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The Sittaford Mystery

Agatha Christie

Start date: December 1, 2021

Finish date: December 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The last title in our Assorted Christies Challenge!
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* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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What Members Thought

Oct 26, 2012 Abbey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage, myst-fems-project, own, reviewed, myst-set-andor-auth-uk

1931, apa MURDER AT HAZELMOOR; Miss Emily Trefussis, Charles Enderby, reporter, and Inspector Narracott, the little town of Sittaford, near Dartmoor Prison. Cranky (but wealthy) Captain Trevelyan is murdered during a snowstorm and while many suspects have motive, they didn't have the opportunity... Four stars.

During a snowstorm Major Barnaby becomes worried about his best friend, Captain Trevelyan, who has just recently relocated to a small cottage about six miles away. They're both quite elderl 1931, apa MURDER AT HAZELMOOR; Miss Emily Trefussis, Charles Enderby, reporter, and Inspector Narracott, the little town of Sittaford, near Dartmoor Prison. Cranky (but wealthy) Captain Trevelyan is murdered during a snowstorm and while many suspects have motive, they didn't have the opportunity... Four stars.

During a snowstorm Major Barnaby becomes worried about his best friend, Captain Trevelyan, who has just recently relocated to a small cottage about six miles away. They're both quite elderly now, but were, and are, still very physically active, and Barnaby feels able to manage the walk to Trevelyan's. It's a walk he usually does easily, twice weekly, and he sets off even though there's a big storm starting. When he finally arrives he finds a terrible situation, Trevelyan is dead and the room ransacked. He immediately goes to the police station to report it (no phones working during the storm).

The center of the novel is Miss Emily Trefussis, the take-charge fiancee of Trevelyan's nephew - and heir - James. He has a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and has done so again, but this time with huge repercussions - he's been arrested for the murder! Determined to prove him innocent, she teams up with a nice, malleable young reporter and together they suss out the real story, or, rather, she (mostly) does.

Very similar in tempo, technique, and tone to MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, 1930, SITTAFORD is one of those incredibly complex time-table mysteries so favored by readers in the 1920s and early 1930s. There are not very deeply explored characterizations, plot twist upon plot twist hanging upon teeny, tiny clues (very fair play, though, I must admit), and a fairly slow pace mixed with an extremely old-fashioned sensibility. This was a fairly basic sort of story for Christie, and not quite as much fun as her next (PERIL AT END HOUSE, 1932) which is, except for a couple of terribly melodramatic touches, far darker and richer.

But this is an extremely good novel for its type - smoothly written, with all the bits and pieces carefully laid in, and with its very short chapters it's very easy to read even though the pacing is rather slow and the plot does take quite a while to develop. Christie was coming into the top of her form here, about to move away from the sweetly frantic thrillers of her 1920s books and starting to break more and more of the then-popular stereotypes of the period. Yes, her MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, 1926, was a flash of brilliance, but was, essentially, almost identical to VICARAGE in tone, setting, characters, and plot although ACKROYD does have that one sensational revelation that ends the novel and which made the Christie name something to be reckoned with. It was extremely shocking for the mid-1920s, something that SITTAFORD, even with its similarities to both the better-known ACKROYD and VICARAGE, isn't, alas, by 1931.

With convoluted plotting, fair cluing, slow pacing, light characterizations, gentle/genteel setting and a nice touch of humour, SITTAFORD MYSTERY has pretty much everything that "a Christie novel" came to be known for, but doesn't show the true complexity of her talent as is displayed in her middle-period books. IMO she was about to enter into her best writing period, (roughly mid-1930s through the early 1950s) and Sittaford, while entertaining, pales in comparison with many of the novels and stories written then.

