From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Murder of a Lady (Dr. Hailey #12)

Anthony Wynne

Start date: May 1, 2023

Finish date: May 31, 2023

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our May group read.
[close] Winner of the poll for our May group read.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 330 topics — 11,880 comments total

Group reads

* VOTE NOW for November 2025 group read!
By Judy · 19 posts · 26 views

last updated Sep 07, 2025 01:29AM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 15 posts · 14 views

last updated Sep 13, 2025 09:27AM

showing 4 of 4 topics view all »

What Members Thought

May 17, 2018 BrokenTune rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed

Great start, interesting finish, fabulous characters, but oh my didn't this drag on forever...

Also, the Scottish nostalgia theme was a wee bitty much. ...more

18 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2019 Kavita rated it liked it

Shelves: uk, mystery, golden-age-mystery, scotland

When Ms Mary Gregor of Duchlan Castle is murdered, the whole village is shocked. Who could have killed such a wonderful and kind old woman? Dr. Hailey is consulted immediately, so that he is on the spot from the beginning. There appears to be no clue except a fish scale on the wound. A very typical locked room mystery and the plot was rather intriguing.

The story was written in a rather rambling manner. Though it started off crisply with the murder, the family dynamics just went on and on for pa ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2019 Dennis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ficiton-crime

Although Anthony Wynne has a reputation for writing clever locked-room mysteries and this provides the reader several of these Wynne's writing lifts it well above the often tedious clock-making solutions of others. Yes, it is of its period and setting (Scotland). I was often, however, stopped in my tracks by the quality of his writing with his wry or wise observations. As the problems and murder count rises so does our interest in the power of human interactions based on jealousy, the effects of ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 09, 2020 AngryGreyCat added it

Murder of a Lady is part of the British Library Crime Classics series. It was actually number 12 in the sleuth Dr Hailey’s series of what would end up being 27 books. This is a locked room mystery with echoes connecting to a past crime. All the elements you expect, an impoverished laird trying to keep up appearances, several people who have stories to tell and reasons to want the victim dead, and a waiting inheritance. Certainly an unusual murder resolution here, I didn’t figure it out. This was ...more

Like · see review

Apr 20, 2023 Jill rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is the twelfth book in the series of this author, but seems any others in the series are hard to get now. It is set in a castle in Scotland, on the edge of a loch. A woman is found dead, in a locked room. She was the sister of the castle's owner, but besides her brother, everyone else seems to think she was a very cruel and malicious woman, leaving few people to grieve. More murders follow, and finally Dr Hailey takes an active roll and solves mystery.
I did like this and thought the beginni ...more

Like · see review