These Names Make Clues

Description

'Should detectives go to parties? Was it consistent with the dignity of the Yard? The inspector tossed for it-and went.' Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. Despite a handful of misgivings, the inspector joins a guestlist of novelists and thriller writers disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when 'Samuel Pepys' is found dead in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances. Amidst the confusion of too many fake names, clues, ciphers and convoluted alibis, Macdonald and his allies in the CID must unravel a truly tangled case in this metafictional masterpiece, which returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1937.

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, Checkmate to Murder and Murder by Matchlight, all available as British Library Crime Classics.