Кръстосаните ски

Julian Rivers #8

by Carol Carnac, Карол Карнак (Pseudonym), Иван Костурков (Translator)

Карол Карнак постига голям успех със своите криминални романи, писани в златните години на жанра. Неслучайно тя е избрана за член на прочутия „Детекшън клъб“, заедно с Дороти Л. Сейърс и Агата Кристи. Карнак, позната у нас с другия си псевдоним, И. К. Р. Лорак, под който издава криминалната класика „Ребусът на имената“, се прочува с интригуващите си истории, за които често черпи вдъхновение от своя живот. Карнак е запалена скиорка и това е повод за създаването на романа й „Кръстосаните ски“. Главен герой е него е инспектор Ривърс от Скотланд Ярд, чието разследване затъва в дълбоките преспи на една истинска алпийска мистерия.

За да избягат от сивота на мрачния Лондон в навечерието на Нова година, група скиори заминават за австрийския курорт Лех ам Алберг. След дълга подготовка и доста промени в състава, осем жени и осем мъже потеглят от гара „Виктория“ в Лондон към мечтания снежен рай. Повечето се познават, но има и няколко присъединили се в последния момент, а пътуването е добра възможност да се опознаят. Междувременно в Лондон полицията разследва случай на пожар, чийто резултат е един обгорял до неузнаваемост труп. Обстоятелствата около пожара са доста подозрителни, но една странна следа предизвиква особен интерес – отпечатък от скиорска щека. За инспектор Ривърс това е повече от добро начало. Той вече е по следите на престъпник, прочул се със своите дръзки обири, които предполагат, че има опит в алпинизма. Възможно ли е той да е извършител на убийството?

На Ривърс не му трябва много време, за да се досети, че неговият заподозрян се е присъединил към скиорската дружинка. Така обаче инспекторът се сблъсква с разнородна група заподозрени и дълъг списък с причини да не се доверява на никой от тях. А сред скиорите, които се наслаждават на чистия въздух и яркото слънце в Австрия, се поражда напрежение, след като започват да изчезват крупни суми. Ясно е, че някой от групичката не е този, за когото се представя, а шеметното преследване на фона на разразилата се снежна буря ще смъкне неговата маска.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Classics, Golden Age Mystery, Christmas, Audiobook

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

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

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this! The setting was fantastic (piles of snowy awesome, mountains, chalets and skiing!) & the mystery is more a London police procedural with a concurrent thread running with an Alps vacationing party of 16 in which the sought after killer is embedded under an assumed identity.

The detectives are presented with a grisly situation upon happening onto a house fire with a horribly burned corpse. It's soon clear that there's been a murder and the notice of the impression of a ski pole in the mud is the first clue. The vacationing group was a chaotic and jovial bunch with varying knowledge of each other (siblings, friends, friends and acquaintances of friends).

Kate is the main organizer and one of the main characters of the story. She was inquisitive and interested in people so when she senses something amiss with missing money, she wonders what is going on and who is the mystery centred on. When it comes to her notice that the CID is asking questions at her boarding house and arrive in the Alps, she's sure it's to do with the travelling group somehow. She was a good character and I found her quite a good investigator in her own right. I'd read another book with her as the sleuth. The story culminates with the two threads merging, the killer outed and an exciting scene on the slopes. I'd thought it was going to zig but the story zagged and I loved every minute of it. When the title popped up I had the "A-ha!" moment and that was cool as well.

I chose to read this because it's the time of year I want my mysteries wintry and this more than satisfied. This is a great addition to the British Library Crime Classics and I recommend it. I'd read another by Carnac (aka E.C.R. Lorac). This is the eighth book in the Julian Rivers series but she has many books under her other name in the BLCC reissue series.

Favourite passages (surprise, mostly related to the atmosphere & setting):

"Snow and mountains are the only reality and in spite of their beauty there’s an element of terror in them."

"They had emerged from the pine woods now, and were in bright sunlight again, travelling up a wide valley shut in by snowy crests, the intense whiteness confusing distances, so that the valley seemed a vastness of immeasurable untrodden snow, stretching from the track to the mountain tops, the horse and sleigh dwarfed to insignificance."

"A blue dusk seemed to caress the snow: stars were beginning to gleam above the mountains and the valley shone with golden specks from lighted windows. The sound of sleigh bells and the soft thud of horses’ hooves on the beaten snow tracks combined to make enchantment of the Austrian village."

"Kate Reid took one good look at what she could see of Lech and was well satisfied. It was an Austrian village, set in a wide Alpine valley, with a stream racing in torrents between snowy banks. Cradled on all sides by the embracing snow slopes, dominated by mountain peaks, Lech yet retained the charm of a village. It had the comely wide-eaved wooden houses familiar to travellers in Switzerland, which clustered round an enchanting little stone church, whose tall rather gaunt tower was crowned by an onion-shaped cupola, glowing golden in the lucid light. Neither the hotels, nor the polyglot crowds in ski-ing kit, destroyed the impression that Lech was an Austrian mountain village, which had its own way of life, its own character, developed and bred in the mountains: something picturesque and yet sturdy, colourful and independent, to which the winter sports crowd was but an incident in a life of sturdy independence, whose ways and traditions had developed in its mountain environment."

And one because detectives in detective novels reading detective novels is awesome:

"Lancing had bought six Penguin detective novels, from which he derived much entertainment: he left them all in the train at Langen—“as propaganda”, he said to Rivers."

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this author is my favourite find through the BLCC series, either as Carnac or E.C.R. Lorac.

