The Feast by Margaret Kennedy

PG Wodehouse crossed with An Inspector Calls at a crumbling seaside hotel. A great holiday read.

A classic crime novel in the tradition of Agatha Christie but instead imagine P.G Wodehouse crossed with An Inspector Calls (if you can - I can see it’s an odd combination!) There are some moments in the book where it turns quite dark and they stop it being in any way saccharine. There are parallels with today in terms of the social and political situation - rationing is still in place and in postwar England everyone is struggling. Each character’s response to hardship illuminates their fundamental character and the attitudes of society as a whole. For a book which is, superficially, a lighthearted romp, there’s an awful lot more to this as well as its undeniable charm.