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Robert Macdonald #40
Shroud of Darkness
They were five strangers on a fogbound train--
a psychiatrist's pretty secretary,
an agitated young man,
a tweedy lady with a deep voice,
a stockbrockerish businessman,
and an eel-like "spiv."
One was brutally attacked in the choking black fog in Paddington Station. Attempted murder became bona fide manslaughter, and examination of the intimate lives of the passengers involved Chief Inspector MacDonald in a macabre game of hide-and-seek in which one man tried to find his identity and another was ready to kill to preserve the shourd of darkness that obscured his.
a psychiatrist's pretty secretary,
an agitated young man,
a tweedy lady with a deep voice,
a stockbrockerish businessman,
and an eel-like "spiv."
One was brutally attacked in the choking black fog in Paddington Station. Attempted murder became bona fide manslaughter, and examination of the intimate lives of the passengers involved Chief Inspector MacDonald in a macabre game of hide-and-seek in which one man tried to find his identity and another was ready to kill to preserve the shourd of darkness that obscured his.
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1954
About the author
E.C.R. Lorac
78 books188 followersEdith 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
July 21, 2026
A good part of this classic detective book could be called a historical mystery or a thriller. It’s set in the period immediately following WWII when England was still under many restrictions. A small group of people from Devon and then Reading are headed for Paddington Station, London. The Shroud of Darkness in the title refers to a famous “London particular” or the infamous smog of 1952. A person could not see three feet in front of themselves and automobiles moved at walking pace. I love books with this mysterious, dangerous setting. A man is immediately attacked on arrival at the station and you can expect murder and skullduggery to follow.
This was written late in Lorac’s career. I’ve read another book by her, Bats in the Belfrey, but prefer this one. Bats had a setting among the smart set type and felt more artificial. This book has many more down-to-earth types including post war spivs, low level gang types and gamblers. Both books share the CID leadership of MacDonald of the Yard—a very good character. In fact the police play a large part in this story. My one complaint is the time spent on psychology and analysis.
This was written late in Lorac’s career. I’ve read another book by her, Bats in the Belfrey, but prefer this one. Bats had a setting among the smart set type and felt more artificial. This book has many more down-to-earth types including post war spivs, low level gang types and gamblers. Both books share the CID leadership of MacDonald of the Yard—a very good character. In fact the police play a large part in this story. My one complaint is the time spent on psychology and analysis.
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April 24, 2022Shroud of Darkness, the fortieth book in the Robert Macdonald series of books by British author Edith Caroline Rivett, writing as E. C. R. Lorac was my third pick for Karen and Simon’s #1954Club.
With some elements that one typically encounters in quite a few Golden Age mysteries—the London Fog and a train journey—the book presents us with an engrossing and fairly complicated mystery and a well-drawn out and interesting set of characters put together with very good writing, which kept me reading all through.
The book opens with a train journey towards London, affected by the fog and progressing therefore, far slower than usual. In one compartment are travelling Sarah Dillion, secretary to a quite renowned psychiatrist in London, Richard a seemingly nice young man of around her age, whom she has been chatting with on the journey; a large and deep voiced ‘writer’ lady who is only engaged at her typewriter and takes no interest in any of her fellow travellers; a heavy middle-aged man, with the look of a businessman, snoozing over his newspaper; and finally another young man, whom Sarah with one look (and she is discerning, not simply acting on whim) pronounces ‘a bad lot’. Richard seems to Sarah a nice enough person, and they have even exchanged the books they’ve been reading, but at some point in the journey something seems to have come over him which has made him anxious and uncomfortable and this makes her uneasy as well (though she’d like to help). They finally arrive at London, each passenger heading off their own separate ways, into the thick fog.
A little later, the constable on duty at the station, Buller, finds a man brutally, in fact murderously attacked. But there is still life in him, and so a doctor is first summoned and then the victim is taken to hospital. The attacker has taken away everything the victim possessed, even emptying his pockets, so when Chief Inspector Macdonald is handed the case by the Paddington Superintendent, he has little to work on. [The reader can probably guess the victim, but it does take a little while before this is confirmed.] Step by step, the Inspector begins to track down the victim’s identity, for without it, there is no starting point to his case. While this involves hard work of course, Macdonald and his deputy Reeves are lucky in that Sarah Dillion and the business traveller, whose name turns out to be Weldon, are both very observant people; Sarah in particular, seems to have absorbed much working for Dr Grastang and can not only observe but read people well.
Beginning with Sarah’s information, Macdonald commences his investigation trying to trace the victim’s identity, and thereafter why and by whom he may have been attacked. But while Macdonald is making his investigations, other bodies also seem to be turning up—but are these connected with the attack at the railway station? Alongside, Macdonald bumps into a colleague who is looking into a wartime disappearance which he is seemingly fed up of since it came up inconclusive in the past. How does Macdonald get to the bottom of his case?
The writing and characters in the book drew me in right from the start. The story opens on the train on which we see all the passengers (the ones we are concerned with, that is) through Sarah Dillon’s eyes which gives one quite an insight into them all. And then of course, the scene shifts with the victim being found and the developments after that, before we move back to Sarah. I enjoyed watching how Macdonald uses the very detailed account that Sarah is able to give him to track down the place where the victim belonged and finally identify him. Once he learns about him, some threads are revealed which can lead to possible whys, relating to matters past and present. While the mystery is more police procedural than whodunit, in the sense that for the most part, we are following Macdonald and Reeves as they follow different threads and try to form a picture of what may have happened, there is also an element of the whodunit in the solution, and one I didn’t see coming at all—not until the denouement of sorts.
The characters were quite a standout for me as well; Sarah with her perception and exceptional observation skills, who shares a bedsit with a friend Elizabeth Maine; Mr Weldon, the solid businessman who also seems quite as observant; Dr Garstang who offers insights into the mystery through his knowledge of psychiatry; Brain Salcome, a farmer and friend of the victim who comes with Macdonald to London to help; Mrs Greville, the victim’s mother; Mrs Burrows his sister who bears him a grudge; and of course the police themselves. Each character, whether we meet them for a short while or they stay with us through the book is well drawn out, and one feels like one really gets to know them as one reads. Only at one point later on, I found myself having forgotten one name, which took me a few minutes to figure out who was being referred to.
It was interesting seeing the book bring up how psychiatry, being a relatively ‘new’ field of study at the time, is seen by some of the police with a fair bit of scepticism: some outrightly question whether the ‘record of mankind’ since the field’s development has shown any improvement justifying such study or whether indeed they have managed to reduce juvenile delinquency (valid concerns and ones that took me back to C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, where he raises a comparable question); others simply relying on their own plain sense, for the field makes no sense to them (but the method itself turns out to be time reaction!). The book does seem to have used psychiatry and psychology interchangeably in some places, but as I myself am always confusing the two, I didn’t even realise this until I sat down to write my review.
