"The Auction Sale" is a masterfully written epiphany novel. Saying much about the theme would spoil the epiphany, but it can safely be said that the book is a generous, humane, and intelligent analysis of an important aspect of modern life. The writing itself is always just and elegant without calling attention to itself.

I read this book because a friend was looking for a copy of "Death of My Aunt" and I came across this later work. I thoroughly enjoyed the story but cannot really give an informed view of its rating in the world of mysteries, having read very few before. A good companion in the middle of the night, on the bus, in the bath, ...

The book was published in 1929, and the amateur detective is a stockbroker. But, this is just coincidence; the book doesn't really have anything to do with the Crash of '29. It has everything to do with the suspicious death of one Catherine Cartwright, just when her nephew, Malcolm Warren--the young stockbroker mentioned--is sitting at her bedside. Naturally, this would seem to make Warren, our narrator, the chief suspect, since he had barely handed her something to drink--a health restoring tonic that has possibly had the opposite effect. No wonder it behooves Malcolm Warren to try and unravel the case on his own, as soon as the police can stop querying him.

Turns out dead Aunt Catherine has an extended family, and lots of loyal servants, who certainly would have been affected by changes she meant to make to her will. Turns out the new widower, Hannibal Cartwright, has been ostracized by just about all of his late wife's relatives. Turns out that relatives of Aunt Catherine's first husband--long dead--feel entitled to a piece of the pie. Turns out that there are a lot of minor but unusual occurrences previous to the murder that Malcolm can mull over as he tries to understand who would have had the best motive and opportunity for poisoning his aunt's would-be rejuvenator-conoction (besides him, or her husband, or shifty manservant Dace). And it also turns out that Malcolm the amateur sleuth has a great room when it comes to eavesdropping secretly on all questioning of suspects going on in an adjoining chamber (as long as no one happens to drop in and catch him at it).

This is a fun mystery, full of clues and surprises. I also liked the characterization of Malcolm, who nobly attempts to solve the case, but, in all too human fashion, really wishes his aunt hadn't petitioned him to visit suddenly so she could give him startling news, thus unsettling what could have been a quiet weekend by subsequently dying. Very unfair of her, is Malcolm's attitude. And, like the stockbroker he is, he can't quite get his mind off the money he discovers he'll receive due to the tragedy.

I recommend this neglected, witty mystery to fans of Christie, Marsh, Sayers, etc.

This is a well-written satire of genteel life in 1920s England. The characters are slightly exaggerated but still human, and the satire is sympathetic -- in the end we realize that Kitchin was gently satirizing his readers.

I read Streamers Waving, Decline and Fall, and Vile Bodies around the same time. Waugh is the one with the reputation as a great satirist (a claim, I believe, he disavowed), but a comparison of the three books shows that Waugh's books are highly accomplished comic writing while Kitchin's is highly accomplished satire. It is also a highly accomplished novel in general; the characterization is persuasive and the style, although verging on the stilted, is elegant and graceful).

Streamers Waving gives us some interesting ideas about why the genteel life he describes did not survive the war; Waugh's books do not give us such ideas about the similar disappearance of the aristocratic and plutocratic life he describes.