From the rough but colorful pub that provides the novelâs title, to the snowboard Gothic estate nearby, the chilly English landscape has never held more atmosphere-or thwarted romance. And Jury will never have a more mysterious Christmas.
Five Days Before Christmas â On his way to a brief holiday (he thinks) Jury meets a woman he could fall in love with. He meets her in a snow covered graveyard-not, he thinks, the best way to begin an attahcment.
Four Days Before Christmas â Jury meets Father Rourke, who draws for him the semiotic square-âa structure that might simplify thought,â says the priest, but Juryâs thoughts need more than symbols.
Three Days Before Christmas â Melrose Plant, Juryâs aristocratic and unofficial assistant, arrives at Spinney Abbey, now home to a well-known critic. Among the assembled snowbound guests he meets: Lady Assington, Beatrice Sleight, and the painter Edward Parmenger. When they all assemble in the dining room, Lady Assington announces, âI think we should have a murder.â