Murder Most Festive

Ada Moncrieff

-Exposition: where, when are we (future, present), who (exposition, main character)
*-Inciting incident: problems that come disturb the rhythm story
-Rising action: longest, general
*-Turning point (climax): everything changes and its result
-Falling action:
-Résolution: …

Exposition:
● . The novel happens in 1938
● . All this takes place on Christmas Eve
● . We are in England in the mansion of the Westbury family
● . The Westbury family is composed of 5 people
● . Firstly, Lydia Westbury, who is not married and still lives with her parents, she is 25
years old.
● . Secondly, we have Stephen, the middle child
● . Thirdly, we find Edward, the arrogant one of the family and the youngest
● . Fourthly, Lady Westbury the mother of these three children
● . Fifthly, Lord Westbury, the husband of Lady Westbury
● . They prepare for the arrival of their guests
● . They made their room
● . Their first guest arrives, David Campbell Scott, the childhood friend of Lord
Westbury
● . The second is Hugh Gaveston
● . Hugh Gaveston is Lydia Westbury's best friend, he is interested in detective stories
● . He was only supposed to arrive tomorrow morning
● . The third guest is Anthony de Haviland, the war hero and their guest of honour
● . Finally, the couple arrived, consisting of Rosalind, an old family friend, and her
husband William Ashwell.
● .They all take a drink.
 ● . Edward complains about the presence of David-Campbell Scott who for him has no
heart in the kitchen.
● . They all go to the table
● . After their meal, they all decide to go to sleep
● .The next morning, Lydia, Edward, Stephen, and Lady Westbury are all awake and
are having their breakfast
● . Edward is happy, nobody recognizes him.
● . Later, Rosalind and William go down in their turn
● . A few minutes later, Lord Westbury and Anthony de Havilland come down

Inciting incident:
● . Suddenly the gardener knocked on the door
● . He said that he had seen something horrible
● . Everyone went into the garden where they saw David dead with blood everywhere.
● . Rosalind began to cry.
● No one understood anything, since Rosalind had never met David before.
● .And there was a gun beside him

Rising action:
● . After this trauma for everyone, they went to the dining room, where everyone
started to panic.
● . They decided to call Dr. Shepherd.
● . Everyone assumed it was a suicide.
● Lydia blamed herself and ran off.
● . Hugh went looking for her.
● . She said she thought it was her fault because that night she heard Edward
whispering to David and didn't do anything.
● . She wants to protect her brother at all costs.
● Hugh tells Lydia that he will investigate.
● . then Lydia calmed down and decided to wait for what the doctor would say
● . the doctor said it was a suicide
● . Hugh didn't believe it 100%.
● . When he took Lydia's dog (Bruno) for a walk with Mr. de Havilland, he saw
footprints that he had not seen this morning, but which were fresh from last night.
He also saw a bag and opened it, and there was a gun inside, he took it with him.
● . He returned to the mansion and decided to search David's room, where he found a
paper note, which highlighted a blackmailing case
● . He talked about it with Lydia
● . Hugh asked Lydia about her relationship with David, and she explained that she
was very close to him because he was her godfather and his fortune was going to
come back to her, but she added that they sent letters to each other
● . He decided to play a game with the guests to distract them
● It was a word game where you had to write words with the number of letters
indicated.
● . Thanks to this game Hugh could compare the writing on the paper he found with
the writing in the game, but none of them matched.
● At the end of the game, Hugh asked Rosalind why she had cried so much when
David died.
● . She explained that they had met when he was young, and that they had married,
but that David had abandoned her. Later she met William.
● .William was so angry
● .He didn't understand how she could keep this from him
● .afterwards, Stephen found the notebook where Hugh had written all these thoughts
and shared it with everyone.
● . Hugh explained that this was not a suicide but a crime.
● . Lord ordered the police to be called tomorrow to investigate.
● . Mr. de Havilland went to call
● . After the game, everyone went to get some rest, even though it was barely noon.
● Stephen went to Hugh and Lydia and told them something about David.
● . He told them that David had frauded a lot of people in his company, that the people
had not reported him because they had frauded other people, and that David had
more evidence on them than they had on him.
 ● . That night Hugh decided to go back to the place where he had found the gun in the
bag, he told Lydia to keep everyone inside
● . On his way there he heard footsteps, ran and fell.
● . when he woke up he was lying on the couch
● . He screamed and said that the killer was there with him.
● . Lydia said that it was her and that she just wanted to see what he was doing and
that he started to run so that she could catch him.
● . All of a sudden Hugh started to look around.
● . Lydia gave him her gun from the bag.
● . He jumped to his feet and said, "I'll be back later.
● . Lydia didn't want him to leave because it was getting late.
● . But he was already on his way.

The turning point:

● . He went to a gun store, where he asked what this model was, she explained
everything and ended up saying that a man had come to buy it last night, she
described it and Hugh had his idea.
● .The next day the police were still not there, so Hugh went to the station and
asked if they had been called, the inspector said that no one had called

Falling action:

● Hugh went back to the house, everyone was sitting in the living room.
● Hugh asked Willliam why he had bought a gun.
● .William began by saying that he was innocent, he explained that he knew about
David and his wife long before today and that when he saw David, he wanted to kill
him and decided to go buy a gun, but when he wanted to kill him he was already
dead, and out of fear he decided to put his gun in a bag and throw it away so that he
would not be charged.
● That's how Hugh turned to Anthony de Havilland and asked him why he hadn't
called the police, Anthony spilled the beans.
 ● He explained that David was blackmailing him and that he wanted a sum of money
that was impossible to get. David had told him that if he didn't get it, he would kill
him. That's why, out of fear, he decided to kill him first. He declared that his name
was not Anthony de Havilland and that he had not participated in the war.
● Hugh understood that he was telling the truth because of the writing that
coagulated with the paper he found.

Resolution:

● It all ended well, the murderer was caught.

● Soon after Hugh left and decided to go into the business of investigation, Lydia had
inherited the money from her godfather.