Checkmate to Murder: A Second World War Mystery

Description

On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout. A civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door. When the brutal murder of said miser is discovered by his Canadian infantryman nephew, it's not long before Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is at the scene, faced with perplexing alibis and with the fate of the young soldier in his hands.

E. C. R. Lorac was a penname of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958), who also wrote as Carol Carnac. A Londoner born and bred, she experienced the city during wartime and used her experiences to lend authenticity to her crime writing. Her books include Crossed Skis and Murder by Matchlight, available as British Library Crime Classics.