Family Matters

Do you enjoy stories of people stepping, inching, toward murder? This is one of those, and I don’t particularly care for that style; so I’m afraid my review won’t be as favorable as it might be if I did. It is intriguing, and the style is excellent. The characters are perfectly horrible, and the se......more

This is a variant of the inverted mystery, a genre I've never cared for, filled with mostly unsympathetic characters, but beautifully written (even sometimes with a feminist slant, astonishing for a male writer from the Golden Age). Unpleasant, ineffectual Mr. Kewlingham has annoyed so many people t......more

Family Matters is one of the British Library Crime Classics that I collect. I received this one for a Mother’s Day gift. The story concerns Robert Arther Kewdingham, a self-absorbed failure of a little man and the people in his orbit, his wife, his doctor, his relations, and neighbors. Robert and his......more

I think it must be have been meant as satire, because of all the double-barreled aristocratic names, the unredeemingly unpleasant victim, and the totally ridiculous situation. (In the introduction, Dorothy Sayers is quoted as calling it "grimly farcical".) 1 1/2 stars, because I did actually finish......more

really enjoyed it. interesting way to tell the story of a crime......more