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Post After Post-Mortem

E.C.R. Lorac,

Martin Edwards (Introduction)

Start date: March 1, 2024

Finish date: March 31, 2024

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Jul 10, 2023 Christine PNW rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I liked this one, and had no idea who did it.

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May 22, 2024 Natalie rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, mystery-thriller

Rating 4.5. This is my second mystery by Lorac and I find her mysteries well thought out, with careful and logical examination of the evidence, as well as interesting characters. My reason for not giving it a 5 is a couple times the reasoning seems a bit shaky. But it's a very entertaining read!
We meet the Surray family: mother, father (Professor) and children Richard, Ruth, Robert, Judith, and Naomi. All the children (actually adults) are successful in their careers as well as writers. They are Rating 4.5. This is my second mystery by Lorac and I find her mysteries well thought out, with careful and logical examination of the evidence, as well as interesting characters. My reason for not giving it a 5 is a couple times the reasoning seems a bit shaky. But it's a very entertaining read!
We meet the Surray family: mother, father (Professor) and children Richard, Ruth, Robert, Judith, and Naomi. All the children (actually adults) are successful in their careers as well as writers. They are holding a social event at the parents' house including writer Stanwood, publisher Montague, lively Fellowes, and experienced author Mrs Trant. We also meet Keith Brandon, an explorer and mysterious love interest of Ruth.
In the morning after the gathering, Ruth, an admired author, is found dead in her room. At first, it is ruled a suicide. But Richard receives a letter from Ruth, written the night she was killed, contradicting the assumption she was unhappy. Macdonald, a police investigator, (and sleuth in some of Lorac's other books) and later criminal investigator Reeves are brought in to discover if it was murder.
The evidence against Brandon grows as the investigation goes on. We also have three unusual events: Fellowes falls in the pool while talking to Montague and is seriously hurt, a basement workroom is set on fire, and later Richard and Stanwood are poisoned (but both recover). Macdonald mostly interviews people, asking about details and possible motives. Meanwhile, Reeves tries to follow Brandon as he travels around, even going so far as to question train employees to track the suspect. (Reeves however finds the wrong man is arrested at one point and assumes Brandon used a fake double--which seems unlikely to me).
Macdonald then interviews Brandon and finds out additional information that lead him to conclude who the murderer is. There's a scuffle and a few tense moments before we discover the details of the murder. (However some of the conclusions as to motive and method seem unproven).
I was surprised by the conclusion. One interesting element of the story is the assumption that people are at their best when they are completely logical. Feeling emotion leads to wild conjecture or a touch of madness! The characters become unreliable when they are wrought.
The prose is great and though there are elements that set the story in the 1930s, it is a great mystery. ...more

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Dec 03, 2024 Jill rated it liked it

I found this hard to get into at first, the writing felt somewhat impersonal, almost like a news reporter rather than a novelist. Later, the story fired up and the plot carried me along with more interest. The ending was satisfying and logical and kept me guessing until the end.

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