Bruce Attleton, was once a successful novelist, but is now financial dependent on his actress wife, has gone missing. But when his suitcase and passport are found in the cellar of an abandoned artist's studio it is up to Inspector Macdonald to untangle the puzzle.
An interesting mystery (writen in 1937) where it seems everyone could be guilty.

After a cozy little chat in a sitting room about how they’d commit murder and get away with it, the members of an evening party days later find themselves embroiled in a real life murder mystery. One of the men, Mr Attleton, has gone missing, and there’s no evidence he ever went abroad for business as he planned to do. Two of the men follow up on tales of a possible blackmailer who was hounding Mr. Attleton, and stumble across a derelict old building suitably dubbed the Morgue by locals. Soon, Mr Attleton’s suitcase is found on the premises and Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard then gets involved with the case. And what a case it is. There’s no shortage of people with motive, but once a body is turned up there’s a severe shortage of identifying features what with the head and hands missing. Macdonald will need all his wits to figure out who was killed, why they were killed, and by whom.

I think the thing that will most stick with me about this book are all the British idioms and colloquialisms I was introduced to. I’ve watched a fair share of BBC productions and read a good chunk of Brit lit, but there were lots of new ones in here for me (part of it may be the time period setting too). It does make it feel very atmospheric, but there were times I had to re-read a section to make sure I understood it correctly. The other thing that stands out for this mystery are the number of twists and turns. By the end I felt like Lorac could’ve picked just about anyone to be the murderer and justify it, though there were teensy reasons to discount certain suspects. It definitely kept me guessing. If you like older mysteries that will expand your British slang and keep you guessing with all the red herrings, you should give this a try. It would probably make a splendidly popular movie.

Notes on content: A handful of words that in American would be considered mild swear words but might not register in Britian and vice versa. No sex scenes. It is clear there’s some marital unfaithfulness going on, but absolutely no lurid details and it is expressed in very roundabout ways. A few murders and two serious injuries, but the principal narrator doesn’t focus on any gory details.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to publisher Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. The views expressed below are my own.

Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Macdonald is called in to solve a mysterious disappearance which eventually becomes a murder mystery. Fading author Bruce Attleton told people he was going to Paris for a few days, but he never got there. His suitcase with his passport is later found in London at an artist's studio called The Belfry, The story begins at a post-funeral gathering hosted by Attleton and his actress wife, where the characters are introduced. They are a mixed lot of people, some of them being disagreeable and unpleasant.

The police especially Macdonald are portrayed in a favourable light: they are competent and thorough.
This is an excellent golden age of murder whodunit novel. Some of the dialogue may challenge a present-day reader. There's plenty of dated slang to get through, but not enough to miss the point of the speech. Some of it is actually politically incorrect in current times, some racial and ethnic references are offensive today. It reflects the biases of the times in which the story is set, the 1930's . The story demonstrates a detailed knowledge of London geography, which adds to the local colour and atmosphere.

As to the mystery, Inspector Macdonald struggles to unravel an intricate plot. Of course, there's plenty of secrets the suspects want to keep from the police . Macdonald perseveres and comes up with several scenarios about the murder. The grand reveal finally occurs after an exciting high speed car chase, at the end of which readers learn the identity of the mastermind.

Martin Edward's Introduction to the book is a welcome background to the author Lorac and her writings.

It's an entertaining and satisfying read. Recommended.

Entertaining murder-mystery. After two failed attempts to get familiar with all the characters I decided to forget about names and just enjoy the story.

I like detective stories myself, they make me laugh, whereas real crime isn’t funny.

An alternate title for this book could be PSA: Don’t solve your own crimes at home because it really drives that point home. Early in the book Greenville and Rockingham, two friends of the missing man, discover his suitcase with his passport. Rockingham immediately declares “I’m a law-abiding man, not one of those half-baked fools who think criminal investigation is the province of the amateur.” and demands that they call the police. After they do this and Inspector Macdonald is on the case he makes it clear that he wants “no Sherlocking around”. And while Greenville does at first do some Sherlocking, he soon discovers “that there wasn’t any glamour about a murder case in which you knew the parties involved.”

The author spends a lot of time patting herself on the shoulder and saying “Look how much more realistic my stories are than those of those other writers who let lords or old ladies with no police experience solve cases!” And yes, in real life amateurs shouldn’t try to solve cases on their own. The thing is, in real life, there are also far fewer murderers whose plan to get the inheritance quicker/rid of the unfaithful husband/rid of their lover’s inconvenient partner involves carefully planned quadruple-bluffs. But that’s exactly what the murderer in Bats in the Belfry does. And he does it well. The mystery is cleverly crafted and doesn’t require a ridiculous amount of coincidences to work. It’s a shame that this got overshadowed by the author’s condescending attitude.

