The Case of Colonel Marchand

Robert Macdonald #5

by E.C.R. Lorac

An Inspector Macdonald mystery in which Scotland Yard investigates the mysterious death of Colonel Marchand.

Genres: Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Edith Caroline Rivett (who wrote under the pseudonyms E.C.R. Lorac, Carol Carnac, Carol Rivett, and Mary le Bourne) was a British crime writer. She was born in Hendon, Middlesex (now London). She attended the South Hampstead High School, and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.

She was a member of the Detection Club. She was a very prolific writer, having written forty-eight mysteries under her first pen name, and twenty-three under her second. She was an important author of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Reviews

[Doug Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 4:30 PM one afternoon in 1932, Willoughby Marchand and a young woman sit down to have tea in Marchand's drawing room. At 6:30, the woman is gone and Marchand is found dead, poisoned, on the drawing room floor. Scotland Yard sends Robert MacDonald to investigate Marchand's death.

There are a number of suspects. No one seems to be able to identify the young woman.
On the other hand, the person with the most obvious motive is Derrick Marchand, the deceased man's nephew and main beneficiary of his will. Derrick admits that the two had recently quarreled. Lambert, the deceased's secretary, was in the house at the time of death and is evasive when questioned. This is a classic murder mystery with a few surprises.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be able to tell when a man is lying is one of the most difficult parts of my job. (p. 205)

And Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard proves most adept at sifting the lies from the truth in the The Case of Colonel Marchand by E. C. R. Lorac. Macdonald is called in when the Colonel is found dead in his well-appointed drawing room after he has entertained a beautiful young woman at an elaborate tea. The Colonel is well known for his weakness for women, but no one in his household will admit to knowing who his latest conquest was. And the copper-haired lady has disappeared. Even after she is found, questions remain about what really happened at the Colonel's tea party.

Nearly all of the Colonel's servants and associates arouse Macdonald's suspicions--from the butler and three menservants who played bridge below stairs while waiting for the bell to sound to the chauffeur who had no business going upstairs at all to the secretary who got more and more tangled in his lies to the out-of-favor nephew (who also happens to be the heir) to unknown young man who had tried to weasel money out of the old man to the lawyer who seemed determined to make Macdonald suspect the nephew. Each of them provide Macdonald with a piece of the puzzle--whether they intend to or not. There don't seem to be a lot of physical clues, but the Inspector makes the most of what there are: the missing pearls which had belonged to the Colonel's mother, the empty Cartier box lying on the tea table, a metal tube found in the cushions of a chair, and the remains of cat.

Unfortunately, unless I provide you all with a huge spoiler, I can't tell you why I love this one so much. Let's just say that Lorac (aka Edith Caroline Rivett) makes good use of a standard mystery trope and pulls it off with aplomb and fair play. She displays the clues for the reader and, really, as a long-time reader of Golden Age mysteries, I'm well enough acquainted with the customs of the times that I should have recognized the primary clues paraded under my nose. But I didn't--and that makes it all the more fun. I thoroughly enjoyed Macdonald's investigations into the amorous Colonel's life and the Inspector's interactions with various peripheral characters. Nicely plotted. A highly recommended entry in Lorac's mystery offerings.

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