Complex and clever mystery written in 1936!

Ruth Surray comes from a family of intectuals, each in their own way special. Ruth is a “literary novelist” already making a name for herself.
When Ruth suicides, the family is bereft. However, after her death her brother Richard, a psychologist, receives a chatty letter detailing her future plans.
Richard is suspicious and an investigation is re opened into Ruth’s death. That’s when strange and deadly things happen An interesting cast, Inspector MacDonald being one!
I really enjoyed Martin Edwards’ introduction discussing Lorac’s writing style and comments on aspects such as the literary world of the time and the further character development of MacDonald.
This crime novel certainly has stood the test of time!

A Poisoned Pen Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.

I was so pleased to discover this whodunnit by a previously unknown (to me) Golden Age of Mystery author, E.C.R. Lorac. What a find!!

In this 1936 puzzler, one of the members of the Surray family, a family of authors with lots of books to their credit, is found dead at the family home in what is initially ruled a suicide. But was it? The case is reopened and Chief Inspector Macdonald attempts to get to the bottom of it in this well-plotted, interesting murder mystery.

Highly recommended to fans of Golden Age mysteries!! So pleased to find this gem and I now have lots and lots of other Lorac mysteries to track down.

""Now tell us about your crime novel. Take my advice and don't try to be intellectual over it. What the public likes is blood."

The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews, and crime thrillers published under their family name. Following a rare convergence of the whole household at their Oxfordshire home, Ruth - middle sister who writes "books which are just books" - decides to spend some weeks there recovering from the pressures of the writing life, while the rest of the brood scatter to the winds again. Their next return is heralded by the tragic news that Ruth has taken her life after an evening at the Surrays's hosting a set of publishers and writers, one of whom is named as Ruth's literary executor in the will she left behind.

Despite some suspicions from the family, the verdict at the inquest is suicide - but when Ruth's brother Richard receives a letter from the deceased which was delayed in the post, he enlists the help of CID Robert Macdonald to investigate what could only be an ingeniously planned murder."

Poisoned Pen Press delivers again with another forgotten British Crime Classic!

Post After Post-Mortem is a delicious locked-room mystery in the British Crime Classics series. The Surrey family members are intelligent writers, bright but sometimes oblivious and exasperating. One of the daughters, Ruth, dies by apparent suicide. With the family reputation at stake, most quickly accept that though she wasn't unhappy she took her life.
However, the post mortem verdict uneasily niggles away in the minds of one or two, especially after sibling Richard receives a letter delayed in the post from Ruth. CID Robert Macdonald investigates and runs into problem after problem, especially when gathering information is akin to pulling teeth. Red herrings abound in spades.

Reading works by Golden Age mystery author E. C. R. Lorac is a marvellous treat. Getting my hands on all the British Crime Classics possible remains one of my greatest pleasures.

My sincere thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this delightful hallmark whodunit!

E.C.R. Lorac’s 1936 book, Post After Post-Mortem, features her series detective, Chief Inspector Macdonald. It gives us the Surray family – all high-achievers, with the youngest daughter, Naomi, achieving a First in Greats at Oxford. Another daughter, Ruth, appears to kill herself between Chapters 2 and 3 and the post-mortem brings in that verdict. Sad, but understandable. Then Ruth’s brother, Robert, receives a letter from Ruth, posted the night of her death, fixing to see him later in the week and whose tone is the opposite of depressed. Does that mean she was murdered?

Macdonald has to deal with a highly exasperating bunch of people. The family are concerned with protecting Ruth’s reputation and not wanting to cause her mother more distress. Acquaintances refuse to tell Macdonald what other people have said, telling him to ask them himself. One, Keith Brandon, is completely obnoxious and even Macdonald thinks, most uncharacteristically, “[…] if Brandon were hit hard enough and long enough somewhere in the region of his wind, things would look more satisfactory all round.”

I didn’t work out “whodunnit” but the clues were there, if only I’d paid attention. It’s a well-plotted, well-written book, but I got so exasperated with the idiots who wouldn’t talk to Macdonald that I nearly threw the book across the room. Calming down, I think this was a compliment to the author: the reader is so drawn in, they forget that these are just characters in a story! The more Lorac books I read, the more I appreciate how talented she was and I wish I’d discovered her years ago.

Another fabulous book by E.C.R. Lorac, a member of the famous Detective Club. Again a well drafted story of British life of mid 1900. This starts off with a simple suicide, but nothing is simple in these books, as we follow the fly in the ointment that come from a delayed letter to a family member. There are many twist and turns, as Inspector Macdonald follows his instincts find the truth.
I love these books, Lorac and her fellow members, really knew how to hold the readers interest with these puzzles. Thanks you NetGalley and the publishers for the DRC

One of the delights of the British Crime Classic series is discovering rare gems like this one. A woman is found dead, apparently of suicide, in her parents' home. But a letter from her to her brother written shortly before her death puts this into doubt.

Was it murder instead?

The solution, along with a series of other crimes, kept me guessing until the end.

Oooh, this was a slog. Why do I keep trying with ECR Lorac? What brings me back to this terrible relationship? I may have to admit that this author is just not for me, no matter how tempting the British Library Crime Classic descriptions make these books sound. Friend, the dialogue is ridiculous nonsense, the familial relationships make you want to reach through the page and give each family member a hearty smack across the chops, and the mystery/conclusion literally made me say "what the hell, man", which frightened my dog. I hold that against ECR Lorac. Will I be fooled again by a tempting cover and an intriguing blurb? I mean probably, but I'll resent it. Thoroughly unenjoyable - would not recommend

While the mystery of what happened to Ruth was exciting to follow along, I found the book to be a slow read. Lengthy conversations at the beginning of the book that contained hard to understand words made this a difficult read. This book would be great for people that enjoy historical fiction.

