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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
I may have become a bit of a snob with detective stories because of Agatha Christie. Hemingway is definitely a clever and witty Chief Inspector, but the plot of this story is a bit lacking. I love a good Whodunit, but the crime for this one didn’t live up to Hemingway’s personality for me. The murderer wasn’t really a good enough match for him, and the twist in the crime wasn’t big enough. Three stars because our detective made me laugh a few times, but Heyer never gave him so much as a few sentences of monologue at the very end explaining the crime and that keeps it from going any higher for me.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I've read a handful of Georgette Heyer mysteries recently, and I've given a lot of them two stars, and I just feel a word of explanation is due here, because these books are really not at the same level of bad as a lot of other books I give two stars. They're just two-star books in the universe of Georgette Heyer. They're very breezy, and they generally have their share of fun characters and witty dialogue. (That's just how Georgette rolls.) It's the mystery plots themselves that tend to fall flat for me. Even when I don't predict them well in advance, I'm just not that interested in how they're going to turn out, and the detectives always spend far too long hashing and rehashing evidence that really wasn't that exciting in the first place. So, I'm going to join the majority when I say that Heyer's historical romances tend to be a cut above her mysteries. But if you're in the mood for some light and frothy Golden Age detective fiction, you could do much worse.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved the characters. Heyer does a tasty little mystery, and it's a fun way to blow off a day.
I listened to this, and there were too many characters to keep track of
It took me a couple of times to finish this, because I always struggled with the first part, especially the descriptions of the lay of the land. After that it soon got better, although there are lots of characters and I always had to remember who was who. Despite this, it was an entertaining read. Not particularly difficult, but definitely not boring.
Another of Georgette Heyer’s cozy mysteries! This one is set post WW2, and was just as enjoyable as the others.
Where da hek Goodreads gets their images for Heyer's mysteries is a mystery to me. This image is astonishingly irrelevant.
Mystery was a little over complicated with legal things and actually required referencing the map at the beginning to understand which dropped my enjoyment from 4 stars to 3. The description of the overwhelmed mother of 6 busy loud children was hysterical and accurate enough I laughed out loud, and was worth the whole book (even though it's only one page).
Mystery was a little over complicated with legal things and actually required referencing the map at the beginning to understand which dropped my enjoyment from 4 stars to 3. The description of the overwhelmed mother of 6 busy loud children was hysterical and accurate enough I laughed out loud, and was worth the whole book (even though it's only one page).