I also really enjoyed Lorac’s writing: this para describing Dartmoor where Macdonald is making his search in particular, I thought was lovely:
There was no sunshine and the uniformly grey sky was pale, as though the clouds or overcast were very high up. It was a colourless morning: even the meadows and pastures of the valley looked wan, very different from the vibrant emerald of springtime, and as he mounted towards the moor the world became more and more a study in monochrome. The withered bents of the upland grassland were ashen, the occasional thorns etched black against the sky, the stone outcrops dark, the withered heather sepia.
The atmosphere in the book is in a sense dreary for we have the attack and the murders, and then the circumstances in which they occur—the fog itself in which no one, even the police can see where they’re going—literally and in the case as well—may be a little in the latter; there is also a mental fog of sorts involved—and both of these shroud the mystery in a darkness which Macdonald and his deputy must get beyond.
This was my very first book by ECR Lorac and I loved it—characters, plot, and surprises. I’m definitely looking forward to picking up more of her books soon.
4.5 stars
With some elements that one typically encounters in quite a few Golden Age mysteries—the London Fog and a train journey—the book presents us with an engrossing and fairly complicated mystery and a well-drawn out and interesting set of characters put together with very good writing, which kept me reading all through.
The book opens with a train journey towards London, affected by the fog and progressing therefore, far slower than usual. In one compartment are travelling Sarah Dillion, secretary to a quite renowned psychiatrist in London, Richard a seemingly nice young man of around her age, whom she has been chatting with on the journey; a large and deep voiced ‘writer’ lady who is only engaged at her typewriter and takes no interest in any of her fellow travellers; a heavy middle-aged man, with the look of a businessman, snoozing over his newspaper; and finally another young man, whom Sarah with one look (and she is discerning, not simply acting on whim) pronounces ‘a bad lot’. Richard seems to Sarah a nice enough person, and they have even exchanged the books they’ve been reading, but at some point in the journey something seems to have come over him which has made him anxious and uncomfortable and this makes her uneasy as well (though she’d like to help). They finally arrive at London, each passenger heading off their own separate ways, into the thick fog.
A little later, the constable on duty at the station, Buller, finds a man brutally, in fact murderously attacked. But there is still life in him, and so a doctor is first summoned and then the victim is taken to hospital. The attacker has taken away everything the victim possessed, even emptying his pockets, so when Chief Inspector Macdonald is handed the case by the Paddington Superintendent, he has little to work on. [The reader can probably guess the victim, but it does take a little while before this is confirmed.] Step by step, the Inspector begins to track down the victim’s identity, for without it, there is no starting point to his case. While this involves hard work of course, Macdonald and his deputy Reeves are lucky in that Sarah Dillion and the business traveller, whose name turns out to be Weldon, are both very observant people; Sarah in particular, seems to have absorbed much working for Dr Grastang and can not only observe but read people well.
Beginning with Sarah’s information, Macdonald commences his investigation trying to trace the victim’s identity, and thereafter why and by whom he may have been attacked. But while Macdonald is making his investigations, other bodies also seem to be turning up—but are these connected with the attack at the railway station? Alongside, Macdonald bumps into a colleague who is looking into a wartime disappearance which he is seemingly fed up of since it came up inconclusive in the past. How does Macdonald get to the bottom of his case?
The writing and characters in the book drew me in right from the start. The story opens on the train on which we see all the passengers (the ones we are concerned with, that is) through Sarah Dillon’s eyes which gives one quite an insight into them all. And then of course, the scene shifts with the victim being found and the developments after that, before we move back to Sarah. I enjoyed watching how Macdonald uses the very detailed account that Sarah is able to give him to track down the place where the victim belonged and finally identify him. Once he learns about him, some threads are revealed which can lead to possible whys, relating to matters past and present. While the mystery is more police procedural than whodunit, in the sense that for the most part, we are following Macdonald and Reeves as they follow different threads and try to form a picture of what may have happened, there is also an element of the whodunit in the solution, and one I didn’t see coming at all—not until the denouement of sorts.
The characters were quite a standout for me as well; Sarah with her perception and exceptional observation skills, who shares a bedsit with a friend Elizabeth Maine; Mr Weldon, the solid businessman who also seems quite as observant; Dr Garstang who offers insights into the mystery through his knowledge of psychiatry; Brain Salcome, a farmer and friend of the victim who comes with Macdonald to London to help; Mrs Greville, the victim’s mother; Mrs Burrows his sister who bears him a grudge; and of course the police themselves. Each character, whether we meet them for a short while or they stay with us through the book is well drawn out, and one feels like one really gets to know them as one reads. Only at one point later on, I found myself having forgotten one name, which took me a few minutes to figure out who was being referred to.
It was interesting seeing the book bring up how psychiatry, being a relatively ‘new’ field of study at the time, is seen by some of the police with a fair bit of scepticism: some outrightly question whether the ‘record of mankind’ since the field’s development has shown any improvement justifying such study or whether indeed they have managed to reduce juvenile delinquency (valid concerns and ones that took me back to C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, where he raises a comparable question); others simply relying on their own plain sense, for the field makes no sense to them (but the method itself turns out to be time reaction!). The book does seem to have used psychiatry and psychology interchangeably in some places, but as I myself am always confusing the two, I didn’t even realise this until I sat down to write my review.
I also really enjoyed Lorac’s writing: this para describing Dartmoor where Macdonald is making his search in particular, I thought was lovely:
There was no sunshine and the uniformly grey sky was pale, as though the clouds or overcast were very high up. It was a colourless morning: even the meadows and pastures of the valley looked wan, very different from the vibrant emerald of springtime, and as he mounted towards the moor the world became more and more a study in monochrome. The withered bents of the upland grassland were ashen, the occasional thorns etched black against the sky, the stone outcrops dark, the withered heather sepia.
The atmosphere in the book is in a sense dreary for we have the attack and the murders, and then the circumstances in which they occur—the fog itself in which no one, even the police can see where they’re going—literally and in the case as well—may be a little in the latter; there is also a mental fog of sorts involved—and both of these shroud the mystery in a darkness which Macdonald and his deputy must get beyond.
This was my very first book by ECR Lorac and I loved it—characters, plot, and surprises. I’m definitely looking forward to picking up more of her books soon.
