Inspector MacDonald has been invited to a fancy dress party. The rest of the guests are authors and part of the party is to find out who the guests are, each there under a false literary name. But it seems that a murderer has also been invited for MacDonald finds a body. These Names Make Clues is a clever mystery as MacDonald has to work out who the victim is and who was the perpetrator, given no one most definitely is not who they first appear.
You can read my full review here.
You may have seen as part of my review Murder by the Book that I’m taking part in the Reprint of the Year award hosted by Kate at Cross Examining Crime.
The awards look at the vintage crime fiction republished during 2021. Nominations have to be works of fiction and reprinted this year, if it’s the first time it’s been published then unfortunately it can’t count. 12 bloggers nominate two books each. Once those nominations are in, the vote goes to blog readers, with the winner announced on 30 December.
You can read more about it here, where you will also find links to other bloggers and reviews of their nominations for the Awards.
My second nomination is a bit of a cheat as I’ve already reviewed it. I have chosen These Names Make Clues by E C R Lorac. First published in 1937, it was reissued this year as part of the British Library Crime Classics series.