Wulfstane Manor sits in the English countryside, a stately home gradually going to waste. The country seat of the Mallowood family, it has been bequeathed to Veronica and her brother, Martin. But as the brothers and sister gather at the Manor for the first time since their father’s funeral, it seems that at least one other member of the family thinks it should belong to them.
And then in the morning, a gunshot echoes through the building. Basil, one of Veronica’s older brothers, has locked himself in his bedroom and blown his head off with a shotgun. When suspicions begin to form that this was far from a straightforward suicide – not least the disappearance of two of the other brothers – it falls to Inspector Macdonald to find a cunning killer.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve been on the hunt for a great E C R Lorac title for a while. She has undergone something of a revival of late, thanks to the British Library. I’ve read four to date, the best being Checkmate To Murder, but even then, the books have all been basically good, with nothing making the author stand out. I was in mind to leave it a while before I came back to her work, but when I saw a copy of this one for only a few quid, well, it would be rude not to buy it, wouldn’t it?
And this is the book I’ve been looking for – by far, in my opinion, the most enjoyable Lorac title to date. So of course, it’s only got a score of 3.1 on Goodreads…
You have to, I think, accept with Lorac that Inspector Macdonald is basically there to solve the crime and not to entertain the reader. I’d call him a cipher, but there’s really nothing about him that makes you want to find out more. Like Bellairs’ Littlejohn, he’s there to facilitate the plot and not much else.
Making a satisfactory story from a small circle of suspects – one sister, three remaining brothers and one or two outsiders – is a challenge that often causes writers to trip themselves up. There are some good examples of it – Nicholas Blake’s The Case Of The Abominable Snowman springs to mind as a book where a surprise is conjured up from about five suspects – but too often the killer becomes obvious. Maybe I missed something here, but apart from one aspect of the tale, this still had a surprising ending. Oh, and the locked room is a proper locked room – a reasonably non-secret-passage solution as well. The Mallowood family is an engaging and distinctive set of characters and the plot never seemed to sag at any point.
Apologies that this isn’t as available as some of the other Lorac titles out there, but you never know, the British Library seems still keen on reprinting the Lorac titles, so there’s every chance this one might see the light of day sooner or later. Here’s hoping.
Oh, I’ve no idea what the title means, apart from the obvious. Sorry…
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Thanks for the review, and I daresay JJ would be pleased to hear that there may very well be a novel by Lorac that manages to push beyond mediocrity. 🤩
I think this was the second of the three Lorac novels I read, and the strongest of the three. But I don’t recall being especially impressed by it – though this might be the result of skim-reading the last third of the novel.
I still have a few of her novels sitting on my shelf – perhaps I should pick up one of them soon!
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What were the other two?
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The other two I read were Murder by Matchlight and Murder in the Mill Race. I agree with your assessment of Mill Race – which I thought had an interesting story but was a middling mystery. As for Matchlight, I thought it had an interesting story but was disappointing in its solution.
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I have read only the Murder by Match light from Lorac and I found it very entertaining and well written .The period details and the characterizations are very interesting and the plot was not bad either. Infact I am waiting for the bats in the belfry to arrive as well .As I see Fire in the Thatch already reviewed in your blog,would you say this book is better than that one ? Fire is 3.8 in goodreads as is Match light (Deserving,it’s almost as atmospheric as an Allingham).
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Of the recent reprints by the British Library, both Fell Murder and Murder in the Mill Race are worth reading. Unfortunately anything not currently in print is likely to be quite expensive unless you’re very lucky, but The Sixteenth Stair is another good one that’s not too dear (judging by Abebooks, anyway).
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I think that this is the best Lorac I have read and enjoyed this review.
The novel is currently available in ebook form on Amazon.
The title may refer to rogue’s yarn which is coloured yarn woven into rope for identification purposes-this might fit with some aspects of the plot.
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Many of the Lorac novels are available as Kindle books for just 99 cents/each on Amazon (USA website).
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Not sure how legal these versions are though…
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They seem to be legal as they are on Amazon. These Kindle books are also available at a really low price on the UK Amazon website as well. The publisher is called Rare Treasure Editions. BTW, I love your website and I am so glad I found it. Thanks for all your great recommendations. Luckily, the public library in the city I live has many of those books, so I have been reading them.
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Thanks so much for the kind words, so nice to hear that my ramblings are helpful.
With regards to the legality of the books. my gut feeling is that the company in question has got hold of scans of some texts and are reproducing them regardless of copyright. If you look at Accident By Design, for example, it’s opening page describes it as a “Proofreaders Canada eBook” It continues with stating that it is in the Canadian public domain (it’s 50 years after the death of the author, so this is true) but should not be circulated outside of Canada. Also, try googling “Rare Treasure Editions”… However I know from experience that getting these taken down is a pain in the backside – took me an age to get a Brian Flynn removed that actually used my review as the blurb! It’s hardly the end of the world, but if the estate decided, pretty sure these would vanish outside of Canada.
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What you say is quite shocking. There is one other publisher of the Lorac Kindle books on the US Amazon website and that is Poisoned Pen Press. Those ebooks are reasonably priced and are legal. The publisher is based in Arizona. I am reading my first Lorac book now (Death came softly) that I got from the public library and loving it.
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The Poisoned Pen ones are the British Library range and they’re legit
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