4.5 stars
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September 2, 2022Reasonable detective novel set in the1950s with smog and the aftershocks of war. Atmospheric and competent if not brilliant.
October 9, 2023
Shroud of Darkness is a 1954 British detective novel featuring Chief Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard. It’s one of the later books in this forty plus book series.
In this police procedural, Macdonald and associates solve the crime of a brutal attack that happened to a passenger after arriving by train at Paddington Station during an ominous fog. With the identity of the victim unknown and few clues for the motive, Macdonald must carefully piece together eyewitness information from passengers to identify the man, which only leads to more questions that need answers before he understands the complex background of the victim.
I should say upfront that my review is an outlier. But the fact is that I found Shroud of Darkness to be tedious, slow, and repetitive. The dialogue was either terribly simple or evasive (to anyone not of the time or locality – too many slang terms or abbreviations). Macdonald takes his time with numerous interviews that were interesting, but it seemed like filler material after a while. Initially, I enjoyed the hashing and rehashing of scenarios about the motive for the crime. This, too, grew overly familiar by the time the conclusion arrived.
The pace jumped into overdrive near the conclusion, which was suspenseful, though I had to suspend my disbelief about parts because some events were entirely too coincidental.
This book being my first experience with this author, I cannot say if my issues with the book would be typical of the series. I usually give an author three chances to impress me before I decide they don’t match my reading preferences. Next up, I plan to read Bats in the Belfry (only because the title and book cover caught my attention). However, if avid fans of E.C.R. Lorac read my review and wish to recommend another of her books, I would appreciate it.
Although I am a seasoned reader of older (and slower paced) mystery novels, I cannot find much to like about this one other than admitting that it has a unique plot.
In this police procedural, Macdonald and associates solve the crime of a brutal attack that happened to a passenger after arriving by train at Paddington Station during an ominous fog. With the identity of the victim unknown and few clues for the motive, Macdonald must carefully piece together eyewitness information from passengers to identify the man, which only leads to more questions that need answers before he understands the complex background of the victim.
I should say upfront that my review is an outlier. But the fact is that I found Shroud of Darkness to be tedious, slow, and repetitive. The dialogue was either terribly simple or evasive (to anyone not of the time or locality – too many slang terms or abbreviations). Macdonald takes his time with numerous interviews that were interesting, but it seemed like filler material after a while. Initially, I enjoyed the hashing and rehashing of scenarios about the motive for the crime. This, too, grew overly familiar by the time the conclusion arrived.
The pace jumped into overdrive near the conclusion, which was suspenseful, though I had to suspend my disbelief about parts because some events were entirely too coincidental.
This book being my first experience with this author, I cannot say if my issues with the book would be typical of the series. I usually give an author three chances to impress me before I decide they don’t match my reading preferences. Next up, I plan to read Bats in the Belfry (only because the title and book cover caught my attention). However, if avid fans of E.C.R. Lorac read my review and wish to recommend another of her books, I would appreciate it.
Although I am a seasoned reader of older (and slower paced) mystery novels, I cannot find much to like about this one other than admitting that it has a unique plot.
September 17, 2023
4.5 stars for this complex traditional police procedural starring my favorite Scotland Yard man, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, and his long-serving team, Reeves and Jenkins. This author has become a golden age favorite, prolific in her lifetime but largely overlooked for too long; her books are slowly becoming available again - I hope they keep being reissued.
The book opens on a fog-bound train crawling toward London; a young woman has been chatting amiably with a young man sharing the cabin with her and a woman busily writing. As the fog thickens, the girl notices the boy becoming more and more quiet, uneasy and troubled. When two men, one middle-aged and professional, the other a younger “bad ‘un”, enter the cabin at Reading, the atmosphere becomes more tense as the fog thickens, so the young woman walks to the restroom to freshen up, and smoke a cigarette or two - anything to escape the young man’s once friendly, now anxious face…the nightmarish trip happens to coincide with a London “particular”, a heavy, noxious fog.
It takes hours to get to Paddington station, and when they finally arrive, the young man dashes out of the car after the other two men, appearing to speak to one of them. Shortly after, he is found unconscious in a dark part of the station in the dense fog by a constable. His head has been battered and he’s badly injured, but alive. His pockets and haversack are empty of any identification.
When Macdonald is assigned the case, he has to first identify the unconscious young man, and all he’s got to go on is the testimony of the very observant young woman who has come forward after police asked the public for assistance. The dogged police work it takes to figure out where the young victim came from was very well portrayed as always. There are interesting red herrings rooted in the young man’s family situation, and a fascinating story reaching back to the blitz bombing of Plymouth during World War II. There are also subplots involving the underbelly of the dog racing world, the budding and sometimes criticized use of psychology in investigating and treating juvenile criminals, and espionage.
A lot going on, but an interesting look at life in 1950s Britain, when new methods and institutions were replacing the old, society was rapidly changing, and the war still casts a long shadow.
The book opens on a fog-bound train crawling toward London; a young woman has been chatting amiably with a young man sharing the cabin with her and a woman busily writing. As the fog thickens, the girl notices the boy becoming more and more quiet, uneasy and troubled. When two men, one middle-aged and professional, the other a younger “bad ‘un”, enter the cabin at Reading, the atmosphere becomes more tense as the fog thickens, so the young woman walks to the restroom to freshen up, and smoke a cigarette or two - anything to escape the young man’s once friendly, now anxious face…the nightmarish trip happens to coincide with a London “particular”, a heavy, noxious fog.
It takes hours to get to Paddington station, and when they finally arrive, the young man dashes out of the car after the other two men, appearing to speak to one of them. Shortly after, he is found unconscious in a dark part of the station in the dense fog by a constable. His head has been battered and he’s badly injured, but alive. His pockets and haversack are empty of any identification.
When Macdonald is assigned the case, he has to first identify the unconscious young man, and all he’s got to go on is the testimony of the very observant young woman who has come forward after police asked the public for assistance. The dogged police work it takes to figure out where the young victim came from was very well portrayed as always. There are interesting red herrings rooted in the young man’s family situation, and a fascinating story reaching back to the blitz bombing of Plymouth during World War II. There are also subplots involving the underbelly of the dog racing world, the budding and sometimes criticized use of psychology in investigating and treating juvenile criminals, and espionage.
A lot going on, but an interesting look at life in 1950s Britain, when new methods and institutions were replacing the old, society was rapidly changing, and the war still casts a long shadow.
March 11, 2023
4.5 stars
One of Lorac's better post-WWII mysteries featuring my favorite Scotland Yard man, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald. The setting is London, 1952, during a severe (and nasty) fog. A young man is found at Paddington station with his head bashed in, obviously left for dead. Quick thinking by the man who found him saves his life. But who is he? And why did someone try to kill him?
