E. C. R. Lorac

Superintendent Macdonald, C.I.D., studied his fellow-passengers on the Vienna plane simply because he couldn’t help it, because he hadn’t conditioned himself to being on holiday. The distinguished industrialist he recognised: the stout man he put down (quite mistakenly) as a traveller in whisky. The fair girl was going to a job (he was right there) and the aggressive young man in the camel coat might be something bookish. Macdonald turned away from his fellow-passengers deliberately; they weren’t his business, he was on holiday - or so he thought. Against the background of beautiful Vienna, with its enchanting palaces and gardens, its disenchanted back-streets and derelicts of war, E. C. R. Lorac constructs another great detective story with all its complexities, an exciting and puzzling crime story.

Classic British mystery/thriller with savage attacks at foggy Padington Station. Also notable for glimpses of post-WW II London . With Inspector MacDonald at the helm and a young beauty who reads Josephine Tey. 'They were five strangers on a fogbound train--a psychiatrist's pretty secretary, an agitated young man, a tweedy lady with a deep voice, a stockbrockerish businessman, and an eel-like "spiv." One was brutally attacked in the choking black fog in Paddington Station. Attempted murder became bona-fide manslaughter, and examination of the intimate lives of the passengers involved Chief Inspector MacDonald in a macabre game of hide-and-seek in which one man tried to find his identity and another was ready to kill to preserve the shroud of darkness that obscured his.'

‘“Never make trouble in the village” is an unspoken law, but it’s a binding law. You may know about your neighbours’ sins and shortcomings, but you must never name them aloud. It’d make trouble, and small societies want to avoid trouble.’ 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. A few months after the Ferens’ arrival, the body of Sister Monica, warden of the local children’s home, is found floating 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. from Goodreads

> Muriel Farrington deserved to die. She was a domineering, selfish old woman who smashed lives the way other people kill flies. Everyone talked about doing her in, but no one dared - with one notable exception. >When Muriel was found murdered in her bed, many people panicked, for they all had perfect motives. But only one among them had killed - and would kill again and again....

It seems a cruel twist of fate that the heirs to a stately home and a long and distinguished family tradition are Gerald (who is weak), his wife Meriel (who is a common, vulgar shrew) and their adolescent son Alan (who is a deeply disturbed, budding psychopath). So when all three die in separate and very convenient accidents, it really was a blessing. Or was it murder?

"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."--Provided by publisher.

> Murder by Matchlight, first published in 1945, is widely regarded as one of E.C.R. Lorac's finest novels. Chief Inspector Macdonald investigates a teasing mystery, and in addition to the pleasure of trying to fathom whodunit, modern readers can also savour an atmospheric and engaging portrayal of life in London during the war. >The period setting is much more than merely background colour: it's integral to the mystery, both as regards the crime Macdonald has to solve, and the culprit's motivation. We're plunged into the action right from the start, as Bruce Mallaig wanders aimlessly around Regent's Park after the cancellation of a dinner date. It's pitch dark because of the black-out, but Bruce spots someone flashing a torch. A match is struck, and Bruce catches sight of a pale face beneath a trilby. Then all of a sudden, murder is done. >The culprit flees from the scene, and when Macdonald takes charge of the investigation, he finds that someone else was present at the scene of the crime as well as the killer; this is a rare case of murder committed in front of witnesses. But might one of those witnesses be guilty? >The dead man's identity card (another period touch) and correspondence indicate that he was John Ward, a resident of 5A Belfort Grove, Notting Hill, but soon it becomes apparent that this was not his real name. What was he up to, and what bearing did it have on his untimely demise? [From Introduction to British Library Crime Classics edition 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 are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door. >When the brutal murder of said miser is discovered by his Canadian infantryman nephew, it's not long before Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is at the scene, faced with perplexing alibis and with the fate of the young soldier in his hands. In the search for the culprit, Macdonald and his team of detectives must figure out if one of the members of the studio party is somehow involved in the death, or if some other scurrilous neighbour could be responsible.

Twenty-third entry in the long-running series featuring Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald of Scotland Yard. >Valehead House, standing so serenely in the sunshine among the rich Devonshire meadows, appealed to Mrs. Merrion from the moment she first glimpsed it. To her it was the happy ending to a wearisome home-hunting expedition and she arranged to move in with her father, Professor Crewdon. But her happiness, as often happens, was suddenly snatched from her by the tragic death of her father, whose body was found in a cave on the estate. Chief Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard was called in and was soon looking for motive, method and opportunity. Once again E. C. R. Lorac tells an absorbing and ingenious detective story.

"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."--Provided by publisher.

“Now tell us about your crime novel. Take my advice and don’t try to be intellectual over it. What the public likes is blood.” The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth – middle sister who writes ‘books which are just books’ – decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays’ hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth’s literary executor in the will she left behind.

‘Crossed skis means danger ahead…’ In London’s Bloomsbury, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. Here is the victim, burnt to a crisp. Here are the clues – clues which point to a good climber and expert skier, and which lead Rivers to the piercing sunshine and sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps. Here there is something sinister beneath the heady joys of the slopes, and Rivers is soon confronted by a merry group of suspects, and a long list of reasons not to trust each of them. For the mountains can be a dangerous, changeable place, and it can be lonely out between the pines of the slopes...

Originally published in 1954 under Lorac's other pen name Carol Carnac. > Near St. Brynneys in the Welsh border country, isolated by heavy snow and flooding from the thaw, a calamity has occurred. Old Dr. Robinson, a known ‘menace on the roads’, has met his end in a collision with a jeep on a hazardous junction. But when the police arrive at the scene, a burning question hints at something murkier than mere accident: why was there a second body—a man not recognised by any locals—in the back of Robinson’s car? As the local inspectors dive into the muddy waters of this strange crime, Chief Inspector Julian Rivers and Inspector Lancing are summoned from Scotland Yard to the windswept wilds, where danger and deceit lie in wait.