From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Crossed Skis (Julian Rivers #8)

Carol Carnac,

Martin Edwards (Introduction)

Start date: April 1, 2023

Finish date: April 30, 2023

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Another pseudonym for popular author ECR Lorac
[close] Another pseudonym for popular author ECR Lorac

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 328 topics — 11,869 comments total

Group reads

* VOTE NOW for November 2025 group read!
By Judy · 19 posts · 23 views

last updated Sep 07, 2025 01:29AM

* Sept 25: Lonesome Road (#3 Miss Silver Mysteries) by Patricia Wentworth
By Susan · 13 posts · 11 views

last updated Sep 03, 2025 12:03PM

showing 7 of 7 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Dec 18, 2020 Anissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020, christmas-and-winter-mysteries, mystery-suspense-crime, british-library-crime-classics, british-fiction-uk-ireland

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 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." ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2024 Tania rated it really liked it

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 ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2021 Shauna rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021, golden-age-crime

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. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Dec 11, 2020 Lynnie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, favourites, london, mystery, bought-for-the-cover, read-in-2020, winter, post-war, british-library-crime, read-in-2024

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.

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2023 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-c-r-lorac

This book is about a party of people going for a ski-trip in Austria on new years day. This trip will take them away from the dark, and foggy weather of London. It is a party of sixteen, 8 females and 8 males. Some of them are friends, but others were included to make up the numbers. All sixteen are looking forward better weather and a chance to relax and most look forward to having the chance to participate in the skiing. Back in London a man has been found dead, having been the victim of a hou ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 19, 2020 Ellen rated it really liked it

Loved this. Love the details of the 1950s; meat rationing; currency regulations etc. Felt sorry for Lancing who seemed to get demoted during the novel! 😉

Like · see review

Apr 13, 2023 Leslie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, mysteries

Enjoyable but information is withheld from the reader... I did like the way the storyline in London intertwined with the storyline in Austria.

Like · see review

May 24, 2020 Andréa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, digital, netgalley-edelweiss, arc, mystery-thriller-crime, sports-games, british-isles, travel-transportation

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

Like · see review

Apr 07, 2023 Sandy rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, mystery-classic, rread-2023

Another enjoyable Lorac, aka Carnac, book. This one I found more interesting for the post-WWII setting than for the mystery. These young women have been freed from many constraints suffered by those growing up before the war. The two alternating and intersecting plot lines are well done. Many, but not all, of the characters are well developed. Nor are all loose ends resolved.

Like · see review