From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Murder by Matchlight (Robert MacDonald, #26)

E.C.R. Lorac,

Martin Edwards (Introduction)

Start date: September 1, 2024

Finish date: September 30, 2024

Discussion: Group reads

Why we're reading this: Winner of the poll for our September group read.
[close] Winner of the poll for our September group read.

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Group reads

* December 2025 group read - Winner!
By Judy · 28 posts · 32 views

last updated Oct 15, 2025 10:39AM

* Oct 25: Murder Included (#1 D.I. Price) by Joanna Cannan
By Susan · 11 posts · 17 views

last updated Oct 02, 2025 10:38AM

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What Members Thought

Oct 17, 2025 Rosario rated it really liked it · review of another edition

My second Lorac, and this was also a very good one.

The mystery is a very intriguing one, quite different from anything I have seen before. The investigation was interesting to follow along, as it approached the problem from several different possible angles, and it brought in a great cast of secondary characters. Very colourful personalities, and very of their time. When the solution was revealed I could see that, looking back, the clues had been there, but I'd missed them completely. Mind you, My second Lorac, and this was also a very good one.

The mystery is a very intriguing one, quite different from anything I have seen before. The investigation was interesting to follow along, as it approached the problem from several different possible angles, and it brought in a great cast of secondary characters. Very colourful personalities, and very of their time. When the solution was revealed I could see that, looking back, the clues had been there, but I'd missed them completely. Mind you, I'm not completely convinced by the logistics of how the murder was committed, but I could suspend disbelief just fine (just as I had to do with the fact that every character in this book seems amazing at recognising people they saw in passing, even weeks after).

Just as much as the mystery itself, I enjoyed how the time and setting were so integral to the story*. This is right from the very start, with the blackout playing a huge part in how the murder takes place, and continues throughout the book. The way people react, characters' motivations, what people are able and not able to do, it's all coloured by the time and place. I found a scene near the end, when some climactic action takes place during an air raid, particularly fascinating and touching, especially thinking of the civilians living through similar evil attacks today.

I can't wait to read more of Lorac's books.

* When exactly this is set is not fully clear to me, and a little confusing. This was published in 1945. At one point a character says "I did not [persuade X to do Y] until 1944" after something happened as a result of a bomb falling on an air raid shelter. This implies that it's not 1944 any longer, otherwise they would not say it that way. And the action is supposed to take place at least nine months after that (no, no babies involved, it's just said at one point that someone had been living somewhere for nine months, and that could only have happened after the shelter bombing I mentioned). I've been reading around and apparently there was something called ‘Operation Steinbock’ (Capricorn) between January and May 1944, which saw 14 air raids on London and killed quite a lot of people. We may guess that this was when the bombing of the air raid shelter took place. Which would put the events of this book sometime in early 1945. The problem is that after D-Day, it seems that the air attacks were V2 rockets, not plane bombings, and yet in the very tense scene mentioned above, it's explicitly mentioned that the bombs are being dropped by planes. So either I have missed mention of such raids still in 1945, or the fog of war meant that Lorac assumed that the attacks on London in 45 were caused by the same as the ones earlier in the war. Well, it doesn't really matter, but I found it interesting to look into. ...more

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Sep 05, 2024 Sandy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-classic, rread-2024, mystery-detective-grp

Excellent for atmosphere, characters and plot. Minor quibble with murder method and a minor plot device. The portrayal of London and Londoners during the Blitz was dramatic. Investigating a murder when entire addresses and the people living there have disappeared adds to the difficulty.

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