The Stately Home Murder — Catherine Aird

"THERE'S SOMETHING VERY OLD-FASHIONED ABOUT THIS--BUTLERS AND BODIES IN THE LIBRARY."

The Earl of Ornum has been forced to open his 300-room ancestral estate to the public, who gladly pay to view the imposing halls and galleries with their fine collections of china, art and antique weaponry. On one memorable Sunday afternoon, the sights include a very recent corpse stuffed into a suit of armor, and soon Detective Inspector Sloan of the Calleshire CID is navigating the treacherous waters of the aristocracy, a copy of Burke's Peerage in one hand and his earnest young assistant, Constable Crosby, in tow. "There's something very old-fashioned about this--butlers and bodies in the library," complains the unhappy Superintendent Leeyes to Sloan. There is also a helpful vicar, a lovelorn steward, a black-sheep nephew, and two very old and eccentric aunts--everything, in fact, you could want in a stately home murder, with the possible exception of a secret passageway. First published in England in 1969 as The Complete Steel, it's one of the finest and funniest books by this mistress of the gentle art of mayhem.