Oh, what a lovely, twisty mystery! Macdonald is called in to investigate, bringing along with him Detective Inspector Reeves (one of my favorite characters). Through routine police work they eventually identify the young man, but still have no idea why he was attacked. There's also a second murder that ties in, somehow.
Note to readers: Pay close attention to the first two chapters! Lots of clues therein. I shall say no more because of possible spoilers.
I finally figured out 'whodunnit' the same way Macdonald did--process of elimination. There's a very dramatic climax leading to the capture of the baddie, followed by (thank you, Ms Lorac) a nice wrap-up with Macdonald explaining all.
I loved all the snappy dialog between Macdonald and Reeves. The pace was quick, with the story constantly moving forward. I liked Sally and her flatmate Libby--two sensible young women.
Now, if only someone would republish this one. I'd like a copy to keep, but the current prices for a used copy are prohibitive!
One of Lorac's better post-WWII mysteries featuring my favorite Scotland Yard man, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald. The setting is London, 1952, during a severe (and nasty) fog. A young man is found at Paddington station with his head bashed in, obviously left for dead. Quick thinking by the man who found him saves his life. But who is he? And why did someone try to kill him?
Oh, what a lovely, twisty mystery! Macdonald is called in to investigate, bringing along with him Detective Inspector Reeves (one of my favorite characters). Through routine police work they eventually identify the young man, but still have no idea why he was attacked. There's also a second murder that ties in, somehow.
Note to readers: Pay close attention to the first two chapters! Lots of clues therein. I shall say no more because of possible spoilers.
I finally figured out 'whodunnit' the same way Macdonald did--process of elimination. There's a very dramatic climax leading to the capture of the baddie, followed by (thank you, Ms Lorac) a nice wrap-up with Macdonald explaining all.
I loved all the snappy dialog between Macdonald and Reeves. The pace was quick, with the story constantly moving forward. I liked Sally and her flatmate Libby--two sensible young women.
Now, if only someone would republish this one. I'd like a copy to keep, but the current prices for a used copy are prohibitive!
March 9, 2026
The train from Devon is crawling its way towards Paddington Station through one of the worst London fogs in memory. Sarah (Sally) Dillon has fallen into trivial conversation with a young man, Richard, about the passing scenery and the books they’re reading. Another woman shares their carriage, absorbed in her own concerns as she busily writes in a notebook. At Reading, the last stop before London, two men come in, one looking like a respectable stockbroker-type, the other like a spiv – these descriptions courtesy of the very observant Sally. Sally leaves the carriage for a while to stretch her legs. When she comes back, the atmosphere seems to have changed. Richard is nervy, staring fixedly at the two men and ignoring Sally. The train arrives at London – the two men get out, followed by Richard who seems anxious to catch them up. Fifteen minutes later, a policeman comes across a man lying badly injured, perhaps fatally, on the station concourse…
Inspector Macdonald’s first task is to put a name to the injured man, who is in a coma in hospital, hovering between life and death. It won’t be easy – whoever attacked him beat his face with an iron bar so brutally that it’s hard to know what he looks like, and his pockets have been emptied of anything which might have identified him. But public calls for help and painstaking checking eventually lead to Sally and the stockbroker-ish traveller, Mr. Weldon, who turns out to be the owner of an engineering business. It seems obvious that the victim must be one of the other two men, and maybe the other is the villain. Maybe…
Lorac makes excellent use of the London fog, showing how the familiar becomes sinister and threatening, and dark deeds can be done with little fear of anyone witnessing anything useful. People are so anxious to get where they’re going they pay no attention to their surroundings, other than to keep checking they haven’t taken a wrong turn. Traffic has come to a standstill, and even the tunnels of the tube are filling with fog. And yet Macdonald finds evidence that suggests someone may have witnessed the attack – but why hasn’t the person come forward?
The characters are an interesting and well-drawn bunch, and the only one we know for sure is innocent is Sally, from whose perspective we see the train journey. Sally is a modern young woman, flat-sharing with a friend and working as secretary to Dr Garstang, a consultant psychiatrist. She’s intelligent, and though she is quick to point out she is unqualified, she has clearly picked up a lot from her job which, added to her natural insight, makes her an excellent witness. Garstang becomes interested in the case, and Macdonald is happy to make use of his expertise in human behaviour. Weldon slept most of the time on the train, but what little he did observe adds to what Sally can tell. Whether the spiv was involved or not, it’s not surprising he doesn’t want to get mixed up with the police, but the “writing woman” is a mystery – despite all the publicity, Macdonald hasn’t managed to track her down. The violence of the attack suggests a male perpetrator, but a strong woman can’t be ruled out…
The plot is quite convoluted though it’s not hard to follow. There is a whodunit aspect to it – once the victim is identified, so are several people who may have had reasons to want him out of the way. But there’s also a much deeper story, that reaches back into the still-recent time of the Second World War – a world where spies were operating in both Britain and Germany, and some of the suspicions that started then still linger. Macdonald’s colleague is searching for an American operative who went missing during the war; one character lost his memory during the attack on Plymouth; even Sarah’s boss is of German origin – a spy for Britain, but was he a double agent? Are any of these things relevant? Individually it would seem not – but there are so many coincidences that Macdonald has to wonder if they really are coincidental. I had it all worked out by halfway through – totally wrongly as it turned out! Ms Lorac had dangled a particularly pungent red herring under my nose, and I pounced. Smugness comes before a fall.
I love Lorac’s rural settings, but her London-set books are just as good – a darker atmosphere usually, and I think her writing might be a little less descriptive in the urban environment, but she makes great use of the massive impact of the war on the people of the capital city, both during and, as here, for years afterwards. Somehow, in this one, the fog seems tied in to that – a kind of metaphor that acts as a catalyst, bringing war-time traumas back to the surface. Excellent!
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Inspector Macdonald’s first task is to put a name to the injured man, who is in a coma in hospital, hovering between life and death. It won’t be easy – whoever attacked him beat his face with an iron bar so brutally that it’s hard to know what he looks like, and his pockets have been emptied of anything which might have identified him. But public calls for help and painstaking checking eventually lead to Sally and the stockbroker-ish traveller, Mr. Weldon, who turns out to be the owner of an engineering business. It seems obvious that the victim must be one of the other two men, and maybe the other is the villain. Maybe…
Lorac makes excellent use of the London fog, showing how the familiar becomes sinister and threatening, and dark deeds can be done with little fear of anyone witnessing anything useful. People are so anxious to get where they’re going they pay no attention to their surroundings, other than to keep checking they haven’t taken a wrong turn. Traffic has come to a standstill, and even the tunnels of the tube are filling with fog. And yet Macdonald finds evidence that suggests someone may have witnessed the attack – but why hasn’t the person come forward?
