Murder at Hazelmoor
by Agatha Christie
3 out of 5 stars

Major Burnaby takes part in a séance, even though he doesn’t believe in such foolishness. But when a supposed “spirit from the beyond” tells the group that the Major’s best friend has been murdered, Major Burnaby decides to trek through the snow to check on his friend. He discovers the body, brutally murdered.
When her fiancé is accused of the murder, Emily Trefusis sets out to assist the police in tracking down the true killer.

I guessed the solution of who the real murderer was at about page 65. The mystery was sort of obvious. However, that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book! There were a couple of other little minor mysteries that were fun, and I loved all the character studies. I was a little bored by the red herrings though. They all seemed to lead nowhere, and they were full of coincidences.

I really liked the interesting characters in this book!
Emily is a force to be reckoned with. She’s determined and fierce and brilliant. It was interesting to see how she interacted with different characters, changing her approach to get information from them. She was a little manipulative really.

I was interested in Major Burnaby. He seems like a straight-forward military man with no nonsense about him, but he really has a complex personality.

I liked Inspector Narracott. He is intelligent and has a good instinct for truth. He is sort of in the background of Emily’s amateur investigation, but he has a finger in every pie. He’s working behind the scenes in a quiet way, unobtrusive but effective.

The writing is wonderful, and it really draws you into the story. The setting is a tiny village on the edges of the bleak moor in Dartmoor. It’s the dead of winter and the snow is falling thickly. I had to cozy up with a warm blanket while reading this one, because the descriptions of the weather actually made me feel cold!

I did enjoy this book, despite guessing the murderer pretty quickly.