There is an almost impossible burglary committed in the beginning of this one; the burglar had unfortunately for him, dropped a packet of cigarettes with his finger prints. Next, a body is found burnt in a boarding house, and the print of a ski stick. Rivers realises that the man they are looking for has joined a ski party. We as readers are also along for the ride with the skiiers. We know one of them is a fake, but which one? There are 16 members of the party, but many of them get barely a mention, so it's not too difficult to keep track of who is who here.

I did work out early on who the culprit was, but only because I know a bit about cows.. I followed Kate's journey through the story, and came to the same conclusion as she did, for the same reason.

I loved the atmosphere she creates at the ski resort in this one, and I enjoyed her detectives - who I haven't come across before.

[Barb in Maryland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly entertaining post-WWII mystery by the author also known as ECR Lorac.

We open with a party of 16 (8 men, 8 women) departing for a New Year's skiing holiday in Austria. It is all very chaotic: no one person knows all of the others--a nice mix of friends, and friends of friends. By the time they make it to Lech am Arlberg, they've bonded and are having a great time. Until the problems begin, that is...

Meanwhile, back in London, Chief Inspector Rivers (of the C.I.D.) is investigating the murder of a person of interest. It seems that Mr Gray, suspected cat-burgler, has met his end during a fire at his boarding house. But the corpse is so badly burned that identifying the victim is impossible.
The only real clue involves a bit of skiing gear--something that seems to make no sense.

The story then alternates between the activities of the ski party and Rivers' investigation. How do the two fit together--there's the question for the reader to solve.
It was so much fun following Rivers and his sidekick, Detective-Sergeant Lancing. Both of them were so smart and awake and aware--their conversations were a joy to read.

I liked the two 'elders' of the ski party--Kate Reid and Dr Frank Harris. Both were voices of reason and calm, and both were very observant. Several others of the party became real people; the rest were mere sketches. In London, I adored the bright young women friends of Bridget Manners(the ski party organizer). The owner of the boarding house, Mrs Mabel Stein, was a delight; her lay-about son Syd, not so much.

TL/DR--I really liked it!

I hope this means that more titles by 'Carol Carnac' will be reissued. I sure hope so, for I have lost my heart to Chief Inspector Julian Rivers.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, so much fun to buddy read Lorac/Carnac with Jess! This one gave us a lot to talk about. It’s a big cast of characters with two distinct settings. In London, inspectors Rivers and Lancing investigate a murder and arson. At Victoria Station, a party of 16 makes their way across the continent to Lech, Austria, for a two-week skiing holiday. It was so fun to see how Rivers and Lancing eventually trace the crime to this holiday location. The descriptions of a London winter are as awful as the descriptions of snow-bound Austria are magnificent! There were a lot of characters to keep track of in this one, so I think that was a challenge as a reader. Several characters are more important than others though and rose to the top. Kate is a favorite! Lancing was the more immediately likable of the two detectives but Rivers grew on me more and more, especially because he travels with Trollope novels. 😂 I look forward to reading more of DI Rivers! (Oh, the way Lorac describes how Rivers looks is exactly like a Betty Neels hero. I thought this was hilarious. Blonde and sleepy eyed but actually watching your every move.)

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

3/2023 reread: Still a clever, enjoyable, evocative mystery; whether writing as Lorac or Carnac, this author really brings her settings to life. I enjoyed the characters, and the way Inspector Julian Rivers’ imagination really got the investigation rolling on the London end of this murder plot.

2/2021: Enjoyable, creative GA mystery, in which the emphasis is on winter weather - from the foul sleety snow, wind and grey fog of London, to the brilliant sunshine and crystal clear blue skies and snowy slopes of Austria.

The mystery opens on a sleety, snowy miserable New Year’s Day, as a skiing party of young people leave London for Austria, and a slightly tipsy older lady returns to her boarding house in London’s East End after a holiday celebration with her sister. She’s shocked to find the house ablaze, and her n’er do well son is overheard by a constable reassuring his mum that as the house is insured, they should just go have tea and ignore it. All the boarders are away for the holiday, so no one will be hurt, and his mom will be compensated.

This plan goes awry, however, when an identifiably burned body is discovered in an upstairs bedroom. The victim is either the boarder, Mr. Gray, or one of his associates. Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard is called in; his only clues are a few coins deposited in the gas meter in the burned room, a discarded pack of cigarettes, and an odd shape in the melting snow outside, that he identifies as the end of a ski stick.

After a great deal of dogged investigation, largely on the part of Detective Sergeant Lancing, Rivers uses brilliant detection to piece together the last hours of the killer in London. If he wanted to get out of England quickly, a good way would be to attach himself to an unsuspecting group, like a large skiing party...

The winter weather plays a major role in both Austria and London during this case. One of the skiing party, Kate, contemplates the blinding beauty of the crystal clear air, the cold and the snow in the mountains of Austria - but also the underlying power and terror of the elements. The wintry skies, foggy conditions, and stormy seas almost prevent Rivers and Lancing from making it over to Austria to nab the killer. The exciting ending takes place during a blizzard on the ski slopes.

Overall an exciting, different, and satisfying mystery. Whether writing as ECR Lorac, or Carol Carnac as with this series detective, this author has a great gift for using her chosen environment as a vital and exciting plat point in the action. She deserves to be rediscovered and widely read - thanks to British Library Crime Classics and Martin Edwards for bringing back her books, she has become a favorite of mine.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This delightful mystery, written by Edith Caroline Rivett – who also published books under the pen-name of E. C. R. Lorac – has to be one of the most enjoyable entrants in the British Library’s Crime Classics series so far. Set in the snowy Austrian resort of Lech am Arlberg and a foggy central London in the middle of winter, Crossed Skis weaves together two connected narratives to very compelling effect.

