These Names Make Clues

by E.C.R. Lorac

Overview

"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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728261188
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Series:	British Library Crime Classics
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

E.C.R. LORAC was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958) who was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a member of the prestigious Detection Club. Her books have been almost entirely neglected since her death, but deserve rediscovery as fine examples of classic British crime fiction in its golden age.

Editorial Reviews

"First published in 1937, this superior entry in the British Library Crime Classics series from Lorac (1884–1959) is an exemplar of the golden age closed-circle whodunit.... Lorac plays scrupulously fair, but few will anticipate the denouement. Fans of clever puzzle mysteries will clamor for more Lorac reissues. " — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Crime and punishment as the ultimate parlor game, aimed at readers who’ll keep its title front and center." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-08-17
An invitation to a “treasure hunt” open to thriller writers and lesser mortals confronts Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Macdonald with two baffling deaths.

Though Macdonald doesn’t really want to attend publisher Graham Coombe’s party, he feels certain he’ll look equally foolish if he declines. So he braces himself, goes off to Caroline House, where Coombe lives with his sister, Susan, and accepts a tag identifying him as Izaak Walton The other pseudonymous guests include Ben Jonson, Madame de Sevigné, Thomas Traherne, Samuel Pepys, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney, Anna Seward, Jane Austen, and Mrs. Gaskell. All the players are immersed in various stages of deciphering individually dispensed clues when Caroline House is plunged into darkness. When Susan Coombe finally finds enough candles to provide minimal lighting, they realize that Samuel Pepys has disappeared, and he’s shortly found dead in the telephone room. Although one of the guests reports having seen a gray-haired man lurking in the vicinity, Macdonald, condemned to playing who’s-on-first with suspects who spent the evening flitting from one room to the next, considers himself lucky to figure out how Pepys, who’s actually the mystery writer Andrew Gardien, was killed. A visit the next day to Gardien’s agent, Mardon-Elliott, reveals that he’s been shot dead, the name “Gardien” scrawled on a nearby sheet of paper. This golden age curiosity, previously out of print since shortly after its initial publication in 1937, proceeds from one head-scratching riddle to the next. But alert fans will recognize a late-blooming clue as pivotal and share honors with Macdonald for identifying the culprit.

Crime and punishment as the ultimate parlor game, aimed at readers who’ll keep its title front and center.

Kirkus Reviews