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Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML: 'Tis the season-to be dead... A holiday party takes on a sinister aspect when the colorful assortment of guests discovers there is a killer in their midst. The owner of the substantial estate, that old Scrooge Nathaniel Herriard, is found stabbed in the back. While the delicate matter of inheritance could be the key to this crime, the real conundrum is how any of the suspects could have entered a locked room to commit the foul deed. For Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard, the investigation is complicated by the fact that every guest is hiding something-throwing all of their testimony into question and casting suspicion far and wide. The clever and daring crime will mystify readers, yet the answer is in plain sight all along... Praise for Georgette Heyer: "Miss Heyer's characters and dialogue are an abiding delight to me...I have seldom met people to whom I have taken so violent a fancy from the word 'Go'." - Dorothy L. Sayers "A writer of great wit and style." - Daily Telegraph "Ms. Heyer is one of the most entertaining writers I have ever ready." - Reading Extravaganza "Miss Heyer has the delightful talent of blending humor with mystery." - Boston Evening Transcript Georgette Heyer wrote over fifty books, including Regency Romances, mysteries, and historical fiction. Her barrister husband Ronald Rougier, provided many of the plots for her detective novels, which are classic English country house mysteries reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Heyer was legendary for her research, historical accuracy, inventive plots, and sparkling characterizations..… (more)
User reviews
I have read several of Heyer's Regency romances, but this is the first of her mysteries that I have tackled. I liked the setting and the characters assembled at the house party, but thought the mystery was not as strong as others I've read. I also didn't care for Inspector Hemingway, who comes across as conceited -- he falls short in comparison to his contemporaries of the golden age of detective fiction: Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot, Roderick Alleyn . . .
That's not to say that this wasn't worth reading -- I did enjoy it, and it took me perhaps longer than it should have to figure out who the murderer was. I'll probably read more of Heyer's detective stories in the future, but her real strength lies in romances, not mysteries.
I always love Heyer's characters. She makes them all come to life even the housemaids that you don't even know the names of. With a paragraph Heyer can tell you more about a character then some authors can do in 2 or 3 books. My favorite scene was the reading of the play Wormwood. It was pure genius. Maud,Nathaniel's sister-in-law and her book the Empress Elizabeth kept me laughing. Mathilda was my favorite character. She has a sharp tongue but is also kind. I did like Stephen against my better judgement. He really is a jerk but his wit was always great. I do wish Heyer had kept Hemingway the detective with his other partner. I don't like his new partner and they don't have as great a chemistry together as him and his other partner. Overall a nice fun Christmas mystery.
The plot is a bit Agatha Christie-like, but the characters are much more realistic and sympathetic. There's a bit of humour too, and an ending which wasn't totally predictable.
Once the murder
Nathaniel Herriard is a grumpy old man, with an argumentative family. His brother Joseph decides to host a
The police are called and the stolid policeman does a good job of realising he is in over his head and so calls in Scotland Yard and detective Hannasyde arrives to save the day.
It's a neat little riddle. Things are not quite what they appear. All set within the tight confines of the country house, this is one party you'd want to leave at the earliest opportunity.
Recommended for fans of this type of mystery.
It's all about a holiday party that goes wrong when the owner of the estate is found dead. It's a classic locked room mystery with backbiting family and money troubles causing all sorts of red herrings.
Enjoyable and some day I
Heyer’s story is built around a pair of classic English mystery tropes. The first of these is that of the country house, which proves the setting for a Christmas party hosted by Nathanial Herriard, a curmudgeonly retired businessman, and organized by his brother Joseph, a former actor who is the picture of jolliness. Once together family tensions soon bubble to the surface, and culminate in the discovery of the host’s body in his locked bedroom. Here we see the injection of the second trope: the locked room mystery, one that baffles the investigating police. Even with Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard on the scene, the police seem unable to lock onto a satisfying suspect until a chance mention leads the pieces to fall into place, leading to the identification of the murderer and the solution of the case.
While Heyer conceives of a cunning mystery with a satisfying answer, what sets her novel apart from others of its type is its reliance upon character. This becomes clear early on, as she takes the time to show the tensions within the family before her victim is murdered. This helps to establish the plausibility of several members of the party as murderers, even before their respective motives are raised. Character also becomes key to the murder itself, with a resolution that is both surprising yet also perfectly plausible given the development Heyer has undertaken to that point. It left me eager to read Heyer’s other mysteries, as if they’re anywhere near as good as this one I can look forward to hours of reading enjoyment.
Envious Casca is both a text-book Country House Mystery and Locked Room Mystery, and it's far and away the best Heyer mystery I've read so far. It's a slow burn, certainly; almost half the book
It feels like it would be too easy to give away important plot points here, so I'll just say the murderer wasn't who I thought it would be (although I was close), some of the characters were a little too vile to be believed, and I'd have preferred at least one more paragraph, preferably a page, at the end. There's a small romance, because it's Heyer, but I'm not sure it isn't launched and HEA'd all on the same page, so it's really not more than a small also-ran. That it would end the way it did felt inevitable, but there was never any actual romancing.
The more I type, the closer I get to spoilers, so just read it if you like anything you've ever read by Heyer (she's hit and miss in both romance and mystery) and you're in the mood for a slow read with great, biting dialogue. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I originally read this as Envious Casca, when I found this volume at the second hand store I was excited until I realized I had read it before. That was a disappointment.
re-read 2/20/2023
I think Heyer wrote a story about people she hated in real life, relished and had a hell of a time making them (an exaggerated version) vapid, insipid, and whiney; but oh so highly quotable. This is second in
The following quote is a bit of a spoiler and my little comment after it, you'd know who ends up pairing up and probably figure out two characters who aren't the killer. Beware! You can pick back up at the Bonus :)
Lest you forget this is a Heyer and those romance inspirations I was talking about,
He pulled her rather roughly into his arms. "O God, Mathilda, do keep me in order!" he said, in a suddenly thickened voice. "I need you! I need you damnably!"
She found that her own voice was unsteady. "I know. You are such a fool, Stephen: such a dear impossible fool!"
"So are you, to care a damn for me," he said. "I never thought you did. I can't think why you do."
She took his face between her hands, looking up at him a little mistily. "I like savage creatures. Bull-terriers and Stephen Herriard."
Hey, you leave bull-terriers out of this! I had a contentious relationship with Stephen but he, somewhat, redeemed himself in the end. But seriously, bless her heart and all the Mathildas in the world who take these men on.
Bonus:
Heyer provides us with your next time you want to leave work early excuse. If someone accidentally brushes up against you:
Nathaniel at once became a cripple. He said: "My lumbago! Damn you, don't do that!" and tottered to a chair, one hand to the small of his back and his manly form bent with suffering.
Lumbago! Works every time.
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Fic Mystery Heyer |