Earlier this year had the opportunity to
know another Golden Age Crime Mystery Queen: E.C.R. Lorac, the pen name
of Edith Caroline Rivett through podcast: Sheddunit. Her pen name comes from her initials and
Carol reversed. She is described as “forgotten” and reprinted by The British
Library.
It was a surprise to me, when I found 6 of
her books in a bookstore. Took them all without actually reading anything
prior. And she really deserves the title
of “Crime Mystery Queen”. While she didn’t
feature any flashy detective as Holmes or Poirot, one can enjoy greatly the
adventures of her down to earth, very “common” detective C.I.D. Inspector MacDonald.
The first on I read was set in countryside,
a very refreshing POV from the “mansions”, “resorts” or “millionaires”. Involved parties are commoner, farmers or
just plain normal folks. Her description
of the landscape is compelling and beautiful.
The reader got to see the other side of Britain during the WWII. The difficulties they faced day to day and
other restrictions which and be impediment or aid the inspector during the
investigation.
At first, it was very difficult to keep
with her style, in English which isn’t my predominant language, but at the 6th
and last book I have of her, even before finishing it, I was missing her world.
Three of the six books I bought set in
London and three in countryside, maybe TBL chose them on purpose. It certainly gives me a very good perspective
of the different lifestyle of city and countryside. Checkmate to Murder described perfectly the
atmosphere of war time London. One
always took peace time from granted, but when you read something so descriptive
and detailed, makes one be more grateful and appreciate the life we´re having.
Her plots definitely are good. I really
enjoy reading interactions between the characters and trying to fight off the
inspectors (Murder in the Mill-Race), almost every book I guessed out how the
murder was committed before the end, but I’m not picky reader regarding tricks
and mystery solving. What I really love of crime mystery is “motive”, which
Lorac give plenty of variety. Last thing,
she won’t force lots of romance in the books!!
If you like Golden Age Mystery, you must
give her a try.
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