Death at Dyke's Corner

Robert Macdonald #19

by E.C.R. Lorac

When a stationary car is struck by an oncoming lorry at a very dangerous  hairpin bend  known as Dyke's Corner and the driver killed it seems an obvious accident. However, MacDonald's methodical investigations reveal it was in fact a cleverly contrived murder.

“We’ve taken the wrong fork. There’s a double hairpin bend somewhere.” There was! Immediately in front of them a car was drawn up on the opposite side of the road. As they swung round the wicked curve headlights blazed full at them, blinding them both. A lorry had drawn out to pass the standing car and was coming at them like a battle cruiser. They sensed the rending, tearing scream of metal as the lorry hit them, and darkness came down on them. In that threefold crash it was the occupant of the stationary car who was found dead. Out of the details of a commonplace accident Inspector Macdonald relentlessly builds up the most amazing elucidation of a murder mystery—a case devised with all E. C. R. Lorac’s customary brilliance. 

Genres: Mystery, Golden Age Mystery, British Literature

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1940

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

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another complex and satisfying mystery from Lorac starring my new favorite, Robert Macdonald of Scotland Yard.

This opens on a foul, rainy winter night as two young men round a sharp bend (the corner of the title) and almost collide with a parked Daimler; an oncoming truck almost hits them. They all check on the driver, but he’s dead; a local doctor passing stops and confirms the death, and meanwhile one of the young men feels ill from the smell of exhaust in the Daimler. Turns out the dead man is locally reviled as the “English Woolworth”, putting his modern one-stop shops all over the country - running smaller tradesmen out of business. He was also a serial philanderer and foul-tempered bully, leaving behind a resentful son and long-suffering wife.

Before long, with such a high-profile deceased and an accident that looks not so accidental, the Yard and Macdonald are called in. As usual, following him around on his investigation, I appreciate his decency, doggedness and intelligence. His internal musings on the case are always interesting, and show the variety of people and situations he has to deal with as he tries to put together motive, means and opportunity. Lorac also gives us good scenes of several locals involved, either as witnesses, suspects, or both, as they navigate through the suspicions, gossip and consequences of a local murder.

Another knotty, satisfying Golden Age police procedural from Lorac.

[rachelish]

Unfinished due to e-reader shenanigans

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the first Inspector Littlejohn did not appear until a year after the 1940 publication of this novel, it was Bellairs of whom I kept thinking. Probably the small town setting, the petty concerns of the small shopkeepers and the machinations of Conyers the nasty businessman and owner of the “English Woolworths” whose murder is at the heart of the investigation ,served to spark the connection.

This is neither Lorac at her best nor Robert Macdonald’s finest hour.Part of the problem is that Macdonald is very much on his own:-

“He had sometimes played a lone hand before when conditions or emergencies rendered it necessary. Being essentially sane, a very rational member of a dogged yet cautious race, he had no opinion of foolhardy heroics, and held that detective work was a matter for co-operation rather than for individual exploit, with all the additional hazard and chances of complete defeat which the detective incurs when he is out of touch with his department.“

Yet it is precisely by foolhardy heroics and individual exploit that this case is cracked and the murderer arrested.

Lorac is ever-readable, and is usually strong on characterisation, but here she failed to bring the cast to life. The plot is too soon focused on the local shop owners and the final explanatory chapter is both dense and rather unconvincing.Maps would certainly have helped and , although my detective instinct twitched at one small clue, I do not think that the reader could really do much more than hazard a guess at the perpetrator.

Rather below par at 3.5 stars

[Adam Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a template whodunnit - a wealthy, despised man is found dead in his car after a collision, which of course turns out to be a murder before the collision.

I didn’t find this to be one of E.C.R.s best - lots of characters, fairly lightly developed and lacking some of the scene setting that makes many of her books so enjoyable.

That said, it was an easy read that keeps you guessing

[Caroleedgy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Disappointing Read

Lorac is a new favorite of mine, but this book is not her best. Her characters are usually finely drawn, but here I had to flip back to see what character she was referring to.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like “Lorac” and her Inspector Macdonald but this one is ridiculously over complicated. It’s good on the manners and mores - some of them nasty! - of 1930s small town England though.

[Anna Katharine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story starts out stoking the fear I always have in British country lanes: coming around a blind turn in a too-narrow lane, a car almost hits another stopped in the worst possible place- and then both are hit by a large truck going too fast to stop. It quickly becomes evident, however, that the driver of the stopped car was dead before the crash, and there are plenty of people who wanted him that way. The Sam Walton of his day, he was disliked for his habit of buying out small shop owners and razing their properties to build new, modern markets that drastically changed the villages he targeted. But he was also a cheat, a womanizer, and fairly awful to his family. As in other Lorac mysteries, Detective MacDonald takes the case officially while random groups of interested citizens (in this case, the two men who first discover the stopped car, and a separate cabal of small business owners) act as amateur sleuths and alternatively help turn up clues and mess things up royally. There are lots of red herrings, but also lots of interesting twists, and I certainly didn't figure out the murderer before MacDonald did. If you like Sayers, Marsh, Allingham, and/or Christie, Lorac's works should be on your list.

