An okay addition to the Carnac/Lorac catalogue.
The setting of the Welsh hills was nice to read about and atmospheric with the rain and flooding, and traipsing about the countryside to all the farmhouses.
The mystery itself was intriguing but the detective work and solution was slow going.

Impact Of Evidence is a 1954 mystery novel by Carol Carnac (pen name of prolific author Edith Caroline Rivett who best known works were published as E. C. R. Lorac). Rivett wrote over seventy novels during her career. Surprisingly, this book disappeared shortly after it was published. This new British Crime Classics edition is the first printed in seventy years.

The story is set in Welsh border country in a region isolated by melting snow and floods. An unfortunate auto accident claims the life of the local doctor who was known as a terror on the roads. But when the body of a second man who had been killed days before in the back of the doctor's car, it becomes a murder investigation. Soon detectives from Scotland Yard are called in to unravel the mystery.

Having read and enjoyed several of the Lorac novels, I had high hopes for this book. I'm glad to say I wasn't disappointed. For one thing, the descriptions are so detailed and lush you feel as though you're in the middle of the Welsh hill country. She also does a great job of leading the reader through the investigation and even throwing the reader off with ample false leads along the way.

I really enjoyed this book. I have really come to appreciate Rivett's writing. She has an ability to immerse the reader in the settings of her novels. Her descriptions are so detailed you feel like you're really there. I'm convinced that Rivett is one of the more underrated authors of the Golden Age. Thanks to the republication of books like this one, more readers will be able to discover her books.

A very readable Golden Age mystery set in a small and remote farming community; it has all of the hallmarks of a well-constructed mystery of the era - plenty of secrets, red herrings, and local color, with a mystery which is solved by logical deduction (by a professional, in this case a police officer) - but Carnac approaches all of her characters with a sympathetic or at least understanding eye. They feel real and understandable and she doesn't slide over the line into caricature, which makes spending time in this small community a pleasure - even as mysterious deaths are investigated.

Well written and with red herrings that will keep all readers guessing until the end. This is one of those mystery books where if you think you know the solution, you probably don't. Credit is due to the editor, Martin Edwards, and to the British Library, for continuing to bring back to the public these lesser known, or lost, gems of the British mystery genre.