Stephen Osborne had a decent life with his family in Gay Ladies, but when he loses his job, suddenly he has no way of making ends meet. His only recourse is to ask his sister, Octavia, for help. But, as he might have expected due to the fact that Octavia is a horrible person, she refuses. Moreover, she announces because of the request, she is going to change her will to reward a number of local charities rather than her own flesh and blood.

Later that day, Octavia is in the drawing room with one of Osbourne’s daughters who has buried her head in a book. When she finally puts it down, she sees to her horror that someone has sneaked into the room and strangled Octavia. But the only people who would benefit are the Osbourne family – so which of them committed the murder?

The second James Ronald reprint, following The Dr Britling Stories, and I see we’re still sticking to the “Crimes and Detection” in the subtitle. Fair enough, but there’s little detection on show here.

That’s not to say that Murder In The Family isn’t a good read – it is, it’s a really interesting story, and by concentrating on the outside reaction to the presumption of Stephen’s innocence, it gives it an interesting focus. The characters of the family, and the characters of the populace reacting to the local sensation, mostly pruriently of course, give the story most of its heart and it makes for an interesting story.

Things build to a climax with an effective game of multiple confessions and a tragedy…

…and then – pop! – the balloon of tension explodes and leaves a bit of a mess. As the murderer confesses, for good reasons, it seems there is a part of the tale that had been hidden from the reader. The motive is unguessable – unfortunately, as the murderer is a friend of Captain Obvious, their identity is not. So it’s a long way from being perfect – to be honest, I preferred one of the false solutions…

Oh, and then there’s a novella about American gangsters in London as well, but it’s rubbish. And a short story, but I was switched off by then.

Murder In The Family is definitely well worth a read – it has developed quite a reputation over the years it’s been out of print, and some of that is well-deserved.