Behold, Here’s Poison was first published in 1936 and it was just the second crime/mystery book which she wrote, she ended up writing a dozen of them. You can read more about Georgette Heyer’s vast output here.
As a vintage crime fan I enjoy these books more than her Regency romances although there are similarities in that all of her books are witty and she had a great knack of writing natural sounding and snappy dialogue.
I think possibly she hadn’t quite got into the swing of them in this early one. I did enjoy it, especially once I had got into it but at the beginning I did find it a wee bit less entertaining because although there were plenty of characters there was only really one who was close to being likeable.
This is a Superintendent Hannasyde mystery and it involves a large and argumentative extended family. When the head of the family is found dead at his large home, The Poplars, it’s assumed that he has died of natural causes, but of course – he didn’t and there’s speculation amongst the family about the will and who was most likely to gain from the death.
They are a ghastly bunch of people but at the same time amusing in their nastiness to each other and as always with Heyer there has to be some romance, it wasn’t as obvious as they usually are – which was a plus for me.
I think I only have a couple of her crime books to collect now, I’ll be sorry when I’ve read them all, I wish she had written as many mysteries as she did romances, but heigh-ho, such is life, and at last I’ve got around to beginning Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series and I’m really enjoying the first one, but more about that later, luckily there are a fair few more for me to get my hands on too, I can’t wait!
I have this one on the shelf for the Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge! Don’t know if I’ll get to it though. I know that I won’t finish that challenge!
I’ve only read one of Heyer’s mysteries, Envious Casca, but I enjoyed it – although the characters in that one were a nasty bunch too! I’m looking forward to reading the others, though I still have a lot of her Regency books to read as well.
Helen,
I have quite a pile of her Regency novels too, and of course they are quite a bit thicker which puts me off a bit, I’ll get around to them sometime.
I am glad these are being republished. I enjoy her mysteries, but I have to be in the right mood for the cranky people in them! Except for Footsteps in the Dark – that one is pretty happy-go-lucky, to the point that some people think it’s just too silly. Which ones do you have left?
Lisa,
I think Footsteps in the dark was the first one I read and it reminded me so much of an episode of that crazy 1970s cartoon series Scooby Doo, but I still enjoyed it! I don’t have Envious Casca or Penhallow and I haven’t read Why Shoot a Butler? yet although I’ve had a copy for ages. I heard that it wasn’t so good. Have you read it?