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A review by tonstantweader
Murder by Matchlight by E.C.R. Lorac
5.0
Murder by Matchlight is a classic whodunnit with a bit of howdunnit as a bonus. It takes place in World War II London when the Germans were bombing the city. There was a tenuous quality to life and it is deeply present in the story–the obvious risk that at any moment your home or your life may be lost to a bomb. The murder happened at night in the darkness of the London blackout and was witnessed by two people. Their separate stories were outlandish and reported from very different perspectives, but tallied in ways that led Chief inspector MacDonald to think they might be telling the truth, unlikely as their truths seemed.
Figuring out how they could be telling the truth is the howdunnit and MacDonald and his team hit upon a possible solution rather quickly but that doesn’t necessarily lead to the killer. Meanwhile, through the hard slog of interviews and canvassing, they find out more and more about their murder victim, hoping to find the solution in his history. This was a story about fact-finding, but also intuition. MacDonald was presented with more than one easy solution that would, in lesser hands, result in an arrest, even conviction thanks to circumstantial evidence, no further investigation, and complete injustice. Today, police infamously stop investigating as soon as they find enough evidence to hang it on someone…and they make a lot of work for the Innocence Project for that reason.
I found myself loving Murder by Matchlight for several reasons. First, it was scrupulously fair, but not the least bit easy to solve. Second, there was plenty of misdirection with more than one motive, more than one suspect, and reasons for suspecting one and all. Third, Lorac did not once try to make it cute. The war was serious and murder was serious. Fourth, in a great rejection of vigilantism, when one person suggests perhaps the death of a ne’er-do-well was not that important considering the War, he is soundly rebuked by the argument that vigilantism is the road to fascism. Fifth, the mystery was complex and multi-layered. It was thoroughly satisfying even though I did not begin to suspect the resolution until it was just about in hand.
It was not flawless, one character took the revelation of who the killer was with far too much equanimity, but other than that, I loved this book for its seriousness of purpose and detailed attention. It had the right mix of investigation and intuition, which should always be mostly investigation. I hope there are several more to read.
I received a copy of Murder by Matchlight from the publisher through NetGalley.
Murder by Matchlight at Poisoned Pen Press
E. C. R. Lorac at Wikipedia
★★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/9781464210938/
Figuring out how they could be telling the truth is the howdunnit and MacDonald and his team hit upon a possible solution rather quickly but that doesn’t necessarily lead to the killer. Meanwhile, through the hard slog of interviews and canvassing, they find out more and more about their murder victim, hoping to find the solution in his history. This was a story about fact-finding, but also intuition. MacDonald was presented with more than one easy solution that would, in lesser hands, result in an arrest, even conviction thanks to circumstantial evidence, no further investigation, and complete injustice. Today, police infamously stop investigating as soon as they find enough evidence to hang it on someone…and they make a lot of work for the Innocence Project for that reason.
I found myself loving Murder by Matchlight for several reasons. First, it was scrupulously fair, but not the least bit easy to solve. Second, there was plenty of misdirection with more than one motive, more than one suspect, and reasons for suspecting one and all. Third, Lorac did not once try to make it cute. The war was serious and murder was serious. Fourth, in a great rejection of vigilantism, when one person suggests perhaps the death of a ne’er-do-well was not that important considering the War, he is soundly rebuked by the argument that vigilantism is the road to fascism. Fifth, the mystery was complex and multi-layered. It was thoroughly satisfying even though I did not begin to suspect the resolution until it was just about in hand.
It was not flawless, one character took the revelation of who the killer was with far too much equanimity, but other than that, I loved this book for its seriousness of purpose and detailed attention. It had the right mix of investigation and intuition, which should always be mostly investigation. I hope there are several more to read.
I received a copy of Murder by Matchlight from the publisher through NetGalley.
Murder by Matchlight at Poisoned Pen Press
E. C. R. Lorac at Wikipedia
★★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/9781464210938/