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Rope’s End, Rogue’s End

E.C.R. Lorac

Start date: December 1, 2023

Finish date: December 31, 2023

Discussion: Group reads

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What Members Thought

Nov 19, 2023 Susan rated it really liked it

E.C.R. Lorac, pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett, has been one of my favourite author discoveries recently. I love Golden Age fiction and am delighted so many out of print authors are now becoming available. This mystery is number 21 in the long-running Robert Macdonald series and, though published in 1942, appears to be set pre-WWII.

As so often, we have a country house - Wulfstane Manor, home to twins, Veronica and Martin Mallowood. Their brothers, Paul, Basil and Richard, were upset at not bein ...more

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Nov 21, 2023 Susan in NC rated it really liked it

4.5 stars, knocked 1/2 a star off for the horrible lack of punctuation in the ebook. Excellent complex mystery by my favorite new GA author and series of the last few years, featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Macdonald.

In this case, he encounters yet another great country estate, this one crumbling and in disrepair. The Mallowood family have been at Wulfstone Manor for centuries, and are a turbulent, hot-tempered bunch; the siblings are having a reunion of sorts at the estate before Paul, the eld 4.5 stars, knocked 1/2 a star off for the horrible lack of punctuation in the ebook. Excellent complex mystery by my favorite new GA author and series of the last few years, featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Macdonald.

In this case, he encounters yet another great country estate, this one crumbling and in disrepair. The Mallowood family have been at Wulfstone Manor for centuries, and are a turbulent, hot-tempered bunch; the siblings are having a reunion of sorts at the estate before Paul, the eldest, heads off on an extended vacation abroad. He has made his fortune in the City, and was livid when their tyrannical father’s will was read, and he didn’t inherit the manor; it was instead left to twins Veronica and Martin. They haven’t the money to maintain it, and Paul desperately wants to buy at least part of the estate and maintain it. The other two brothers, Richard and Basil, are an international explorer and another City man - but Basil is perhaps not as squeaky clean in business as big brother Paul.

In fact, Paul has just driven off to catch his flight abroad when a gun shot rings out. Basil appears to have shot himself just as a policeman is arriving at the estate to arrest him for fraud - then brother Martin, always mentally fragile, and prone to periods of amnesia, disappears. Macdonald has quite a case on his hands - was Basil a straightforward suicide, trying to escape the law for his financial misdeeds? Or was it actually a diabolically clever murder? And if so, who did it, and how? Also, where are the fortune in bonds that Basil supposedly had with him?

This was quite a complex tangle, but I really enjoyed it, especially, as always, the routine but dogged and necessary investigation by Macdonald and his team. Also in this case, the fascinating setting of the beautiful, vast but crumbling estate - Lorac made it almost another character, imbuing it with a vague sense of menace. I had a feeling I knew what happened, but had no clue how it was done; as usual, with elaborate murder methods, I couldn’t quite picture it, but really appreciated Macdonald’s summation at the end. ...more

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Apr 22, 2024 Lady Wesley rated it liked it · review of another edition

Lorac had me completely fooled here, possibly because the murder plot was so damnably complex. I have no argument with that. McDonald’s sleuthing was impeccable.

I did not enjoy this book as much as I have the others that I’ve read so far. One of the things I admire about Lorac’s work is the strong sense of place she creates to go along with the mystery. Here, the only “place” was a creepy old medieval/Elizabethan/Jacobean house where most of the action occurred. And the main characters were fiv ...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, vintage-mystery, mystery, bought-2009

In Rope's End, Rogue's End (1942) by E. C. R. Lorac we have the stand-by of British detective fiction...the English manor house. Wulfstane manor, a rambling old country house with many unused rooms, winding staircases, and a maze of cellars, had been bequeathed to Veronica Mallowood and her twin brother Martin. The last time the family of Mallowoods had gathered under the ancestral roof was on the occasion of their father's funeral, and there had been one of those unholy rows which not infrequen In Rope's End, Rogue's End (1942) by E. C. R. Lorac we have the stand-by of British detective fiction...the English manor house. Wulfstane manor, a rambling old country house with many unused rooms, winding staircases, and a maze of cellars, had been bequeathed to Veronica Mallowood and her twin brother Martin. The last time the family of Mallowoods had gathered under the ancestral roof was on the occasion of their father's funeral, and there had been one of those unholy rows which not infrequently follow the reading of the will. Now, elder brother Paul has stopped by the family home on his way out of the country on a prolonged and long-deserved holiday. He wants to try one more time to get Veronica and Martin "to see sense" and allow him to provide the necessary funds to keep Mallowood in the style to which it should be accustomed. His sister and brother would rather live poor and let the place fall down around them than to be beholden to the brother who made their lives a misery when growing up. Added to the mix we have brothers Basil and Richard--and it seems that none of the Mallowoods like any of the others. Basil, like Paul, is a man of business in town--reputed to have done well. Richard has always been a traveler and never stayed in one place for long.

The unexpected family reunion takes place with fewer arguments than anticipated and the next morning Paul sets off on his journey. That's when things get interesting. Basil receives mail that seems to be of the upsetting sort. Next thing we know a shot is heard, the locked door to the old playroom is broken down and there sits Basil (or rather what's left of him)--an apparent victim of suicide. Everything looks cut and dried to Inspector Long who has shown up on the scene intending to serve Basil for a warrant for embezzlement and who winds up with a corpse on his hands. Basil knew things were getting hot, the messages from town probably told him so (the remains are mere ashes in the fireplace), and he took the easy way out. But there are little odds and ends that just don't sit right with Inspector Long.

Enter Inspector Robert MacDonald from Scotland Yard. He, too, finds certain pieces of the puzzle not quite fitting and goes on to find that both Basil and his brother Paul have left their personal and business affairs in a much too tidy fashion. No fingerprints anywhere in either man's home. No personal papers lying about. Everything boxed up and shipped off to some mysterious safe deposit box. Why have these men cleaned up so faithfully behind them? Particularly Paul--about whom there isn't the least whiff of scandal? And then there's brother Martin who has disappeared since just before the suicide and hasn't shown up since. Where is he and why isn't his sister Veronica more concerned?

Inspector MacDonald follows the clues through the literal maze of the house and the theoretical maze of identity, double-lives, and financial woes to the startling conclusion. A very interesting example of a mystery from the forties. I picked up on one of the vital clues...but I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. Lorac had me baffled to the end. I always like that in a good mystery. Four stars. ...more

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Nov 17, 2023 Jill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-c-r-lorac

This is a story about another huge house in the countryside that is left to ruin, by the inhabitants. Martin and Veronica have inherited it from their father, even though there were three older brothers. This has caused a very rift between them all. Martin was very ill as a child and Veronica was the one who nursed him, whereas the elder brothers had been able to look after themselves. Paul the eldest has done very well for himself and continually offers to a part of the house if not all of it, ...more

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Dec 05, 2023 Sandy rated it it was ok

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, own, mystery-classic, z2023-own-24, rread-2023

Not my favorite Lorac. I'm not a fan of locked room mysteries, though I'm good at ignoring the method and enjoying the who and why. However, this murder plan was too extreme for my taste. ...more

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Dec 03, 2023 Frances rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-series

A challenging and confusing mystery for Inspector MaxDonald, set in a crumbling manor house among a family locked in disagreements and mutual dislike. One brother commits suicide, another has just left for an extended tour abroad, and the police suspect something isn't quite as it seems. One of those mysteries that just seems to strain the bonds of possibilities but Lorac's style and characters do seem to pull it all together. ...more

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