Murder by Matchlight (Robert MacDonald, #26) in Reading the Detectives

Apr 29, 2019 Susan in NC rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, kindle, library-book, detectives-buddy-read24

8/2024 reread, up to 5 stars. On this reread, after becoming more familiar with Lorac’s writing through several more of her excellent reissued GA mysteries, I can appreciate even more her intricate plotting and the diligence of CID man Macdonald and his team. The wartime setting is so evocative, the characters so interesting-and I’d totally forgotten whodunnit and the exciting climax! Very enjoyable and entertaining.

2019: 4.5 stars, excellent, atmospheric police procedural, which made excellent 8/2024 reread, up to 5 stars. On this reread, after becoming more familiar with Lorac’s writing through several more of her excellent reissued GA mysteries, I can appreciate even more her intricate plotting and the diligence of CID man Macdonald and his team. The wartime setting is so evocative, the characters so interesting-and I’d totally forgotten whodunnit and the exciting climax! Very enjoyable and entertaining.

2019: 4.5 stars, excellent, atmospheric police procedural, which made excellent use of WWII London - blackout conditions, air raids, identity cards, etc. This is the second Golden Age mystery I’ve read by Lorac, and I hope more of her books become available as re-issues soon.

In this case, the action is off to a quick start - as the book opens, a young man is wandering Regent’s Park during the blackout on a raw, dark November night; he was to meet his fiancée for dinner, but her leave was canceled. Rather than dine alone, he takes a walk through the park - and witnesses a murder on a footbridge - illuminated only by the momentary light of the victim’s match.

Lorac’s intrepid Scotland Yard Inspector Macdonald is soon on the case; the victim appears to be a “negative” - no personal effects in his rented room, using a fake name, no apparent friends or relations. Macdonald meets some fascinating characters at the victim’s boardinghouse: several interesting vaudevillians, a very sharp elderly landlady, and a scholarly gentleman who takes an interest in his fellow tenants. The more Macdonald digs, the more confusing and complex the mystery (and possible motives) around the murder becomes...

I really enjoyed this - getting to know the cool, collected Macdonald better, the realistic portrayal of the wartime London conditions, and making the acquaintance of such wonderful, almost Dickensian characters as the wise, cheerful, resilient landlady Mrs. Maloney, along with Mr. Ramses, the brilliant mimic and illusionist. I will look for more of Lorac’s books; she deserves a wider readership for her satisfying puzzles, great characters and wonderful detective! ...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mcpl-book, mystery, vintage-mystery

"It's a fantastic story--but fantastic stories do happen in London."

It is a fantastic story. It's a story of a young chemist by the name of Bruce Mallaig whose fiancée is down with 'flu takes a walk through Regent's Park on a damp November evening in wartime London. He's feeling a bit at loose ends and sits down on a bench near a familiar footbridge. While he's considering "the advantages of a fair-sized flat in Dolphin Square as against a single-room one in Trinity Court" as a married couple's "It's a fantastic story--but fantastic stories do happen in London."

It is a fantastic story. It's a story of a young chemist by the name of Bruce Mallaig whose fiancée is down with 'flu takes a walk through Regent's Park on a damp November evening in wartime London. He's feeling a bit at loose ends and sits down on a bench near a familiar footbridge. While he's considering "the advantages of a fair-sized flat in Dolphin Square as against a single-room one in Trinity Court" as a married couple's abode, he observes a stranger walk onto the bridge, flash a torch briefly in the wartime dark, and then hears him scramble over the railing and drop to the ground below the bridge.

Mallaig is puzzling over this odd behavior when another figure comes along and stops on the bridge to smoke a cigarette. The chemist supposes the second man to have an assignation--perhaps with a young lady--and is prepared to warn the young lovers about the man lurking below when the man on the bridge strikes another match which briefly lights up a face slightly above and behind his own. The match goes out and Mallaig hears a thud and the sound of a body falling. He grabs a man he hears scrambling over the railing and hollers for the police. But when the police arrive it seems--if both are telling the truth--that neither Mallaig nor the man he stopped (the man from under the bridge) could be the killer. How did a third man arrive and leave without either of them hearing a sound?

That's one of the many questions that Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald must answer as he looks for the killer of the man on the bridge. And the man on the bridge is a puzzle himself. He has been living in a boarding house under the name of John Ward, but investigations seem to indicate that he picked up that persona when a German air raid destroyed his previous lodgings. Has someone killed "John Ward" because of who he is now? Or has someone found out that he used to be Timothy O'Farrell and that was why he was killed? That's another item for Macdonald and his team to figure out.

The only evidence at the bridge site is a set of bicycle tracks that come to an abrupt end. The suspects include the non-descript witness Mallaig, the unemployed laborer lurking under the bridge, a well-known London doctor, a screenwriter who knows his antiques, a garrulous landlady, a variety show actress, a vaudeville husband and wife team specializing in illusions, and a chorus girl. When Macdonald discovers that the victim wasn't above a spot of blackmail--either as Ward or O'Farrell, it becomes a matter of determining which of his blackmail targets stood to lose the most if their secret was spilled.

I have a definite soft spot for Murder by Matchlight. It was the first Lorac book that I discovered back in my twenties when I was just getting back to reading large numbers of mysteries again. It was the only Lorac book that our local library carried at the time and set me on a hunt for the Lorac name whenever I visited a used bookstore. I didn't find another until about fifteen years later. When I had some birthday money to spend and was hunting on Ebay for likely purchases, I was excited to find a Unicorn Mystery Book Club 4-in-1 anthology with Matchlight in it. And now I get to revisit it and see if it holds up.

