Death of an Author
‘I hate murders and I hate murderers, but I must admit that the discovery of a bearded corpse would give a fillip to my jaded mind.’
Vivian Lestrange – celebrated author of the popular mystery novel The Charterhouse Case and total recluse – has apparently dropped off the face of the Earth. Reported missing by his secretary Eleanor, whom Inspector Bond suspects to be the author herself, it appears that crime and murder is afoot when Lestrange’s housekeeper is also found to have disappeared.
Bond and Warner of Scotland Yard set to work to investigate a murder with no body and a potentially fictional victim, as E C R Lorac spins a twisting tale full of wry humour and red herrings, poking some fun at her contemporary reviewers who long suspected the Lorac pseudonym to belong to a man (since a woman could apparently not have written mysteries the way that she did).
Incredibly rare today, this mystery returns to print for the first time since 1935.
E C R Lorac was a penname of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894–1958), who also wrote as Carol Carnac. She was a prolific author of Golden Age mysteries publishing over 60 novels throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s. She was also a member of the famous Detection Club. Her books include Crossed Skis, Post After Post-Mortem and Murder by Matchlight, all available as British Library Crime Classics.
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