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lilith_elinor's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this mystery so much more than her previous one. For one thing, it felt much tighter to me, less characters, smaller scope. The pacing was much surer, it felt like a much faster read and I was never bored. And we have the return of Heyer's outrageous, sparkling, hilarious characters. I hadn't realised how much I missed them in the previous book!
Neville is a new type of character for Heyer. He has the amoral nonchalance and scathing wit she has perfected so well, but he is also very much not an alpha, he doesn't have the magnetic charisma she gives most of her heroes. In fact he is widely recognised as ineffectual and rather useless and gets called spineless with varying degrees of affection several times in the book. He manages to be so in a hilarious and rather endearing way (though many of the characters would disagree as he can make himself unbelievably annoying). His foil is Sally, a determined crime novel author with a monocle who takes no shit from him or anyone. She's blunt and clever and their banter is what makes the book for me. Any time they are together is hilarious. To be honest I want to see more of them, a series about them dealing with mysteries would be awesome.
Heyer also pokes fun at a joyless, judgemental Christian fundamentalist who is constantly citing from the Bible, which was spot on and quite funny at times.
As for the mystery, it seems complex at first, and there was some confusing speculation about how events could have been fitted around a few known times, but really it turns out to be quite simple. In fact I'd guessed who it was half way through the book, which wasn't hard because the cast of characters was so small. It rather ruined the excitement of the reveal, but it was satisfying to be proved right.
Warning, there are a few passages with some unfortunate anti-Semitism. I also found that Helen's character was steeped in misogyny and wasn't treated fairly. In fact her marriage in trouble trope with John had a lot of potential but it wasn't very well developed. It could have been much more.
Neville and Sally definitely made it worth it.
Neville is a new type of character for Heyer. He has the amoral nonchalance and scathing wit she has perfected so well, but he is also very much not an alpha, he doesn't have the magnetic charisma she gives most of her heroes. In fact he is widely recognised as ineffectual and rather useless and gets called spineless with varying degrees of affection several times in the book. He manages to be so in a hilarious and rather endearing way (though many of the characters would disagree as he can make himself unbelievably annoying). His foil is Sally, a determined crime novel author with a monocle who takes no shit from him or anyone. She's blunt and clever and their banter is what makes the book for me. Any time they are together is hilarious. To be honest I want to see more of them, a series about them dealing with mysteries would be awesome.
Heyer also pokes fun at a joyless, judgemental Christian fundamentalist who is constantly citing from the Bible, which was spot on and quite funny at times.
As for the mystery, it seems complex at first, and there was some confusing speculation about how events could have been fitted around a few known times, but really it turns out to be quite simple. In fact I'd guessed who it was half way through the book, which wasn't hard because the cast of characters was so small. It rather ruined the excitement of the reveal, but it was satisfying to be proved right.
Warning, there are a few passages with some unfortunate anti-Semitism. I also found that Helen's character was steeped in misogyny and wasn't treated fairly. In fact her marriage in trouble trope with John had a lot of potential but it wasn't very well developed. It could have been much more.
Neville and Sally definitely made it worth it.
shanijeanius's review against another edition
3.0
The plot twist on this one was delicious, and even I was surprised.
raerei's review against another edition
3.0
Not sure what to think of a book comprised entirely of dialog.
cwhit's review against another edition
4.0
Entertaining! This was my first of her mysteries. I didn’t like it as much as her Regency Romances. I suspected whodunnit right away and my suspicions got stronger as the story went on. It is fun to figure out who did it before the police do, but I think I prefer being shocked, as I often am by Agatha Christie’s plots. I will read another of Heyer’s mysteries to see how it fares.
adrianab's review against another edition
4.0
It is an nice English cozy mystery where almost all the characters are suspects. It is the forth from Inspectors Hannayside serie. I will continue with the other stories.
Thank you Netgalley for this book.
Thank you Netgalley for this book.
annarella's review
4.0
I've been a fun of Georgette Heyer books for a long time and I liked this mystery.
It's a comedy of manners, enjoyable and entertaining.
The characters are well written, not always likable but they're surely witty.
The style of writing aged well and I liked how she developed the plot.
A very good book, recommended!
Many thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine
It's a comedy of manners, enjoyable and entertaining.
The characters are well written, not always likable but they're surely witty.
The style of writing aged well and I liked how she developed the plot.
A very good book, recommended!
Many thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine
silkemaria's review
3.0
Romance and mystery mixed together not that entertaining as others I've read by this author but nevertheless a nice and fun read. It's not timeless and feels that old fashioned and dated that it is.
hcq's review
3.0
Another lightweight, yet surprisingly solid upper-class English mystery. Heyer is charmingly consistent (or, if one is feeling less charitable, one might say a tad repetitive). I am a sucker for witty/eccentric young men, though, so it's nice for me that they're stock characters for her.
This story stood out for two reasons, though. First, this was one of the rare mysteries in which I was able to work out "whodunit" all on my own, around the halfway mark. Normally, I don't even try; I'm terrific at suspension of disbelief, and I love to just let myself be carried along by a story, without trying to figure it all out. But here, Heyer seemed to have outsmarted herself a bit; she made the original murder situation so impossible, only one solution could possibly fit, and it was relatively obvious.
Second, because it made me recognize a minor hypocrisy of my own: I hate it when people try to make something seem more important by capitalizing words inappropriately, when their motive is clearly pretentiousness or insecurity. But, apparently I'm totally fine with the exact same offense if the offender is quite obviously Doing It for Fun. (Even worse, I enjoy it.)
This story stood out for two reasons, though. First, this was one of the rare mysteries in which I was able to work out "whodunit" all on my own, around the halfway mark. Normally, I don't even try; I'm terrific at suspension of disbelief, and I love to just let myself be carried along by a story, without trying to figure it all out. But here, Heyer seemed to have outsmarted herself a bit; she made the original murder situation so impossible, only one solution could possibly fit, and it was relatively obvious.
Second, because it made me recognize a minor hypocrisy of my own: I hate it when people try to make something seem more important by capitalizing words inappropriately, when their motive is clearly pretentiousness or insecurity. But, apparently I'm totally fine with the exact same offense if the offender is quite obviously Doing It for Fun. (Even worse, I enjoy it.)
meeners's review
3.0
the mystery itself was kind of eh, but i thoroughly enjoyed the irreverent humor and character interaction.