Mystery Review: The Wintringham Mystery centers on the disappearance of a guest at a country house party. Our amateur sleuth moves careers quickly from former soldier of independent means to footman to weekend guest of rich but exceedingly kind old lady (acting as fairy godmother) who happens to have known said sleuth's mother -- whenever obstacles arise the deus ex machina quickly descends. Handy coincidences abound in addition to priest holes and secret passages in this English country house, closed-circle mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie (including some thinly veiled anti-Semitism, also à la Agatha). The story isn't stunning but The Wintringham Mystery is determinedly entertaining with some interesting "time machine" moments from 1927: a beautiful young woman proposes to the sleuth, shocking given the time -- those Roaring Twenties! In most novels of earlier times the servants aren't even granted a name, but here the reader gets a front row seat to the burdens and working conditions of the servant class when our penniless hero needs a job and becomes a footman (had no idea what that was till I read this). The Wintringham Mystery is a delightful mix of mystery and romance, almost a cozy. The one death occurs off stage. A compelling page turner until the end, which is somewhat anti-climactic and probably unguessable. I did get bits and pieces and the sleuth (wrongly) proposed my theory at one point, so it was obviously a red herring. Entertaining nonetheless and I look forward to tracking down more of the underappreciated Berkeley's mysteries. Originally titled Cicely Disappears under the pseudonym A. Monmouth Platts. [4★]
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