The novel opens with a party of sixteen holidaymakers – eight men and eight women – journeying from London’s Victoria Station to the Austrian Alps for a combination of skiing, mountain-walking and dancing. There’s a lovely ‘jolly-hockey-sticks’ boarding-school-style atmosphere within the group as the travellers bunk up alongside one another in their couchettes on the train. While some members of the group are known to one another, various last-minute dropouts and replacements have led to others being less familiar – typically friends of friends or fellow members of social clubs. Most of the party are relatively young, and everyone seems to be glad of the chance to swap the doom and gloom of Britain, with its food rations and damp weather, for some much-anticipated merriment in the Australian mountains. The extended journey, by train and sea, serves as a good ice-breaker, offering the participants the opportunity to get to know one another as the banter flows back and forth.

To read the rest of my review, please visit:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2021...

[Teri-K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Golden Age and afterwards mysteries, and this is one of the best I've ever read. I loved the setting, the interesting mix of characters, the writing, and the fact that it read more like a WWII almost-spy novel than a 1950s murder mystery. But don't worry, the mystery is definitely there. It's just that the plot revolves around a group of skiers escaping for a long vacation in Austria. They don't all know each other as there have been last minute substitutions. Everyone is having a great time at first, but gradually trouble rears its head and it becomes clear that someone is not who they seem.

In the meantime a murder is being uncovered back in London, clues are uncovered, and the reader is constantly trying to apply these clues to the various members of the ski group. There's a nice denouement and the details are wrapped up efficiently at the end. Between the description, likeable characters and puzzling mystery, this was practically the perfect mystery novel for me. I only have one quibble which is a slight spoiler. I found the bad guy too obvious. There are plenty of clues to point to several people, but a couple of them were so clear I found it difficult to seriously suspect anyone else. However, at least one of these clues is a bit obscure, so other readers without that particular bit of knowledge may not feel the same way.

I've read other books by this author under the name ECR Lorac, but this is the first for me in this series. I've enjoyed a number of her books, but for my taste this is absolutely the best. I suggest anyone who enjoys older mysteries track this one down and give it a try. I don't think you'll be sorry.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Alpine holiday...

A group of young people are off on a trip to the Austrian Alps for a skiing holiday. With sixteen places in the group, it’s been a mammoth job to get everyone organised and some last minute cancellations mean that a few places have been filled by friends of friends, not directly known by other people in the group. So when some money goes missing from one of the hotel rooms, suddenly suspicion begins to threaten what had been up till then a most enjoyable jaunt. Meantime, back in London, a body has been found burned beyond recognition in a house fire. The police soon have reason to suspect this was no accident however, and the print of a ski-stick in the ground outside the house has Inspector Rivers intrigued...

Carol Carnac is a pseudonym used by Edith Caroline Rivett, who also wrote the Inspector MacDonald series of police procedurals under another pseudonym, ECR Lorac. Lorac has become one of my favourites of the authors the BL has been republishing so I was intrigued to see if I liked her as much in this incarnation, with Inspector Rivers as the lead.

The skiing party is a lot of fun, with the main characters being on the whole an extremely likeable bunch of privileged but not horribly snobbish English people, delighted to escape from the post-war rationing and dismal January days at home for pristine snow and sunshine, skiing by day and dancing the nights away. As Lorac, I’ve commented many times on how great she is at creating the settings she chooses, and that’s apparent in this one too. The freezing weather in both the beautiful Alps and in dank and dreary London is brilliantly described and contrasted, and adds much to the enjoyment.

The one real weakness of the book is the size of the skiing party. Sixteen characters are far too many in a short book – most of them never become more than names, and many have no part in the story at all. Very few of them have space to develop distinct personalities and I was still having to think hard to remember who was who even as the book neared the end. The introduction tells us Carnac based it on a real skiing party of which she’d been a member, but it would have worked much better in the book if she’d cut the cast list down to a more manageable size.

However, I still enjoyed the picture she gave of these young people participating in what was still a rather unusual sport at that time. While it was still mostly the preserve of the elite, Carnac shows how foreign travel was gradually becoming more accessible to ordinary working people in the years after the war. She also reminded me of the days, which I only just remember, when people were restricted in the amount of currency they were allowed to take out of the country, and how problematic this could make foreign travel.

The London end is equally well done, and Rivers and his sidekick Lancing make an excellent team. The plot is a little convoluted, but works, and shows the gradual change in detection methods towards forensic evidence, with much nifty stuff around fingerprints. Both men are coincidentally skiers themselves, so when the trail leads to the Alps they can’t wait to get over there. And it all leads up as you’d expect to a thrillerish ending on a mountain slope in the middle of a snow-storm.

Thoroughly enjoyable despite the overabundance of characters – I’ll be looking out for more of her books in her Carnac persona now too.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Abigail Bok · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first novel I’ve read under Edith Caroline Rivett’s pseudonym Carol Carnac, though I’ve read several under her other nom de plume, E. C. R. Lorac. They are quite similar but the two series have different detectives. This book had many of the same features as the Loracs, with a relaxed C.I.D. inspector (Rivett’s sleuths tend not to have a lot of personal issues), a large cast of potential suspects, and vivid scenic description. I admit when reading her books I sometimes feel the lack of a troubled sleuth, but keeping the focus firmly on the potential criminals has its advantages.

