Books You Should Read
Aug. 18th, 2009 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljLet me take a moment to tell you about the brilliance that is Georgette Heyer.
The delightful G.H. was first and foremost a romance novelist – but she also wrote a number of murder mysteries, which I love exceedingly.
And you know, I could write a long post of raving about how fabulous they are, but it’s so much easier to just let the books speak for themselves, so here are a few short excerpts from Death in the Stocks.
Firstly, there’s this one.
(A little background: Arnold Vereker has been murdered, and Superintendent Hannasyde is investigating.
At the moment, Hannasyde is in the middle of interrogating the victim’s half-sister, Antonia, about what she was doing at Arnold’s house on the evening of the murder.
Kenneth is Antonia’s brother, and is also a suspect.)
Then there’s this.
(Rudolph Mesurier is Antonia’s fiancé, and a current suspect. He’s been getting rather worried about this.
Giles is Antonia and Kenneth’s lawyer – and also happens to be their cousin.)
And finally, there’s this one.
(As I believe I’ve mentioned, Kenneth is the victim’s half-brother. He’s a prime suspect in the case.
Giles is Kenneth’s cousin, and his lawyer.
At this particular point in time, Giles and Superintendent Hannasyde have just spent an evening playing chess and discussing the case together.)
These are the only murder mysteries I’ve ever read where I completely forget to wonder who the murderer was – because I’m so incredibly fascinated with the conversations…
Read them! They’re great!
The delightful G.H. was first and foremost a romance novelist – but she also wrote a number of murder mysteries, which I love exceedingly.
And you know, I could write a long post of raving about how fabulous they are, but it’s so much easier to just let the books speak for themselves, so here are a few short excerpts from Death in the Stocks.
Firstly, there’s this one.
(A little background: Arnold Vereker has been murdered, and Superintendent Hannasyde is investigating.
At the moment, Hannasyde is in the middle of interrogating the victim’s half-sister, Antonia, about what she was doing at Arnold’s house on the evening of the murder.
Kenneth is Antonia’s brother, and is also a suspect.)
“You took it seriously enough to drive all the way to Ashleigh Green that day.”
“Only because I wanted to know just what Arnold had against Rudolph, and to stop him spreading any filthy story about him.”
“How did you propose to do that, Miss Vereker?”
She considered this. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think I’d worked it out.”
“In fact, you were so angry with him that you got straight into your car and drove to Ashleigh Green without having the least idea what you would do when you got there?”
“Oh no!” said Antonia sarcastically. “I took a knife and stuck it into Arnold, and then went and spent the night in his house just to make sure you’d know I was the murderess; and finally told your silly policeman there were bloodstains on my skirt.” She broke off, her ill humour suddenly vanishing. “Which isn’t as idiotic as it sounds,” she said. “Now I come to think of it, that wouldn’t have been at all a bad plan if I’d murdered Arnold. In fact, definitely brilliant, because no jury would ever believe I could have been fool enough to loiter round the scene of the crime and brandish blood-stained garments about. I must put that to Giles.” At this moment Kenneth strolled into the studio. Antonia immediately propounded her notions to him.
Superintendent Hannasyde had seen enough of the Verekers by this time to feel very little surprise at the enthusiasm with which Kenneth at once entered into a discussion.
“That’s all very well,” Kenneth said, “but what about the dog-fight?”
“I could easily have staged that,” his sister said napoleonically.
“Not at that hour of the night,” objected Kenneth. “If you murdered Arnold and got blood on your clothes, meeting the retriever, or whatever it was, was sheer luck. Also you haven’t piled up enough evidence against yourself. Obviously if you were clever enough to commit a murder and plant yourself down in the murdered man’s house afterwards you ought to have told as many people as you could that you were going down to have it out with Arnold. No-one’ld believe you killed him after that. What do you think, Superintendent?”
“I think,” replied Hannasyde, exasperated, “that your tongues are likely to lead you into serious trouble.”
Then there’s this.
(Rudolph Mesurier is Antonia’s fiancé, and a current suspect. He’s been getting rather worried about this.
Giles is Antonia and Kenneth’s lawyer – and also happens to be their cousin.)
Mesurier seized the opportunity to ask Giles why his car should be supposed to constitute an alibi.
“Well,” Giles answered, “if you murdered Arnold and drove back to Town in your own car, who disposed of Arnold’s car?”
This unfortunately caught Kenneth’s ear and he instantly said: “Accomplice.”
“I hadn’t got an accom- I mean- Oh, for God’s sake stop shoving your oar in!”
“An accomplice, if you like,” said Giles. “But who?”
“Tony, of course.”
“Kenneth dear, you really oughtn’t to say things like that, even in fun,” Violet reproved him gently.
Antonia, however, was inclined to regard her brother’s suggestion with interest. “You mean we hatched the plot between us, and I lured Arnold to the stocks while Rudolph followed in his own car and did him in?”
And finally, there’s this one.
(As I believe I’ve mentioned, Kenneth is the victim’s half-brother. He’s a prime suspect in the case.
Giles is Kenneth’s cousin, and his lawyer.
At this particular point in time, Giles and Superintendent Hannasyde have just spent an evening playing chess and discussing the case together.)
Kenneth, getting wind of Hannasyde’s visit, loudly endorsed his uncle’s verdict, adding a rider to the effect that if there was any double-crossing going on he should immediately change his solicitor. When Giles gave every evidence of regarding such a happening in the light of a Utopian dream, he forgot his original complaint in pointing out his own virtues as a client. He was in one of his more incalculable moods at the time, and his cousin’s somewhat unwise rejoinder that the vaunted virtues had escaped his notice provoked him to give a trenchant resumé of his own case. He walked up and down the studio, with his eyes very bright, and with what Antonia called his elf-smile on his lips, and held his cousin partly in dismay, partly in admiration, of the ingenuity with which he postulated various fantastic ways in which he might, had he been feeling like it at the time, have murdered his half-brother.
With the Superintendent’s remarks in mind, Giles demanded a reason for putting Arnold Vereker’s body in the stocks. The result of this, though entertaining, was not helpful, for Kenneth threw himself into what he considered to be the spirit of the inquiry with huge zest, and, abandoning the dramatization of himself as the murderer, advanced a quantity of the most astonishing theories, not the least brilliant of which involved the reputation of the Vicar of Ashleigh Green, a gentleman entirely unknown to him.
These are the only murder mysteries I’ve ever read where I completely forget to wonder who the murderer was – because I’m so incredibly fascinated with the conversations…
Read them! They’re great!
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Date: 2009-08-18 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 08:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 02:09 pm (UTC)She does the playful bright young thing who is in tune with the current pop culture i.e. murder mysteries soooo much better than Christie. Death in the Stocks is my favourite. I loved the Verekers.
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Date: 2009-08-21 11:42 am (UTC)She wins at everything.
I require MOOOOOOOOOOORE...