Fell Murder by E. C. R. Lorac is another reprint from the British Library Crime Classics series. Originally published in 1944 by Collins, it was also reprinted by Rare Treasure Editions in 1921. The British Library edition has an introduction by crime fiction historian Martin Edwards and a rare short story by Lorac.
The 24th adventure of Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald finds the good inspector in Rivett’s favorite territory of Lancashire and the Lune Valley. Robert Garth of Garthmere Hall has been killed in a shed on his own land. Garth was a hard man, fiery tempered and hard working even at 82 years of age, with no tolerance or patience for anyone including his own family. He had driven his oldest son away years ago after the son married against Garth’s will. He mistreated his daughter abominably, but she continued to stay and work the farm that she loved. He disliked his youngest son, who was physically frail, and had no time for his middle son who had recently returned after living in Malaysia under Japanese occupation. He was no kinder to his tenants, many of whom had cause to resent him.
Lorac adored this part of England and she describes the land and its people in the most glorious of terms. In a leisurely narration the first several chapters set the tone and the place, explaining the rural residents and how they fared during the war. Not for them the deprivations of the city dwellers. Farmers were self-reliant and managed relatively well during the most severe of the rationing.
Macdonald doesn’t appear until Chapter 9. He finds the tight-lipped reserve of the country folk hard to crack while admiring them at the same time, seeing similarities between them and his own Scots heritage. The resolution was a surprise but at the same time I said “Yes of course.”
This story is as much an essay on the sociocultural system of the region during the war as a well-constructed piece of crime fiction. I have come to rely on Lorac for a soundly plotted mystery and a comfortable read, a visit to another time and place. She belongs on every mystery reader’s shelf.