The town of Paulsfield and Christmas is here. John Rutherford and his wife, Molly, are visiting her aunt, the slightly terrifying Sybil de Frayne. Sybil seems to be behind every aspect of Christmas in Paulsfield, and before you can say “Fa-la-la”, John and Molly are enlisted in the carol-singing, entertaining the locals while others collect from door to door.
The next morning, it is discovered that Thomas Vavasour, one of the collectors, has disappeared without trace. When his collection box is discovered, broken open, it seems as if something bad has happened to him. And as Inspector Charlton starts to dig into Vavasour’s past, it seems that this may well be linked to more than just a stolen five-pound note…
Well, it’s a couple of days late, but I thought it was well past time I took a look at this Christmas classic. It was reissued in 2020 by Galilieo Press who have since gone on and released a lot of Witting’s work, and it has been well received. I’ve read three to date – I enjoyed Dead On Time and There Was A Crooked Man, but not quite so much Midsummer Murder – but people often cite this as one of his best. So, with the festive theme as well, I thought this was just the ticket for my final festive read.
And yes, dear reader, you can see where this is going…
It’s really a book of two halves – the Christmassy bits and the mystery – and the Christmassy bits are rather wonderfully written, with the carolling, and John “persuaded” to play Father Christmas. It’s one of the most festive of all the Christmas mysteries that I’ve read.
The mystery element though… I thought it dragged once the detection leaves Paulsfield and becomes more about discovering Vavasour’s secrets. Up to then, there were some lovely bits – I adored the aspect that the possibility of a ten-pound note being in the box would be more than enough motive for some. But at about the halfway point, I found my attention waning…
So overall, this was something of a disappointment given how much it had been built up for me. So if you want to give it a go, do bear in mind many others liked this a lot more than me…
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Sorry you enjoyed this one less. In terms of future Witting reads I don’t think Subject: Murder would be a best fit. The Case of the Michaelmas Goose is more Inspector French like in its investigating, can’t remember how much you like or dislike French. Murder in Blue is a good one and I prefer it to Let X Be the Murderer.
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Witting is probably my favourite discovery of the last couple of years or so but it’s his writing rather than his plotting I love. He’s clearly a huge Dickens fan and sometimes there is a sense of “eh? I DON’T have 800 pages? Oh sod it, I’d better try and tie the mystery up then…” I read Catt last Christmas, having previously made John Rutherford’s acquaintance in Murder in Blue, the first in the series which really helped. MIB was that very rare thing: a GA book in which I kept thinking “do you know what? I’m not that bothered who did the foul deed. I want to know what happens to the characters…” The first one I read was Measure for Murder, which has one of the best first halves of any GA book I’ve ever read but then the investigation and dénouement feel a bit rushed and… It’s still wonderful, but it doesn’t compare to the first 100ish pages. Subject: Murder is wonderful but, again, not so much as a mystery, it’s a wonderful description of army life. After that I suspect his publisher said “Cliff, old son, I’ve been doing a bit of what they’ll one day call blue-sky thinking and how about if you had your murder and introduced your detective before page 110? A country house would be good…” So Let X Be The Murderer is a much more conventional murder mystery. Good but it’s not his real forte. Dead on Time is similar (murder and police in the first chapter). Essentially Witting isn’t a great plotter of mysteries but he is a superb novelist. I’ve only read one of the later books, Silence After Dinner, by which time Charlton is semi-retired and only makes a cameo appearance. Again, I enjoyed it but my favourites remain Measure, Blue and Catt. As Kate says, Goose is more of a French-style procedural, and very good. Anyway, I’m a fan, but Witting won’t be for everyone.
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