strange and random happenstance: No Wind of Blame

Showing posts with label No Wind of Blame. Show all posts

Friday, October 28, 2022

Book Review - Georgette Heyer's Envious Casca

Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer
Published by: Arrow
Publication Date: 1941
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Joseph Herriard wants a real English Christmas. With family, friends, and figgy pudding. After years abroad treading the boards he's returned home to Lexham Manor and his older brother Nat. While Joseph embodies the spirit of Christmas his brother embodies that of Ebenezer Scrooge. Needless to say, Nathaniel is not thrilled with having people descend on his home for the holidays. The holidays are just an excuse to force people whose only connection is blood to get together and argue. But Joseph has high hopes, even if his guest list might be a bit problematic being heavy on the relatives. First there's Joseph's wife, Maud, then there's their deceased brother's children, Stephen Herriard and his gold-digging fiance Valerie Dean, Paula Herriard, who brings a young playwright, Willoughby Roydon, in tow hoping her uncle will fund his new play which she will star in, Mathilda Clare, a distant cousin, and Edgar Mottisfont, Nat's old business partner. All these people don't get along at the best of times and they all want something from Nat. In particular, they all want what he's worked hard for; money. But why should he fund the bad play of a nobody? Why should he give his nephew funds against his expectations? Mathilda is the only one who can see what's coming, "[t]here'll be murder before we're through." Nat misses dinner. This isn't like Nat at all. His bedroom door is locked. Stephen and Joseph break it down to find that Nat is dead, stabbed in the back, though the murder weapon is missing. And all six guests, not to mention the inhabitants and servants of Lexham Manor, all have a motive. Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard isn't pleased to be called in on Christmas Day during a snowstorm. But murder is murder no matter when it happens and he has one to solve. A locked room whodunit with way too many suspects.

I don't completely know why it is that murder fits the bill around the holidays. I bookmarked an article to read the other day talking about this phenomena and then I promptly forgot to go back and read it. Probably because I know why they are comforting to me. It's not just the vicarious thrill of watching relatives be murdered, though perhaps this is a nice release of the pressure valve that has stopped you from committing familicide. They just make it feel like everything is right in the world. It's a small little world we can inhabit for a short while where everything makes sense and everything is under control. Sure there's death, but it's a death that makes sense. They were murdered for a certain reason, it's not the capricious nature of fate but someone with a score to settle. Murder mysteries literally are like comfort food to me and during the holidays is when we all turn to comfort food and cookies. Like how Midsomer Murders is cozy while still having the highest body count of any murder mystery out there. Seriously, I think in one episode we didn't just hit double digits, but somewhere around twenty people died if you took into account a historical tunnel collapse. Here's the thing, give me a country house, a murder, and something that forces everyone to stay put and I'm a happy camper. Therefore Envious Casca fit the bill perfectly. And it had the added bonus of being a locked room mystery taking place during a snowstorm. It ticked all the boxes. Sure, the cast of characters aren't the nicest lot. In fact any one of them could have been killed and I would have been fine with it. But I just loved the puzzle of it all. Who was where when. All the different rooms, all the preposterous alibis, this was a very cleverly engineered piece of malice and murder. And unlike the previous book involving Inspector Hemingway that I read the atmosphere and the environment added so much that I couldn't help but enjoy it. Savor it this holiday season!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Christmas, English, Envious Casca, Familicide, Georgette Heyer, Lexham Manor, Locked Room, Midsomer Murders, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Mystery, Nathaniel Herriard, No Wind of Blame, Scotland Yard, Scrooge

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Book Review - Georgette Heyer's No Wind of Blame

