Murder by Matchlight
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder
"A terrifically atmospheric puzzler…the ending is a stunner…like the best Golden Age crime fiction." —Booklist STARRED review
'"A man who played about on the fringes of the Black Market, who had fought for Sinn Fein, who lived by his wits—and who finally became dangerous to somebody and was knocked over the head in the blackout. It may prove to be a sordid story, but I certainly find it an interesting one."'
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lorac (1894 1958) offers a nicely deceptive whodunit with a WWII setting, first published in 1945, in this entry in the British Library Crime Classics series. In London's Regent's Park, a man conceals himself under a small wooden bridge. A second man appears on the bridge, asks if anyone else is around, lights a cigarette with a match, and is then bludgeoned to death. Right before the fatal blow is struck, Bruce Mallaig, an analytical chemist for the British Ministry of Supplies who's walking nearby, has an impression of seeing a face, but not a body, behind the victim, despite not hearing the sound of a third man approaching the bridge. Bruce instantly calls for the police, who find an identity card in the name of John Ward on the body. Scotland Yard Chief Insp. Robert Macdonald soon learns that the dead man may have actually been Timothy O'Farrel, whose own identity disk was found in the ruins of a bombed-out shelter and who may have stolen Ward's identity for some unknown reason. This fair-play puzzle will be a welcome treat for golden age fans.
