I did like it pretty well. I only liked three of the characters, but two of them fell in love with each other, so that was nice. I didn't figure out the solution of the mystery before the detective did, so I approve of that.
But most of the book was taken up by disagreeable quarrel after disagreeable quarrel, and there was only one real twist to the story. It was a very good twist, but not enough to make me love the book, I'm afraid. It was a fun read, and I'm glad I was able to enjoy one of Heyer's mysteries enough to read a whole one. I've heard that Heyer herself didn't really enjoy writing mysteries, but only did them to please her publisher. Maybe that's why this wasn't sparkling fun like her other books. I did laugh here and there, though.
Particularly Good Bits:
"I don't know that the weapon's going to interest me much," pursued Hemingway. "What with all these thrillers that get written nowadays by people who ought to know better than to go putting ideas into criminals' heads, there's no chance of any murderer forgetting to wipe off his fingerprints. Sickening, I call it" (p. 184).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a play about an aging prostitute that gets read/described in one scene (nothing truly salacious), more bad language than I was at all expecting, and a murder.
This has been my 62nd and final book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021. Huzzah!
For what it's worth, this was one of my least favorite of her mysteries too, for the same reason: too much bickering. Some of her others are much better, though!
ReplyDeleteElisabeth, hmm, that does make me kind of want to try another of her mysteries. Maybe. The other one I tried was also about a set of disagreeable people bickering a lot, at least the first few chapters, and I decided I just didn't like any of them enough to stick it out.
DeleteI did like Inspector Hemingway, though. He was quite funny.