No Wind of Blame by Georgette Heyer
Published by: Arrow
Publication Date: 1939
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Ermyntrude Carter is hosting a shooting party at her home, Palings. Little does she realize that it won't be fowl that is shot. She is a former actress and a wealthy widow with a precocious daughter, Vicki, who likes her ensemble to match the moment and the character she is emoting. A flair for the dramatic runs in the family. Ermyntrude made the mistake of choosing the feckless and philandering Wally Carter as her second husband and it has caused her no end of headaches. But if her guest, the Georgian Prince Alexis Varasashvil, has anything to say about it Wally won't be Ermyntrude's husband for much longer. She has put up with Wally's scheming and his sighing and his complaining, but knocking up a local girl might just be the last straw. And as for the blackmail letter.... Well, the Prince's offer of marriage is looking better and better. Who cares if he's also a fortune hunter? He's better than the one she's got. But then the one she's got claims that someone has taken a shot at him. No one believes Wally and what's more, no one cares. But then attempted murder because murder when Wally is shot and killed. He was crossing over a little bridge to the neighbor's house to discuss a new get-rich-quick scheme he's thought up and that, as they say, was that. But no one was near the weapon and it just doesn't seem possible. How can a weapon fire without someone on the trigger? The only evidence of a crime really is Wally's corpse. The local police see this murder as way beyond their pay grade and call in Scotland Yard. Inspector Hemingway arrives on the case and sees that everyone has a motive, from the misused wife, to the courting prince, to the quirky step-daughter, to the ward, to the neighbor, all the way down to the brother of the pregnant girl. And each and every one of them isn't being very cooperative or honest. But if Inspector Hemingway is honest he realizes that first they need to figure out how Wally was killed before they can come to a who. The method will reveal the murderer. Or at least that's the hope.

I picked up No Wind of Blame for one reason and one reason only, I wanted to read Envious Casca. I have a deep seeded need to read holiday themed murder mysteries during the month of December. If it's set up as a locked room murder mystery with the snowbound residents of a country estate as the only suspects, well, all the better. And that in a nutshell is the glory of Envious Casca. But I saw it was the second book in the Inspector Hemingway series so obviously I felt I had to read No Wind of Blame first. I really shouldn't have done this because this book was truly awful. And to add insult to injury, Inspector Hemingway is hardly in it. So really, what was the point? Plus now that they've renumbered the series and this is the sixth in the "Inspectors Hannasyde and Hemingway" series I don't think if I had had four more books to read before getting to Envious Casca I would have ever made it. In fact most Georgette Heyer fans have a strict policy of not reading her mysteries. I can kind of see why if this was the only one I'd read. But my main problem was that the blurb on the back cover basically gave away the whole plot. AKA, why I write my own blurbs for my reviews. They're the blurbs books should have had in my mind. I remember years ago in his book The Polysyllabic Spree where he recounted his love of reading Nick Hornby called out whomever wrote the blurb to his copy of Wilkie Collins's No Name. The book has an ingenious twist that the blurb gave away. His advice was to buy the book but read nothing on it and I did just that. I mean I'm very anti spoilers, but if someone blurts out something in the heat of the moment it's far less egregious an error than writing it out, getting it approved, and then getting it printed on the back of a book. Did no one go, hey, perhaps we shouldn't say this? Maybe they assumed as the book was written in World War II that spoilers no longer mattered. Spoilers always matter! But more importantly is unique characters, kindness to fellow humans, oh, and not having a twist out of a Bond movie!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Envious Casca, Georgette Heyer, Inspector Hannasyde, Inspector Hemingway, Murder, Murder Most Foul, Nick Hornby, No Name, No Wind of Blame, Scotland Yard, Spoilers, The Polysyllabic Spree, Wilkie Collins

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Book Review - Agatha Christie's Murder is Easy

Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: June 5th, 1939
Format: Hardcover, 223 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Luke Fitzwilliam has returned to England from police duty in the Mayang Straits. He's been away from England for years and his return is a mixed bag. He won a packet on the Derby but his train left without him when he was checking the results. Catching the next train up to London he meets Lavinia Pinkerton, an elderly lady who reminds him of his Aunt. Luke humors her and listens to her reasons about going up to London. She believes there is a serial killer in her small town who now has their sights set on the nice Dr. Humbleby and she is determined to tell Scotland Yard all about it because the other deaths were nasty people but Dr. Humbleby is a different kettle of fish. Luke thinks she's an old dear who's a little batty, but when he later reads of her sudden death as well as the death of Dr. Humbleby he remembers her talking about how murder is really quite easy and there's a look in the eyes of the killer. He decides it's only right to investigate. With the help of his friend who happens to have a cousin down in Wychwood under Ashe Luke poses as a writer researching a book on witchcraft and superstitious beliefs that still survive in small communities. Luke hopes this will let him talk about the recent deaths in the town, totaling six when he arrives in the village. But will there be more deaths? And is Luke putting himself in danger by investigating in the first place?