The characters are an interesting and well-drawn bunch, and the only one we know for sure is innocent is Sally, from whose perspective we see the train journey. Sally is a modern young woman, flat-sharing with a friend and working as secretary to Dr Garstang, a consultant psychiatrist. She’s intelligent, and though she is quick to point out she is unqualified, she has clearly picked up a lot from her job which, added to her natural insight, makes her an excellent witness. Garstang becomes interested in the case, and Macdonald is happy to make use of his expertise in human behaviour. Weldon slept most of the time on the train, but what little he did observe adds to what Sally can tell. Whether the spiv was involved or not, it’s not surprising he doesn’t want to get mixed up with the police, but the “writing woman” is a mystery – despite all the publicity, Macdonald hasn’t managed to track her down. The violence of the attack suggests a male perpetrator, but a strong woman can’t be ruled out…
The plot is quite convoluted though it’s not hard to follow. There is a whodunit aspect to it – once the victim is identified, so are several people who may have had reasons to want him out of the way. But there’s also a much deeper story, that reaches back into the still-recent time of the Second World War – a world where spies were operating in both Britain and Germany, and some of the suspicions that started then still linger. Macdonald’s colleague is searching for an American operative who went missing during the war; one character lost his memory during the attack on Plymouth; even Sarah’s boss is of German origin – a spy for Britain, but was he a double agent? Are any of these things relevant? Individually it would seem not – but there are so many coincidences that Macdonald has to wonder if they really are coincidental. I had it all worked out by halfway through – totally wrongly as it turned out! Ms Lorac had dangled a particularly pungent red herring under my nose, and I pounced. Smugness comes before a fall.
I love Lorac’s rural settings, but her London-set books are just as good – a darker atmosphere usually, and I think her writing might be a little less descriptive in the urban environment, but she makes great use of the massive impact of the war on the people of the capital city, both during and, as here, for years afterwards. Somehow, in this one, the fog seems tied in to that – a kind of metaphor that acts as a catalyst, bringing war-time traumas back to the surface. Excellent!
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October 12, 2023
This intriguing mystery opens with a young woman travelling to London from Devon by train on a foggy evening. She strikes up conversation with a young man called Richard who is friendly but appears to grow more worried as the journey proceeds, particularly after the train reaches Reading and more passengers get on. The fog worsens as they reach London, and in the confusion the young man is discovered unconscious from a blow to the head. Inspector Macdonald must identify the young man and find out why anyone would try to kill him.
After an evocative start with the fog swirling round and the train travelling from Devon to London, the mystery begins and the investigation travels between London and Devon and back in time to the recently ended WWII as Macdonald follows clues to the victim’s identity. There are several intriguing red herrings and the introduction of psychological theories into the crime investigation adds a unique angle to the story.
Lorac was a prolific author and I have found some of her Macdonald novels rather similar in content and plot, but this was original and engaging. It was also enjoyable and kept me guessing throughout.
After an evocative start with the fog swirling round and the train travelling from Devon to London, the mystery begins and the investigation travels between London and Devon and back in time to the recently ended WWII as Macdonald follows clues to the victim’s identity. There are several intriguing red herrings and the introduction of psychological theories into the crime investigation adds a unique angle to the story.
Lorac was a prolific author and I have found some of her Macdonald novels rather similar in content and plot, but this was original and engaging. It was also enjoyable and kept me guessing throughout.
March 11, 2011
E. C. R. Lorac was one of two pseudonymns used by Edith Caroline Rivett. She also wrote under the name Carol Carnac. A British crime writer and member of the Detection Club, she was a very prolific writer--with 48 mysteries written as Lorac and 23 as Carnac. Her Lorac mysteries feature Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald who often is assisted by Detective Inspector Reeves among others.
Shroud of Darkness is one of my lucky finds at our local library's used/discarded bookstore. I love finding these vintage mysteries that have long been on my TBO (To Be Owned) List sitting innocently on the shelf, just waiting for me to pounce on them. Yes, I did say pounce. Literally. I realize that I might have more of these Golden Age gems in my possession if I went looking online for them a little more often. But there is nothing like the thrill of wandering into a used bookstore, scanning the shelves, and coming across a book that you've been lusting after for what seems like for ever. Punching in the title in a little box on the computer and finding out that it's available from The X Mystery Bookshop on ABE books, just doesn't produce the same excitement--at least not for me.
This particular gem (and, gem, it is in every sense of the word) begins with a train ride through one of the worst fog's that England, and particularly London, has seen in "half a century." Riding in the same train car we have an upset young man, a psychiatrist's secrtary, a large female writer with a deep voice, a businessman who looks very stockbrokerish, and an "eel-like," unsavoury young man who looks a bit like a racing tout. At journey's end the agitated young man is left for dead in the black, "monster of a fog" and the police have one monster of a mystery on their hands. After being beaten sensless, the victim's pockets are rifled and his haversack stolen and the police find themselves faced with a nameless injured man on an evening of near solid blackout when nobody could be expected to notice anybody or anything.
Fortunately for them, the secretary and the businessman both prove to be very observant witnesses and Chief Inspector MacDonald identifies the young man fairly quickly. This seems to do nothing towards clearing up the mystery, though. For it seems that the young man is a bit of a mystery himself. During the choas of the early war years, he (at age 7-8) was found wandering on his own, injured and an amnesiac, after the bombing of a port town. A kindly farmer by the name of Greville and his wife took him in and, after no one claimed him, adopted him. Just prior to his near-fatal train journey, Richard Greville begins to regain his memory in flashes. And then he seems to recognize one of his fellow passengers.
MacDonald has to wonder where he will find the roots of the attack on Greville. Does it lie somewhere in his past and have anything to do with the memories that were surfacing. Is it tied to the man Greville recognized? There are many avenues that MacDonald has to follow and he and Detective Inspector Reeves do so in very methodical, very believable, and yet highly entertaining manner. The twists and turns of the plot follow one another logically even though I didn't see some of them coming. And I have to admit that I was just as much in the dark as those fog-bound train passengers right until the very end. I was certain I had figured it all out...only to find that I missed one final twist. Brilliantly plotted and well written, I sank into this book like a comfortable chair and didn't want to get up for a minute (unfortunately, there's this thing called work--and sleep). Five full stars.
