Sergeant, you must send a man at once! There’s a burglar in my house, and how he’s dead, because I hit him with my poker! But one can kill burglars, surely?
A historical mystery with a Golden Age feel, set in 1935 in London. Spinster artist Felicia Adams surprises a burglar in her home, and is shocked to discover that it is someone from her own neighbourhood. Two days later the respected Harley Street physician Dr Langley hosts a dinner party that ends up in murder during the after-dinner entertainment, and it falls to Scotland Yard Detective Inspector John Graydon to investigate both cases, helped in part by Felicia Adams, who turns out to be quite a bit of an amateur sleuth in her own right.
On a Dark Evening combines the classic, Agatha Christie-style impossible murder at a dinner party full of suspects who all have something to hide, with a determined and open-minded amateur sleuth, and a Scotland Yard detective with a mysterious past. I hope this is book 1 in a series, as the book reveals a big, unresolved mystery surrounding John Graydon’s past that I would love to read more about in later books. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between Felicia Adams and John Graydon, and hope that there is more to come in future books.
The tone is gentle and serious with the occasional instance of dry, understated humour, and the focus is on the characters and the slow unravelling of the dinner party murder as suspects are interrogated, investigated and exposed. If you want your mysteries to be full of action and spice, this isn’t one for you. But if you enjoy a classic murder mystery with a seemingly impossible crime and a limited number of suspects that allows the reader to guess along as the investigation progresses, you might want to give this one a go.
Historical mystery – Golden Age mystery
Mostly Murders 
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