I started this year by reading a murder mystery by one of Christie's contemporaries oddly enough published in the same year as Murder is Easy. Going from No Wind of Blame by Georgette Heyer to Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie the shift is so dramatic it's patently obvious why Christie is the bestselling author of all time and the "Queen of Crime." Instead of waiting hundreds of pages for a crime to actually be committed, Christie starts with a high body count right out of the gate. She builds the suspense while building her characters, instead of focusing on one or the other and therefore sacrificing quality. Heyer spun things out to excruciating lengths and in the end created a book that was unsatisfying more than anything else. If you're going to do a murder mystery, you kind of need both of those elements. My most favorite mysteries are the ones that follow in the vein of Christie; high body counts with quirky characters and a fun enough journey with plenty of red herrings that the narrative is a cohesive whole. Perhaps that's why I love Midsomer Murders so much, if any show followed Christie on body count alone, it would be Midsomer Murders. Also, this isn't to say Christie is infallible... she does trip up and get stuck in her own devices sometimes, Endless Night anyone? But Murder is Easy is thankfully a classic Christie.

Though, for me, there is rarely a book that is flawless. I mean, there are people out there that actually think for something to be perfect there has to be one flaw for them to pick at. I'm not one of those people, though it might occasionally seem so to others. But Murder is Easy did have a big flaw in it's leading man. Yes, let's talk about Luke Fitzwilliam. Luke is... well Luke must not have been very good at his job out east. Or, if he was good at it, it was with a kind of straightforward bluster that can, occasionally, make a decent cop. Why I've come to this conclusion is that he has no natural ability for subterfuge. He's "supposed" to be in Wychwood under Ashe as an author researching a book... does he ever really commit to this cover? No. About five minutes in he's already telling his friend's cousin who is putting him up, Bridget Conway, the real reason he's there. Um, couldn't she be a suspect? Or is she just too pretty? All his questions to the townsfolk are obviously about the recent spat of deaths, he doesn't once really try to talk about superstition and witchcraft. Which is a shame. Because I was kind of looking forward to a witchy element to this book, especially as Christie set the stage with the town's history for supernatural activity, but then she never followed through. The murders took precedent over Luke's cover and, well, I just was annoyed.

But Luke's inability to dissemble isn't nearly as bad as the forced romance between him and Bridget Conway. Christie does seem to have a need to not only solve the crime but to match off a couple by the end of her books. Like catching the criminal isn't enough. For a true happy ending there must be a marriage to boot. It could be a product of her times, this was released in 1939, but still, think of all the romantic partnerships of crime solvers there are... in fact, could we trace this all back to Christie? OK, that's getting off course, but if she's the reason we have everyone from Nick and Nora to Caskett... I think I'll give her a slid. On most. Not on Luke and Bridget. Because seriously, there is NO chemistry between them. None. In a play or a movie you can understand a lack of chemistry, the leads just weren't able to connect. In a book, there's NO reason for this. The author controls everything and there's no moment where you look at Luke and Bridget and go, "yes, they were meant to be." Luke sees a pretty girl and just decides to fall for her. She, for no apparent reason, is willing to give up a comfortable life with a wealthy man just to what? Marry a poor man who is more in love with the idea of her than her? Seriously. They do not a couple make. But Christie needed the supposed connection for the reveal of the killer... so maybe if she had just worked backwards from that a little more convincingly?

Yet it's Christie's ability to throw so many red herrings at us that we feel as if we're at a fish market that makes her books transcend character issues. She is able to believable posit, through Luke's investigation, so many murder suspects that you're never quite sure. Yes, I am one of those people who try to solve the crime as I'm reading, but if it's a good enough ride I can be swept away and buy into the plausibility of any single person being the killer. What I particularly liked was Luke was continually making up lists with reasons why each person was guilty or innocent. Yet his lists often omitted things, or didn't quite convey what I felt was uncovered in interrogations that we got to be privy too. Therefore we are able to see beyond Luke's narrow mind and see that the suspect pool is far bigger. This allows for Christie to go wild with her red herrings. In fact, just simple turns of phrase, assumptions about how people talk, all these play into the eventual reveal. In fact, it wasn't until minutes before the reveal that I had the aha moment. Where I could fully see her intricate web and who was really at the center pulling all the threads. I used to have this wonderful t-shirt that was for Mystery! by Edward Gorey that had a tree with clues, suspects, and the red herrings being the only items in color. I loved that shirt and I think that shirt captures the feeling of reading Murder is Easy. It's all there, it's all perfect, you just have to wait for Christie to pull back the curtain. Because she really is the master at this game.