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Checkmate to Murder
A Second World War Mystery
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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. In the search for the culprit, Macdonald and his team of detectives must figure out if one of the members of the studio party is somehow involved in the death, or if some other scurrilous neighbour could be responsible.
Product Details
- Paperback
- Case Count: 12
- Series: British Library Crime Classics
"[An] excellent fair-play mystery... The characters are all well-delineated, and the clues artfully hidden. First published in 1944, this British Library Crime Classic more than deserves that status." — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Period details—the way wartime blackout regulations made any crime at night hard to see, and the fact that no one noticed the fatal shot because people had become so used to hearing explosives—make this mystery especially fascinating. Readers may want to follow up with Lorac's Murder by Matchlight, also set during WWII." — Booklist, Starred Review