Call a Hearse, a lost Christmas murder mystery

The book in one sitting

Dr Hugh Westlake is the amateur detective, and this is the fifth book about him. The setting recorded for the novel is snowy upstate New York in the last days before Christmas. A yellow New York City taxi follows the Hale family. Norma Hale is one of the names on the character list. The US edition used the title The Yellow Taxi. ISBN 9780712369411 belongs to the 2026 British Library reissue. The publisher lists 416 pages, while Stanfords and Foyles list 288 pages. The 262-page number in the old library record belongs to a historical edition and is not assigned to this reissue.

One plot image, marked as a spoiler

A discussion of the book records a body found strangled with a string of Christmas lights hung between two trees. I am putting that sentence here because party hosts ask for "Christmas murder methods," and this is a real one from a published novel rather than a list I made up. If you still plan to read the book, stop at the previous paragraph. The image is also mentioned, with a warning, on the ideas page.

Reissue evidence, checked 14 Nov 2026

Where it sits next to other Christmas detective books

Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) is the Christie novel on the murder shelf. It is not a Westlake book. Gaarder's 1992 novel is not a detective puzzle in this sense. I am not claiming the British Library edition's introduction changes the 1942 text. I keep the original year, reissue date, pseudonym and US title separate, and preserve the page-count disagreement. I do not have a current shop price, so none is printed.