Robert MacDonald

[A] twisty "snake in the garden" country-house mystery [where] Lorac constructs a challenging puzzle and provides a marvelous glimpse into pre-WWII Oxford life." - Booklist, Starred Review "Lorac keeps everything professional and smartly paced"- Kirkus Reviews "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's hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth's literary executor in the will she left behind. Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide-but when Ruth's brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder.

The Surrays, a husband and wife and their five offspring, are a prolific writer family, having published scores of novels, reviews and treatises. Ruth, the middle sister, has, however, recently given her elder brother, Richard, some cause for concern. Richard, a psychiatrist, has seen that Ruth appears to be experiencing stress, and he recommends to their mother that she attempt to persuade Ruth to go on holiday with her. However, before this can take place, Ruth is discovered dead in her bedroom at her parents' house, complete with sleeping pills, a farewell letter, and a new will, all of which are strong indicators that she committed suicide. Following the inquest, which produces the anticipated result, Richard returns to his own house where he discovers a letter from Ruth that was written the evening of her passing but wasn't sent right away. In the letter, Ruth appears to be quite content and is making plans for the forthcoming week. Although he does not want to worry his family further, especially his mother, Richard feels compelled to share the contents of the letter with an acquaintance, Inspector Macdonald of the Yard. Macdonald agrees that there is cause to examine Ruth's death further. Ruth, a clever intellectual with much to say in her novels about the human condition but emotionally unsophisticated and even repressed in her private life, was somewhat of a paradox. Macdonald is soon persuaded that her death was murder and has a number of suspects to consider. On the surface, it would appear that the members of this happy family had no cause to murder a cherished sibling, but Macdonald suspects that more than one of them is concealing something. In addition to the family, three people whom Ruth had invited to a modest home party were involved in her literary profession in some manner, and these too are reluctant to give Macdonald information. Is this reticence designed merely to shield the family from further misery, or does someone have a more sinister reason?

MacDonald is invited to the London home of a publisher to take part in a treasure hunt based on various intellectual clues against various authors, everyone using the alias of a celebrated historical writer. When an obnoxious but bestselling crime novelist is found dead things take on a more serious turn.

"An invitation to a "treasure hunt" open to thriller writers and lesser mortals confronts Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Macdonald with two baffling deaths."- Kirkus Reviews It's all fun and games (and fake names) until someone ends up dead… Amidst the confusion of too many fake names, clues, ciphers, and convoluted alibis, Chief Inspector Macdonald and his allies in the CID must unravel a truly tangled case in this metafictional masterpiece, which returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1937. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards. "Should detectives go to parties? Was it consistent with the dignity of the Yard? The inspector tossed for it-and went." Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. Despite a handful of misgivings, the inspector joins a guest list of novelists and thriller writers disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when "Samuel Pepys" is found dead in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances.

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.

When a stationary car is struck by an oncoming lorry at a very dangerous hairpin bend known as Dyke's Corner and the driver killed it seems an obvious accident. However, MacDonald's methodical investigations reveal it was in fact a cleverly contrived murder. "We've taken the wrong fork. There's a double hairpin bend somewhere." There was! Immediately in front of them a car was drawn up on the opposite side of the road. As they swung round the wicked curve headlights blazed full at them, blinding them both. A lorry had drawn out to pass the standing car and was coming at them like a battle cruiser. They sensed the rending, tearing scream of metal as the lorry hit them, and darkness came down on them. In that threefold crash it was the occupant of the stationary car who was found dead. Out of the details of a commonplace accident Inspector Macdonald relentlessly builds up the most amazing elucidation of a murder mystery-a case devised with all E. C. R. Lorac's customary brilliance.

The story begins with the sudden death of an elderly clergyman named Anderby, who drops dead while hosing the garden ... death that is followed by another in circumstances which give rise to suspicion and to the local police calling upon Inspector MacDonald. E. C. R. Lorac's novels are always enjoyable, and Inspector MacDonald is rapidly becoming one of the most popular Crime Club sleuths.

The mystery begins with the discovery of the body of old Robert Garth in the trampled mud of an ancient outhouse. The Garth family live at Garthmere Hall, which was ruled by Robert with a rod of iron. The Hall is a gloomy medieval building. 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, including a son, who had just arrived after an absence of 25 years and a sister and two brothers of the murder victim, who live at the gloomy Garthmere Hall.

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder A classic Golden Age mystery from acclaimed author E.C.R. Lorac '...this crime is conditioned by the place. To understand the one you've got to study the other.' The Garths had farmed their fertile acres for generations, and fine land it was with the towering hills of the Lake Country on the far horizon. Here hot-tempered Robert Garth, still hale and hearty at eighty-two, ruled Garthmere Hall with a rod of iron. Until, that is, old Garth was found dead-'dead as mutton'-in the trampled mud of the ancient outhouse. Glowering clouds gather over the dramatic dales and fells as seasoned investigator Chief Inspector Macdonald arrives in the north country. Awaiting him are the reticent Garths and their guarded neighbors of the Lune Valley; and a battle of wits to unearth their murderous secrets. First published in 1944, Fell Murder is a tightly paced mystery with authentic depictions of its breathtaking locales and Second World War setting. This edition also includes the rare E.C.R. Lorac short story 'The Live Wire'.

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.

