Book Notes: Trying to Catch Up

Published on March 22, 2023 by Margaret2 Comments

It’s been too long since I read these books to write detailed reviews, so here are a few notes them.

The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel 3* – historical fiction set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, this is a World War Two romance, the story of Aiyi Shao, a young heiress and the owner of a glamorous Shanghai nightclub and Ernest Reismann, a penniless Jewish refugee who had fled from Germany. I loved the beginning of this book but the rest of the book was not so good – too much ‘telling’ and I’d have liked less focus on the romance, which to me was barely believable So, 5* for the first 40%, 2* for the rest, so 3* overall. But plenty of other readers love this book.

Shroud of Darkness by E C R Lorac 4* – a Golden Age crime fiction beginning with five passengers on a train from Cornwall to London. When it arrives at Paddington Station in thick fog, one of the passengers is brutally attacked and left for dead. Chief Inspector MacDonald first has to identify the victim, whose pockets had been rifled, and then discover why he was attacked and who did it. Another book I really enjoyed, trying to work out what had happened and failed – I was completely baffled, as much in the dark as the fog-bound passengers.

A Death in Tuscany by Michele Giuttari 4* – crime fiction, set in Florence and the surrounding area. It’s a detailed police procedural, the second in a series of seven detective novels featuring Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara. It’s written with authenticity, as Michele Guittari is a former Florence police chief 1995-2003), where he was responsible for re-opening the ‘Monster of Florence’ case and jailing several key Mafia figures. It’s not a quick read, because of the detail but I was fascinated first of all by the Italian police structure and the division of responsibilities and jurisdiction, which seemed to hamper Ferrara rather than help him. But despite that it is a page turner. He’s investigating the death of a young girl found dead by the edge of a wood on the road above Scandicci. There are drugs involved, the Mafia, and also the disappearance of his best friend, accused of murder for him to investigate. See also this post about the beginning of the book and an extract from page 56.

Two Chief Inspector Macdonald Books by E C R Lorac

Published on March 9, 2021 by Margaret6 Comments

E C R Lorac was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958) who was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a member of the prestigious Detection Club. She formed her pseudonym by using her initials and for the surname, the first part of her middle name spelled backwards. She also wrote under the name of Carol Carnac.

I’ve read just a few of her Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald books., written under the name E C R Lorac – Bats in the Belfry (1937) , Fell Murder (1944), Murder by Matchlight (1945) and Fire in the Thatch (1946).

And recently I’ve read two more : Checkmate to Murder, first published in 1944 and Murder in the Mill Race, first published in 1952. These have been recently re-published by the British Library as part of the British Library Crime Classics, with introductions by Martin Edwards.

On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist’s studio to weather the wartime blackout. A civil servant and a government scientist match wits in a game of chess, while Bruce Manaton paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal’s robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, Rosanne Manaton prepares tea for the charlady of Mr. Folliner, the secretive miser next door.

When the brutal murder of ‘Old Mr. F’ is discovered by his Canadian infantryman nephew, it’s not long before Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is called to the scene to take the young soldier away. But even at first glance the case looks far from black-and-white. Faced with a bevy of perplexing alibis and suspicious circumstances, Macdonald and the C.I.D. set to work separating the players from the pawns to shed light on this toppling of a lonely king in the dead of night.