In Crossed Skis, Rivett takes us overseas: a group of sixteen young people, eight men and eight women, are headed off for a two-week skiing vacation in an Austrian village. The year is 1952, and on the home front austerity measures are still in place, plus it is January and London is locked in the nasty fogs that prevailed during the coal era, so getting away to the mountains of Austria feels like an escape to them all. (The detectives, who spend most of the story in London, are not so lucky.) Not all of the skiers are known to one another, but those who are previously acquainted serve to knock down the list of suspects pretty quickly. That said, it could with greater convenience to the reader been a group of twelve.

We know from the chapters that follow the detectives that the perpetrator is male, which narrows the list even further. There has been a bank heist committed by someone capable of climbing across rooftops; the perpetrator of that crime is thought to have added himself to the skiing group at the last minute, either by substituting for a participant who had to drop out or by assuming the identity of one of the participants. So we know the bad guy is athletic, which not all of the skiing men are.

The chapters alternate between the investigators in London and the skiers in Austria, each side contributing a little more to unraveling the puzzle. I have to say I didn’t find it very puzzling and there was one major plot element that was dropped without justification, but I didn’t much care; I was enjoying the people, enjoying the sightseeing. It was a satisfying read, with the typical British ending of the perp evading handcuffs but not justice.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This golden age crime novel suffers from having far too many characters, some of whom don't even get to speak! The story is set in January 1951 and involves a skiing party, one of whose number includes a murderer. It is fun trying to work out which one, the scene-setting is great and it probably would have been 4 stars but for the difficulty in trying to sort out who was who.

[Andrea]

E C M Lorac by another name. I preferred this to the Lorac I read, as the characters had a little more time to develop (though there were so many that it was still more appetiser than full course).

Most of the Loracs and Carnacs are out of print, but I'll probably give another one a try at some time.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, Carnac/Lorac writes easily but I found this a confusing book as if she's hoping the fun surface will distract us from the wavery underpinnings.

For a start, there are way too many characters - sixteen in a skiing party - and most of them are no more than names. Only a handful start to emerge as personalities so if the point was to offer up plenty of red herrings, it didn't really work as we only know a few of them.

More importantly, what was the crime that led to the burned body? At various points there's talk of safe-breaking, forgery, and even some hints of industrial or political spying - by the end, I was no more the wiser.

What is interesting, though, are the portraits of England and Austria in the post-WW2 period. England is still under rationing with grey and rainy weather but there's a noticeable difference in the attitudes of the young, especially women. Having served in the Wrens or similar, the women are independent, don't live at home, have their own money to spend, nearly all are single and none is a mother. They think nothing of sharing a train sleeping compartment with a couple of single men. They're still rather privileged and sniffy about the incoming Labour government and 'socialism' but social change is definitely in the air.

It's also amusing the see the English abroad - skiing is still somewhat exotic and they can't bear the way the Austrian hotel rooms have duvets! I was somewhat surprised that the feelings of the war have been so far left behind particularly in Austria so that's interesting.

So for me, this was only rather damply a mystery, however much the police use lots of imagination to reconstruct a crime - I had to laugh that Lancing memorises the culprits fingerprints and easily identifies them on sight when he picks up a stray object from his bedroom!

[sabagrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stars for setting, 2 stars for plot, 3 stars for characters = 3.3 stars.

This was the first book for me by Carol Carnac under any of her pen names. The first had to be the one with my hometown on the cover (although the action never takes us there. The choice of covers will always be the greatest mystery of mystery books).

Most of the mystery is set in Lech am Arlberg, an Austrian skiing resort. A group of 16 English young men and women come to ski, to have fun and to escape the London fog and slush. But some little things are wrong. In parallel, Scotland Yard investigates a burglary turned murder, a mysterious death, with clues as elusive as a few fingerprints and the print of a ski stick.

I give full 5 stars for getting the setting pitch-perfect right. Carnac must have spent a skiing holiday there herself, and explored the area, because she notes things you don't find in guidebooks or on a one-day-excursion. For example, the "beautiful, mild-eyed cows, café-au-lait colour" and the high standards of husbandry. (the cows, btw, are Brown Swiss, a race still favoured in the Western Alps, and, in my opinion, the prettiest cows in the world). Of course, I was also particularly interested in the impressions of Austria at the time - living with foreign occupation and internal border controls, with the Cold War already in full swing. BTW, the region where the book is set was occupied by the French army, but 7 years after the war, and in rural areas, nobody took much interest in the occupation, not even the occupiers themselves, except in the Russian zone in the East - much like in Germany.

The group of 16 characters is a challenge, and I was glad that some of them are not deeply involved in the plot, so that, fortunately, we are left with only a handful of actors and suspects. They are more than enough to get a little individuality out of them within the limits of only 240 pages. The end, when the two plots - detectives in London, vacationers in Lech - come together, is a bit too rushed for my taste. I would have preferred more sleuthing, more red herrings, more suspicions, to the dramatic finale. ... which leaves some questions unanswered e.g. why should the villain be at once a burglar and involved in a big forgery scheme?

Only after finishing the book I found out that Carnac/Lorac wrote a whole series with Inspector Rivers as the detective. I might look up one or the other of those titles.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a fire at a rooming house in Bloomsbury is put out, a grim discovery is made. The landlady thought the house was empty--all of her boarders were supposed to be gone for the New Year's holiday--but a body is found in the room of Mr. Gray. The fire did just enough damage that it's impossible to get an absolute identification, so they're not certain if it's Gray or if Gray has left someone else dead in his room. But the quick eyes of an officer left to guard the scene of the tragedy spots a clue that leads Inspector Julian Rivers and Detective Sergeant Lancing to a group of sixteen men and women on a skiing holiday in the Austrian Alps.

