Dec 23: Rope’s End, Rogue’s End (Robert Macdonald #21) by E.C.R. Lorac (1942)

[Susan]

Welcome to our December 23 group read of Rope’s End, Rogue’s End Book 21 in the Robert Macdonald series this was first published in 1942.

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 brother Martin. The last time the large family of Mallowoods had all foregathered 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 a will. That was some years ago, and as Veronica found it increasingly difficult to go on paying for the upkeep of Wulfstane, she summoned another family conference - a conference in which all four of Veronica's brothers attend. However, at the end of the uncomfortable visit there is a death and it is up to Inspector Macdonald to uncover the truth about what happened.

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

[Susan]

Our last group read of the year. E.C.R. Lorac has definitely been our author of 2023.

[Judy]

Very true, we have a lot of Lorac fans, including me. Many thanks for the introduction, Susan.

Who is reading this one? The spoiler thread is linked below:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Rosina]

I plan to start this today!

[Susan in NC]

I really enjoyed this one, another atmospheric old estate and intriguing family full of secrets!

[Sandy]

I will be starting soon.

[Rosina]

I have started reading this.

Not far in yet, but the Kindle version I have is riddled with odd mistakes and makes it appear badly written. It's mainly odd punctuation and sentences that seem to have been rewritten, and then poorly restored "I consider I owe myself a holiday something worth calling a holiday."

But on at least one occasion the names are mixed up.

No murder yet, but one can see that any of the brothers is likely to be slain by one of the others.

[Susan in NC]

I found the same awful editing in the Kindle, Rosina, very Annoying

[Judy]

I remember that bad editing from reading the Kindle edition 3 years ago - so infuriating! I wondered if it was available on audio and I could sidestep the lack of punctuation that way, but seems it is cheapo Kindle or nothing. :(

[Susan in NC]

Judy wrote: "I remember that bad editing from reading the Kindle edition 3 years ago - so infuriating! I wondered if it was available on audio and I could sidestep the lack of punctuation that way, but seems it..."

Yes, I looked for an audiobook as well - no luck.

[Frances]

I'm about 1/3 of the way through, also reading on whatever was the cheapest e-book version for my iPad mini, and yes it is full of wonky punctuation and misspellings-very annoying!

What I'm struggling with in this one is that the evidence for suicide is so clear that I'm surprised the police have any time to take this further. Obv there is something else going on or it wouldn't be a mystery novel, but still, one would think the police would just be happy to have an "easy one" and leave it at that!

[Susan in NC]

I thought it was the disappearance of a character that complicated the case?

[Judy]

I'm rereading now - I've borrowed it from Kobo Plus, have read about 15% and so far haven't noticed many missing punctuation marks, so possibly this is an updated text - either that or I've just been managing to read over the errors! I'm enjoying it - I think when I first read this book I struggled to remember which brother was which, but I'm doing better with that this time.

[Susan in NC]

Judy wrote: "I'm rereading now - I've borrowed it from Kobo Plus, have read about 15% and so far haven't noticed many missing punctuation marks, so possibly this is an updated text - either that or I've just be..."

I struggled with that, too, especially when she emphasized how alike they were physically - and two of them being in the City. Throw a doctor, civil servant or writer in the mix! Of course, then all the (view spoiler)[red herrings and legit clues about financial fraud wouldn’t have been so effective!

As for the lack of punctuation and other scanning errors, being warned ahead of time helped - I sort of subliminally put them in as I read! (hide spoiler)]

[Judy]

I think I must have just been reading over the scanning errors- I'm noticing more of them now but not worrying about them so much.

[Susan in NC]

That’s what I did…

[Sandy]

I thought I had one aspect figured out (not the locked room bit that I tend to ignore) but now something has happened to blow my theory. Back to being completely befuddled.

[Sandy]

One reason murder is suspected is that there is a lot of missing money.

[Susan in NC]

Sandy wrote: "I thought I had one aspect figured out (not the locked room bit that I tend to ignore) but now something has happened to blow my theory. Back to being completely befuddled."

I ignore the locked room aspects too, I know it’ll be a technical and complex method I can’t envision and won’t understand!

[Danny]

I've listened to some of the MacDonald books reissued by the British Library in recent years, but this was my first time reading one. It didn't have as much of MacDonald as some of the others and the family members weren't very sympathetic, still I had fun with it and although part of the mystery was obvious to me, the 'how' was definitely another thing. It's a good thing that the series does not seem to require reading in order, even if some of the other characters and locations do turn up in different books, but we're not following the life of MacDonald; that may be a more recent development in mystery writing. All in all happy I decided to finally join the group read for a change

[Sandy]

Glad to have you join us for a group read. I agree that it is good the MacDonald books do not have to be read in order with over 40 of them and random reprinting. There are a few GA series that follow the detective's life (Campion and Wimsey / Harriet Vane) but it is much more common today. Imagine if Christie had tried to follow Poirot's life: he started post-retirement and then went on for years and years.

[Rosina]

I don't mind the detectives whose life unfolds in a normal way, with moderate aging, provided their story-arc doesn't threaten to overwhelm the individual stories. We can accept that the detective meets a girl (or man), marries and possibly has children, perhaps gets promoted/transferred and that as we read the books out of order that life-story will be at different places.

But the recent trend seems to be to attach a separate and on-going mystery to the detective (usually centred on a murdered or missing family member), clues about which accumulate throughout the series. So dipping in and out just leaves you with a sense of bewilderment and (for me) of being cheated!

[Frances]

Rosina wrote: "I don't mind the detectives whose life unfolds in a normal way, with moderate aging, provided their story-arc doesn't threaten to overwhelm the individual stories. We can accept that the detective ..."

I haven't read any where there is another mystery ongoing. I enjoy several series now with personal stories in the main characters' lives-I'm particularly enjoying the Robert Galbraith, J.K Rowling and Elly Griffiths offerings, which really need to be read in order. Then there are ones like Peter Robinson or Ian Rankin that are sort of in between-there is some character change but it's pretty minimal and doesn't interfere with enjoying the mystery. Such a contact to Poirot and Marple who seem to have no to minimal back story, start out as "retired" or "elderly" respectively and then have careers spanning 50 years!

[Frances]

I guess there is also the Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane developments and we certainly see Albert Campion age and change his relationship status through his novels. I remember when I first read the Campion novels I wanted to go back and read them in order so I could "understand" his character better, so then I did that with this group and was left almost as puzzled the next time round-we don't really learn who or what he is ever (or was I just too thick to pick up on it?)-Sorry I realize I've just strayed entirely off topic!