Heyer, Georgette

 I usually find Georgette Heyer's mysteries fun to read, but Footsteps In The Dark is a bit too Gothic for my taste.  Siblings Peter, Margaret and Celia and Celia's husband Charles have inherited a large old country house, a former priory, said to be haunted by a mysterious monk.  Peter, Margaret and Charles pursue various suspicious characters through their grounds and the local village, while Celia clings timorously to her aunt.  I'll probably put this one in the donation bin, too.  Grade:  C.  

Businessman Arnold Vereker has been found sitting in the stocks on the village green where he keeps a cottage for amorous weekends, dead from a knife wound in the back in Death In The Stocks.  The local police immediately suspect his half-sister Antonia when they find her staying in the cottage with blood on her skirt, but soon find out that several other people also have it in for Arnold, with Antonia's brother Kenneth, an artist and the next heir, leading the pack.  It's up to Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway to sort it all out.  This book has long been one of my favorites, largely because of the eccentric and unpredictable Vereker clan.  Example:  Superintendent Hannasyde, on viewing one of Kenneth's paintings, remarks to Antonia Vereker, "Your brother told me to-day that his hands are worth more than all your half-brother's money," to which Antonia replies, "Yes, he does think a lot of himself... you'll have to get used to that sort of swank if you mean to see much of him."  Priceless.  Grade:  A.

Barrister Frank Amberley, following the "short cut" recommended by his cousin, comes upon a car on the roadside with a dead body in it.  When the body turns out to be the butler of his uncle's neighbors, Amberley confronts the question:  Why Shoot A Butler?   Grade:  B.  

With the death of domineering Gregory Matthews in Behold, Here's Poison, Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway again have to deal with an eccentric family, including Gregory's waspish and cheeseparing sister Harriet, uncompromising sister Gertrude, and soulful sister-in-law Zoe, as well as other family members and friends, many of whom had reasons to wish Gregory dead.  When Harriet is also poisoned, the circle narrows.  Grade:  C.  I just found all these people a bit much, and I get tired of Heyer marrying off characters to people they should run from.  

When elderly Silas Kane is found to have fallen over a cliff in They Found Him Dead, only inquisitive fourteen year old Timothy Harte, heavily influenced by American gangster movies, suspects that Silas may have been murdered.  But when Silas' cousin Clement, who has inherited the family business, is found shot to death there's no question of accident, and Hannasyde and Hemingway again have to deal with convoluted family relationships.  This is a good one, mainly because of Timothy's entertainment value.  Grade:  A.  

Affable businessman Ernie Fletcher is found bludgeoned to death in his study with A Blunt Instrument.  The timing of the murder is tight, the blunt instrument is nowhere to be found and Ernie's nephew and heir Neville is busy providing false clues and confusing the matter for his own amusement.  Worse yet, Sergeant Hemingway is saddled with the Bible-spouting constable who discovered the murder.  Grade:  B.  

In No Wind Of Blame, scapegrace Wally Carter, who expects his rich wife to pay for Wally's illegitimate child, is shot and killed in a landscape crawling with potential suspects, including his self-dramatizing step daughter, a Russian prince and a long-time admirer of Wally's wife, Ermentrude.  Former Sergeant, now Inspector Hemingway is baffled not only by the murder but also by the dramatic antics of Wally's step daughter, Vickie.  I give this one an A for the humor alone.   Grade:  A.  

Retired Army General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith bullies his wife and everyone around him, then really blows his top when his poet son Geoffrey brings home an exotic cabaret dancer as his fiancee, so no one is very surprised when Sir Arthur is found stabbed to death in The Unfinished Clue.  I'm giving this one a grade of B mainly because of the wicked humor of it.  Grade:  B.  

Smiling, genial Uncle Joseph Herriard has assembled a Christmas party at his curmudgeonly brother Nathaniel's country house in Envious Casca.  Although Joe tries to spread sweetness and light, Nathaniel quarrels with almost everyone present, from his crusty nephew Stephen, his intense niece Paula, his sly business partner Edgar Mottisfont, and assorted other guests, and the situation seems ripe for murder.  When Nathaniel is discovered stabbed to death in a locked room, it's up to Inspector Hemingway to unlock the puzzle.  Grade:  B.  

Duplicate Death, featuring the return of Timothy Harte, known to Chief Inspector Hemingway as "Terrible Timothy", has long been a favorite of mine.  When Dan Seaton-Carew is strangled to death during a duplicate bridge party given by social climber Mrs. Haddington, and her secretary, the now grown up barrister Timothy's fiancee is among the suspects, Timothy and Hemingway have to sort it out.  Grade:  A.