Nicholas Blake was a pseudonym of the Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis under which he wrote a series of mystery novels featuring the private investigator Nigel Strangeways. It seems there are sixteen in the series, published between 1935 and 1966, which is good news for me as The Corpse in the Snowman is my first and I enjoyed it so much I will certainly be reading more of them!
This book is set in winter, as you will have guessed from the title – and yes, there is a snowman and yes, there’s a dead body hidden inside it. We know this from the very first chapter, but what we don’t know is whose body it is and how it has come to be in such a strange and macabre hiding place. To find out what is going on, we have to go back several weeks to the moment earlier in the winter when Nigel and Georgia Strangeways arrive at Easterham Manor in Essex, home of the Restorick family. They have been invited by Clarissa Cavendish, an elderly cousin of Georgia’s who lives on the estate and who has become convinced that there is something badly wrong at the Manor.
Clarissa’s fears are proved correct when, the day after the Strangeways’ arrival, the beautiful Elizabeth Restorick is found dead in her bedroom. It looks like a suicide, but Nigel is sure it is murder – and with a large party of guests gathered at Easterham for the festive season, there are plenty of suspects to choose from.
All the elements of a classic mystery novel are here – a country house cut off by snow; a locked room murder; an amateur detective working alongside the local police; family secrets, clues and red herrings – but a lot of attention is also given to themes such as drugs and drug addiction (with some interesting insights into the attitudes of the time). Published in 1941, the war is in the background but doesn’t really have any influence on the story; it’s set in those early days of the war when not much seemed to be happening and apart from a reference to blackout curtains and Nigel’s complaint at having to travel to Essex in wartime on an old woman’s whim, it is barely mentioned at all.
Although Nigel Strangeways is very ordinary as far as literary detectives go (there’s nothing to make him stand out amongst the Poirots, Campions and Wimseys of the genre), I did like him and will be happy to spend more time in his company. I was intrigued by mentions of his wife Georgia’s past career as an explorer; she doesn’t have a very big part to play in the novel, but I enjoyed what we do see of her. As for the other characters, there are a good variety of them within the Restorick household, ranging from an author who is in love with Elizabeth to a doctor whose speciality is ‘nervous disorders’ in women. I particularly loved Clarissa Cavendish, who is obsessed with the Georgian period and speaks of it as ‘in my day’ as if she had actually been alive at the time.
I am so pleased to have discovered Nicholas Blake and I’m sure I’ll be trying another of his books soon!
Note: This book has also been published as The Case of the Abominable Snowman.
Thanks to Ipso Books for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
She Reads Novels 
I love these kinds of mysteries. Will definitely be on the lookout for a copy of this book! 🙂
I love this kind of book too. I don’t often read modern crime novels but I enjoy the classic/Golden Age ones.
This sounds so much fun – I shall never look at a snowman in the same way again! Another of his books, The Beast Must Die, is one of the ones Martin Edwards chose for his 100 classic crime novels, so I shall be looking forward to reading that at some point. Too many of these classics coming out… I can’t cope! 😀
Yes, there seems to have been a surge of classic crime reissues recently! I hope you enjoy The Beast Must Die when you get to it.
Thanks, I haven’t read any of these books but it sounds right up my street.
Yes, I think you might enjoy these books.
It is always a treat to find another good mystery writer. By the way, another blogger who posts on WordPress reached out to me on Twitter and said she was having trouble leaving a comment on my blog. I know you have commented there successfully. What profile do you use, if you don’t mind me asking?
Yes, it’s great, especially when they have written so many books! When I comment on Blogspot blogs I just sign in with my Google account as I’ve often had problems trying to comment with my WordPress profile. The Name/URL option usually works too.
Thanks.
Cecil Day Lewis wrote murder mysteries? Now that is a revelation!! I had no idea. And this seems like a perfect book for those winter night, coffee, blanket getaway! Thank you for a great review!
I had no idea he wrote mysteries either until I came across this book! And yes, this is a great autumn/winter read. 🙂
I think I knew in the back of my mind that Day Lewis had written crime fiction but I suspect I came by that knowledge at a time when it wasn’t a genre I was interested in and so it stayed in those nether regions. I love his poetry so now that I am a crime reader I should definitely look out for this. Thanks for bringing him back to my attention.
I was completely unaware that Cecil Day Lewis and Nicholas Blake were the same person until I spotted this book on NetGalley and decided to investigate. It sounds as though the time could be right for you to try one of his crime novels now.
I’d heard of ‘Nicholas Blake’ but never got round to reading his fiction — now I must! Brilliant title, and I like the name Nigel Strangeways, presumably deliberately evoking the old name of HM Prison Manchester.
Yes, I would think so. It’s a memorable name, anyway. I do recommend trying one of Nicholas Blake’s books – I will certainly be looking out for more of them.
Who would have those Cecil Day-Lewis wrote mysteries? I want to try some of these.
I would never have thought it! I was surprised when I discovered he and Nicholas Blake were the same person.
Yes, I’ve heard of Nicholas Blake, although I can’t remember if I’ve tried him.
I’m sorry, lovely autocorrect changed “thought” to “those.”
It’s okay, I understood what you meant. 🙂
OMG NOOO i just had an idea to have a dead body in a snowman then i find out it’s already been done.