Afraid I really struggled with The Thirty One Doors. There are effective gothic moments, particularly in respect of the house and some attempts at a literary “jump-scare”, but the detective element let it down for me. I had a sense of a Christie-like complex and fiendish plot, but with consistent and convincing characterisation dropped in favour of ramping up the plot twists. In the end I wasn’t convinced by either plot or character, and was left feeling rather cold.

Hmm not sure about this one. I can’t say I really enjoyed it. I was anticipating an Agatha Christie kind of mystery and whilst I think the author was trying to do that, it was all a bit confusing. I struggled to remember who was who and this with a small cast of characters. It was never revealed who Mary was to the detective and it was all a bit random, as was the conclusion. Sorry. - 2.5 stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of The Thirty-One Doors, a stand-alone novel set in Lancashire in 1924.

Sergeant Frank Glover receives a call to go to Scarpside House, a remote house only reachable by a funicular. He isn’t told what’s wrong, but the fear in the caller’s voice makes him brave the weather to attend.

I’m not quite sure what The Thirty-One Doors wants to be and I think that it comes across in the read. It starts as a standard cosy, country house locked room mystery with a remote house, a limited cast list, snow and some murders, but then it tries for something more sophisticated with an extremely convoluted solution, the politics of the time and Frank’s issues. It’s a strange mixture.

I liked the way the characters’ secrets were gradually revealed (and they all have them in spades), although the big rush at the end felt slightly forced and I also liked the sense of unease evoked in much of the novel. On the other hand I found it repetitive in parts, including the dialogue, as much of the novel consisted of Frank and ladies’ maid, Dottie wandering from room to room discovering random clues, which even they have the grace to admit seem planted. I will leave it up to the individual reader to decide what they think about the solution, which is imaginative but not remotely plausible.

I understand that this is a debut novel and as such it has a few teething problems. There is a good story in there with some nice touches, but the execution needs tightening.

Frank, alone in the village police station, receives a fractured phone call requesting assistance at Scarpside House, the isolated home to Lord Forester. It is the 12th of December 1924, and Frank, a newly minted Detective Sergeant, is disgruntled that the promotion had taken him away from Manchester, where he had cracked a major criminal enterprise. The repercussions of that success, and the ensuing events, will form a backdrop to all of his subsequent actions, particularly his decision to allow “Mary” to elude any aspect of the prosecution and disappear. Mounting his trusty bike, he cycles out to the house, which he discovers is perched on the edge of a cliff and reachable only by a clap-trap funicular operated from the house. Arriving at the house he is met by Dottie, a Lady’s Maid, panicking and telling him that Lord and Lady Forester and all their guests have vanished. This turns out to be an exaggeration, since most of them are hiding in one of the rooms, but some are definitely missing. Frank, with Dottie’s assistance, begins to search the house – which has been massively altered by one of the missing guests, Professor Webber, and has electric lights, phones in every room, secret passages, and an intercom system of speaking tubes. Despite the large party of guests, there are only three staff, the aforementioned Dottie, Jessop the butler and a scullery maid – who turns out to be Mary! As bodies and cryptic clues start to turn up, Frank struggles through the night to solve the mystery of the deaths and his concern that Mary might somehow be involved.
In principle, this is a fairly standard “House of Horrors” mystery, at the “And Then There Were None” or “They All Fall Down” end of the genre, rather than “The Shining” or Friday the Thirteenth” end. However, this story is riddled with problems. Giving Frank a troubled background is not an unusual trope but we never really get a sense of why Mary is important to him (he’s unmarried from choice but perhaps had an affair?), or why he was moved to this backwater after his success. He clearly has “mother” issues in his past which keep popping into his head, but don’t seem to contribute to the plot. The people in the house have various backgrounds but are connected by being a club composed of survivors of various, possibly life threatening, events – some of which are based on reality and one is based on a story by Conan Doyle. The plot is obscure, but there are clues to what is going on, just not very solid, and some ends are still left loose. The rationale for the murders, and the way they happen, are hard to accept (at least one is, I think, mechanically impossible). It’s all a bit rambling, and by rambling I don’t just mean the writing. Frank’s investigation is basically just him (and Dottie) rambling around the house (they go through a lot of doors, but not all thirty-one), mostly to little effect. The ending is not satisfactory, unlikely and mostly unresolved.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

An enjoyable cosy mystery with a little bit of an Agatha Christie vibe. Quite lightweight but a decent read to curl up with on darker evenings during Halloween season. 3.5 stars

This is an interesting, cosy mystery novel. There are some great ideas, which made the book interesting. However, there were parts that I felt dragged a lot more than it was necessary.

The book also feels a bit like a murder & mystery game, so if this sounds like something you might enjoy, I’d say to give it a go!

Detective Sergeant Frank Glover receives a call from a local stately home asking for urgent help. When he arrives he realises the house can only be reached by funicular. He reluctantly ascends to find a house in uproar. An annual party for the Penny Club, has been disrupted by a threatening message and now several members of the group or missing.
The Thirty-One Doors is an enjoyable “locked room” mystery. Set in the 1920’s, Kate Hulme is excellent on setting the scene and describing the grand house. I enjoyed the interplay between Frank and Dottie, a maid who becomes his side kick. I did guess some of the twists but not all and it was all cleverly tied up at the end. A strong debut and I look forward to further novels from this author. Thank you #netgalley and #hodderbooks for the ARC.

There are the bare bones of a good story here but the execution (pun intended!) is so poor it's impossible to recommend. I hope the finished copy is significantly polished because it honestly read like more of a first draft. It's disjointed and slightly rambling, the characterisation is weak, and there are few surprises for anyone with even a passing interest in the genre.

This book was intriguing. I was getting strong vibes of cluedo, probably because of the character names.