Bridget "Biddy" Manners had quite a time getting everything settled for the Austrian trip. With friends who found they couldn't get leave or needing emergency appendix surgery or just changing their minds, she finally got a roster set with several friends of friends as fill-ins--which meant that there were a few in the party no one knew anything about first hand. But the group gets to know one another as best they can on the train and boat trip over to the continent and things settle down quite nicely once they get to Austria. Everyone is getting on well and have eased into a familiarity that allows for gentle teasing--as if they had been friends for years. Until...

A few members of the group find some of their currency missing. Robert O'Hara (one of the friends of friends) is missing some Austrian money. Neville Heston (another substitute) is missing English currency. The English notes are found in a book amongst O'Hara's things and that results in a feeling of mistrust amongst the group. Kate Reid and Frank Harris, two of the most level-headed in the group, try to keep things calm while also making note of several discrepancies in certain members' behavior.

Meanwhile, Rivers and Lancing have found evidence that link the fire to a clever thief whose one mistake was losing a packet of cigarettes with his fingerprints on it. And that evidence seems to link up with one of the men in Biddy's skiing party. Now they're off to Austria to see if they can find the owner of the fingerprints. But as mentioned the man is clever and has chosen a place where it would be very easy to ski off into the sunset and be lost to all pursuers...will they be in time to get their man?

This is the first mystery I've read by Edith Caroline Rivett under the Carol Carnac name and my first introduction to Inspector Rivers. Rivers brings a bit more intuition and (as noted in the quote below) imagination to his detective work than Inspector MacDonald, her detective in the E. C. R. Lorac books. But his leaps of intuition and imagination are always followed by a gathering of evidence to support the theories. He and Lancing make a good team bouncing ideas off one another and keeping any flights of fancy in check. Kate Reid also makes a good semi-detective. Semi- because she doesn't really want to out anybody in their group, but she is a good observer and picks up on many of the discrepancies that point to the imposter in their midst. The clues are well-laid and I should have spotted the criminal, but wound up backing the wrong horse. Ah well, I don't mind being fooled when it's so nicely done.

Carnac also does a nice job with the Austrian setting. It's evident that details from her own skiing trip were fresh in her mind at the time of writing. The descriptions of the mountains, skiing trails, and surrounding farms make the reader feel as though they were there and thoughts of the bitter cold and heavy snowfall in the final pages help me forget about the heat and humidity outside (at least for a little while).

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.

[iana · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s always hit or miss with British Library Crime Classics but this one was definitely worth reading. Entertaining, atmospheric, well balanced - I was genuinely interested and enjoyed it a lot. It is set in January, so not a Christmasy read, but still a great cozy winter mystery.

[Christine PNW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was delightful!

This was a recent purchase for me – I have been collecting mysteries from the British Library Crime Classics as they capture my fancy. Because I am shallow, a not-inconsequential element of their appeal is the beautiful covers and this was no exception. Both the title and the cover really appealed to me.

I grew up skiing during my childhood and youth, so a mystery with a winter sports element, especially one set in the Alps, really captured my interest. I was obsessed with the Alps and the alpine countries as a young woman – if I had been able to choose anywhere in the world to live, Switzerland and Austria definitely would have been at the top of my list.

So, I was primed to enjoy this book. And I really did enjoy it.

Martin Edwards provided the introduction to my edition. Carol Carnac is another pen name of ECR Lorac, whose Fire in the Thatch I read a few years ago. That was a three star read for me – I liked Crossed Skis quite a bit better, landing on four stars as my rating. I liked it enough that I will be buying the other Lorac reissues.

Crossed Skis takes place in two different locales – a ski village in Austria and London. The premise revolves around a party of 16 young Londoners who have all arranged to go on skiing holiday together – 8 men and 8 women. They are all connected to one another in various ways – friends of friends, etc – but they don’t all know each other. Simultaneously with the sixteen of them boarding the train and leaving London, a fire at a boarding house occurs and the body of a man is found inside. Leading up to the front door of the boarding house, Inspector Rivers notices an impression of a ski pole basket (or ski stick, as they apparently call them in England) in the mud. From that tiny clue, the investigation springs.

The two primary investigators, Chief Inspector Rivers and his subordinate Lancing are well drawn and engaging. As described within the pages of the book:

I asked Hammond what those two officers were like, the ones who went to the club. She said they were both ‘perfect gentlemen’ – she would. One was a big fair fellow with a quiet voice, and the other was much younger, a dark boy with lively eyes, very coming on.

I liked the descriptions of the holiday party as well. According to the introduction, the author was a huge fan of skiing and that came through in her descriptions of the wintry fun. When the Londoners arrive on the station platform, after making their by now bedraggled way across Europe, she describes it thus:

It was lovely: even on the railway track and on the long low platform they were conscious of the snow peaks rising gloriously into the soft blue of the afternoon sky, of the crisp powdery dryness of snow which had a totally different quality from the squalid soiled snow of London streets. In the intense light, reflected back from white ground and roofs and slopes, everybody look different: dark was darker, fair was fairer, colour was brighter. Clearly defined, sharp cut, brilliantly lit, everything had a quality of vividness and vitality which was exciting, so that fatigue was forgotten and laughter bubbled up in a world that was as lovely as a fairytale.