Shroud of Darkness is one of my lucky finds at our local library's used/discarded bookstore. I love finding these vintage mysteries that have long been on my TBO (To Be Owned) List sitting innocently on the shelf, just waiting for me to pounce on them. Yes, I did say pounce. Literally. I realize that I might have more of these Golden Age gems in my possession if I went looking online for them a little more often. But there is nothing like the thrill of wandering into a used bookstore, scanning the shelves, and coming across a book that you've been lusting after for what seems like for ever. Punching in the title in a little box on the computer and finding out that it's available from The X Mystery Bookshop on ABE books, just doesn't produce the same excitement--at least not for me.
This particular gem (and, gem, it is in every sense of the word) begins with a train ride through one of the worst fog's that England, and particularly London, has seen in "half a century." Riding in the same train car we have an upset young man, a psychiatrist's secrtary, a large female writer with a deep voice, a businessman who looks very stockbrokerish, and an "eel-like," unsavoury young man who looks a bit like a racing tout. At journey's end the agitated young man is left for dead in the black, "monster of a fog" and the police have one monster of a mystery on their hands. After being beaten sensless, the victim's pockets are rifled and his haversack stolen and the police find themselves faced with a nameless injured man on an evening of near solid blackout when nobody could be expected to notice anybody or anything.
Fortunately for them, the secretary and the businessman both prove to be very observant witnesses and Chief Inspector MacDonald identifies the young man fairly quickly. This seems to do nothing towards clearing up the mystery, though. For it seems that the young man is a bit of a mystery himself. During the choas of the early war years, he (at age 7-8) was found wandering on his own, injured and an amnesiac, after the bombing of a port town. A kindly farmer by the name of Greville and his wife took him in and, after no one claimed him, adopted him. Just prior to his near-fatal train journey, Richard Greville begins to regain his memory in flashes. And then he seems to recognize one of his fellow passengers.
MacDonald has to wonder where he will find the roots of the attack on Greville. Does it lie somewhere in his past and have anything to do with the memories that were surfacing. Is it tied to the man Greville recognized? There are many avenues that MacDonald has to follow and he and Detective Inspector Reeves do so in very methodical, very believable, and yet highly entertaining manner. The twists and turns of the plot follow one another logically even though I didn't see some of them coming. And I have to admit that I was just as much in the dark as those fog-bound train passengers right until the very end. I was certain I had figured it all out...only to find that I missed one final twist. Brilliantly plotted and well written, I sank into this book like a comfortable chair and didn't want to get up for a minute (unfortunately, there's this thing called work--and sleep). Five full stars.
November 24, 2022
An extremely detailed story with many characters takes place in the the post-WWII period when a young man is brutally attacked. The machInations of the investigation are complex as his identity isn't even known for awhile. It has some historical interest from the war period as well. The coppers are dedicated to finding out the truth even if they aren't totally likable at times. It does get 'talky' at times, but that's not unusual in this type of mystery.
May 20, 2020
Full review at classicmystery.blog
September 17, 2023
I liked this a lot. The beginning on the train seemed very lifelike, with people keeping themselves to themselves, and only very light conversations, until the fog invading their journey and slowing everything down. The passengers felt very typical of those we have all encounted at some time. The new passengers taken on, put paid to the earlier feeling of comfort, and forced one of the main characters to leave the carriage. I also liked that the intelligence service was incorporated into the story, and will admit that I was at a loss as to who it was I was thinking as the attacker of the Richard. Macdonald did quite a bit of traveling around, and we were told of most of his thoughts, especially his thoughts on psychiatry playing a role into detecting, this being a relatively new process.
February 1, 2024
A very convoluted tale which is very difficult to review without spoiling. As usual with Lorac it is beautifully written with brilliant descriptions of the characters and locations. Macdonald and Reeves are a good team being both clever and humane. The story starts in a thick "pea souper" of a London fog which as an old Londoner myself, I remember happening quite often before the Clean Air Act came into force. The author captures the atmosphere of this really well. Murder and mayhem ensue.
This is an excellent book and highly recommended.
This is an excellent book and highly recommended.
December 18, 2021
Author E.C.R. Lorac may be one of the lesser-known mystery writers but don't let that deter you from reading any of the 40+ titles in the Robert MacDonald series. These are well-written and well-plotted mysteries/police procedurals set in Great Britain.
December 1, 2024
It’s December in a horrible fog, a train arrives late at a destination and murder occurs. But who is the man who was killed? This and all the threads that must be followed from the point of the event to their source is necessary to find the killer.
A really great mystery, and here Lorac really writes a wonderful and vivid story filled with great dialogue and characters. I had my suspicions and was correct, but you needed proof and wow, what a wonderful ride to hear all the details. It involved various areas of the police and MI 5.
The story just pulled me in and I just decided to finish it all in a couple days or I would have stayed up all night reading it - or thinking about reading it.
Insp. Macdonald, Lorac’s main detective, is on the case and he is such a wonderful character to follow along.
Highly recommended.
A really great mystery, and here Lorac really writes a wonderful and vivid story filled with great dialogue and characters. I had my suspicions and was correct, but you needed proof and wow, what a wonderful ride to hear all the details. It involved various areas of the police and MI 5.
The story just pulled me in and I just decided to finish it all in a couple days or I would have stayed up all night reading it - or thinking about reading it.
Insp. Macdonald, Lorac’s main detective, is on the case and he is such a wonderful character to follow along.
Highly recommended.
October 7, 2023
Discounted | Perpetrator obvious upon introduction, but still an interesting plot that proceeds at a good pace, with reasonable red herrings.
December 28, 2021
This is an interesting and atmospheric, if slightly flawed, later Lorac, first published in 1954.
The novel opens in a compartment of a fog-hampered railway train en- route from Devon to London, and effectively concludes on sea- tossed Channel ferry. It takes in remote Dartmoor farms, a Blitz-torn Plymouth, seedy London pubs and pre-war Cologne, on the way to a denouement which, while unravelling some of the complexities, still leaves a number of mostly irrelevant loose ends.
While I found it easy to spot the villain, the motive for the attack which sets off the investigation was not guessable. There is some neat deception and rather too much obfuscation which is never really explained.
The characterisation is strong, and most of the writing is rather good, despite some slightly tedious conversation between CI Macdonald and his sidekick Inspector Reeves which was designed merely to mislead the reader.
Of interest. When searching the bedroom of one of the characters, Macdonald found that "Flowers for the Judge and Verdict of Twelve had been in the book trough on the mantelpiece, but they weren’t there now: The Franchise Affair had been on the table beside her bed". Allingham, Postgate and Tey in green Penguin editions and one of them had a vital clue.!
