Hooray to the publisher for deciding to reissue the Nigel Strangeways mysteries, of which this is the sixth. I adored them when I read them a number of years ago. I enjoyed spending time with Nigel and also with the women in his life over the course of the books.

The novels were written under a pen name. Nicholas Blake was Cecil Day-Lewis, a well regarded poet. This background comes through in the language and writing of the stories.

In this one, mayhem is occurring at a holiday camp. Are these practical jokes or is worse to come? Solve the case with Nigel in this story written in 1940.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Very enjoyable to read, it’s not quite what I would usually pick but a great mystery and it was very well written.

Nicolas Freeling, What are the Bugles Blowing For? 1975 (with bonus book)
ASIN: B06XHR7BXV
Nicolas Freeling, Lady Macbeth 1988
ASIN: B00MA6YNT6
Nicholas Blake, Malice Aforethought 1940
ASIN: B007NG941K

When crime novels are assiduously brought back into print, they often do very well, buttressed by the historical period in which they were written, which seems, with hindsight, beautifully imagined. As it should, of course. Nicholas Freeling tired of his first detective, Van der Valk (no Dutch reader ever thinks he’s anything but an Englishman), and then created Henri Castang, a French detective. Bugles was the second novel in this latter series, published in 1975, six years before Robert Badinter, Mitterand’s Justice Minister, persuaded the President to abolish the death penalty by executive order. The novel is set just before the last time a condemned person was executed: when they were still offering the condemned a stiff drink before the guillotine. So there’s a certain piquancy to the plot, and Henri Castang references crime writers he admired, from Martin Beck to Freeling’s own van der Valk. Castang is sitting in his office on a very hot summer day (his commissaire seems to have taken the day off) when a man rings and announces that he has murdered his wife, daughter, and their lover. The story unfolds slowly. What now seems striking is its strong resemblance to Maigret et l’affaire Saint-Fiacre, published in French in 1932 and filmed in 1959 starring Jean Gabin (I use:https://www.trussel.com/f_maig.htm). The novel was Maigret’s thirteenth outing, and it was much republished, in French and in English translation. (Freeling and Simenon recognized each other’s similar strengths.) The diversion in the character of the policemen is not that Maigret is a commissaire, and Castang is not, but that Maigret is returning to the village in which he grew up, while Castang—while also a provincial—has none of Maigret’s distance. The two murderers are both men of high social status and the kinds of connections that result from their status and education. In fact, this is one of Freeling’s most Simenon-ish book, which has the added pleasure of encouraging his readers to visit Saint-Fiacre as well, where I was most struck by the little boy who has already learned to lie and cheat.

Lady Macbeth (1988) is another, much later, Castang story—and another story. Castang has an intuition, based on a woman who reminds him of Shakespeare’s character. It is an even darker noir than Bugles. More demanding and complicated than the early novels, but just as admiring of Simenon, with the same ability to wait out interviewees. Despite what Castang (this is almost all in the first person, but there are half a dozen other narrators, one called ‘Arlette’, her second husband, and Castang’s former boss) says, his ‘Lady Macbeth’ has had to deal with a lot of blood, and ideas about Lady Macbeth reappear throughout, but are not Shakespeare’s tortured wife. A good book for a long winter’s day.

Nicholas Blake (better known as Cecil Day Lewis, father of Daniel and Tamasin and Poet Laureate) wrote twenty crime novels. Malice in Wonderland (1940) was the sixth. The novels are in period, and set in a variety of places. This one is a summer camp for grown-ups. Structurally, they tend to start with one or more characters not at all like Nigel Strangeways, his amateur sleuth, some of whom last the length of the mystery, while some do not. Lest it be thought this typical of the end of the between-the-wars ‘cosy’, we should remember that John LeCarre has used precisely this kind of opening, with similarly (but rather more serious) Byzantine twists and turns. However, I do recognize that this kind of book attracts its own kind of reader. Since I revere Day Lewis for his Virgil translations, if you are put off by this kind of novel, let me suggest you read those instead.

An interesting and unique mystery. Solid characters, great story.

I really enjoyed Malice in Wonderland by Nicholas Blake*. It’s a Golden Age mystery first published in the UK in 1940; in the US as The Summer Camp Mystery, later in 1971 as Malice with Murder; and in 1987, as Murder with Malice.

There are several allusions to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The train to Wonderland plunges into a tunnel, just as Alice enters Wonderland through a rabbit hole. But in this case Wonderland is a holiday camp, set on a cliff top overlooking the sea. And all is not well in Wonderland as there is a prankster in the camp , the self-styled ‘Mad Hatter’, who is playing nasty and cruel practical jokes on the holiday makers. Swimmers are ducked in the sea and held down, tennis balls are coated in treacle, left with a note that refers to a part of dormouse’s story in Alice in Wonderland. Then the jokes get more dangerous. The camp’s owners are concerned not just for the guests but also for their business as they fear a rival firm with a grudge against the company is trying to ruin them.

There are hundreds of visitors at Wonderland, but the action revolves around a few characters including Paul Perry, a young man who calls himself a scientist, but who is there taking notes for the Mass Observation project, Mr and Mrs Thistlethwaite and their teenage daughter, Sally, Albert Morley, a timid little man, brothers Mortimer and Teddy Wise, the camp’s managers, their secretary Esmeralda Jones and Nigel Strangeways, a private detective.