A couple of pictures of the setting:





As the mystery unfolds, we get to know several of the holiday makers, although some of them remain inscrutable. Among the girls, the organizer Bridget and the sensible Kate are highlights, and the medical man, Frank Harris, are highlights. There are shenanigans around the theft of some money within the party, so some of the members of the London party begin engaging in some amateur investigation of one another. There is dancing and a bit of flirtation and lots of ski-related fun.

The two mysteries, of course, converge and then culminate in a hair-raising mountain run

Lancing knew that he would never forget that ski-run. The conditions were as foul as they could be so far as the atmosphere was concerned: snow and wind together were like raging furies

after a murderer.

During the Christmas season, I enjoy reading golden age Christmas mysteries. This one isn’t really a Christmas themed mystery, but it is definitely Christmas-adjacent with its focus on winter sports. It was a perfect mystery to start off the holiday reading season for me!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh this was oodles of fun! I usually turn to my (extensive!) British Library Crime Classics collection when I need something light and want a good mystery and ‘Crossed Skis’ has leapt into my favourites from this series. The opening chapter is so incredibly British and encapsulates everything I love about these books.

There’s a double narrative that runs through ‘Crossed Skis’, it opens with a group of sixteen people preparing to escape the dismal, grey London January weather for the crisp, white ski slopes of the Austrian Alps. And then slides over to an investigation being under taken by Scotland Yard when a body is found burnt and unrecognisable. These two story lines work in tandem with each other and come together for an exciting snow filled denouement. I enjoyed both of these story lines, I had immense fun reading about the investigation with Inspector’s Brook and Rivers. They have a couple of breakthroughs that I had to suspend reality over, but it was very satisfying seeing the investigation come together.

Following our group of plucky young skiers as the travel by train, boat and bus from London, through France and to their finale destination of Lech, Austria was delightfully entertaining. I adore reading about travel during this era and I delighted in the descriptions of the train journey, which sounded horrific yet also a great adventure. There are some outstanding portraits of skiing and the slopes created by Carol Carnac. The author herself was a passionate skier and this resonates through her writing. The only slight thing that irritated me was the over use of the phrase ‘look here’, it appears a lot! But I quickly learnt to ignore it as a quirk of the period the book was written.

As with any group of people in a crime book, there are secrets and suspicious behaviour. There are characters you suspect from the outset and the ones who slowly grow to become suspects. There is a huge red herring in this book, along with lots of little herrings and it all comes to a gratifying end. This is a superb addition to the crime classics series and I am delighted it has been rediscovered.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a fan of the British Library Classics Series, though this will be one of the weaker novels from the collection that I have read.
Interestingly, here the author is using a pen name with Carol Carnac, much of her other work was under her actual name, ECR Lorac. I recently read another of her's from the series, Fell Murder. I accept that the plots in these books may be a bit predictable, but usually there is a lot else going on, so it becomes quite excusable. They are usually fascianting pieces of historical fiction also.
There are two strands to this story; a group of skiing enthusiasts who leave London on a snowy New Year’s Eve for a couple of weeks on the Austrian slopes, and Inspector Rivers and Scotland Yard investigating a gruesome murder in a boarding house.
This stands the test of time less well, as Lorac/Carnac chooses to spend more time on the plot than the period detail of the day. In the first of a string of unlikely conveniences, an eagle-eyed bobby spots the imprint of a ski stick in mud nearby the boarding house, bringing the two story strands steadily closer.
Entertaining, but not as much as Fell Murder.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carnac delivers the atmosphere and made me yearn for a chance to go skiing in the Alps (it's been a few years since I've been skiing). She gets it right, there isn't anything quite like it on a sunny day, with the bright blue sky and the thrill of speed and the bracing air. The mystery isn't bad either. It wasn't as clever as some mysteries but it was enjoyable.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crossed Skis is the perfect book for that mystery-loving skier in your life, while still being accessible to non-skiers. Here a murder in London leads to the investigation of an English skiing party in Austria. Part of the excellent British Library Crime Classics series, the story bounces back and forth between the initial investigation in London and the holiday celebrations of the 16-strong British skiing party in Austria, until the two lines converge in a worthy climax. In Crossed Skis Carnac eagerly shares her vibrant enthusiasm for the sport while providing intense and detailed descriptions of the discomforts of traveling across the Continent, the difficulties of changing money, and the restrictions posed by the occupied countries of Cold War Europe and the recent iron curtain. There's a persistent undercurrent of dislike for foreigners and the Irish in particular (exemplified by the single Irish member of the party) come in for heavy slagging with nary a mention of 800 years of oppression. The mystery aspects of Crossed Skis are a well done police procedural with an interesting discussion of profiling the perp. On the other hand, there are too many characters to follow comfortably (I gave up) and the number of suspects soon becomes unwieldy. This is my second book by the highly prolific Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958), better known as Carol Carnac or E.C.R. Lorac among other pseudonyms. One small note, "skiing" is written as "ski-ing" throughout suggesting that an accepted spelling for the growing sport hadn't yet been established (or is that just the way the British spell it?). [3★]

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group is put together to go skiing in Austria. The Cold War is still going on and Germany still appears to be occupied. They talk about England's fear of losing people who are going over to the other side. There are fourteen, I think, in this group. It is too many to keep straight. I think Agatha Christie suggested keeping the number around seven. Over that, it is hard for the reader to keep all of the characters straight, even if there is a Cast of Characters in the beginning - which this doesn't have, at least not in my paperback.

