This sequel to The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy takes place just six months later, with another country house party turned murderous at the Earl of Burford's estate—only this time a number of the guests are movie stars, while the earl's daughter is trying to decide between two prospective fiancés. The humour is a little bit less successful this time around though there are still some nice digs at the conventions of the genre. ( )

I loved The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy, the first in this series, and went to some trouble to get this second volume, but was disappointed in it --perhaps the American movie atmosphere does not fit the British manor house setting --two sets of stereotypes do not blend well. There are 2 other issues 1) the humor is more heavy handed, notably when Lady Gerry, the daughter of the house, pretends to be a murderous schizophrenic, and 2) the story comes close to being a Hilary Waugh ( term I use due to the plot's overuse by that author) --a story in which one character is found in obviously incriminating circumstances, is cleared by the detective, and then found to the criminal after all -- in this case there is a subtle distinction because the "clearing" is not done by the real detective (Inspector Wilkins of the local Westshire police) but by supposedly brilliant Scotland Yard man St. John Allgood, who takes over and mishandles the investigation (until Wilkins solves the case at the end). Allgood is a blatant takeoff on Roderick Alleyn and John Appleby (and his manservant is based on Albert Campion's man). Incompetent Scotland Yard men are a tradition as old as Lestrade, but even so this is playing it close to the line, as Wilkins seems to accept the clearing at time.) ( )

The Earl of Burford invites a Hollywood producer, an actor, and a scriptwriter to his country estate for the weekend, hoping that they'll decide to film their next swashbucker there. His daughter, Lady Geraldine, invites two prospective fiances down for the weekend in order to compare them before making a decision. Meanwhile, the Countess invites her distant cousin whom she has not seen for twenty-five years and her husband over. Along with a couple of uninvited guests, the house party assembles at Alderly for a weekend of socializing, drinking, and riding around the estate. But in the middle of the night, there is a gunshot, and one of the guests is found dead in her room with another guest standing over her holding the gun.
This is a fun and well-written mystery. There are also several hilarious scenes where Lady Gerry pretends to be a homicidal schizophrenic. ( )

Sounds just like my sort of book (a who-done-it) set in the 30's with all the glamour of that age but I'm afraid it failed to grip or excite. All the promise is there but it did not fulfill. ( )

Second in Anderson's series of affectionate parodies of the classic 1930s country house murder mystery. I thought this one was better constructed than the first, with enough there to make it possible to deduce who the killer was if you were paying attention. I did work out who the killer probably was fairly early on, but not his motive, which is very cleverly hidden. I missed some of the clues and was distracted by some of the red herrings, so wasn't certain until close to the end.

The Earl of Burford has discovered the joys of the talkies, and is having a wonderful time being a starstruck fan. So wonderful that he can't believe his luck when a Hollywood film producer wants to hire Alderley as a setting for his latest film, starring the Earl's favourite actor. Naturally, the producer wishes to assess the building and grounds for practicality first, and to encourage the Earl to agree asks if he can bring his star along as well. Thus starts a weekend house party which snowballs, continually acquiring invited and uninvited guests until the house is full of people -- many of whom are not quite what they seem on the surface. And when one of them ends up shot dead in the middle of the night, Inspector Wilkins has a job on his hands untangling the many motives which have brought the characters to Alderley.

Great fun to read, with some appealing characters. I'm being more ruthless about getting rid of books now, and this one isn't a keeper for me, but it was well worth the time spent reading it. ( )