E.C.R Lorac, Two-Way Murder (2021)

Last year I discovered E.C.R. Lorac’s mysteries in the British Library Crime Classics, and I knew that I would need to return and investigate a lot more, because it’s a shame that her books are not better known! E.C.R. Lorac is the pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894 – 1958) (you may notice that Lorac is Carol in reverse), and this Two-Way murder is actually a manuscript that was discovered at her death and only recently published. The intro by Martin Edwards was very interesting. I managed to lure Danielle from the Work in Progress blog into a fun read-along project and we exchanged emails back and forth every few chapters, trying to find the red herrings from the legit clues.

Two-Way Murder is set in the British countryside, not far from the coast, some years after the war (WW2, that is). The annual event where everyone is going is the Hunt Ball, and indeed, as the book opens, local bachelor Nick Brent is driving his friend from London Ian McBane to the Ball. It’s cold and dark and misty, but the mood is joyful: both of them hope to dance with the lovely Dilys Maine. It seems that every eligible bachelor, or not so eligible and not so bachelor male (in the subsequent chapters) is swooning over Dilys Maine. At midnight, Nick Brent takes her home but before they even can reach her place, Nick’s car is stopped by a dead man lying in the middle of the road. Dilys has been sneaking away from her controlling old father, so she goes home by foot through a bridle path, and Nick Brent tries to alert the police.

This is only the very first chapter of a rather convoluted book. It’s a classic mystery, but the cover is misleading by presenting a 1920s or 1930s design. It’s not a closed-door mystery à la Miss Marple, and not a police procedural either. It seemed to me that Lorac couldn’t really decide what to make of it. We get to see all the characters in turn, and not one of them is straightforward with the police for various reasons. It gets really complex to track all the plot lines at times!

I have a few reservations because I feel that the plot is not as watertight as it could have been. Curiously, nobody really seems to care about the dead man on the road that much. I felt a bit disappointed at the point of resolution, all the more as Lorac insisted in having all the single women and girls married off. It’s probably not her best book, but it doesn’t discourage me from reading other books by this neglected author!

E.C.R. Lorac, Post After Post-Mortem (1936)

When I saw a new British Library mystery book by Martin Edwards on Netgalley, I immediately jumped on the chance to read it. I am actually enjoying more and more this collection, and what great discoveries it promises! The name of Lorac was slightly familiar to me, I think I might have encountered it in another British Library Crime classics short story collection, although I haven’t found the proof. I was very pleasantly surprised by the novel. Some classic mysteries have aged better than others, and this one hardly shows that it’s actually 87 years old! It is still full of dynamism and wit, and swiftly moves from charming banter to a breathless bit of action. I hope that at 87 I will be the same!

The story takes place within the Surray family, a well-respected and quite successful family from Oxfordshire. The five adult children have each made a success of themselves, but one of the 3 daughters, Ruth, the successful novelist, seems slightly under pressure after the (successful) publication of her novel. Still, her big brother Richard, the successful London psychiatrist, dismisses it and advises her to take some time off. But just a few days later, Ruth is discovered dead in her room from an overdose of sleeping pills. Should I mention that at this point they don’t seem quite successful anymore?

Indeed the family’s luck has turned, but their first instinct is to prevent scandal, hush it up and have the case closed as soon as possible. Still, after the coroner renders a verdict of suicide, Richard gets her late sister’s letter in the mail (the post after the post-mortem from the title), whose enthusiastic tone casts a large doubt on his sister’s suicidal thoughts. So, if it’s not suicide, then it would be murder, and who would want to kill Ruth?

I really enjoyed the clever plot and the many twists and turns. At some point the action is almost at standstill because all the people that Inspector McDonald interviews are reluctant to tell him secrets concerning other people. That’s a fresh change from the mysteries where everyone is a gossip eager to spill the bins. After the middle the action picks up with some surprise events and revelations.

I felt that the psychology was really a strong point in the story and not what I expected from a book of that era. I enjoyed the family dynamic even more when I learnt from the introduction by Martin Edwards that E.C.R. Loras was indeed a woman! I would really be interested to read other mysteries by this writer, it’s a shame she’s not better known.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.