Fire in the Thatch by E.C.R. Lorac had me hooked from the very beginning of the story, a murder mystery set towards the end of World War Two in a farming area of Devon.
The story began with Colonel St Cyres from Mallory Fitzjohn in Devon letting a property known as Little Thatch to Nicholas Vaughn, a would-be farmer and former Royal Navy Engineer. This decision was unpopular with his daughter-in-law, June St Cyres, who had hoped the place would be let to her friend Tommy Gressingham. Tommy wanted to build a fashionable hotel in the area, thinking that rich Londoners would enjoy the peace and quiet, though he didn't consider that the areas' peace and quiet would be destroyed if he had his way.
Nicholas Vaughn got stuck into his work and quickly transformed the farm, garden and the thatched cottage into a well run home and farm. He was a clever, reserved man who Colonel St Cyres and his daughter Anne liked and approved of, although Tommy and his Londoner friends did not.
When Little Thatch burned down in the middle of the night and Nicholas Vaughn was found dead in his bed, Chief Inspector MacDonald from Scotland Yard travelled to Mallory Fitzjohn to investigate. While it seemed likely that the fire had been caused by Nicholas Vaughn's installation of electric lights to the cottage, it was also possible he had been murdered.
There were plenty of red herrings, some of my own making. For example, I saw romances where there were none, suspected foul play and underhand dealings where there was none, and of course I looked very hard at the least likely suspects and dismissed the most obvious. Somehow, I completely overlooked all of the actual clues.
I loved the local Devon characters, especially Anne and her father, and I enjoyed Tommy's in-your-face style, even if no one else except June liked him. I had even been starting to feel quite fond of Nicholas Vaughn when he died.
The contrast between the locals and the Londoners attitudes to life was very interesting. Neither was entirely right or wrong, however both sets of characters were fish out of water in each others' space.
I also enjoyed the location and the references to farming methods. Devon sounds like a beautiful area.
I did think the solution to the murder mystery was weak, however. The story built up very well as the characters and location were introduced and they were set on their paths. The story had a completely different feel after the fire and aftermath, though. Macdonald's investigation kept me guessing, but the actual solution seemed unlikely to me and I got the feeling that the author had happily written away up until that point where a turning point was required, then didn't know what to do and wound the story up all wrong.
There could have been more made of several different plotlines, including June and Tommy's long-time friendship, and Vaughn's background as an engineer, sailor, writer and general man of mystery.
I loved the writing, the characters and the sense of place well enough to read something else by this author, even if I think she should have continued this story as a romance in the style of D.E. Stevenson rather than a crime novel.
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