Otherwise, Inspector Macdonald is a character that is interesting without sliding too much into the quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirkiness field. When he doesn’t complain about amateurs meddling in police-work he is quite funny and not some genius asshole who insults everyone who disagrees with him. But sadly, we don’t get to see too much of Macdonald in this book since a lot of the plot focusses on the people involved in the crime and they are at best bland and at worst annoying. It shows that Lorac was a very prolific writer who wrote several books per year. While the mystery is good and definitely not formulaic, the characters are rather one-dimensional.

Bruce Attleton and Mr. Debrette disappear about the same time. Friends and family believe Attleton went abroad, but his luggage and passport turn up in a London studio called the Belfry. Inspector MacDonald investigates. Searchers find a mutilated body in a cleverly disguised location. Although slight doubts about its identity surface, it turns out to be Attleton. Blackmail, affairs, imposters, and more add to the plot. While the book itself suffers from being dated in writing style, the mystery's plot could probably still do well as a movie. It commands the attention of the reader. I received an advance electronic copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is quite a puzzle! I was only sure that the police were innocent! Lorac threw suspicion on everyone, even on the two people I refused to believe guilty no matter the efforts of the author to sully their characters. They were just too nice, but however reluctant I was to believe it, they just might be the murderers. Then again, it could be the despicable actress, her unfaithful husband, her lover, his blackmailer, his ward, the ward's lover, the friend, or even the butler. By the way, who was murdered? And why? Lorac created an incredibly complex tangle of motives and suspects. I started to suspect who was really guilty about three-quarters of the way through, but I wasn’t really sure.
The ending was a might rushed and melodramatic, and just a little bit unsatisfying. Maybe because it was so fast and wild, or because we never do figure out what happened to several of the main characters.
Unfortunately, the language isn’t very clean. Two of the main characters can’t seem to say two sentences without swearing. Thankfully there were large sections without their presence. It was still more than I like reading and I won’t be reading any more by this author, nor can I recommend it.
I received this as a free ARC through NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press. No favorable review was required and these are my honest opinions.

I love the British Library Crime Classics because all the detectives are clever, suave, well balanced men. All the sergeants are heart of gold, plods who do their work wonderfully well. It all evens out in the end! This one was a corker.



Bruce was a promising literary star, but his shine fizzled out and he was overshadowed by his wife Sybilla who after some years was fed up with him but was never willing to do anything about his philandering ways. Not that she was a saint either but each knew that the other would not make the first move.



When Bruce on a sudden overnight trip vanishes without trace and his suitcase along with his passport is discovered in a decrepit building the search commences. Everyone of his friends are suspect, his wife cannot be found for a couple of days and there are various suspects which keep popping up. But then they all die, and those that are suspect have extremely good alibis because they have been coshed and are in hospital!



A very convoluted drama of a murder mystery with the reasoning behind the murder so complicated that it is almost genius if he could have pulled it off.

Amazon and Goodreads reviews posted on 3/3/2018. Review on my blog end March.

A very intriguing mystery, just when you thought you had it solved, out pops another angle. I quite enjoyed this book, although maybe a few to many twists, but we are talking Golden Age, where answers were not easily proven. I did enjoy it, pretty fast pace and the ending was rather surprising, although ones you knew it all made sense.

I love the classic British mysteries. This did not disappoint. Inspector McDonald is a great character---thoughtful and very persistent. The plot is intricate with lots of twists and turns.

"Bats in the Belfry" is a mystery set in England that was published in 1937. The detective in this story had a lot of confusing clues to sort through. Finding the body was difficult, then identifying the deceased was nearly impossible. Who killed whom? When the detective's solution turns out to be correct, he starts to second-guess himself. Some things just don't seem to fit. Is his initial solution correct or is someone leading him along?

The main characters were interesting. I was able to guess whodunit, but like the detective, I wasn't completely sure until the very end. There was a fair amount of bad language. There were no sex scenes. Overall, I would recommend this complex and interesting mystery.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Bruce Attleton has been behaving strangely and reacting angrily when a Mr Debrette telephones him, so Bruce's friend Neil asks Robert (the man who hopes to marry Bruce's ward Elizabeth) to find out more about Mr Debrette while Bruce is abroad. Robert's investigations lead him to discover Bruce's luggage and passport in a London studio - Bruce never made it to Paris and is missing.

This was firmly a period read; some of the slang was hard to understand, and Elizabeth was infantilized by both Neil and Robert. On the other hand, the description of how the (remarkably competent) Scotland Yard officers worked with local police and fire departments was interesting and admirable. The lead detective, MacDonald was a likeable, wise and reassuring character, in contrast to the hapless and immature Robert, whom I really didn't take to. He was 11 years older than Elizabeth and wanted to marry her immediately because he suspected if they had to wait until she turned 21 in two years' time, she wouldn't marry him after all... Later he causes a traffic accident which leaves an innocent motorist with a broken limb and a concussion, and seems to feel an almost sociopathic lack of remorse or sympathy.

The solution to the crimes was so convoluted and devious that even now I am slightly confused about aspects of what went on - were the problems with Dinah nothing to do with anything, for example? - although on the whole it was satisfactory, and if MacDonald is sure he knows what went on, then that's good enough for me!