E. C. R. Lorac was the pseudonym of Edith Caroline Rivett. The Lorac mysteries feature cunning plots and off-beat characters. Lorac’s Checkmate to Murder, published in 1944, possesses a war-time shroud over the murder of a local miser and the theft of his gold. The suspects are a civil servant and a government scientist who were playing chess next door to the miser’s house as an artist–occasionally watching the game–works on a portrait of an actor in the robes of a Cardinal. In the kitchen, the artist’s sister cooks and occasionally looks in on the men.
Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard investigates the murder but isn’t sure the Prime Suspect, the miser’s nephew who found the body, is the murderer. Unraveling the truth and solving the crime display all of Lorac’s talents at deception and distraction. Like a chess match, Lorac enters a battle of wits with the reader.
Martin Edwards’s excellent Introduction puts E. C. R. Lorac and her mysteries into perspective. GRADE: B+
Lorac is one of those authors who was hard to find for many years – I would pick up any I saw when book hunting in Britain – who has been rescued and reprinted in the British Library Crime Classics series, deservedly so. It’s good to have these older books available, and I especially enjoy those set during WWII that have the atmosphere of the time.
Jeff, the British Library Crime Classics series is outstanding! So far there are four of E. C. R. Lorac’s books in the series with more to come.
I don’t recall ever reading her, but it sounds good
Maggie, you would like E. C. R. Lorac. She reminds me of Catherine Ard.