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A review by edb14
Behold, Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer
5.0
Well, this will show me not to judge Heyer's abilities.
I had previously looked somewhat superciliously on Heyer's attempts at mystery-writing. The previous two that I had read I guessed almost immediately (one of them indeed from page 1), and I compared them unfavorably to Heyer's literary peer Christie. I set these failures down to Heyer's incurable love of comedy and romance and her tendency to populate her books with quirky and amusing characters that one simply can't bear to finger as the murderer. In the end, Heyer's twists are secondary to her love of hijinks, and therefore it is easy to guess what she is planning.
I started this book with that same superior attitude, expecting to enjoy the wit and charm that is par for the course with her but not to exercise my mental faculties to any great degree in guessing the villain. When early on there is, I sat back to comfortably enjoy her shenanigans with my smug guesses intact.
However, I failed to remember the lessons of [b:Penhallow|311190|Penhallow|Georgette Heyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320460141l/311190._SY75_.jpg|2788445]: Heyer can create a whole cast of sympathetic buy unlikable characters, and she can make you feel like you don't want anyone to be caught as the murderer in spite of that. By keeping her cast of characters small and very slowly revealing deeper relationships and motivations, Heyer successfully kept me guessing while becoming more fearful of who the murderer would turn out to be. Her comedy is still there, and even a bit of romance, but both are kept so subtle and in the background that it took me a while to realize where everything was going. The ending itself completely surprised me. Perhaps the clues were kept a little hidden from the reader (unlike Christie's novels: sorry, I couldn't help one small comparison!) but there were enough clues that I should have been on the right track, and I was not at all.
Perhaps now that you have read this review (whoever you are), you will be forewarned and therefore forearmed, and you will be able to guess everything and can then feel superior to me. All I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book and it is the first mystery of hers that I have read that I can rate as highly as her Regency romances.
I had previously looked somewhat superciliously on Heyer's attempts at mystery-writing. The previous two that I had read I guessed almost immediately (one of them indeed from page 1), and I compared them unfavorably to Heyer's literary peer Christie. I set these failures down to Heyer's incurable love of comedy and romance and her tendency to populate her books with quirky and amusing characters that one simply can't bear to finger as the murderer. In the end, Heyer's twists are secondary to her love of hijinks, and therefore it is easy to guess what she is planning.
I started this book with that same superior attitude, expecting to enjoy the wit and charm that is par for the course with her but not to exercise my mental faculties to any great degree in guessing the villain. When early on there is
Spoiler
a thoroughly unlikable character with an unshakable alibiHowever, I failed to remember the lessons of [b:Penhallow|311190|Penhallow|Georgette Heyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320460141l/311190._SY75_.jpg|2788445]: Heyer can create a whole cast of sympathetic buy unlikable characters, and she can make you feel like you don't want anyone to be caught as the murderer in spite of that. By keeping her cast of characters small and very slowly revealing deeper relationships and motivations, Heyer successfully kept me guessing while becoming more fearful of who the murderer would turn out to be. Her comedy is still there, and even a bit of romance, but both are kept so subtle and in the background that it took me a while to realize where everything was going. The ending itself completely surprised me. Perhaps the clues were kept a little hidden from the reader (unlike Christie's novels: sorry, I couldn't help one small comparison!) but there were enough clues that I should have been on the right track, and I was not at all.
Perhaps now that you have read this review (whoever you are), you will be forewarned and therefore forearmed, and you will be able to guess everything and can then feel superior to me. All I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book and it is the first mystery of hers that I have read that I can rate as highly as her Regency romances.