A reprinting of a long-forgotten mystery novel from the golden age of mystery. The Surray family is made up of a bunch of writers. They are shocked when one of the children ends up dead, seemingly by her own hand. However, her brother Richard receives a letter after her death, from Ruth herself, that makes him think she was murdered. He pairs with a detective to investigate.

I felt the build up to the investigation was a bit slow. After that, more of the classic detective novel feel, but it takes a while to get there.

Post After Post-Mortem

I love Detective Inspector Robert MacDonald, that persistent, attentive
Scotland Yard man; I really do. But this was not one of E.C.R. Lorac’s best works. To start with, the insufferable Surray family is at the heart of the novel; such a smug, pretentious group of poseurs! One of the Surray daughters, a writer and renowned critic, is first thought a suicide, but it’s then revealed she’s a murder victim. How dreadful is this family? As MacDonald notes, speaking of the late Ruth Surray: “I think you’re all so obsessed with keeping her memory sacrosanct that a small point like discovering who murdered her seems immaterial to you.” They surround themselves with friends and associates who are just as misguided.

But that’s just part of it. The novel doesn’t really get interesting until Chapter 4, about a fifth
of the way through. I love to see MacDonald at work, so that was a pleasure. However, the ending beggars belief. After having to deal with the self-righteous Surrays, I needed a better reward. This novel was just not up to Lorac’s usual high caliber.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

*Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I love the classic offeredin this series and professionally introduced by Mr Edwards. This was my first book by Lorac and I found her writing style rather easy to follow. The idea of a cold case, not very cold, mind you, which is reopened after a letter a brother receives after his sister's death, is quite interesting and deep analysis of characters' actions and motivations behind them, appealed to me.
One of the characteristics of the Golden Age Classics is that a reader knows what not to expect, that is there are no explicit sex scenes, foul language or gory descriptions. I appreciate that very much indeed.
I will certainly read another of Lorac's books should I come across one.

“Post After Post-Mortem: An Oxfordshire Mystery” is my seventh (or so) mystery featuring Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald, and my eighth from Ms. E.C.R. Lorac, and they have all been routinely quite good, if not downright excellent.

Although this one does start a bit slowly. We meet the Surray family, two parents and five children who are all a bunch of overachievers, mostly in the writing arena, the mother disappointed when even their youngest daughter looks to be a raging success. During a get together at their Oxfordshire home, a visit which included three outsiders, authors and publishers, one of the sisters (Ruth) takes her own life.

Although tragic, the family convinces themselves that Ruth was troubled, until her oldest brother Robert gets a delayed letter written that fateful night where it is obvious that she was not contemplating suicide. He calls on his acquaintance Chief Inspector MacDonald to quietly investigate so as to spare the family’s feelings, but also understanding that the investigation will go where the evidence leads.

And so MacDonald goes. He quickly establishes that Ruth was murdered, and even has some idea of how, but the why is what he needs to understand in order to get to the who. Here we have a police procedural that is also a study in psychology as we grapple with hidden motives, partial truths, and secret goings on. This story was originally published in 1936, and this type of mystery was definitely ahead of its time. After that slow start, the action picks up in the second half to an interesting conclusion.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

I love that classic British mysteries are being published as ebooks and was excited to read an ARC of this one. It was well-written and I really liked the detective, but the storyline dragged a bit for me, and I never felt I had a strong understanding of any of the characters. The ending was not wholly unexpected, but not glaringly obvious either.

I would like to try some of her other mysteries, though. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Mystery and intrigue with a jumble of characters…discerning the ending was somewhat easy, but getting there…secrets and red herrings…a talented author. This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review.

I had read another one of Lorac’s mysteries a couple months ago (Murder by Matchlight) and liked it a lot, so I was excited to read this one. It had a pretty strong start, but I felt like the rest of the book dragged out a bit. There were a few exciting moments here and there but generally the pacing was slow and the solution to the mystery was not that surprising.

I do like Lorac’s writing style though, and the characters she created are likable. So overall this was about a 3.5/5 star book for me - not bad, but not great either.

Thank you very much to Poisoned Pen Press for providing this ARC in return for my honest review!

"Post After Post-Mortem" is a mystery set in England and was originally published in 1936. The characters were so little developed that I mostly told them apart by their names and the clues as to who was where and had opportunity. Figuring out the motive was a bit murky going, even at the end. Despite the witnesses repeatedly lying to or refusing to answer him, the detective asked good questions, carefully followed up on investigating the suspect's movements, and found clues. However, a critical clue was hinted at but not fully exposed until we're told whodunit and why. While this clue-based mystery was guessable, I didn't really feel like the author fully played fair with the reader. There was a fair amount of bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this mystery.

I won't recap the story because the publisher's blurb is pretty good and therefore no need. I enjoyed Martin Edwards' foreword and found the mystery to be sneaky and excellent. The writing was smooth and easily translates to most timeframes while making each of the characters clear and engaging. Besides, I am partial to the Crime Classics in general and Lorac in particular. Enjoy!

A Deft Pen..
Classic crime from the Golden Age and, perhaps, one of the most enjoyable from Lorac. Written with a deft pen - the cast of characters is brilliantly done, the plot fascinating, the irony in abundance and red herrings amply scattered all in a good, solid and wholly enjoyable and entertaining whodunnit. A wonderful reissue.

This was a slow-paced, somewhat psychological mystery where everyone seems a little on edge and everyone acts like they have something to hide. It went on a little too long for me, but I did appreciate the neatly explained solution. As is the case in the best mysteries, it was left in plain view for the reader to put together if inclined, but so buried under everyone's personalities and personal problems that it's very unlikely you'll catch on.