Of course, I may be biased (grin) as her next novel (PERIL AT END HOUSE, 1932) - and thus the next in my sequential rereading of her work - is simply brilliant on all fronts and is, not surprisingly, one of my very favorite Christie Mysteries. I can't wait to get to my reread of it! Don't be turned off by my preferences as expressed here, though -

BOTTOM LINE:
SITTAFORD is a comfortable, enjoyable story even if it *is* still "that sort of thing" that was so popular in the late 1920s. It's head and shoulders above tons of similar books written at the time by other authors and, indeed, is far better than many written today, if truth be told. Well-crafted, not spectacular, it's good reading for a comfortable afternoon.
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Aug 08, 2021 Christine PNW rated it really liked it

Funny that this one never managed to get marked as read, since this is at least the fourth time I've read it.

From my perspective, this book gets better every time I read it. Emily Trefusis is just as wonderful on the fourth read as she was the first time I "met" her. Chief Inspector Narracott is more stoically capable; Charles Enderby just as delightfully obtuse. The mystery is almost beside the point here, a mere trifle in comparison to the character sketches, the wonderful snowy setting, and ...more

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Sep 12, 2014 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mcpl-book, audionovel, mystery, vintage-mystery

The Sittaford Mystery, originally published in 1931, is a non-series mystery. It is set in a small village on Dartmoor and opens at Sittaford House. Mrs. Willett and her daughter Violet have rented the house in the country from Captain Trevelyan. The villagers think it a bit add that the ladies from South Africa would want to come to the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter, but there's no telling what foreigners will do, is there? The ladies host a little party, inviting the good captain, Ca The Sittaford Mystery, originally published in 1931, is a non-series mystery. It is set in a small village on Dartmoor and opens at Sittaford House. Mrs. Willett and her daughter Violet have rented the house in the country from Captain Trevelyan. The villagers think it a bit add that the ladies from South Africa would want to come to the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter, but there's no telling what foreigners will do, is there? The ladies host a little party, inviting the good captain, Captain Trevelyan’s long-standing friend, Major Burnaby, Mr Rycroft, Mr Ronnie Garfield and Mr Duke. But due to a heavy snowfall, the Captain isn't expected to make it from Exhampton--his place of residence while the Willetts occupy his home. And he doesn't.

During the course of the evening, the group decides to do a harmless bit of table-turning. It all starts as a lark, but the evening turns serious when the spirits suddenly tell the company that Captain Trevelyan is dead. The message ends with a single word...M-U-R-D-E-R! Mrs. Willett is sure that one of the young men is just having a rather morbid joke, but Major Burnaby is worried. It's an evening that he and Trevelyan normally see one another, so he decides to head out into the snow and walk the six miles to Trevelyan's place. When he arrives, he can't get anyone to answer so he ousts a policeman and the doctor from their warm station and house to help him investigate. What they find would seem to prove that seances really do work....Captain Trevelyan is dead from a killing blow from a sandbag. Inspector Narracott is called in to sift through the possible suspects--the Captain's relatives all inherit equal shares of his rather large fortune; all but one have alibis. When it's discovered that James Pearson, Trevelyan's nephew, was actually on the spot at the right time it looks like the police will easily wrap-up the case. But Pearson's girlfriend Emily knows Jim couldn't commit a murder and sets out to prove his innocence. It isn't long before she provides the police with broken alibis and a renewed cast of suspects.

The audio version was actually a BBC dramatization with a whole line-up of performers. It was very nicely put together and quite entertaining. I spotted the murderer right away, but I'm sure that was because I've read the novel before (albeit long ago and far away). I don't believe I figured it out the first time. In fact, I'm quite sure I know who I fastened on as suspect #1 before, because I nearly changed my mind in his/her favor this time. This is classic Christie--several possible solutions, red herrings galore, and all the clues on display. I gave the story four stars the first time I read it and I give it ★★★ now--only because she didn't quite fool me on the re-read. She very often does--if I've left it long enough between reads.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks! ...more

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Sep 23, 2015 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-as-an-audiobook

Classic Christie.

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Dec 10, 2021 Sonia rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021

3.5. So good.

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Sep 25, 2017 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-mystery-fiction, british-golden-age-mysteries

Having spent the better part of the last two years reading Agatha Christie novels like mad, I feel prepared to say that I think the non-series ones are some of my very favorites, this one included.

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