E.C.R Lorac was a prolific and popular Golden Age mystery writer. Her real name was Edith Caroline Rivett-Carnac and she wrote forty-eight titles under the Lorac name, another twenty-three as Carol Carnac from 1931 to 1959. I didn't know she was considered influential, and collectible when I picked up Shroud of Darkness, featuring (as do many of her titles) the team of Chief Inspector MacDonald and Detective Inspector Reeves of Scotland Yard. That this had five trapped strangers on a fog bound train outside Paddington Station, an attempted murder, a bona-fide murder, amnesia and a network of German spies was enough to entice me.
There is not much to do but wait when Sarah and Richard are stuck on a foggy commuter train. They become friendly until three others join their compartment - a lady writer, a businessman, and a greasy spiv. Yes, I had to look that up: Spiv is English slang for a petty criminal. Richard's demeanour noticeably changed and Sarah found it odd when they arrived in London that he abruptly left without saying goodbye - chasing after and calling out to one of the three passengers like he knew them. Minutes later, he is found bludgeoned, face down on the foggy platform. Who was this man and what was the connection to the other passengers? And who is the other man whose dead body was thrown onto the tracks? Sarah is the secretary for a prominent psychiatrist and they both get involved in the investigation, as do Richard's friend from the country, as they track down all witnesses to the crime, one by one, with Scotland Yard.
This solid mystery is all about the puzzle, with characterization and emotion coming second, involving a spy network, shuttling children to England from Germany during the war, amnesia, implanted memories. It rolls along easily but was so plot heavy I gave up trying to figure it out and waited for the Inspector to sum up 'this game of hide-and-seek where one man has no identity and another is ready to kill to preserve the shroud of darkness that obscured his'.
The publisher British Library Crime Classics are reprinting several of her early titles, and perhaps her name will become known again.
My copy has on the flyleaf the name Geo. W Crowhurst, Jan. 1955
and I found the dedication For Gladys Rivett memorable: Dear Gladys, It seems appropriate that this one should be dedicated to you, because I started it in the Cornish Riviera Express, when you and I travelled from Penzance to Plymouth together and talked about "the Moor". We both know that journey so well, and this story is a souviner of it, to remind you of many pleasant places, not forgetting the view across the Teign to Sheldon and the Estuary at Starcross.
1954 / Hardcover / 221 pages
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