On the other hand, there is a chap committing burglaries, murder, arson, etc., in London and the police are looking for him. Could he possibly have slipped into this group? And, if so, who is he?

I didn't guess who he was. But it was a fun book even if I don't know anything about skiing.

[S.P. Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Crossed Skis" by Carol Carnac draws together two plot threads - the London police investigating a sinister house fire, and a jolly party of sixteen ("nobody married, everybody with a job, highly individual and professional") who set off from Victoria to the Austrian village of Lech for a ski-ing holiday. The action takes place in the early 1950s.

This book was a joy to read. I remember some of the expressions from my early childhood - "It's a perishing long journey to Austria, and the continental thirds are simply grim". The travel and ski-ing experiences of the time are wonderfully evoked with the contrast between grey slushy London and its rationing and "exhortations to work harder and spend less", and the brilliance of the Alpine light reflecting off the snow. The sense of freedom experienced by the ski group, getting away from the newspapers and radio, with their depressing bulletins about the Cold War, made me long for the pre-internet world.

I read this primarily for the nostalgia and atmosphere, rather than as a whodunnit. The main weakness is that the ski party is simply too big for a book of this length, and about half of the group remain as names only rather than interesting characters or potential suspects.

All-in-all definitely recommended, especially if your planned ski holiday has been cancelled due to the pandemic.

[Lady Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courtesy of Martin Edwards and British Library Crime Classics, I have become a great fan of Edith Caroline Rivett a/k/a E. C. Lorac a/k/a Carol Carnac. As with all of the other titles that I have read/listened to, I enjoyed this one immensely. I particularly like how she conveys a sense of place, and her books are set in myriad places, from London to country houses,to farms, and here, the Alps.

I haven’t managed to read all of her books, but. Am making that a definite goal.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mystery which features skiing in Austria as well as a London fog, this superb 1952 novel, now republished in the British Library Crime Classics Series, has all the ingredients for a classic read. Written under one of the pen names of Edith Caroline Rivett, (the other being ECR Lorac) this experienced and skilful writer holds two storylines in parallel for much of the novel extremely well. One story is of a party of skiers of mixed ability, eight women and eight men, who make their way to a ski resort in Austria. The other is the death by fire in a boarding house in London which excites the suspicions of Carnac’s usual lead detective, Scotland Yard man, Julian Rivers. In his usual excellent introduction, Martin Edwards draws attention to the different identities of the writer, her inspiration for this novel, and the clever way in which she structures this book. There is much to admire in this novel, in terms of detailed knowledge of the trip, the currency rules and the entire atmosphere of post war Austria. The dialogue is as well written as the setting, and one of the characters in the party almost becomes a detective of strange events. Not being someone with first hand experience of skiing I can only suppose that the accuracy of the runs, classes and challenges are as well written as every other element of this extremely enjoyable book.

The book begins with an account of the departure of the party from Victoria station. There is all the confusion of tickets, different classes of travel, picnic food and the distribution of sleeping berths to contend with as well as the last minute confusion of delayed trains. Two elements are worthy of note at this stage, the general appreciation of the difference in atmosphere as soon as the channel is crossed as the rules of rationing are forgotten; the second is the way that the party is not known to each other as several of the original men dropped out and others were substituted at the last moment. The journey is not without incident or revelation of character as the men argue and bicker, the suggestion is made that it is possible to create a personal history when it is not easy to check the truth.

Meanwhile in London an older woman is horrified to find that her house is on fire, and her son is not telling the truth of what he saw. When Rivers and his assistant Lancing get involved at the discovery of a man’s body in the house, certain elements make them sure that this is not an accident, and there is a connection to other crimes. In a long string of clues and investigations, Rivers and Lancing begin to suspect that skiing is connected, and their ambitions to visit the slopes in the pursuit of the guilty may not be impossible.

This is a very readable book which is well paced and plotted, and the characters are well drawn and realistic. Altogether it is a fine example of a classic crime story which deserves a wide audience as a true gem of the Golden Age of detection written by a skilled hand.

[Eva Müller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb for this book intrigued me immediately. A murder in London that is somehow connected to a group of people skiing in the Alps? Exactly my cup of tea. After reading the introduction I was somewhat disappointed after discovering that Carol Carnac is a pseudonym of E. C. R. Lorac. I've already read some of her books and while not bad they were quite obviously mass-produced mystery-by-the numbers. C follows B follows A. If you want to be really surprised, you have to look somewhere else.

Admittedly, Crossed Skies isn't quite as by-the-numbers. We get two stories that run parallel: In London, Inspector Rivers is investigating a murder where he's not even quite sure who the victim is. In Austria, a group of friends are on a skiing holiday. There is, of course, a connection. And it's not that much a surprise what the connection turns out to be but it's different from the formula Lorac usually uses and I found it more entertaining than her other works.

Still, there were some issues; the group of friends that go skiing? 16 people in total. And that in a relatively short book (240 pages in the paperback edition) and half the time we don't even spend with them but in London with Inspector Rivers. There's no way that one can really get to know all of those people...I'm not even sure if all of them had a speaking role or if some were just mentioned in passing. You can't say they were there to enlarge the suspect pool and confuse the reader because that would require the reader to be aware of them and for most of them I can't say that I was. Overall there were perhaps 5 or 6 characters that played an actual role in the story and several of those could easily be removed from the suspect list for various reasons. And that, once again, leaves us with E. C. R. Lorac. Mass-producer of crime fiction whose work doesn't offer that many surprises.

