Redsands is the place to be this Christmas (well, if you’re in 1931), but the weather is playing up a tad, and a number of revellers end up snowed in at the “Noah’s Ark”, a hostelry with plenty of room for warmth, relaxation, jewel theft and, of course, murder.

Best-selling novelist Angus Stuart meets Dr Constantine, a rather observant chess master, and it is clear that Constantine is putting his mind to tracking down the culprit. But given that the thief – or possibly thieves – are still searching the hotel for a valuable emerald girdle, it seems that nobody is safe – if only the snow would stop falling so that they – or the villains – could leave. Because until then, nobody is safe…

The sixth of my nine holiday reads – getting there with these reviews. Actually, I’m only writing eight of them at the moment, as one book was a special sneaky peek that I’m holding back for a while – aren’t I a tease? So only two more reviews until I’m all caught up. I made a really strong selection of reads – well done me – but I noticed that as everything else I’d chosen was more modern, I ought to look at one classic at least.

I’ve read a couple of Molly Thynne titles before, including the second Doctor Constantine title, Death In The Dentist’s Chair, so I thought I’d better read the first one. And yes, I know it’s odd that I read a Christmas book on my summer holidays, but hey, why not?

I did think this started slowly as more and more people appear at the “Ark”, but it soon had me hooked. The characters are a good mix, and Stuart playing a smarter version of Hastings to Constantine’s Poirot. A map of the hotel might have helped a tad, but while the minutiae of some of the movements on the night of the crime escaped me a little, it didn’t prove to be essential.

What I did like was that every character came across as a viable suspect, which did make one of the reveals a bit of a disappointment, but the main reveal will catch most readers out. Once things kick off, this is an engrossing read and I’ll definitely be coming back to Thynne in the near future.

The Crime At The “Noah’s Ark” is available as a reprint from Dean Street Press with an introduction by Curtis Evans.