E.C.R. Lorac, Fire in the Thatch

E.C.R. Lorac, Fire in the Thatch
British Library Crime Classics
Reprint of 1946 original
© Estate of E.C.R. Lorac 2018
ISBN 978-0-712-5260-4

Lorac, as I have noted in previous reviews of her work, is a pseudonym used by Edith Caroline Rivett, who wrote at least 75 mystery novels between 1931 and 1959.  In most of her books, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald carried out the investigations on behalf of Scotland Yard.  As he does here.

Nicholas Vaughn, invalided out of the British  navy in (presumably) 1945 (or late 1944) has come to a small town in Devonshire in hoped of taking up a tenancy on a property called Little Thatch, which is owned by Col. St. Cyres.  The colonel’s daughter-in-law (June), having taken refuge with St. Cyres and his daughter Anne, while her husband Dennis is serving in the navy.  Off-and-on, a London friend of Junes, Tommy Gressingham comes down from London, perhaps mostly to see June, perhaps mostly in pursuit of his own plans, which involve serious real estate developments.  He’s much more interested in buying the land, and not so interested in leasing.  The colonel, as you might suspect, grants Vaughn the tenancy of the property.  The property is called Little Thatch, largely because of a (badly-in-need of repair) fairly ancient house on the property.

There’s some mystery surrounding Vaughn, who is very much a loner and who, while he is well-enough regarded in the village, makes no close friends.  For one thing, he seems not just content with the life of a farmer—despite his university education (he’s a trained mechanical engineer, as near as I can tell)—but deeply committed to it.  And is is not a Devon native, but rather was born and grew up in the north.  He is, however, quite well enough liked by almost everyone.

Vaughn begins to make progress on the restoration of the house, and also on the revitalization of the land.  It’s not clear how much time elapses, but it has to be a matter of some months.  And then death intervenes.  Little Thatch (the house) burns nearly to the ground, and a body—Vaughn’s, presumably—is found in the wreckage.  The coroner’s jury enters a verdict of accidental death.  And there things would stand, but that Vaughn’s commanding officer intervenes, arguing that Vaughn would never be caught in a house in that way. And he convinces the higher-ups at Scotland Yard to send Macdonald to take a second look.

Vaughn’s death, I will add, somewhat surprised me. I suppose I thought that Gressingham would be the victim, and Vaughn would be the prime suspect.  But there you go.

Macdonald is a thorough, patient, cautious, and diligent investigator; he comes to believe that things are not as they seem.  Gressingham—still hopeful of landing the property, still hanging around—proposes an alternative—that the body is not that of Vaughn, but rather someone killed by Vaughn, who has then skipped out.  Not that he believes this, but Macdonald has to take it seriously.

And so things progress.  Eventually Macdonald puts everything together (and there’s a better than fair chance that you will as well).  What Macdonald finds explains almost everything that we’re interested in knowing, and at least leaves the locals accepting of his findings.  Lorac does an excellent job of making the setting very real (at least for me; her other books I’ve read were set in London, a setting she also handled very nicely).  I tend to like series characters, to have the chance to get to know them, so to speak, and I shall have many more opportunities to see Chief Inspector (he eventually achieves his Superintendency) Macdonald.