A01=Mavis Doriel Hay
Author_Mavis Doriel Hay
Category=FFC
Category=FFJ
christmas
classic
cosy
eq_bestseller
eq_crime
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
forthcoming
golden age of crime fiction
mystery
whodunit
Product details
- ISBN 9780712369466
- Publication Date: 14 Oct 2026
- Publisher: British Library Publishing
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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First published in 1936, this classic country-house mystery has enjoyed renewed success as part of the British Library Crime Classics series. Now, with an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award–winning crime writer and President of the Detection Club, Martin Edwards, The Santa Klaus Murder is given a third life as a beautiful hardback special edition – making this cosy whodunnit the perfect Christmas gift for any lover of ingenious puzzles.
At the Melbury family’s Christmas gathering at their country house, Flaxmere, the formidable family patriarch Sir Osmond Melbury is discovered dead by a guest dressed as Santa Klaus. Almost everyone present has something to gain from Sir Osmond’s death. As private accusations and long-standing resentments surface, the Chief Constable of Haulmshire begins his investigation, ruefully observing that he knows the family too well for his own good but perhaps not as well as he thought. Amid mistrust, hatred, and half hidden truths, one startling fact comes to light: there was not one Santa Klaus at Flaxmere, but two.
Mavis Doriel Hay (1894-1979) was a novelist of the golden age of British crime fiction. Her three detective novels were published in the 1930s and are now rare and highly collectable books. She was an expert on rural handicraft and wrote several books on the subject.
