The Theft of the Iron Dogs

October 18, 2024
The 118th installment of the British Library Crime Classics series is a re-issue of a mystery published just after World War II by Edith Caroline Rivett (E. C. R.) Lorac, who wrote more than 70 novels--including the enormously popular wartime Murder by Matchlight (2019) and Checkmate to Murder (2021). This 1946 mystery is a departure from Lorac's preceding gritty, suspenseful mysteries set in Blitzed-out London. Here, the action takes place in rural Lancashire, untouched by bombs and food privations. Farmer and former book dealer Giles Hoggett goes fishing one day, inspects a cottage near the river, and finds that certain things are missing, including a raincoat, fishing wire, and two iron dogs (the metal supports for logs in the hearth). Completely coincidentally, the farmer knows Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Macdonald, who takes an interest in the missing items, and in going fishing. Soon, a body, weighed down by the iron dogs, is found in the river. Excessively leisurely plot, but intriguing atmosphere. For Lorac and BLCC fans.

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December 1, 2024
Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, seeking a wartime coupon fraudster, finds him unexpectedly in the northwest English fishing village of Lunesdale. Since Macdonald, of Scotland Yard, was in Lunesdale recently on another case, Giles Hoggett writes to ask the inspector's advice about the theft of miscellaneous articles--a sack, some clothesline, a spool of salmon line, an old raincoat, and the pair of iron dogs that hold logs off the fireplace hearth--from his cottage. When Macdonald--who'd much rather be fishing up north than tracking down the questionable Gordon Ginner, whose fiancee reported him missing from London--turns up on Hoggett's doorstep, the two of them, along with Hoggett's wife, Katherine, set to work. Hoggett has an eye for detail, Kate a remarkably logical mind, and Macdonald a great deal of experience with criminals. Acting on their shared intelligence, they recover a body from the River Lune that turns out to be that of Gordon Ginner. If the pace of the investigation that follows seems slow even for a Golden Age tale first published in 1946, readers are advised to approach it as if they were on vacation too, enjoying a regional atmosphere as thick as the Cholostrom in Kate's apple pie, as Lorac (1894-1958) proceeds to a denouement that backs up its identification of a forgettable character with an impressive battery of evidence. One riddle that's never answered: Why do so many of the characters' names include the initial G--Giles, farmer Gilbert Clafton, potters Reuben and Sarah Gold, and "the Georges," Dr. George Castleby and Ginner, whose real name is George Garstang--and among those who don't, why do so many share Macdonald's first name, including harness maker Bob Pritchard, shepherd Bob Moffat, and potter Bob Traske? Even fans who don't share the hero's sense that "he had never laughed more over a case" will enjoy a leisurely read.

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