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It's time to nominate for our December group read. You are welcome to nominate books by Golden Age authors, or titles which were written later but are set during the Golden Age.

Just one nomination per group member, please. Happy nominating - it would be great to have a wintry or festive mystery for December!

Hmm not one I have read but it is on my to read pile!

Mystery in White

Thou Shell of Death

Fergus O'Brien, a legendary World War One flying ace with several skeletons hidden in his closet, receives a series of mocking letters predicting that he will be murdered on Boxing Day.

Undaunted, O'Brien throws a Christmas party, inviting everyone who could be suspected of making the threats, along with private detective Nigel Strangeways. But despite Nigel's presence, the former pilot is found dead, just as predicted, and Nigel is left to aid the local police in their investigation while trying to ignore his growing attraction to one of the other guests - and suspects - explorer Georgina Cavendish.

This is the second Nigel Strangeways mystery, but can be read alone (some of us recently read the first novel in the series as a 'buddy read').

It's already a difficult choice, as I'm very keen to read both of these!

Fer-de-Lance only lost by one vote for November, so I'll offer it up again -- second time a charm?

Fer-de-Lance

James Hilton wrote one mystery, Was It Murder, a/k/a Murder at School, depending on where you are.

It is Murder at School on Amazon UK but quite expensive for second hand copies and not on kindle. Mind you, I think I have it - somewhere in my house!

Susan wrote: "It is Murder at School on Amazon UK but quite expensive for second hand copies and not on kindle. Mind you, I think I have it - somewhere in my house!"

I got Was It Murder from an online-used book store, for a couple of dollars - probably Alibris. It listed stores/sources in both the US and UK. I didn't know if it might be easier to get over there.

Just found a nice article about Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon, which Hilary nominated earlier - it was a Christmas bestseller in 2014 for British Library Crime Classics and has an introduction by Martin Edwards.





The Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ description also sounds intriguing:

On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea � but no one is at home.

Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst.

Judy wrote: "On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea � but no one is at home. ."

How spooky!

I read this - possibly last Christmas? I've enjoyed most of the British Library Crime Classics which I have read.

Susan wrote: "I read this - possibly last Christmas? I've enjoyed most of the British Library Crime Classics which I have read."

I also read it maybe two years ago with another Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ group. I enjoyed it.

Any more nominations? The poll will go up at the weekend.

The poll for our December read is now up!

/poll/show/1...

Mystery in White is building up a lead in early voting!

It's a good read and a good choice for Christmas.

Judy wrote: "The poll for our December read is now up!
Hi Judy,
My computer has been wonky for a few days so I can't tell. It seemed like I voted twice, but perhaps there is a safeguard against ch things.

Daniele wrote: "Judy wrote: "The poll for our December read is now up!
Hi Judy,
My computer has been wonky for a few days so I can't tell. It seemed like I voted twice, but perhaps there is a safeguard against ch..."

You probably can't vote twice, but if you're worried about it, you can go to the poll, click on the number of votes (10 votes, for example) and it tells you who those votes were from. So you can see whether you're there twice. (I use this feature sometimes because there are certain posters whose work I really appreciate, and if several of them have voted for a book I'll vote for it even if it wasn't my first choice because it will be a good discussion.)

Daniele the system will not let you vote twice. Actually, I can't see a vote from you at all, so possibly pressing it twice cancelled the vote? Try again and hopefully it will count this time.

I think you can vote twice in a way as you can hit the change your vote link (under the poll) but you have to specifically click to do that. You can't actually do two votes.

We have a winner! It's Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon.



Full details of voting:

Mystery in White 12 votes, 57.1%
Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe, #1) 6 votes, 28.6%
Thou Shell of Death (Nigel Strangeways, #2) 3 votes, 14.3%
Was It Murder? 0 votes, 0.0%