When I think about it, it is sort of odd that I read murder mysteries for enjoyment, and even laugh at farcical ones. That is too deep for me, I only know that it is so.

Edwin Greenwood is now most famous for his work directing movies and writing screenplays in the 1920s and 1930s. Along with that, he wrote six farcical mysteries which did well in their time, but have been forgotten now. I think that they deserve to come back into print. This is the first, with the a reproduction of the original US edition as cover. I hope that others follow.

In this book, Arabella, the Dowager Lady Engleton, has raised her grandson, the 4th Baron Engleton to the age of twenty. The estate was impoverished by her husband and father-in-law, but she has struggled to retrieve the Family Fortune. Now is the time to find him an heiress whose family is willing to immediately fork over a lavish dowry, instead of letting marry someone whom he loves, but who might make the bride wait to inherit. Arabella sees him, restored in fortune, becoming a noted legislator as he takes his place in the House of Lords. Too bad he wants to run his mortgaged estate.

But Arabella has a brainwave -- she persuades most of his relatives to allow her to insure their lives so that Henry will eventually inherit when they die -- which will be much sooner than they expect if Arabella can do anything about it! The main suspense here is obviously not whodunnit, but how many of the relatives Arabella can do in before somebody figures out what is going I enjoyed the book thoroughly -- genuinely worried about how many characters, including ones that we might like, she can do in before someone catches on. The book is also satiric about certain British types, family relations, and other social concerns, and genuinely funny.

This era seems to be popular in mysteries now, so I think this is a good time to bring this out, and I hope it enjoys success. ( )