Very readable, mostly, and recommended.
The novel opens in a compartment of a fog-hampered railway train en- route from Devon to London, and effectively concludes on sea- tossed Channel ferry. It takes in remote Dartmoor farms, a Blitz-torn Plymouth, seedy London pubs and pre-war Cologne, on the way to a denouement which, while unravelling some of the complexities, still leaves a number of mostly irrelevant loose ends.
While I found it easy to spot the villain, the motive for the attack which sets off the investigation was not guessable. There is some neat deception and rather too much obfuscation which is never really explained.
The characterisation is strong, and most of the writing is rather good, despite some slightly tedious conversation between CI Macdonald and his sidekick Inspector Reeves which was designed merely to mislead the reader.
Of interest. When searching the bedroom of one of the characters, Macdonald found that "Flowers for the Judge and Verdict of Twelve had been in the book trough on the mantelpiece, but they weren’t there now: The Franchise Affair had been on the table beside her bed". Allingham, Postgate and Tey in green Penguin editions and one of them had a vital clue.!
Very readable, mostly, and recommended.
April 23, 2022
Descobri a autora na coleção da British Library, que reedita livros/autores da Golden Age das histórias de detetives britânicas. Seu detetive principal é o Inspetor-Chefe Macdonald, da Scotland Yard, um personagem tenaz e inteligente, além de muito educado. Nada de super inteligência, mas investigação exaustiva (ainda que descontada a ficção e as limitações da época, décadas atrás), com a ajuda de seu ajudante, o inspetor Reeves (acho super interessante ele ser especialista em jiu-jitsu, um personagem concebido na época da segunda guerra mundial!).
September 24, 2023
Published in 1954 this is the fortieth book in the long-running Robert Macdonald series. Sadly, they are not all in print, but I have enjoyed all of those I have read so far and am hopeful that more of this author's books is republished. Edith Caroline Rivett died at the end of the fifties, and wrote under the pseudonym's of both E.C.R. Lorac and Carol Carnac.
A train is slowly meandering into Paddington station during a fog - one of the London Peculiars that settled over the City in that era. In a train compartment are an assorted group of people, who including a young secretary to a psychiatrist, a young man who becomes anxious as the journey progresses, a middle aged woman busy writing, a businessman and two men who board at Reading, one of whom is considered, 'a bad lot.' When the train finally arrives, pretty young secretary, Sarah, is keen to get back to her shared flat. The young, nervous man, is later found, head coshed but not dead. It is up to Chief Inspector Macdonald to discover his identity and the reason for the attack.
This mystery is an interesting one, with it's plot relating to the mysterious past of the young man who was attacked. It feels, in many ways, quite a modern book, despite the fog, the steam trains, the fact that Macdonald has to travel around the country to get answers, as people are not as easily contactable as they are now. There are still those who view those in authority with suspicion or who are unwilling to share what they know, slowing down Macdonald's investigation. I enjoyed the settings, the characters and the mystery. Lorac, or Rivett, was an excellent writer and I look forward to discovering more of her work and am pleased to have discovered her.
A train is slowly meandering into Paddington station during a fog - one of the London Peculiars that settled over the City in that era. In a train compartment are an assorted group of people, who including a young secretary to a psychiatrist, a young man who becomes anxious as the journey progresses, a middle aged woman busy writing, a businessman and two men who board at Reading, one of whom is considered, 'a bad lot.' When the train finally arrives, pretty young secretary, Sarah, is keen to get back to her shared flat. The young, nervous man, is later found, head coshed but not dead. It is up to Chief Inspector Macdonald to discover his identity and the reason for the attack.
This mystery is an interesting one, with it's plot relating to the mysterious past of the young man who was attacked. It feels, in many ways, quite a modern book, despite the fog, the steam trains, the fact that Macdonald has to travel around the country to get answers, as people are not as easily contactable as they are now. There are still those who view those in authority with suspicion or who are unwilling to share what they know, slowing down Macdonald's investigation. I enjoyed the settings, the characters and the mystery. Lorac, or Rivett, was an excellent writer and I look forward to discovering more of her work and am pleased to have discovered her.
May 22, 2024
Rating 3.5
I tend to enjoy reading the ECR novels which feature her series characters.
The people and places are always drawn very well and almost always I can see the locations in my mind’s eye with trying. Also for me she creates an atmosphere that keeps me interested in the novel even when the plot isn’t the strongest.
the novel moves along at a steady measured pace, some readers have said it is too slow. That might be so in a couple of places but I have found police procedural type novels from this era generally follow a similar pattern (a couple of the inspector French novels I found slow and plodding for the same reason).
The series characters were all on form so to speak, the new characters I found interesting and well drawn. The London particular was almost a character in its own right as it influenced the story several times, very descriptive.
The plot was a relatively standard one tbh, the victim was fairly obvious quite quickly to the reader although you have to allow for possible misdirection to take place.
The slight niggle I suppose I had was the ending which seemed to happen almost too quickly.
Overall though an enjoyable read for me that probably should be a 3 under normal circumstances and when compared to other titles in the series but liked it enough to go to a 4.
I tend to enjoy reading the ECR novels which feature her series characters.
The people and places are always drawn very well and almost always I can see the locations in my mind’s eye with trying. Also for me she creates an atmosphere that keeps me interested in the novel even when the plot isn’t the strongest.
the novel moves along at a steady measured pace, some readers have said it is too slow. That might be so in a couple of places but I have found police procedural type novels from this era generally follow a similar pattern (a couple of the inspector French novels I found slow and plodding for the same reason).
The series characters were all on form so to speak, the new characters I found interesting and well drawn. The London particular was almost a character in its own right as it influenced the story several times, very descriptive.
The plot was a relatively standard one tbh, the victim was fairly obvious quite quickly to the reader although you have to allow for possible misdirection to take place.
The slight niggle I suppose I had was the ending which seemed to happen almost too quickly.
Overall though an enjoyable read for me that probably should be a 3 under normal circumstances and when compared to other titles in the series but liked it enough to go to a 4.
November 20, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed every Detective Inspector Macdonald book. I am disappointed that a significant number of the titles are not available. There seems to be some obstacle for her out of print books being available to Internet Archive. I learned that most of the books were published by Collin’s Crime Club and then a publisher in the US. Apparently the print copies became collector items selling for excellent prices due to the cover art. There is a 1987 book that talks about the Golden Age covers for crime books that made them so popular.
During the plot on the train very early in this story there is mention of titles by Josephine Tey. I will be working my way through Tey’s books having read and enjoyed, The Daughter of Time.
