I like that the blurbs of these books describe the first 2 chapters of the story, and neglect the rest of the plot. I don’t necessarily want to know who did it, but I would still like to know a bit more about what I am about to read. The blurb for The Sittaford Mystery gave me a different idea to what I actually read.

Is this black magic or simply a macabre joke? The only way to be certain is to locate Captain Trevelyan. Unfortunately, his home is six miles away and, with snow drifts blocking the roads, someone will have to make the journey on foot…

So that someone is Captain Trevelyan’s best friend, Major Burnaby, who makes the journey on foot, through the snow, to find the Captain is dead, has been murdered and Inspector Narracott is the man on the case. In interviewing all the persons with connections to the Captain, Jim Pearson, the nephew of the Captain, is arrested and it is fiancée, Miss Emily Trefusis, who enters the story here. She is sure of Jim’s innocence, enlists journalist Charles Enderby to help her discover the truth. He has already been sniffing around the small village of Sittaford, and agrees, believing he will receive a good few lucrative stories at source. They pretend to the local residents they are cousins, and poke about. The story revolves around Emily, and is she innocent, has she an ulterior motive, is there more that we yet do not know? Ronnie Garfield and Mr Duke are thrown in as red herrings because the murderer is the person who been in The Sittaford Mystery since the very beginning. It has all to do with money in the end, of course.

‘And if I don’t reply to them – it will tell against me. Oh, yes, I know your little ways. You’ve found me out then that I was down there yesterday?’

‘You signed your name in the hotel register, Mr Pearson.’

‘Oh, I suppose there’s no use denying it. I was there – why shouldn’t I be?’

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