Checkmate to Murder
A Second World War Mystery
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4.3 • 9 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"[An] excellent fair-play mystery...this British Library Crime Classic more than deserves that status."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout.
As World War II takes its toll around them, a civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door.
When the brutal murder of said miser is discovered by his nephew, it's not long before Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is at the scene, faced with perplexing alibis and with the fate of the young man in his hands. In the search for the culprit, Macdonald and his team of detectives must figure out if one of the members of the studio party is somehow involved in the death, or if some other scurrilous neighbour could be responsible.
The British Library of Crime Classics is pleased to revive this clever, classic mystery for amateur sleuths and fans of British historical fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in WWII London, this excellent fair-play mystery from Lorac (1894 1958) opens on a dramatic note. One evening, artist Bruce Manaton is in his studio painting the portrait of an actor while two other men, a civil servant and a government chemist, are playing chess. Shortly after Manaton's sister pops outside briefly to make sure that blackout precautions have been observed, Special Constable Lewis Verraby, who has arrested Canadian soldier Neil Folliner for murder, intrudes on the quartet. After noticing the front door of the building next to the studio open, Verraby went inside and found Folliner near the corpse of the soldier's great-uncle, Albert, who'd been shot in the head. Folliner insists that Albert was already dead when he arrived. Scotland Yard's Chief Insp. Robert Macdonald, Lorac's series sleuth, looks beyond the obvious that Folliner is guilty at the possible motives of the others on the scene, including Verraby. The astute Macdonald's interrogations and deductions lead to a satisfying resolution. The characters are all well-delineated, and the clues artfully hidden. First published in 1944, this British Library Crime Classic more than deserves that status.