What can be said for her is that she put effort in the surrounding/the time her novels were set in. Previous books were firmly anchored in the time of the Blitz/blackout and this one is set shortly after WWII during the time of rationing and with some shadows of the war still looming over everything. I do enjoy that aspect of her work but it doesn't quite cover up the weakness of the mystery.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Edwards writes the intro for this one, as he’s wont to do for many of the installments in the British Library Crime Classics series. Fair enough as he seems to curate many of the selections. This one is a rare reprint by the author Carol Carnac, which is one of two pseudonyms used by Edith Caroline Rivett, the other being E.C.R. Lorac (her initials and then Carol spelled backwards, as she went by Carol.) I hope these become less rare and that the British Library Crime Classics starts re-publishing more of these forgotten gems, especially the Carnac mysteries as I was quite taken with Chief Inspector Julian Rivers and his sidekick Detective Sargent Lancing. They have an easy pitter patter of dialogue, weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each new theory they consider.
This mystery opens with a young woman, Bridget, frustrated by the volume of calls asking simple questions that she’s already provided the answers to! In this case it’s in regards to the departure day details of a massive ski trip for 16 people - 8 women and 8 men - some friends, some family, some both, some friends of friends of friends and last minute substitutes. (Nigel has appendicitis, how rude!) The ladies are busy with their own packing and last minute details and are eagerly awaiting the trip. It will be an interesting mix of people, some known, some barely acquaintances, and completely new faces, which always makes for an exciting host of possibilities for a traveling dynamic. Carnac’s description of the travel just to get from London to the continent in those days, from trains to boats to more trains, and all the passport stops and currency concerns (half a century before the Euro!) were mind boggling. It made me admire the character Bridget just for the sheer will power and determination it must have taken to organize (even a theoretical!) trip in those days. It would have been a labor of love for two people, let alone 16. As the party assembles on the train and gets to know one another, Rivers is in London examining the charred remains of a body in what he suspects is foul play. When one of men on duty notices a mark outside in the snow resembling the tip of a ski pole, it becomes a vital clue linking the murder to one of the 16 people in Bridget’s ski party. Well, one of 8 really, as you know the suspect is a man. And even then you can narrow it down to about 3 or 4 suspects based on who’s knew to the group and who’s a more vetted member. Just the sheer number of guests in the party meant that many were simply in the background with hardly and page time. It makes one long for a front page roster of characters. (Oddly enough, I bought this secondhand and the previous reader anticipated my every want! They left an index card with a handwritten list of all the suspects and police. Very handy as a bookmark and reference!)
Kate becomes a lead among the women for her amateur sleuthing skills, powers of observation, solid reasoning, and just general approachability that seems to invite people to confide in her and consult her for advice. (Martin Edwards postulates that Kate’s character is based on the author, Carol herself! Would love to see Kate featured in other mysteries, really enjoyed her on the page.) Among the men, Dr Frank Harris becomes the almost fatherly / authority figure, and the young men begin to seek him out for guidance, though they don’t always like his advice.
Carnac evokes the setting with pristine clarity, as pure and clear as a photo of the Alps themselves.
“It was lovely: even on the railway track in the long low platform they were conscious of the snow peaks rising gloriously into the soft blue of the afternoon sky, of the crisp powdery dryness of snow which had a totally different quality from the squalid soiled snow of London streets. In the intense light, reflected back from white ground and roofs and slopes, everybody looked different: dark was darker, fair was fairer, color was brighter. Clearly defined, sharp cut, brilliantly lit, everything had a quality of vividness and vitality which was exciting, so that the fatigue was forgotten and laughter bubbled up in a world which was as lovely as a fairytale.”
“To the west and the south the sky was blue behind the snow peaks, and the visibility had an intense quality, so that Kate felt helplessly that here was something you could not express in terms of paint. There was no gradation, no near and far, just a vast Crystalline clarity.”
“Once again Kate realized that there was an element of terror in the snow and loveliness; the massive clouds and the snow slopes made the wooden houses seem puny.”
Carnac (or Lorac if you will) is known for her skill at describing her locations. This one is based on an actual ski trip she took in 1951 with 15 friends - who she lists on her dedication page. How cool is that?
The only thing keeping this one from being five stars for me is that I was so looking forward to Rivers arriving at the Alps, setting the fox among the hens (well the roosters I guess as you know the murderer is a man in this case!), and watching the feathers fly. But we get deprived of that interesting psychological portrait because of the advances of forensics and fingerprints. The police do their tedious work while the suspects are on the slopes, taking a dangerous path when a snow storm descends. By the time you hit the climax the police know the identity of their man. It’s was a tiny bit disappointing not to have a big reveal. There’s definitely drama and a chase as the police try to find the key group on the mountain pass in terrible weather. But there’s no cross examination or further intrigue or tense, suspicious moments among the larger group amid the police inquiry. That for me was a huge missed opportunity.
Still really enjoyed this Carnac and eagerly awaiting for more to be published!

[Liz Mc2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the books I've tried from this classic British crime series struck me as best forgotten, but this one was a lot of fun with its Alpine ski resort setting, big cast of characters (in audio I was not able to keep them straight) and good puzzle plot.

[Melissa Joulwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever golden-age crime novel with brilliant descriptions of the setting in the Austrian Alps and the thrill of downhill skiing.

[Lynnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling Alpine mystery. Just read for the second time and because I knew the story, it was good to see if I could spot the clues. My favourite in the BLCC series.

[Kate Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and clever - great for anyone looking for a winter or New Year's read!