The Christmas Egg
Description
Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring crime classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.
London. 22nd December.
Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes have been called to a gloomy flat off Islington High Street. An elderly woman lies dead on the bed, and her trunk has been looted. The woman is Princess Olga Karukhin—an emigrant of Civil War Russia—and her trunk is missing its glittering treasure...
Out in the dizzying neon and festive chaos of the capital a colourful cast of suspects abound: the downtrodden grandson, a plutocratic jeweller, Bolsheviks with unfinished business… Beddoes and Nightingale have their work cut out in this tightly-paced, quirky and highly enjoyable jewel of the British crime genre. This never-before-republished novel goes beyond the neat puzzles of country house historical mysteries by delivering the darker side of British police procedurals in an evocative urban setting.
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Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review
First published in 1958, this so-so mystery from Kelly (1927--2017) centers on some stolen jewels. Det. Chief Insp. Brett Nightingale is called to the London bedroom of Princess Olga Karukhin after the Russian emigre is found dead of unknown causes. An empty trunk suggests she was burglarized, and the crime may be linked to a series of others that the inspector has been investigating. The reclusive Karukhin remained housebound by choice out of fear of the Bolsheviks, and, instead of living as she could have afforded to, was hoarding a treasure trove of jewels. From a jeweler with whom the princess was in touch shortly before her death, Nightingale learns she'd been looking to sell some of her valuable possessions. The question of how she died quickly takes a backseat to the hunt for the burglars. The well-rounded Nightingale, a member of an amateur opera company, compensates only in part for lengthy scenes with only tangential bearing on the plot. This is one of the British Library Crime Classics' weaker entries. (Oct.)
Publishers Weekly Reviews
First published in 1958, this so-so mystery from Kelly (1927–2017) centers on some stolen jewels. Det. Chief Insp. Brett Nightingale is called to the London bedroom of Princess Olga Karukhin after the Russian emigre is found dead of unknown causes. An empty trunk suggests she was burglarized, and the crime may be linked to a series of others that the inspector has been investigating. The reclusive Karukhin remained housebound by choice out of fear of the Bolsheviks, and, instead of living as she could have afforded to, was hoarding a treasure trove of jewels. From a jeweler with whom the princess was in touch shortly before her death, Nightingale learns she'd been looking to sell some of her valuable possessions. The question of how she died quickly takes a backseat to the hunt for the burglars. The well-rounded Nightingale, a member of an amateur opera company, compensates only in part for lengthy scenes with only tangential bearing on the plot. This is one of the British Library Crime Classics' weaker entries. (Oct.)
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