What I found fascinating in this book is the insight into what life was like in wartime London, complete with the London fog and the details of the blackout and although the Blitz was over there were still plenty of bangs and noise so that a gunshot wasn’t easily heard. The setting in a large studio that opens the book is a quiet scene as Bruce paints his sitter dressed as Cardinal Richelieu and two friends play a game of chess. Roseanne, Bruce’s sister is busy in the kitchen cooking their supper.Their evening is disrupted when a Special Constable bursts in with a young soldier in tow, claiming that he had killed his great-uncle in the next door building. This turns out to be more complicated than it first seemed. Even with just a limited number of suspects I couldn’t didn’t work out who the murderer was, nor how the murder had been committed. Macdonald explains it all at the end, having worked out ‘a reconstruction of the possibilities.’

~~~

When Dr Raymond Ferens moves to a practice at Milham in the Moor in North Devon, he and his wife are enchanted with the beautiful hilltop village lying so close to moor and sky. At first they see only its charm, but soon they begin to uncover its secrets – envy, hatred and malice.

Everyone says that Sister Monica, warden of a children’s home, is a saint – but is she? A few months after the Ferens’ arrival her body is found drowned in the mill race. Chief Inspector Macdonald faces one of his most difficult cases in a village determined not to betray its dark secrets to a stranger.

One of the things I think that Lorac excelled in was her settings. Each one is described so that you can easily picture the scenery and the landscape. And that is important in this book as Sister Monica drowned in the mill race, the stream leading into the water mill. She sets out through Macdonald exactly how that could have happened. She also conveys the atmosphere and the social interactions of an isolated village in Devon in the years just after the end of the Second World War. On the surface this is an idyllic village, but it is just like any other community, with a cross-section of personalities, and a mix of neighbourliness and an undercurrent of envy, hatred and malice. Sister Monica, a formidable woman, revered by some, is in charge of a children’s home, which she rules with a rod of iron and knows everything about everybody. Others regard her with caution, as the bailiff, Sanderson tells Anne Ferens, the doctor’s wife:

She is one of those people who can not only lie plausibly and with conviction, but she can tell a lie to your face without batting an eyelid, knowing that you know it’s a lie, and it’s very hard to bowl her out. (page 34)

But the village close ranks when she is found dead in the mill race and it is hard for Macdonald and Detective Inspector Reeeve to get the villagers to open up and and talk about what she was really like. It appears to be suicide, but is it?

My Friday Post: Checkmate to Murder by E C R Lorac

Published on March 5, 2021 by Margaret14 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

This week I’m featuring one of the books I’m currently reading, Checkmate to Murder: a Second World War Mystery by E C R Lorac, first published in 1944. One of the things I like about this book is the setting and atmosphere of wartime London, when details such as blackouts, fire-watching and air raid precautions were everyday events.

It begins:

The vast studio had two focus points of light; between two pools of radiance was a stretch of shadows, colourless, formless, empty. At one end of the long, barn-like structure, where the light was most strongly concentrated, was a model’s platform. A high-backed Spanish chair stood upon it, with a dark leather screen as background. On the chair sat a man arrayed in the superb scarlet of a Cardinal’s robe, the broad-brimmed Cardinal’s hat upon his head.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice. *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader . If you have to improvise, that is okay. *Find a snippet, short and sweet, but no spoilers!

These are the rules:

Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
Post it.
Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
Post it.
Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Page 56:

“Deceased was a miser, one of the real old-fashioned storybook misers. I won’t say I haven’t met one before – I have, though they are getting less common than they used to be. D’you remember old Simple Simon, who was always getting run-in for begging on the Embankment – £525 we found under the boards in his bedroom when he died, and another fifteen pounds odd in his filthy bedding. He died of starvation at last.”

~~~

About the book:

What do you think – would you read this book?

Fell Murder: a Lancashire Mystery by E C R Lorac (British Library Crime Classics)

Published on December 14, 2019 by Margaret4 Comments

‘…this crime is conditioned by the place. To understand the one you’ve got to study the other.’

Fell Murder was first published in 1944. This edition, published in association with the British Library, has an introduction by Martin Edwards and also includes a rare E.C.R. Lorac short story ‘The Live Wire‘. It’s the 25th book featuring Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, a shrewd detective, not easily ruffled or fooled.

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed Fell Murder. I’ve read three other books by E C R Lorac, Bats in the Belfry, Fire in the Thatch, and Murder by Matchlight, all of which I enjoyed. Fell Murder is rather different. Set in Lunesdale in Lancashire towards the end of the Second World War, it has a slow start as Lorac takes 25% of the book to describe the landscape and introduces the characters. She obviously loved the area, just south of the Lake District, and describes in detail not just the scenery but the way of life of a close-knit community of farming folk. She also describes the changes to the traditional farming methods forced by wartime regulations and the uncertainty of living in an unstable and changing world.

Then the mystery begins with the discovery of the body of old Robert Garth – found dead–’dead as mutton‘–in the trampled mud of an ancient outhouse. The Garth family, live at Garthmere Hall, ruled by Robert with a rod of iron. The Hall is a gloomy medieval building, with mullioned windows, dating from Jacobean times but with a ‘new wing’ added in Queen Anne’s reign.

When the local police officer, Superintendent Layng, investigates the murder he doesn’t get very far, failing to win the confidence of the local people, finding their slowness in answering his questions frustrating and bewildering. So Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald from Scotland Yard is called in. There are a number of suspects, the main one being Robert’s eldest son Richard who had only just returned to the area, although not to his family, after an absence of twenty five years. Richard has a sister, Marion who helps run the farm, and two brothers, Charles, and Malcolm who all live at Garthmere Hall.

Macdonald’s understanding of the ways of the community helps him get to the bottom of the mystery. I had little idea who the culprit could be and think the ending was a bit rushed. What I enjoyed the most about this book are the characters and the way Lorac has captured the essence of that particular place and time during the War.

I also enjoyed the excellent short story, The Live Wire, which I thought was amusing and most original.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy via NetGalley.

