A handsome young man twists his ankle jumping off a train. A beautiful young widow carries him off to a sumptuous country estate to recover. A sinister fellow watches the incident, as well as observing the other guests alighting from the train.
And so begins this charming country house mystery. A staff of twenty-six well-trained servants and a houseful of guests make up the closed circle of future murder suspects. There will be thirteen guests because of the unexpected addition of handsome John Foss, confined to a sofa by his injury. Perhaps this brings bad luck or, more likely, the bad luck was already lurking in the air at Bagley Court.
Among the guests are a heartless journalist and an artist who sees all too well into people's hearts. These two have a strange symbiotic friendship, one feeding off the greed of the public for gossip, the other feeding off the vanity of society. Their cynical and snide conversations concerning their fellow guests are quite amusing.
When two men are murdered and the police arrive, the reader is further entertained by the repartee between the inspector and his sergeant and the verbal sparring between the tricky inspector and those he interviews. There is at all times a subtle wit at play in the narrative that intensifies the pleasure of the reading experience.
Two men die, mourned by no one. The family watchdog dies, causing far more regret. A noble stag dies in a chaotic hunt scene, his passing barely noticed amidst all the human drama.
We watch unsuccessful courtships, and romances unfolding that may or may not have a future.
I found this book a total delight. The characters are wonderfully vivid and deftly nuanced. The mystery is suitably murky, the pieces of the puzzle coming together at a satisfying pace. The detectives are clever and fun. Thirteen Guests was first published in 1936, and has all these best characteristics of Golden Age mysteries. The introduction to this edition is admirably succinct and informative.
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