As essential to the world of mystery novels as arsenic-laced sugar cubes or blackmail from beyond the grave, the remote country estate pops up in hundreds mystery novels from masters of the genre like Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
But each of those writers is distinctly of their setting and time period, of course, as most were publishing their celebrated works prior to World War II, and those listed are of the British Isles or from a territory of the Commonwealth.
American writers, being slightly less defined by legally entrenched aristocracy, can’t as easily swoop its detectives and do-gooders into manorial seats as cavalierly as our counterparts in the United Kingdom, but certainly, the well-heeled of American crime fiction aren’t strangers to the odd country-house setting.
Here are five examples of purely American country house murders.
Murder at the Breakers, by Alyssa Maxwell
For a classic feeling of the well-to-do being inconvenienced by a dead body at their palatial mansion, you can’t go wrong with any of the books in Alyssa Maxwell’s Gilded Newport Mysteries. Set during the Gilded Age heyday of Edith Wharton and Henry James, the first novel in the series aims to air the (fictional) dirty laundry of Cornelius Vanderbilt and his entire household. The central investigator character, Emmaline Cross, is a minor Vanderbilt cousin who must (gasp) work for a living. It’s a perfect read for anyone who loves a murder inquiry complicated by strict social rules. On top of that, because the homes are extremely real and can be visited by anyone who makes the trip out to Newport, Rhode Island, you can feel as if you are part of a murder mystery any time you take a tour of the extravagant mansion settled unnervingly at the edge of a seaside cliff.
The Green Murder Case, by SS Van Dine
A pen name of art critic Willard Huntington Wright, SS Van Dine began publishing the escapades of bon vivant Philo Vance in the mid 1920s. First published in 1928 and set concurrent to the publishing date, Van Dine writes glibly about the conflicting moralities of Gilded Age New York and the new Jazz Age set. Set in a gated mansion at “the eastern extremity of 53rd Street,” right on the River, while The Green Murder Case isn’t set in a secluded country mansion, it has everything it needs to feel as though Vance and his more official investigative partner, John F.-X. Markham, the District Attorney, have been whisked away to a separate world where potential victims are forbidden from leaving the deadly enclave. Philo Vance has a few linguistic ticks that make reading these 100-year-old books a bit challenging at first (or, should I say, challengin’), but. one will quickly be whisked into the world of New York society by a character very similar to Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey.
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
Is this a novel for children? Yes, of course. But it also serves an excellent refresher for modern readers on what’s just so creepy about being locked in a house – or, in this case, a small apartment building – with several strangers you can’t trust. Wealthy businessman Samuel Westing has seemingly blessed 16 potential heirs with an offer they can’t refuse – play a game, solve a murder, win some cash, and stay in a free apartment on the shore of Lake Michigan, at the foot of the mansion in which he died. The narrative mostly follows the young Turtle Wexler, a tomboy overshadowed by her glamorous older sister. Word games and worrying relationships complicate every single aspect of the mystery, and in addition to puns and patriarchy, the residents of Sunset Towers have to contend with a serial bomber and a looming deadline by which they must solve the riddle and claim the cash.
Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, by Lisa Unger
Fast forwarding a century from the luxury of the early 1900s, very few of us are able to afford a full country mansion, but there’s always the option of vacation rentals. After reading Unger’s phenomenal thriller, though, you may have second thoughts about hitting that booking button. Three couples are away-ing to an isolated cabin in the woods with every possible amenity, including a blood-chilling history and someone who’s offing the guests. The vacationers are kept indoors and at the cabin by the weather, and the Lord of the Manor, ahem, the property owner, is just a bit too meddling. It may not be a classic murder mystery at a lordly estate, but it’s certainly a pretense that gets under the skin of those of us in the Air BnB set.
An Unwanted Guest, by Shari Lapena
This book has everything: A country inn flung deep into the seclusion of the Catskill Mountains. Blizzards snowing in guests and staff alike. A random death, staged to be an accident– and another person kicking the bucket shortly after, which assuredly gets every guest on edge. While the concept of the country mansion murder frequently hinges on natural elements keeping all of the suspects and victims in close quarters, Lapena reminds us that the most unpredictable thing in nature is human emotions. Though this novel lacks a central Investigator character, it certainly fits the bill for anyone looking to get away from it all with a good book.
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