Murder by Matchlight (British Library Crime Classics ) by E C R Lorac

Published on October 13, 2019 by Margaret12 Comments

A Golden Age Mystery

Murder by Matchlight

Murder by Matchlight was first published in 1945 by Collins Crime Club. This edition, published in association with the British Library, has an introduction by Martin Edwards. It’s the 25th book featuring Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, a shrewd detective, not easily ruffled or fooled.

Description:

London. 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk.

During a stroll through Regents Park, Bruce Mallaig witnesses two men acting suspiciously around a footbridge. In a matter of moments, one of them has been murdered; Mallaig’s view of the assailant but a brief glimpse of a ghastly face in the glow of a struck match.

The murderer’s noiseless approach and escape seems to defy all logic, and even the victim’s identity is quickly thrown into uncertainty. Lorac’s shrewd yet personable C.I.D. man MacDonald must set to work once again to unravel this near-impossible mystery.

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed Murder by Matchlight. I’ve read two other books by E C R Lorac, Bats in the Belfry and Fire in the Thatch, both of which I enjoyed, but I think this is my favourite of the three.

The setting is London in 1945, in the darkness of the blackout as the bombs are still falling. A murder takes place in almost complete darkness in Regent’s Park, witnessed by Bruce Mallaig who heard it happen and briefly saw both the victim and his assailant by the light of a struck match. It is not only darkness that shrouds the mystery – who is the victim? He carried an identity card, but it seems it was not his – so who is he and who is the other man Bruce glimpsed on the bridge, a ‘dark flushed heavy-jowled chap’? In addition there are two other witnesses – a man standing below the bridge and a doctor who was walking his dog in the park and heard the noise and came to see what had happened. Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald is put in charge of the investigation.

The victim’s address on the identity card he carried was a house in Notting Hill Gate that had been divided into six self-contained flats, with a resident caretaker. The other tenants were colourful characters mostly variety performers, including Mr and Mrs Rameses who were conjurers and illusionists. None of them knew much about the victim, who appeared to have been a loner, with no friends or family and when the police searched his room they couldn’t find anything to help identify him. So, the police have to rely on the witness statements, checking alibis and a reconstruction of the crime scene.

Murder by Matchlight has a tightly constructed and intricate plot, full of twists and turns and red herrings before Macdonald can ease out all the strands to discover the identity of the murderer and the culprit’s motivation. It is a quick read, but I didn’t find it easy to work out the solution. One of Lorac’s strengths is her descriptive writing and in this book I was struck by the detail it gives of life during the Second World War for the people at home, their spirit despite the destruction and at the same time the opportunities for crime the blackout provided.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy via NetGalley.

Fire in the Thatch: A Devon Mystery (British Library Crime Classics ) by E C R Lorac

Published on June 29, 2018October 10, 2019 by Margaret9 Comments

A Golden Age Mystery

This was first published in 1946 by Collins Crime Club. This edition, published in association with the British Library, has an introduction by Martin Edwards, and it has a beautiful cover.

Description:

The Second World War is drawing to a close. Nicholas Vaughan, released from the army after an accident, takes refuge in Devon – renting a thatched cottage in the beautiful countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn. Vaughan sets to work farming the land, rearing geese and renovating the cottage. Hard work and rural peace seem to make this a happy bachelor life.

On a nearby farm lives the bored, flirtatious June St Cyres, an exile from London while her husband is a Japanese POW. June’s presence attracts fashionable visitors of dubious character, and threatens to spoil Vaughan’s prized seclusion.

When Little Thatch is destroyed in a blaze, all Vaughan’s work goes up in smoke – and Inspector Macdonald is drafted in to uncover a motive for murder.

E C R Lorac was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958) who was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a member of the prestigious Detection Club. She also wrote under the name of Carol Carnac, but she seems to have been a forgotten author and I hadn’t heard of her until quite recently, when I read Bats in the Belfry.

Fire in the Thatch is set in rural Devon in 1944 and the atmosphere of life in the Devon countryside is highlighted by Lorac’s rich description of the landscape, the traditional ways of farming and the characters. It shows the clear distinctions between the social classes and the tensions between them and the conflicting moral values of the town and country folk. She conveys the sense that change is on the way as the war moves towards its conclusion. The war forms the background to the book – June’s husband is a prisoner of war in Burma, evacuees have been billeted in the countryside and rationing, in particular petrol rationing (which plays an important role in this book) is making life difficult.

The book begins in a leisurely way describing the isolated community of Mallory Fitzjohn and introducing the characters, Colonel St Cyres, his daughter Anne and daughter-in-law June living at Manor Thatch, and Norman Vaughan, a new tenant at Little Thatch, invalided out of the navy with damaged eyesight. Other main characters are Thomas Gressingham, a wealthy stockbroker and a friend of June’s, staying at Hinton Mallory, in the valley below Mallory Fitzjohn, and his friends Howard Brendon, a lawyer interested in buying property and Raymond (Rummy) Radcliffe, a ‘rotund’ speculator.

