Accident by Design is a 1950 detective novel by E.C.R. Lorac, the pen name of the British writer Edith Caroline Rivett.[1][2] It is the thirty fourth in her long-running series featuring Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard.[3] Like a number of Lorac's works it takes the form of a country house mystery, a popular branch of the genre during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Maurice Richardson in a review in The Observer wrote "The usual carefully constructed, rural family murder case which we expect from this eminently trustworthy exponent of the English school of whodunnit."
 First edition | |
| Author | E.C.R. Lorac |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Chief Inspector MacDonald |
| Genre | Detective |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club (UK) Doubleday (US) |
Publication date | 1950 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Policemen in the Precinct |
| Followed by | Murder of a Martinet |
Synopsis
editLiving in the grand Templedean Place in the Cotswolds, the Vanstead family are riven by mistrust and conflict. This is particularly directed towards the heir Gerald, returned from a Japanese internment camp in Malaya along with a brash Australian wife Muriel. When they died in a car crash, MacDonald has to investigate whether this was an accident or by deliberate intent.
References
editBibliography
edit- Cooper, John & Pike, B.A. Artists in Crime: An Illustrated Survey of Crime Fiction First Edition Dustwrappers, 1920-1970. Scolar Press, 1995.
- Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Garland Publishing, 1984.
- Nichols, Victoria & Thompson, Susan. Silk Stalkings: More Women Write of Murder. Scarecrow Press, 1998.
- Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers. Springer, 2015.
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