Shelf Control #118: Crime at Christmas by C.H.B. Kitchin #TBR #Mystery

Wednesday, the 16th of December, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, when you got it, why you want to read it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

With Christmas around the corner, I was looking up my TBR pile for winter/Christmas themed books and found this one which is once again a mystery (no surprise there) and from the 1930s (again, not so surprising since I seem to enjoy ones written or set in the 1920s and 1930s…any historical mystery actually). So this week’s pick is a Christmas mystery, Crime at Christmas by C.H.B. Kitchin. A new to me author, Kitchin, who attended Clifton College and Exeter College was a barrister and also a ‘gifted chess player, bridge player and pianist’, besides also being an author of poetry and fiction. Among these were four mysteries featuring sleuth Malcolm Warren, of which I have heard of but not yet read, one other, Death of My Aunt.

In Crime at Christmas, published in 1934, the setting is a Christmas Party (just the place to get bumped off–incidentally, if you haven’t yet read this wonderful post by the Armchair reviewer about surviving the Christmas season, don’t miss it). Back to this one now. At Hampstead in Beresford Lodge, a group of intimate friends and relatives are gathered to celebrate the season. But their celebrations are interrupted by a violent death. And as is typical of classic mysteries, a second body is found before long. Stockbroker-Sleuth Malcolm Warren investigates the matter.

While Warren is described by reviewers as annoying, the fact that this is a golden age mystery, and in a Christmas setting, still makes me want to pick this one up. Although this is the second in a series (and I do want to read this first eventually as well), I don’t think the order would make too much difference.

Have you read this one or Death of my Aunt? How did you like it? What genres do you prefer reading at Christmas. Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!

Book cover image and info from Goodreads (here), and author info from Wikipedia (here)

Find Lisa’s pick this week, Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco by Gary Kamiya, which is an exploration of different sites in the city.

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