A clever premise, but much too talky. A large cast of characters, for a relatively short novel, and "investigative honours" are shared between the pros (Macdonald and his team) and the amateurs, who are not as cute and winsome as Lorac would like to think they are.
The best work of ECR Lorac, the pen-name of prolific writer Caroline Rivett, balance the mystery with a strong sense of place and time: I think her novels set in the Lune Valley ("Fell Murder") and Devonshire ("Fire in the Thatch" and "Murder in the Mill Race") are her best, even if the mystery might be weak, because she really captures the setting, and places her characters in a real, evocative context. One of her London novels, "Bats in the Belfry," has a very similar plot to this: it doesn't set the world on fire as a mystery, but it has characters who suggest real backstories and it conveys a wonderful sense of London, before the war -- a London that in a few short years would be changed completely.
"Ask a Policeman" doesn't have that saving grace: London never really comes to life, and the Bright Young Things who get involved in the rum goings on at Rosetta Tower are bland, and hard to tell apart. (Also, I'd say that their "jolly good, what ho" dialogue is about 20 years out of date, and feels like something out of a rip-off of a Noel Coward play.)
Which is a terrible shame, because when her heart was really in it, as in "Fell Murder," Rivett could capture the voice of real people, and demonstrate a touching understanding of why people love the places where they live, and even why they would be willing to murder for it.
The best work of ECR Lorac, the pen-name of prolific writer Caroline Rivett, balance the mystery with a strong sense of place and time: I think her novels set in the Lune Valley ("Fell Murder") and Devonshire ("Fire in the Thatch" and "Murder in the Mill Race") are her best, even if the mystery might be weak, because she really captures the setting, and places her characters in a real, evocative context. One of her London novels, "Bats in the Belfry," has a very similar plot to this: it doesn't set the world on fire as a mystery, but it has characters who suggest real backstories and it conveys a wonderful sense of London, before the war -- a London that in a few short years would be changed completely.
"Ask a Policeman" doesn't have that saving grace: London never really comes to life, and the Bright Young Things who get involved in the rum goings on at Rosetta Tower are bland, and hard to tell apart. (Also, I'd say that their "jolly good, what ho" dialogue is about 20 years out of date, and feels like something out of a rip-off of a Noel Coward play.)
Which is a terrible shame, because when her heart was really in it, as in "Fell Murder," Rivett could capture the voice of real people, and demonstrate a touching understanding of why people love the places where they live, and even why they would be willing to murder for it.
