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A Most Contagious Game is the Catherine Aird novel that does not get talked about because it is not part of the Sloan series and was published a long time ago. It is a standalone, from 1967, in which a London couple buy and renovate a country house and find, in the course of the work, a body bricked up in a chimney. The body is centuries old. The mystery, when they pull on it, is not.
Aird writes both timelines with confidence. The historical sections (which reach back to the Civil War) are sparely handled and the contemporary chapters carry the kind of social observation that her best Sloan novels also have. The couple at the center of the book are a refreshingly adult marriage, with disagreements that resolve through conversation rather than melodrama.
Four stars. One of the underrated mysteries of the late 60s. Recommended to readers who like a country-house puzzle with longer time on its hands.
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