And..it does. In fact, if anything, I think I enjoyed it more since I plan on giving it a bump in star value from my previous rating. I especially enjoyed the wartime background. The war and the blackouts that accompanied it are integral to the story and Lorac deftly works the war into the story providing atmosphere and depth to the mystery. Macdonald is at his best--good interview techniques and very humane interactions with all and sundry. I positively enjoyed his interactions with all of the residents at the boarding house--especially Mrs. Maloney, the landlady. I had my eye on two suspects from the beginning, though I must admit that I missed the clues which should have told me that my second choice absolutely could have done it. The method the killer uses to be on the spot without revealing his presence too soon was really quite nice. Overall, an excellent read.

Read as part of a 4-in-1 Unicorn Mystery Book Club edition. First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks. ...more

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Nov 05, 2015 Tracey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, wwii, homefront

It's so lovely to find a new-to-me golden age mystery, and one that almost lives up to favorites of its era. Murder by Matchlight – which I received through Netgalley, thanks very much – is a Dover reissue of a book originally published in 1945, the story of a murder in a park in London as the war continues to rage across the Channel.

And it was wonderfully enjoyable. The mystery is a lovely puzzle, with the wartime setting, some fun and exotic elements, and sheer happenstance combining into jus It's so lovely to find a new-to-me golden age mystery, and one that almost lives up to favorites of its era. Murder by Matchlight – which I received through Netgalley, thanks very much – is a Dover reissue of a book originally published in 1945, the story of a murder in a park in London as the war continues to rage across the Channel.

And it was wonderfully enjoyable. The mystery is a lovely puzzle, with the wartime setting, some fun and exotic elements, and sheer happenstance combining into just a whole lot of fun. One suspect says:

"If I’d wanted to kill Johnnie Ward—which I didn’t—I shouldn’t have done it in a way that would have brought Scotland Yard to my door next morning. Oh, no. If I’d done it, no one would have been any the wiser. I may be a clown, but I’m an efficient clown."

Which is a wonderful defense, isn't it?

I loved the characterizations. The victim was terrific – lovable, in his way, so that the reader can find room for regret at his death … but he also had plenty of truly exasperating ways and habits, and inspired lots of lovely motives. The police refused to follow the "official detectives are always idiots" school of thought, and the young hero-suspect declined to over-involve himself in the case and become an improbable sleuth. And the theatrical folk of the boarding house where the victim (and a bunch of the suspects) lived were marvelous.

(Also: there is a character named Tracey. Mr. Tracey. Heh.)

The setting is equally enjoyable. Set in 1944 and published in 1945, this is a London where nearly every able-bodied man is either at war or on his way, and where the civilians left home are in almost as much danger as their loved ones in actual battle as bombs rain down with alarming regularity. It's a setting in which a murder investigation – especially, in a way, this investigation – feels almost irrelevant.

"It seems to me that the fact that one ne’er-do-well has met a violent end is not a matter of supreme importance in a world which is in the throes of a convulsion which may destroy civilization itself before we’re through."

I was almost afraid to click on the author's name to see his – oh, no, sorry: HER other books. So often I read something by an author new to me, fall in love, and then find that there's little (or nothing) else out in the world by that writer. But! According to her Goodreads author profile: "She was a very prolific writer, having written forty-eight mysteries under her first pen name, and twenty-three under her second." Pardon me while I do a bit of a happy dance.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. ...more

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Sep 08, 2024 Teri-K rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-golden-age

Another good story by this author, but I wouldn't call it one of her best, as the Introduction does. (BTW, don't read the Intro to the BLCC* version before you read the book for the first time. It spoils a lot of the plot.) The mystery was puzzling, there were plenty of suspects, and I didn't figure out who dunnit. However, the solution is pretty convoluted and turns on an idea that I can only call outdated, one I doubt any modern reader would think of or agree with.

The best part of this book is ...more

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Mar 12, 2019 Carol Evans rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, professional-sleuth, read-in-2019

Murder by Matchlight features Scotland Yard’s imperturbable Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald, who is tasked with finding the killer of the man on the bridge. His only evidence: a set of bicycle tracks that come to an abrupt end. His suspects: a colorful cast that includes the shy, soft-spoken witness, a respected London physician, a screenwriter, an unemployed laborer, and a vaudevillian specializing in illusions.
This is the first of Lorac’s MacDonald mysteries I’ve read. MacDonald is a good cha ...more

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Mar 02, 2019 Gardener0126 rated it it was amazing

This is a well written vintage mystery by an author that I had not heard of before. Apparently she wrote quite a number of novels featuring Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald, as well as one other mystery series. Although this is an old fashioned mystery, and the setting is certainly in the past, the book was easy to read and in some respects didn’t seem as dated as I would have expected. I really enjoyed it and will be on the lookout for more novels by this author.

This book a police procedural se ...more

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Dec 01, 2023 Laura Anne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, british-isles, world-war-ii

Wartime blackouts and bombings provide an atmospheric background for a puzzle mystery.

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Feb 04, 2019 Annarella rated it it was amazing

I love Ms Lorac books and I think this the best I read so far.
It's full of twists, turns, red herrings and keeps you guessing till the end.
I was happy to meet again Chief Inspector MacDonald and follow him while he solves the mystery.
It's a very intriguing and enthralling plot, I read it in two setting and couldn't let it down.
The historical setting is very interesting as it pictures London during the Blitz and gives a lively and realistic picture of what should have been living under the bombs. ...more

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Aug 24, 2020 P. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

WW II! London! The blitz! Murder! with flat, boring characters, and a flimsy plot. Like sleep-walking thru a crime scene. True, at the 3/4 mark a few lively characters show up, but it's too little, too late. ...more

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