The Christmas Egg: by Mary Kelly

This book is not a typical puzzle mystery, and even though the main characters in the book are two policemen, Chief Inspector Brett Nightingale and Sergeant Beddoes, it is not a typical police procedural either.

The story starts with the death of an old Russian woman, Princess Olga Karukhin, just a few days before Christmas. She seems to have died in her sleep, but some very valuable jewels and Russian art objects have been stolen from a chest in her room at the same time. Is this a coincidence? Based on the sighting of a green van in front of her building at the time in question, the police link the theft with a gang of robbers who have been working in the area recently. There is also the name of a jeweler left beside her bed. Nightingale and Beddoes follow up on these leads.

I enjoyed the interplay between the two policemen; we spend a good bit of time with them in this story. Nightingale likes his job, but it is not the only thing in his life. His wife is a singer, and he sings in an amateur opera company. Beddoes is ambitious and doesn't hesitate to speak his mind.

Nightingale is searching for a Christmas gift for his wife, which he ends up buying from a jeweler who he is questioning in regards to the theft of the Princess's valuables. At the same time he finds that the Princess also had two records that she planned to sell, rare recordings by Jean de Reszke (real life Polish tenor and opera star) that a collector would be willing to pay a good amount of money for, adding another dimension to the theft.

My experience with this book was very positive. The case the police are focused on relates to robberies, not murder, and the story is more following down clues (and guesses) and tracking the missing jewels in order to find the gang. The story reveals details of life at the time the book was written. There are surprises along the way (at least for me).

Anthony Boucher said: "The book is fascinating as a stage in the development of an important writer, and a pleasing entertainment in its own right." Kirkus Reviews described the story as "more pursuit than procedure" and "fast to follow, with no remission of interest."

This book is the third of three mysteries featuring Brett Nightingale. I am interested in the previous books and they are available online in used copies at reasonable prices so I will pursue them soon. The later books written by Mary Kelly were standalone mysteries and many critics have preferred those later books.

Martin Edward's introduction to this British Library edition is excellent, giving the reader more information about the author.


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Publisher: British Library, 2019 (orig. pub. 1958).
Length:    219 pages 
Format:    Trade Paperback 
Series:     Inspector Brett Nightingale #3
Setting:    London
Genre:     Mystery
Source:    Borrowed from my husband.

November 2019 Reading Summary

In November, I read only crime fiction novels. And a good number of the books I read were related to Christmas (three books set at Christmas, and one following Christmas into the New Year). Two books were published before 1960, four were published between 1961 and 1999, and two were published after 2000.

These are the books I read:

Death After Breakfast (1978) by Hugh Pentecost

I read the Pierre Chambrun novels by Hugh Pentecost years ago, and remember them fondly. Chambrun is the manager of a luxury hotel in New York and the stories are narrated by Mark Haskell, the hotel’s public relations director. Per Goodreads, this is the 13th in the series of 22 books. My thoughts here. 

Motherless Brooklyn (1999) by Jonathan Lethem

This was my first experience reading anything by Jonathon Lethem and this book is certainly different. It is described as a "riff on the classic detective novel." Leonard Essrog works for Frank Minna at a limo service / detective agency. When his boss is killed, he decides he will find out who did it. The catch is that he has Tourette's Syndrome and communication with others is challenging. I liked the book and want to try other books by this author.

The Hunting Party (2019) by Lucy Foley

A group of friends from Oxford vacation together at an isolated luxury hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands, continuing a New Year's tradition that started ten years ago. The estate is beautiful but during inclement weather it can be cut off from the world. The friends all have secrets, as do the manager, the gamekeeper, and the caretaker. As we expect, this is a recipe for disaster. The dilemma of being snowed in is a standard Christmas mystery trope. This book was an engrossing read although sometimes I was confused by the multiple narrators.

Nothing Lasts Forever (1979) by Roderick Thorp

The film Die Hard (1988) was based on this novel. If anything, the book has more violence than the film, and the book is definitely darker. The story is set at Christmas, and much of the action is very similar, but characters and relationships are different. Regardless, I liked the story very much. As usual, the novel reveals more about the characters and their background than the film.

The Christmas Egg (1958) by Mary Kelly

This is a "seasonal mystery" published by the British Library in its Crime Classics series. The author was new to me and she did not publish very many mystery novels. It was different, and concentrated on interesting characters, which I liked. I do hope to find more books by this author.

Off Minor (1991) by John Harvey

This month I returned to the police procedural series starring Charlie Resnick, written by John Harvey. This is the 4th book in the series; I read the first three books in 2008 and 2009. This one is about child abductions, not a pleasant subject, but a good entry in the series. 

The Black-Headed Pin (1938)
by Constance and Gwenyth Little

Leigh Smith's father died and she was left with no money at all. After moving to a big house in the country, miserly Mrs. Ballinger offers her a job as companion and housekeeper, or as "Smithy" puts it, "general slave." The fun begins when Mrs. Ballinger invites her young relatives to a house party for Christmas. The authors were sisters, born in Australia; their family later moved to East Orange, New Jersey. Their books were all standalone mysteries. This is a very funny mystery and I will be looking for more books by these authors.

Magpie Murders (2016) by Anthony Horowitz

This is a book within a book, and in this case we get two mysteries for the price of one. The first book starts with Susan Ryeland, an editor, reading a mystery by one of her clients for the first time. That story is set in the late 1950s in a small town in England, and features a private detective somewhat like Hercule Poirot. I liked this book, it was a page turner, and both parts of the story were entertaining on many levels.