Carol Carnac

Clere House in northern England is a place rife with superstition, and every Lammas Night a meal is laid out there for a ghostly monk, who is thought to haunt the property. But this year when Lammas Night comes around, the phantom’s repast is accompanied by the unfortunate occurrence of Mrs. Saint Claire, matriarch of the house, falling to her death. And when local GP Henry Sanderson turns up with his friend and colleague Richard Vaile to inspect the body, Vaile discovers another corpse behind a curtain – that of a man in monk’s costume, face-down in his dinner. The first novel to be republished in the Inspector Charles Ryvet series by Carol Carnac – a pseudonym used by Edith Caroline Rivett, who also wrote as ECR Lorac – this is an atmospheric country house mystery with some grippingly dysfunctional family dynamics at play. Can the master detective put superstition and the supernatural to one side, and find a more earthly solution to the two deaths?

This 1953 classic featuring Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard by Carol Carnac (a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett, who also wrote under the name E. C. R. Lorac) was first published in Britain by Collins, London, for The Crime Club. This edition features includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar Award-winning author Martin Edwards.A gigantic marble bust stood on a pedestal at the head of the staircase."It's a work of art," said David unhappily. "One mustn't let personal prejudice intervene...""I've often wondered if it would topple off with a little encouragement," said Pompfret. "It'd be a wonderful sight to see it bounce down the stairs. It must weigh several tons..."When a civil servant at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts is found crushed beneath a monstrous marble bust after dark, it appears to be the third instance in a string of fatal accidents at the department. Already disturbed by rumours of forgeries and irregularities in the Ministry's dealings, Minister Humphry David is soon faced with the possibility that among his colleagues is a murderer--though how the bust could have been made an instrument of death is a masterstroke of criminal devilment. Taking charge of the case, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard enters a caustic world of fine art and civil service grievances to unveil a killer hiding in plain sight.

At Firenze, the reclusive artist Adrian Delafield's Florentine enclave in St John's Wood, the whispers of an impending tragedy are growing louder. The tension between the fanatical zealot of a housekeeper Miss Trimming and Delafield's sister Virgilia is just shy of fever pitch, when a cold morning at the house finds Trimming and Adrian sprawled at either end of the staircase upstairs, an injury; downstairs, death. The windows and doors were all locked from the inside, and yet Inspector Julian Rivers, trained to see the malice behind deadly accident, suspects that a murderer had a hand in the fell deed. But if this is true, Rivers is faced with both the inexplicable puzzle of motive, and the task of untangling an impossible crime in Carnac's compelling and twisting 1956 mystery exploring the demands of kinship, art-world secrets and religious mania.

Near St. Brynneys in the Welsh border country, isolated by heavy snow and flooding from the thaw, a calamity has occurred. Old Dr. Robinson, a known 'menace on the roads', has met his end in a collision with a jeep on a hazardous junction. But when the police arrive at the scene, a burning question hints at something murkier than mere accident: why was there a second body--a man not recognised by any locals--in the back of Robinson's car?As the local inspectors dive into the muddy waters of this strange crime, Chief Inspector Julian Rivers and Inspector Lancing are summoned from Scotland Yard to the windswept wilds, where danger and deceit lie in wait.Puzzling and atmospheric, this exceedingly rare mystery from one of the masters of crime fiction's Golden Age returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1954.

The newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts has a staffing problem - one minister dead within six months of its inception, his successor snuffed out shortly before the General Election. When a third victim, Permanent Secretary Edwin Pompfret is fatally crushed by the fall of a giant bust, Inspector Julian Rivers is drawn into a case of murder of artistic devilment. "Her best yet. A classic story with well concealed and ingenious clues, sufficiently difficult to leave us properly surprised by both murderer and method." Spectator, 1953

“Her best yet. A classic story with well concealed and ingenious clues, sufficiently difficult to leave us properly surprised by both murderer and method.” – The Spectator Near St. Brynneys in the Welsh border country, isolated by heavy snow and flooding from the thaw, a calamity has occurred. Old Dr. Robinson, a known ‘menace on the roads’, has met his end in a collision with a jeep on a hazardous junction. But when the police arrive at the scene, a burning question hints at something murkier than mere accident: why was there a second body—a man not recognised by any locals—in the back of Robinson’s car? As the local inspectors dive into the muddy waters of this strange crime, Chief Inspector Julian Rivers and Inspector Lancing are summoned from Scotland Yard to the windswept wilds, where danger and deceit lie in wait. Puzzling and atmospheric, this exceedingly rare mystery from one of the masters of crime fiction’s Golden Age returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1954.

Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.Crossed skis means danger ahead...In Bloomsbury, London, Inspector Brook of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. The victim of a ruthless murder lies burnt beyond recognition, his possessions and papers destroyed by fire. But there is one strange, yet promising, lead--a lead which suggests the involvement of a skier.Meanwhile, piercing sunshine beams down on the sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps, where a merry group of holidaymakers are heading towards Lech am Arlberg. Eight men and eight women take to the slopes, but, as the C.I.D. scrambles to crack the perplexing case in Britain, the ski party are soon to become sixteen suspects. A riveting piece of British crime fiction that spans from foggy London to the sparkling Alps, the double narrative of this golden age mystery twists and turns with alacrity, culminating in a thrilling denouement.

In London's Bloomsbury, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. Here is the victim, burnt to a crisp. Here are the clues - clues which point to a good climber and expert skier, and which lead Rivers to the piercing sunshine and sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps. Yet there is something sinister beneath the heady joys of the slopes, and Rivers is soon confronted by a merry group of suspects, and a long list of reasons not to trust each of them. For the mountains can be a dangerous, changeable place, and it can be lonely out between the pines of the slopes... As with each of the novels published under E C R Lorac in the Crime Classics series, the author's sense of place is beautifully realised in all its breathtaking freshness, and she does not miss opportunities; there may be at least one high-stakes ski-chase before this chilling mystery can be put to rest.