The Santa Klaus Murder (British Library Crime Classics) - Softcover

Hurrah to British Library Crime Classics for rediscovering some of the forgotten gems of the Golden Age of British crime writing. This extremely clever country-house murder mystery by Mavis Doriel Hay is the perfect holiday gift for the avid cozy-crime fan. It has an aristocratic setting, a dead earl, and a major suspect. The man who could have done it is Santa Klaus but what motive could he have for putting a bullet in Sir Osmond Melbury's noggin? There are loads of clues, red herrings, and twists in a truly classic Christmas mystery with all the Golden Age patina. --Globe and Mail

It is packed with plot twists, a whole host of unreliable and secretive suspects plus has all the domestic drama that comes in a novel where familial inheritance and gain is key... It was just the escapism that I needed from all the Christmas madness going on in the real world. --Savidge Reads

The Santa Klaus Murder is a re-issue of a forgotten British cozy that warrants attention as both a classic British mystery novel and as a holiday read.... Othe story finds its footing, it moves stealthily toward an intriguing and not altogether predictable conclusion. --Shelf Awareness

M. 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.