxmere, are always difficult. British Library Crime Classics, 1936 (2015 edition), paperback, fiction, 284 pages, bought by myself by myself

The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay