Post After Post-Mortem by E.C.R.Lorac

I do not know why I waited this long before trying the author’s works again. It might have been the question of access, but I do not plan to dwell on that for too long. I must admit that I found this book a joy to read. Although it seems to be an odd way to talk of a murder mystery, the writing and characters and their self-deprecating academic behaviour were highly entertaining. There was one plot point that I felt dragged on for a little too long, but if not for that, I would have given this a full five stars. This series involves a central detective figure, but there is no overlap between the other cases and this, and it can be read as a stand-alone (given how long it has been since my last read of the series, it counts as one for me as well!). We first meet an overachieving family. They have a reasonably loving relationship among the siblings, and they all have gathered for a birthday meal. This provides the reader with the opportunity to form opinions about the dynamics. Once again, I got a little confused with the ‘R’ names. There seemed to be a little too many. Some of these older works do that to me since they stick to certain types of names for their cast. During the birthday gathering, everyone talked about the different plans they had. One of them involved a gathering of mutual acquaintances, and this ends with one of them dead. This leads to a post-mortem, which does not take murder into account. After this post-mortem, against the wishes of most of the family, the author’s series detective is brought into the picture, and things take off from there. The investigation is painstakingly conducted, ensuring the reader has all the clues in front of them at all times. The final reveal will not take everyone by surprise, while not being completely obvious, a tough combination. I may not have read too many of the author’s books, but I will definitely make more of a concentrated effort to find more opportunities to do so. I highly recommend this book to fans of older mysteries and books that are currently being reprinted. I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.