Republished for the first time in nearly 95 years, a classic winter
country house mystery by the founder of the Detection Club, with a twist
that even Agatha Christie couldn't solve!
Stephen Munro, a demobbed army officer, reconciles himself to taking a
job as a footman to make ends meet. Employed at Wintringham Hall, the
delightful but decaying Sussex country residence of the elderly Lady
Susan Carey, his first task entails welcoming her eccentric guests to a
weekend house-party, at which her bombastic nephew - who recognises
Stephen from his former life - decides that an after-dinner séance would
be more entertaining than bridge. Then Cicely disappears!
With Lady Susan reluctant to call the police about what is presumably a
childish prank, Stephen and the plucky Pauline Mainwaring take it upon
themselves to investigate. But then a suspicious death turns the game
into an altogether more serious affair...
This classic winter mystery incorporates all the trappings of the Golden
Age - a rambling country house, a séance, a murder, a room locked on the
inside, with servants, suspects and alibis, a romance - and an ingenious
puzzle.
First published as a 30-part newspaper serial in 1926 - the year The
Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, The Wintringham Mystery was
written by Anthony Berkeley, founder of the famous Detection Club. Also
known as Cicely Disappears, the Daily Mirror ran the story as a
competition with a prize of £500 (equivalent to £30,000 today) for
anyone who guessed the solution correctly. Nobody did - even Agatha
Christie entered and couldn't solve it. Can you?