[MaryJo Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

E.C.R.Lorac's Inspector MacDonald mysteries are always a complicated affair, and this is no different.
One has to pay attention not to miss all of the so-called minor details.
Of course the inspector is good at this, which is why he comes to the right conclusions. He is also an astute judge of human character.
The middle-aged wealthy man who is murdered has few admirable qualities and many enemies.
As you can determine, the plot is not original and all of the above are often characteristic of many golden age mysteries.
But Lorac does such a good job of writing a believable plot and stimulating the reader's imagination I didn't mind at all. For me the main character, in this case MacDonald, has to be admirable, and he certainly is.
So all in all, Death at Dyke's Corner does not disappoint a lover of the golden age mysteries.

[Carbonel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Golden age British mystery

It was a dark and rainy night, when a murder, at once simple and complicated is executed. Enter the capable Scottish CID detective to the small market town. Although the fourth book featuring Inspector Mcdonald, it can stands alone. Well-drawn characters and an excellent sense of place add to the appeal of a well-crafted tale.

As ever, if you're reading this review on GoodReads you won't find this on Amazon itself: A monopolistic business cancelled and unpersoned 30 years of reviews on a whim - with no recourse.

Highly amusing given the motivations for the killing of the thoroughly obnoxious Amazonian financier of this particular tale. La plus ca change...

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

Another enjoyable entry in the series.
The conclusion did appear and resolve itself very quickly but that didn’t really diminish the overall reading experience for me.
I find ECRL writing easy to read, the books are always enjoyable, her ability to draw the location and people in such a way that I always feel like I have met them or at least seen the places being described.
Haven’t read a novel so far that I would describe as bad, just that some are better than others.
This is probably mid table but a better than average read for me.

[LA · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a good story, but it's available in other editions. Don't buy this one. First, it has a lot of weird, rather distasteful, sometimes creepy, and completely irrelevant girlie pictures from the 30's sprinkled throughout. Why? No clue. They're pretty tame compared to contemporary stuff, but what are they doing here? Second, at the end there's a copyright notice in which the compiler of this odd edition claims copyright over the work. But clearly the compiler is not the author. There are other perfectly fine editions of this clever novel. Buy one of those.

[Suzie Grogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Lorac and her wonderful detective Macdonald and here, although complex and twisting in all directions, she offers a rattling good read with an almost Paul Temple like denouement. I can see why some reviewers feel it isn’t her best, and Lorac is wonderful when she describes settings in the Lune Valley for example. But her grasp of small town life is as good as rural goings on in my view.

[Giles47 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story but overcomplicated plot

Most of this book is very good but the plot ends up very complicated- it would be near impossible to work out whodunit. Not helped in this edition by the omission of the map of the fictitious locality, though you can find it by searching online. A plus point of the edition is the rare photo of the author on the cover.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

While being very well written, as always, with brilliant descriptions of the characters and great dialogue, this is not one one of her best. The plot is clever and different but vastly overcomplicated.
If the clues were there, I didn't spot them (though I may have been a bit dim) and I had no idea whodunnit until the last knockings.

[Homerun2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

If you like vintage mysteries from the golden age, filled with elaborate plots and characterizations, E.C.R. Lorac might be just the ticket for you. Her Inspector MacDonald is a fine lead character and her books are intelligently written and consistently entertaining.

[M. White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another winner from Lorac

A well written mystery with fully developed characters, a complex plot, and a very surprising revelation of the guilty party. I very much enjoyed the book and definitely recommend it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a hairpin bend known as Dyke's Corner 3 vehicles meet. In the stationary vehicle a dead man is found, believed to be unliked businessman Morton Conyers. Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard is brought in the investigate the killing.
An entertaining historical mystery
Originally published in 1940

[John Keeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great E.R.C. Lorac Mystery

I know, I say it in all of my reviews of Lorac’s mysteries. You just can’t beat the quality of them. The plot is so interesting, the characters so well drawn out. And forget about knowing who the murderer is. For me at least, it is impossible.

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of clues. Not a bunch of red herrings. Convincing solution. Interesting characters

[Lynnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lorac is an excellent writer and is so good at characterisation and describing the countryside and villages. I loved the social commentary in this book about a how a modern store with more variety and offering better paid jobs would spoil the local shops and village life. Very interesting and the mystery was very, very good too and exciting towards the end.