All in all Lorac does an interesting job of plot development and character detail. Somewhere I read she used the attributes of people known to her as models for many characters.
Thankfully I still have a couple of the Macdonald seres to read.
During the plot on the train very early in this story there is mention of titles by Josephine Tey. I will be working my way through Tey’s books having read and enjoyed, The Daughter of Time.
All in all Lorac does an interesting job of plot development and character detail. Somewhere I read she used the attributes of people known to her as models for many characters.
Thankfully I still have a couple of the Macdonald seres to read.
September 25, 2023
This is a great mystery/thriller set in the post WW II years. It concerns a young man on a fog-bound train to London who is bashed over the head and left for dead shortly after departing the train at Paddington Station, during one of the thick fog/smog wreathed nights so common at the time. Sarah Dillon, a young woman in the same carriage as the victim gets drawn into the case, overseen by D.I. MacDonald of the CID. Lorac very skillfully weaves together the possibilities-caught up in the wrong gang, war crimes resurfacing, Psychological and memory issues, family and inheritance issues-and gives us a very satisfyingly drawn out mystery and its solution, with skilfully drawn and likeable characters, a very strong plot, and great settings and atmosphere. I look forward to reading more of her work.
February 22, 2025
A young man is attacked and left for dead shortly after he leaves a train at Paddingston Station. While he remains in a coma, Chief Inspector MacDonald goes on the hunt, seeking clues to who the victim is and why the attack happened. He lucks out in finding a young woman who talked to the man on the train and can clearly identify the others in the train compartment. And soon MacDonald finds that there is a killer willing to kill others to protect himself.
A nicely laid out mystery and thriller with realistic characters, situations and dialogue (always so important in a tale). This is strong, clever writing that leads the reader along with MacDonald and encourages joining in the solution of the mystery. There is also a quite thrilling event that confirms the villain and the rationale for the original assault. A very enjoyable read.
A nicely laid out mystery and thriller with realistic characters, situations and dialogue (always so important in a tale). This is strong, clever writing that leads the reader along with MacDonald and encourages joining in the solution of the mystery. There is also a quite thrilling event that confirms the villain and the rationale for the original assault. A very enjoyable read.
November 28, 2025
I was reminded of Ngaio Marsh's Vintage Murder, as Shroud of Darkness opens with a passenger assessing her fellow travelers in a train car bound for London. That's where the similarities end, of course, as readers are plunged into the stygian darkness of a dense London smog. A young man is found near death after a violent attack at a darkened station, his identity unclear. We later learn that he was found as a child, wandering alone after a WWII bombing, memory lost and parents nowhere to be found. MacDonald has his work cut out for him, but ultimately clarifies the reason for the attack and the true identity of the victim. There's a fun Easter egg for GAD fans as two characters trade mystery novels (a Ngaio March and a Josephine Tey) during the train journey. Atmospheric, clever, and engaging.
June 4, 2023
A confusing mess of a book.
Also, guessed the murderer in this one too way before I even knew the whole story. Mystery writers just have a way of writing the character of a murderer which acts like a spotlight. You can always tell who they are trying too hard to keep just out of it all, so that they can give the readers a slip and yet land on a plausible player at the end.
The recurrence of fog and the atmosphere really makes me wanna go read Bleak House. I know Dickens has used the setting as a metaphor or something, and it makes me wonder if that wasn't what Lorac had been trying with this one too.
Also, guessed the murderer in this one too way before I even knew the whole story. Mystery writers just have a way of writing the character of a murderer which acts like a spotlight. You can always tell who they are trying too hard to keep just out of it all, so that they can give the readers a slip and yet land on a plausible player at the end.
The recurrence of fog and the atmosphere really makes me wanna go read Bleak House. I know Dickens has used the setting as a metaphor or something, and it makes me wonder if that wasn't what Lorac had been trying with this one too.
September 10, 2023
“Shroud of Darkness” (1954) by E.C.R. Lorac (pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett) is set in Britain in the 1950s and is one of the Inspector MacDonald series. A thick fog delays trains going to London. A young man who was on one of these trains is assaulted as he leaves the train. MacDonald tries to determine why the man was attacked and who was responsible. This is a well-written mystery with sharp characterizations of the people in the story and many red herrings. You do feel like you are trapped in fog-bound London. Highly recommended.
April 30, 2022
Another well crafted story from E.C.R Lorac
I've read a fair amount of Golden Age mysteries in the past few years and I rate E.C.R. Lorac in the top rank of this genre's writers. Inspector MacDonald and his colleagues at CID in Scotland Yard carry on in their usual methodical way while unraveling a unique crime committed in the midst of a terrible fog.
Even though I guessed the culprit early on, the story kept my interest to the end.
I've read a fair amount of Golden Age mysteries in the past few years and I rate E.C.R. Lorac in the top rank of this genre's writers. Inspector MacDonald and his colleagues at CID in Scotland Yard carry on in their usual methodical way while unraveling a unique crime committed in the midst of a terrible fog.
Even though I guessed the culprit early on, the story kept my interest to the end.
May 23, 2022
Another Great Book By E C R Lorac
I am in the process of reading all of Lorac’s books. She is such an excellent writer of mysteries. I will admit that I had settled on the murderer fairly early in the book. However, the author has such a great way of throwing in red herrings that I began to doubt myself. I strongly encourage anyone who has not read any of her books to give them a try.
I am in the process of reading all of Lorac’s books. She is such an excellent writer of mysteries. I will admit that I had settled on the murderer fairly early in the book. However, the author has such a great way of throwing in red herrings that I began to doubt myself. I strongly encourage anyone who has not read any of her books to give them a try.
January 15, 2024
I think this was more of a 3.5. I'm reading my way through the Faded Page ebooks of Lorac's Inspector, and thought this would be a favourite, as I usually like them better when the police show up early in the story. It did begin well, with a dead body in a railway station, stripped of ID, and the investigation hampered by the choking, atmospheric fog. But the ending had the Inspector a bit unbelieveably brilliant.
July 5, 2024
Gripping. Vividly evokes wartime raids
I’ve read several of her books and enjoyed them all. The plots are clever and keep you guessing. But what I enjoy most are her observations of life at the time she was writing. In this book, a country farmhouse which doesn’t even have running water or electricity- the young working girls living on imported canned goods - and the way everyone relies on a cigarette in social situations.
I’ve read several of her books and enjoyed them all. The plots are clever and keep you guessing. But what I enjoy most are her observations of life at the time she was writing. In this book, a country farmhouse which doesn’t even have running water or electricity- the young working girls living on imported canned goods - and the way everyone relies on a cigarette in social situations.
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