Helle and Death

(Paperback, Main)

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'A glorious debut' - SUNDAY EXPRESS'Recommended reading for a long winter night' - GUARDIAN'A love letter to the classic country house murder mystery' J.M. HALLA snowstorm. A country house. Old friends reunited.It's going to be murder...Torben Helle - art historian, Danish expat and owner of several excellent Scandinavian jumpers - has been dragged to a remote snowbound Northumbrian mansion for a ten-year reunion with old university friends. Things start to go sideways when their host, a reclusive and irritating tech entrepreneur, makes some shocking revelations at the dinner table. And when these are followed by an apparent suicide, the group faces a test of their wits... and their trust.Snowed in and cut off, surrounded by enigmatic housekeepers and off-duty police inspectors, not to mention a peculiar last will and testament, suspicion and sarcasm quickly turn to panic. As the temperature drops and the tension mounts, Torben decides to draw upon all the tricks of Golden Age detectives past in order to solve the mystery: how much money would it take to turn one of his old friends into a murderer But he'd better be quick, or someone else might end up dead...This witty murder mystery puts a modern spin on the classic country house whodunnit. A must-read for fans of Agatha Christie, Richard Osman and Janice Hallett.

Reviews

'An ingenious plot, witty asides and lively characterisations... If Carlsberg did whodunnits they would probably be something like this' - Saga

'A witty repurposing of the Golden Age country house whodunnit for the modern age' - Financial Times

'Nicely done, with some entertaining asides about the nature of detective fiction: recommended reading for a long winter night' - Guardian

'Combines classic country house murder mystery with an ensemble comedy caper in a glorious debut' - Sunday Express

'An entertaining whodunnit in the classic Christie style' - Mail on Sunday

Author Bio

Oskar Jensen is an author and academic. He researches songs at Newcastle University, and has written scholarly tomes on Napoleon, ballad-singing, and most recently the London streets, with 2022's Vagabonds. He is a BBC New Generation Thinker, appearing frequently on Radios 3 and 4, as well as showing up in the New Statesman, on Who Do You Think You Are, and as historical advisor for 2018's Vanity Fair and a forthcoming major motion picture. Helle & Death is his first novel for adults.