Book Review//These Names Make Clues by E. C. R. Lorac

Mr. Graham Coome and Miss Susan Coombe invite Chief Inspector Macdonald to join in a Treasure Hunt. Clues of a Literary, Historical and Practical nature will be provided. It is hoped that detectives, both literary, psychological and practical, will compete in their elucidation.

In These Names Make Clues by E. C. R. Lorac, Macdonald accepts the invitation and is precipitated into a maze of pseudonyms, clues, murder, and befuddlement. The pseudonyms were enough to befuddle me in the beginning because practically every character introduced at the party was using one. However, once the murder actually occurred the personalities started to become clear. The body of “Samuel Pepys” was found in the telephone room after a sudden power outage. Obviously, there is no way the death is natural and it doesn’t take Macdonald long to figure out the method and start to collect clues. But what is the motive? And what secrets are the other partygoers hiding? Of course, it is all wrapped up in a neat package at the end and the reader has enjoyed the journey just as much as the writer.

I marked a couple of quotes that I liked because they gave a flavor of the book. One of my favorite sections of the book was when Peter Vernon, a journalist, decides to take a hand in the detecting and goes off on a harebrained chase after a suspect. Here he is trying to convince someone to help out in the adventure.

Now you listen to me, sir” said Vernon, who had taken one of his sudden decisions. “You think all this looks dashed queer, and you think I’m one over the eight, don’t you? Well, I’m not. I’m a journalist, as you know. I took the train to Reading all in a rush, so to speak, following a chappie who might mean news. I met a pal in the train who lent me his car–a very snappy article, as you see. I followed the chappie round in circles, and all I got for my pains was a sojourn in a barn, where I was pitched headfirst by superior strategy. I got out of the barn after chappie had melted away. I’ve got about five and sixpence on me, half a book of stamps and an empty packet of Gold Flake. I’ll drive you where you like and swap yarns if you like, for the loan of a fiver. What about it? You can’t sleuth on tuppence. It cramps your style.

This Lorac novel did not do quite as good a job at providing the surrounding atmosphere as some of her others. Fell Murder and Bats in the Belfry, for example, felt much less like utilitarian mystery novels and much more like the characters and the surroundings were more fully developed. Also, These Names Make Clues jumped a bit from following Macdonald to following Vernon and then back again, and, as a result, I didn’t feel either one was focused on adequately. However, I enjoyed it, as I enjoy all the British Library Crime Classics.

My thanks to the British Library for providing a review copy of this book. In fact, they accidentally sent me two copies of this book. I will be happy to send the second copy to the first person to comment or message me and ask for it. Within the United States only, I am sorry to say.