On a foggy night during the London Blitz, a special constable arrests a young Canadian soldier standing over the dead body of his elderly great uncle in a rundown house in Hampstead. The only other possible suspects are the inhabitants of the art studio next door, a celebrated painter, his sister and their various guests. However as MacDonald and his assistant Inspector Reeves begin to investigate a number of other possible suspects and motives emerge, including the special constable himself.

London, 1945. The capital is shrouded in the darkness of the blackout, and mystery abounds in the parks after dusk. During a stroll through Regent's 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.

On a damp November evening in wartime London, a young chemist sits on a bench in Regent's Park and watches as an approaching stranger suddenly disappears beneath a footbridge. Seconds later another figure appears on the same overpass, stops to smoke and discard a cigarette, and strikes a match that briefly illuminates a face beyond his own. Through the succeeding darkness come the sounds of a thud and a falling body - then silence. Thus begins this chilling mystery from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Murder by Matchlight features Scotland Yard's imperturbable Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, who is tasked with finding the killer of the man on the bridge. His only evidence: a set of bicycle tracks that come to an abrupt end. His suspects: a colorful cast that includes the shy, soft-spoken witness, a respected London physician, a screenwriter, an unemployed laborer, and a vaudevillian specializing in illusions - a lively group whose questionable activities will keep readers guessing, until the final twist and turn of this deftly plotted whodunit.

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.

When a man's body is found in the burned-out shell of a cottage, it is assumed it is that of ex-navy officer Nicholas Vaughan and that his death was due to an accident. His former CO refuses to believe the verdict and Inspector Macdonald is sent to re-examine the case. Will a careful reader find the killer and motive quite early on or will it puzzle till the end?

It's not long after the end of WWII, rationing is still in force in the UK, and Chief Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is hot on the heels of a coupon racketeer, Gordon Ginner. Just then he gets a letter from Lancastrian farmer Giles Hoggett about some odd goings on recently in Lunesdale. Normally he'd pass on the letter to some subordinate, but the possibility that Giles's suspicions might link to the Ginner investigation are just too tantalizing to leave alone, so off to Lancashire goes Chief Inspector Macdonald... soon to discover the murdered body of Gordon Ginner!

Accident by Design was honestly a really well done classic British mystery. I was surprised, expecting something subpar and generic. It was well-written, with interesting characters and some great descriptions of the British countryside and the work done on a tenant farm. The story is about a family estate in the early '50s. The patriarch lies in bed near death, but still quite aware. His eldest son is a feckless alcoholic with a middle-class (bad), Australian (worse) wife who hates pretty much everyone his father employed and has threatened to make a clean sweep when he takes over. When they both die in a car accident, too many people benefit, and this alerts the local constabulary (who are very well depicted in the best British tradition of the no-nonsense, practical, reasonable police force). When their surviving son dies a few days later, by seemingly eating some poisonous berries, the game is truly afoot.

Muriel Farrington is a domineering woman who, unfortunately for them, has her entire family living with her in her stately home. She tries, often successfully, to run the lives of her children, her stepchildren, her in-laws, and her husband, and she seems to be despised by all except her husband and one son. When she is found dead one morning in her bed, the family doctor, who is old, ill, and hasn't been very able for years, is unable to attend and bestow a certificate, which he would have done without investigation or thought. A younger, more able and perceptive doctor has to be called in, to the shock of whoever the murderer was, and he does not find the death natural. A hypodermic puncture in her arm leads him to believe, correctly as it turns out, that someone has injected insulin into the woman. Since she was not suffering from diabetes, death was the inevitable result.

Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder "Never make trouble in the village" is an unspoken law, but it's a binding law. You may know about your neighbor's 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. 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.

"Effortlessly atmospheric {with} a killer likely to take most readers by surprise." - Kirkus Reviews Renowned for its authentic characters and settings based partly on the author's own experiences of life in the Lune Valley, E. C. R. Lorac's classic rural mystery returns to print for the first time since 1953. This edition includes an introduction by award-winning author Martin Edwards. "I'm minded of the way a fire spreads in dry bracken when we burn it off the fellside: tongues of flame this way and that-tis human tongues and words that's creeping like flames in brushwood." It all began up at High Gimmerdale with the sheep-stealing, a hateful act in the shepherding fells above the bend in the Lune River-the Crook o' Lune. Then came the fire at Aikengill house and with the leaping of the flames, death, disorder, and dangerous gossip came to the quiet moorlands. Visiting his friends, the Hoggetts, while searching for some farmland to buy up ahead of his retirement, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald's trip becomes a busman's holiday when he is drawn to investigate the deadly blaze and the deep-rooted motives behind the rising spate of crimes.

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.

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 traveler 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 backstreets and derelicts of war, E. C. R. Lorac constructs another great detective story with all its complexities, an exciting and puzzling crime story.

In this final detective novel to feature Superintendent Robert MacDonald, we find the police officer setting up his retirement plans on a hill farm to the south of Lunesdale. Not quite ready to retire, he buys the farm and installs a young couple to oversee his property while he's away detecting. Meanwhile, one foggy morning Rory Macshane, who has just finished his first year of a 10-year prison sentence at Dartmoor, sees his plans for escape come to fruition. He has hidden away bits and pieces of this and that over the past year and when the fog begins to thicken, while he out on a work-gang he takes advantage of it and disappears into the mist with enough gear to help him truly escape. About a month after the prison break, MacDonald accompanies the farmer who has been renting the adjoining land on a tour of the abandoned farmhouse. There they find that someone is lying dead in the house. Is it murder or an accident?