Murder in the Basement by Anthony Berkeley

I haven't read a story-within-a-story and this one is really well done. The problems come when the solution is revealed and the apparent "reasons" for coming to this decision. It's a lot of "this person is icky so it must have been them."

A body is discovered in the basement of a house that some newlyweds have recently moved into. It is that of a woman, but who is she? The niece of the previous owner (now dead) has been found alive so there is no one else in the thirty to forty age range that they can obviously tie to the crime. Eventually, through a coincidence, Chief Inspector Moresby is able to determine that she came from a nearby school. However, she had told everyone she was moving to Australia to marry a sheep farmer. So what happened?

Luckily, Roger Sheringham, the writer, had been at the school in a previous term and had started writing a story about the people at the school that reveals their characters in a way that Chief Inspector wouldn't have been able to uncover.

Three stars

This book came out in 1932 and is being republished December 6, 2023

Follows Top Storey Murder

Followed by Jumping Jenny

ARC kindly provided by Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own 

The Wintringham Mystery by Anthony Berkeley

Stephen Munro has recently come down in the world. After the war, he came back to a small inheritance from his uncle. While it was enough for him to be a gentleman of leisure for some time, it has now run out. He has only enough money to pay off his manservant and get himself to a new position as a footman to Lady Susan Carey. She hasn't had one lately but would thinks that she would like to have one for her upcoming weekend party. It's just hard luck that Stephen is recognized by not one but two of Lady Susan's guests. Even harder luck that one, Pauline, of them is the fiancee of a prominent business man when earlier she was a particular friend of Stephens. 

There are many other people who are joining Lady Susan for the weekend and the sheer number of characters was more than a little confusing but one one disappears after a seance and another is killed, it does get a little easier to follow. 

I would call this a typical mystery of the time with a solution that was a little convoluted. A nice read on an autumnal afternoon.

Three and a half stars

This book came out 1921 (as Lady Cicely Disappears)

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own