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A review by yetilibrary
Murder by Matchlight by E.C.R. Lorac
3.0
Here's what Murder by Matchlight does well: the actual mystery part of a murder-mystery. By the time of the reveal, I still wasn't sure who did it--but the reveal nonetheless felt earned and made sense. Also elegantly done: the setting, of London during the Blitz. Lorac made that place and time feel real and present, without it crowding out the fictional mystery.
Here's what Murder by Matchlight does less well: characters. It's the women characters who are the most poorly sketched (surprising, as Lorac was a woman herself); they're straight from the Grab-Bag of British Women Background Characters, and you could be writing any of them yourself, right now. Some of the men don't fare much better, but a few of them are very well-drawn; at least one (aside from our protagonist-detective) may appear in future novels, and I hope he does, because he was a delight.
And what bothered me even more about Murder by Matchlight: boy, does Lorac hate the Irish. It's not a spoiler to say that the murder victim is Irish, and sprinkled throughout the book are people saying things along the lines of, "Oh yes, I don't care for the Irish at all!" "Nor I. Good talkers, of course, but all ne'er-do-wells." "Indeed, indeed. Drunken thugs, the lot of them--but charming!"It comes as no surprise that the victim himself is a charming ne'er-do-well who gets through life by means of mooching and blackmail. The one Irish person who's not drunk, violent, or a societal leech, moved to London and married a Brit. (The few times I've been to London--over 50 years after this book was published--it seems general opinions of Londoners re: Irish people haven't changed much. I know because my last name is O'Brien.)
(A few times I wondered if any of the characters in this book weren't white. Given how every character, given the chance, said something like "And he was IRISH! Ew!," I felt it was unlikely a PoC character would have made it through the entire book without someone making a comment.)
But all that said? It WAS a good mystery. And I still read Agatha Christie, even though she straight-up found racism to be a charming character trait. I'm undecided if I'll read more Lorac.
tl;dr Great mystery undermined by uneven characterization and anti-Irish sentiment.
Here's what Murder by Matchlight does less well: characters. It's the women characters who are the most poorly sketched (surprising, as Lorac was a woman herself); they're straight from the Grab-Bag of British Women Background Characters, and you could be writing any of them yourself, right now. Some of the men don't fare much better, but a few of them are very well-drawn; at least one (aside from our protagonist-detective) may appear in future novels, and I hope he does, because he was a delight.
And what bothered me even more about Murder by Matchlight: boy, does Lorac hate the Irish. It's not a spoiler to say that the murder victim is Irish, and sprinkled throughout the book are people saying things along the lines of, "Oh yes, I don't care for the Irish at all!" "Nor I. Good talkers, of course, but all ne'er-do-wells." "Indeed, indeed. Drunken thugs, the lot of them--but charming!"
(A few times I wondered if any of the characters in this book weren't white. Given how every character, given the chance, said something like "And he was IRISH! Ew!," I felt it was unlikely a PoC character would have made it through the entire book without someone making a comment.)
But all that said? It WAS a good mystery. And I still read Agatha Christie, even though she straight-up found racism to be a charming character trait. I'm undecided if I'll read more Lorac.
tl;dr Great mystery undermined by uneven characterization and anti-Irish sentiment.