Death in White Pyjamas & Death Knows No Calendar by John Bude

Death in White Pyjamas Death Knows No Calendar by John Bude ISBN-13: 9781464212871 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press Released: June 7th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Two mysteries:
Death in White Pyjamas: At the country home of Sam Richardson, a group of actors have gathered along with their somewhat sinister producer Basil Barnes, and a playwright whose star is rising in the drama scene. With competitive tension in the air between the three actresses, Clara, Angela and Deirdre, the spell is broken when Deirdre is found murdered in the grounds wearing, for some unknown reason, white pyjamas.

Death Knows No Calendar: A shooting in a locked artist's studio. Four suspects; at least two of whom are engaged in an affair. An exuberant and energetic case for Major Boddy.


My Review:
Death in White Pyjamas is a mystery that was originally published in 1944 and is set in England. This mystery took up the first half of this book. The murder didn't occur until later in the book, so the reader got to see everything leading up to the murder. This included strong clues about whodunit. For the reader, it was more about working out how the murder was done. The detective didn't initially have these clues, so he asked questions, checked alibis, and looked for clues, but he and his sidekick mainly speculated about who might have done the murder and how. They talked out several possible scenarios, and it took a while to unravel the truth because they weren't especially smart. However, it was an interesting mystery with entertaining characters. There was no sex. There was a fair amount of bad language.

Death Knows No Calendar is a mystery that was originally published in 1942 and is set in England. The murder was made to look like a suicide, so it was an amateur sleuth who decided to look into how the murderer could have been committed and who had motive. Again, whodunit seemed pretty obvious to me. The sleuth worked through the motives and alibis fairly quickly to come to the same conclusion. Then it was simply tracking down enough clues to convince the police and figuring out how the clever, locked room murder was done. Unless you happen to have lived at that time, you're unlikely to figure out the answer of how it was done. The sleuth kept that information to himself to reveal at the end. The characters were interesting and entertaining. There was no sex. There was a fair amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this book (both stories) to fans of historical mysteries from this time period.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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