The Last of the Country House Murders

by Emma Tennant

In England after the Revolution, the 'Last of the Country House Murders' is planned--by the Government. The murder of Jules Tanner, aesthete and survivor of the old regime, is to be decked out as a tourist attraction. Haines, once the school sneak, now the compliant Government agent, has the task of selecting possible murderers and arranging a suitably exciting crime...

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Since the early 1970s, when she was in her mid-thirties, Emma Tennant has been a prolific novelist and has established herself as one of the leading British exponents of "new fiction." This does not mean that she is an imitator of either the French nouveaux romanciers or the American post-modernists, although her work reveals an indebtedness to the methods and preoccupations of some of the latter. Like them, she employs parody and rewriting, is interested in the fictiveness of fiction, appropriates some science-fiction conventions, and exploits the possibilities of generic dislocation and mutation, especially the blending of realism and fantasy. Yet, although parallels can be cited and influences suggested, her work is strongly individual, the product of an intensely personal, even idiosyncratic, attempt to create an original type of highly imaginative fiction.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

A member of the Royal Postmodern Court, Lady Emma Tennant approached various genres with a literary but apparently quite cheeky touch. According to one of my closest friends, Wikipedia, she spent the World War II years at the family's faux Gothic mansion The Glen in Peeblesshire. Her parents were regularly absent, while The Glen "was the strangest possible place. I knew no other world at all until I was nine". Sounds like an enviable upbringing!

The Last of the Country House Murders is not a murder mystery but is instead a bleakly funny dystopian farce. Sometime in the future, a far-left Revolution of sorts swept over England and the usual sorts of things happened to the usual classes of people. Middle class types live in their bubbles (amusingly literalized by the bubble-like carriages they take on various group outings); lower class types throng all of the streets, barefoot and unwashed and angry; upper class types are restricted to enclosed upper class settings where they while away the time strolling gardens and playing bridge in all sorts of inclement weather. All save one upper class type, confined to The Last Country House. The revolutionary government decides to make both an example of him and an entertainment out of him (must please the barefoot masses!) by organizing The Last Country House Murder Mystery. And so government inspector and lifelong rat Haines is dispatched to carry out a murderous plan, with his victim in close collaboration. Also appearing are several antiques, several antique characters, several ghostly visions, and a brilliant Actor who plots to organize the unwashed masses into a violent counter-revolutionary movement by taking on the persona of Hitler.

Whew, that's a lot to digest! But it is all quite easy because of Tennant's light, sly touch. The novel is more of an aperitif than an actual meal. Not remotely filling but still delectable; a short, swiftly moving, enjoyable little book. And one with a lot of arch and fatalistic humor, which may have become wearisome over the course of a longer story.

I appreciated much about it, in particular how government stooge Haines begins seeing the same ghostly apparitions that haunt our lonely upper class knob - but only after Haines realizes that he has his own designs on living a sybaritic, parasitic, yet quite delightful existence, much like the aristocrat who is due to be murdered in only a couple days. The self-absorbed, malicious, slightly mad, and completely useless aristocrat is the strongest creation of the piece. Easy to despise; heaps of fun to read about.

SPOILER: in the end, despite all of the bloody slaughter that ensues, the aristocrat(s) finds a way to come out on top. Literally and as always. Sigh. Off with their heads! It's really the only way to make sure.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really strange book, rather reminiscent, I felt, of A Confederacy of Dunces, or that style of writing at least. A lot of it made no sense but was pretty comical, and since it was short (and I wanted to see who the murderer was), I stuck it out.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sprightly, clever, and disappointing. A cascade of references and allusions, it's not bad, it's precious. If one is in the mood it is doubtless very good. If not, and I wasn't, it is overwrought.

[Thesincouch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a curious little read. More allegoric than I would have wanted, I have to say, and I'm sure that I'm missing a lot of context.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This has been in my handbag for ages - for those moments when you're queueing or waiting, and you need a book.

I thought it sounded really interesting, but I didn't like it all. None of the characters were very well drawn, and nothing made much sense. Pretty much the only thing to be said in favour is that at least it was short!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my full review click the link below:
https://crossexaminingcrime.com/2026/...