Fire in the Thatch
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Average rating2.8
Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder "Readers will enjoy watching the conflicts that arise between the wary country folk and the cocktail-drinking Londoners invading their habitat. In sum, this is jolly good fun." —Publishers Weekly The Second World War is drawing to a close. Nicholas Vaughan, released from the army after an accident, takes refuge in Devon—renting a thatched cottage in the beautiful countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn. Vaughan sets to work farming the land, rearing geese and renovating the cottage. Hard work and rural peace seem to make this a happy bachelor life. On a nearby farm lives the bored, flirtatious June St Cyres, an exile from London while her husband is a Japanese POW. June's presence attracts fashionable visitors of dubious character, and threatens to spoil Vaughan's prized seclusion. When Little Thatch is destroyed in a blaze, all Vaughan's work goes up in smoke—and Inspector Macdonald is drafted in to uncover a motive for murder.
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4 primary booksRobert Macdonald
Robert Macdonald is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 1937 with contributions by E.C.R. Lorac.
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Starts quite promisingly, but once the murder happens, its becomes quite tedious. There is a several-page discussion about how a car could have crashed on a steep road. It goes on forever and concludes that it isn't possible to tell. That describes the book in a way. The detective is methodical and determined, but has suspicions and no evidence. And so we explore every possibility, in some detail before a completely unsuspected and almost irrelevant character turns out to have done it. I have read good things about Lorac, but this book was a very big disappointment. It's full of (now dated) observation about Devon and “country people”, but it is not entertaining or relevant, just background material. I will not be tracking down more Lorac books. This is #27 in the Robert MacDonald mysteries. Not for me! First and last.