Like other Golden Age mysteries, Malice in Wonderland presents a puzzle, plenty of suspects, clues planted along the way and a detective who solves the puzzle. It also presents a picture of life just before the Second World War, the social attitudes and in particular the beginnings of the holiday camps. By the 1930s there were several camps, including Warners and Butlins, at seaside locations. Wonderland has dining-halls presenting food cooked by London chefs, a ballroom, bars, an indoor swimming-bath, a concert hall, a gymnasium and numerous playrooms, plus a programme of entertainment with professional hosts and hostesses. It’s described as ‘the biggest, brightest and most ambitious of all the holiday camps that had sprung up over England during the last year or two.’

I loved the setting, the interesting characters, and the fiendishly difficult mystery to solve (I only solved it just before the denouement). And it’s well written with humour and style.

*Nicholas Blake was the pseudonym of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis (1904 – 1972), one of the leading British poets of the 1930s. He published his first Nigel Strangeways detective novel, A Question of Proof in 1935. Malice in Wonderland is the 6th in the series.

My thanks to the publisher for a digital ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you Ipso Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book, as much as it pains me to say this but i just couldn't get into this book at all.
Nothing to do with the writing or anything else its just that this book wasn't for me.
Sorry :-(

Very entertaining Golden Age mystery set in a British summer camp in 1940. The unusual setting and comic characters make the book a very fun read.

Not your conventional murder mystery but with such a colorful cast of characters this book is intriguing till the end.

I generally enjoy reading Nicholas Blake novels as they are always intriguing and fast moving, this one I did not enjoy much. I found it rather repetitive, and when the ending was finally revealed, it held no surprise but relief that someone finally worked it out.
Having said that I am thrilled that these classic writer are again visiting our book stores shelves and allowing new readers to discover these wonderful book, and for people like myself, to have the opportunity to again connect with old friends is really a gift.

Malice in Wonderland is an odd but enjoyable mystery that has the flavor of classic mysteries from the 40s.  Wonderland is a holiday camp, an all inclusive resort where budget minded travelers can relax in comfort and enjoy group games and activities.  The novel initially focuses on the experiences of Paul, an observational scientist who is a bit of a prig, and the Thistlethwaite family particularly Mr Thistlethwaite (who much resembles the walrus in Alice in Wonderland) and his daughter Sally.  A prankster calling himself the Mad Hatter is at work in Wonderland, creating disturbances via irritating and sometimes dangerous practical jokes.  The longer they continue, the more they disturb Wonderland’s holiday atmosphere and endanger the business’s continued existence.  In order to avoid a scandal, the head of Wonderland calls in Nigel Strangeways, a detective whose name matches his techniques.

Malice in Wonderland is entertaining, but there is little in the way of danger or suspense.  Reading it is a bit like taking a holiday - you can relax, enjoy the festivities and not worry too much about the characters or situation. Nicholas Blake keeps the reader’s interest, but doesn't push an emotional commitment.  Readers are observers, like Paul believes himself to be.  Malice in Wonderland is well written, so I'm rounding up a 3.5 to a 4.

4 / 5

I received a copy of Malice in Wonderland from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

The "Mad Hatter' is a prankster and presently causing all kinds of chaos at the Wonderland summer camp. The owners of Wonderland think it may be a rival business ... but there's no proof. And no one knows who the Mad Hatter is.

Private Investigator Nigel Strangeways receives a call from Wonderland asking for his help in stopping the nonsense. So far, nothing too serious has happened, but it's just plain aggravating. A piano has been tampered with. Golf balls have been dipped in molasses. And most concerning is that some swimmers are being pulled under water.

Before anyone gets hurt .. or worse ... Nigel is going to have his hands full.

Keeping in mind that this book was first published in 1940, this murder mystery is without the usual things the reader usually sees. There are no cell phones, not even pagers. The CSI effect doesn't work and DNA hasn't even been thought of.

This is a very slow paced mystery but the uniqueness of the plot keeps it moving forward. The characters are definitely distinctive, if not likeable.

Nicholas Blake was appointed Poet Laureate in 1968, and sadly passed away in 1972. My thanks to IPSO Books / Netgalley for the digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This is fun! Nicholas Blake was the pen-name of Cecil Day-Lewis, poet laureate, and we can tell immediately from the wonderful way this is written: "Perambulation, sir, if I may so put it, is the best aperitif for thought." In fact, this made me think that if Evelyn Waugh and P.G.Wodehouse had ever got together to write a Golden Age detective novel, it would be very like this.

The scene is set at a newly-opened holiday camp and part of the enjoyment of this book comes from the social commentary: the early Butlins'-style entertainment, the characterisation, the sly jokes at text-book Marxists and the phenomenon of Mass Observation. Mr Thistlethwaite ("A shop! My dear! Please! An establishment.") has jumped straight onto my list of favourite characters with his almost Dickensian vividness.

The plot itself rambles a bit from malicious tricks to espionage and murder, and the detective, Nigel Strangeways, has little personality (to be fair, this is mid-way through the series but the first I've read), but that doesn't really matter. A romp of a book that nods towards Agatha Christie et al. but which has a tongue-in-cheek joie de vive of its own.