And then in chapter 5 we learn that Vaughan’s body was found in the burnt-out debris of Little Thatch and Chief Inspector Macdonald of New Scotland Yard has been asked to investigate the case. From that point on the book follows his comprehensive and detailed methods of trying to establish whether his death was accidental and if not what could be the motive for his murder, and if indeed the dead man was Vaughan or someone else. Why had Vaughan, a north country man decided to settle in Devon and who was the woman he had indicated to the St Cyres that he intended to marry?

All of Macdonald’s skills are needed to get to the bottom of this complex mystery which confused me right up until the end of the book. I preferred Bats in the Belfry, but Fire in the Thatch is still an enjoyable book. It’s just that Macdonald’s investigations seemed to drag on a bit too long, and I found it confusing as he described the details of how and when Vaughan had died. But I loved the setting and the characters.

I do hope the British Library will publish more of E C R Lorac’s books – there are plenty to choose from as she wrote forty-eight mysteries under her first pen name, and twenty-three under her second, producing two books a year from 1931 until her death in 1958.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy via NetGalley.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link

My Friday Post: Fire in the Thatch by E C R Lorac

Published on June 22, 2018 by Margaret14 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

The book I’m featuring this week is Fire in the Thatch by E C R Lorac, which is the book I’m planning to read next. It’s set as the Second world War is drawing to a close, but it was not published until 1946.

It begins:

Colonel St Cyres stepped out of the French window on to the terrace and drew in a deep breath of frosty air, conscious of the exhilaration of a glorious December morning. He always felt better out of doors. In the open air the worries and irritations of life seemed less immediate, and he felt that he lost a burden when he closed the window behind him.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.

30879-friday2b56 These are the rules:

Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.
Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
Post it.
Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

56%:

Well, the plain fact is this: gossip around Mallory Fitzjohn is saying that Gressingham was out in his car on the night of the fire, and that he’s denied the fact.

Description (Amazon)

When Little Thatch is destroyed in a blaze, all Vaughan’s work goes up in smoke – and Inspector Macdonald is drafted in to uncover a motive for murder.

~~~

I enjoyed Bats in the Belfry by E C R Lorac, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy this one too, another case for Chief Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard.

What about you? Does it tempt you or would you stop reading?

Bats in the Belfry: A London Mystery (British Library Crime Classics ) by E C R Lorac

Published on June 7, 2018June 29, 2018 by Margaret7 Comments

Poisoned Pen Press 2018 |233 pages|e-book |Review copy|4*

This was first published in 1937 by Collins Crime Club. This edition has an introduction by Martin Edwards.

Description:

Bruce Attleton dazzled London’s literary scene with his first two novels – but his early promise did not bear fruit. His wife Sybilla is a glittering actress, unforgiving of Bruce’s failure, and the couple lead separate lives in their house at Regent’s Park.

When Bruce is called away on a sudden trip to Paris, he vanishes completely – until his suitcase and passport are found in a sinister artist’s studio, the Belfry, in a crumbling house in Notting Hill. Inspector Macdonald must uncover Bruce’s secrets, and find out the identity of his mysterious blackmailer.

This intricate mystery from a classic writer is set in a superbly evoked London of the 1930s.

E C R Lorac was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958) who was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a member of the prestigious Detection Club. Little has been written about her life. By the time of her death she had produced more that seventy books but she seems to have been a forgotten author and I hadn’t heard of E C R Lorac until quite recently.

I’m pleased to say that I enjoyed Bats in the Belfry, which is set in London in the 1930s. There is the occasional anti-Semitic comment, offensive now but it seems to reflect the period in which Lorac was writing. However, it’s full of descriptive writing painting vivid pictures of the streets of London and in particular the spooky, Gothic tower in which a corpse is discovered, ‘headless and handless‘. For a while the identity of the murdered man is in doubt – is it that of Bruce Attleton who had unaccountably disappeared or that of the mysterious stranger, Debrette who it seems had been blackmailing Bruce?

Chief Inspector Macdonald of New Scotland Yard is called in to investigate Bruce’s disappearance. I liked Macdonald, a ‘long lean faced’ Scot. He’s a shrewd detective, not easily ruffled or fooled. The other characters are well defined, including Bruce’s wife Sybilla, both of whom are having affairs, and his friends, one of whom, Robert Grenville, is in love with his ward Elizabeth, a lively and resourceful young woman. The plot is complex, with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until very nearly the end of the book.

I think this is one of the better Golden Age Mysteries that I have read, and I’m now looking forward to reading another of her books, Fire in the Thatch, set in Devon.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy via NetGalley.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link