Crook o' Lune

Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed an E.C.R. Lorac book from the Golden Age of Mysteries, especially for its use of sheep country in Lancashire as a key component of the story.

Chief Inspector MacDonald is visiting friends and considering perhaps purchasing a farm for his retirement years when he gets involved in investigating a residential arson which resulted in a death and sheep stealing.

This is a book with tremendous (and beautiful) description and a leisurely pace (and I don't mean this as a criticism, it's one of the book's strengths). A Lorac book is always a treasure, a book to be savored. I'm so thankful that the British Library Crime Classics brings back such excellent old mysteries.

Highly recommended!!

(I received a copy of the show more book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.) show less

Reading one of E.C.R. Lorac’s Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald novels is always a treat, and Crook o’ Lune is no exception. The titular crook is not a criminal but a turn in the real-life River Lune in Lancashire, where Macdonald wants to settle after his retirement.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a crook at the heart of this novel. Someone has set a fire at Aikengill, the finest home in the Lune Valley, and, whether with intent to murder or accident, has killed the manor’s longtime, loyal housekeeper. Was the fire connected with sheep-stealing? Or is something else afoot?

Lorac’s ending caught me completely by surprise, as I had never even considered the possibility that the perpetrator was who it ended up being.

While show more Crook o’ Lune is 38th book in the series, these novels can be read in any order, and newbies won’t have any trouble with it. I’ve been devouring Lorac novels one after the other, and I can’t wait for British Library and Poisoned Pen Press to rerelease the next novel!

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

The strength of these :Lancashire set books is their sense of place and the way that they treat the landscape as a character in its own right. In this, MacDonald is taking a holiday in the fells while looking out for a small farm to retire to in a few years. Into this rural landscape comes Gilbert Woolfall, who has inherited his uncle's house in the fells. Gilbert is town born & bred and is trying to decide if he should keep and live in the house, or sell it, He starts by making his way through his Uncle's papers, trying to fond what is there. Into this comes a house fire that destroys the study and kills the housekeeper, who was unexpectedly sleeping in the room above. Into the mix we throw some sheep rustling and there's a lot to try show more and sort out. MacDonald gets himself seconded to the investigation and is involved in tracking down the threads to find the root of the trouble. It's not just purely picturesque, there are issues of trying to get started in farming in the fells and the fate of the elderly in a rural environment. show less

1950s, British Crime Classics, British-detective, vintage-cozy-mystery, Yorkshire, Lancashire, series, suspense, crime-fiction, sheep, theft, arson, gossip, rural, manslaughter, vacation*****

Better than Midsommer Murders!
Originally published in 1953, so don't look for any cell towers in this beautiful countryside.
Chief Inspector MacDonald is on vacation visiting an old friend and kind of looking for a nice small farm to retire to. He finds the right neighborhood, but he also finds a bit of sheep stealing and arson as well. He's hardly averse to investigating and the local is more than happy to have him. It's a nice, low-key investigation with very interesting characters, suspects, and red herrings. Loved this classic!
I requested and show more received an EARC from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you! show less

A pleasant rural mystery set in the fell area of Lancashire. Chief Inspector Macdonald is visiting friends, with an eye to finding a small farm where he can retire. It's around 1950 and there are mentions of the war: talk of rationing, a fire siren upsets a woman who says she's heard too many sirens in recent years, faded posters in a classroom describing procedures in case of a gas attack.
But all is not well in this pastoral setting: there's been sheep stealing in the area, then a suspicious fire and a death, and Macdonald gets involved with the case. There are lots of affable locals, an unpopular parson who may be embezzling, a sweet young couple who need a home so they can marry, an ancient shepherd who still climbs the hills to show more tend his charges, and a lot of sheep.
I don't think I'll look for more of her books but it was entertaining.
I learned some words:
fell: a high barren field or moor
bosting: timber supports that hold the hay loft
baulks: related to the bosting somehow
shippon: cow barn or cattle shed
gimmer: a yearling female sheep; a two-tooth ewe. from Old Norse gymbr a live lamb one year old
stirk: a young bull or cow especially between one and two years old
wether: a male sheep castrated before sexual maturity. also : a castrated male goat
hurdle: a portable panel usually of wattled withes and stakes used especially for enclosing land or livestock. also a frame or sled formerly used in England for dragging traitors to execution (used in the book to bring an injured man down from the fells)
beck: creek
polony: a dry partly cooked sausage made of various ingredients
mulock: from context, a mess, mistake
diddled us: wasted our time
gey gert fule: very great fool
opprobrious: scurrilous
but and ben: in the Highlands of Scotland, a small, simple house with two rooms show less

1953. Inspector Robert MacDonald is on holiday at the Hoggetts in Lancashire when he becomes interested in several events before becoming involved officially. That of sheep theft, and a house fire resulting in a death.
An entertaining, slow paced, historical mystery with its likeable characters. Another enjoyable addition to this series.

mystery revolves around setting in Lancashire - this would be worth adding to Library because of historical references to Church, school, and general community welfare in relation to wills and testaments
esp pp 29, 92, 112 - Little Gidding again, 116,