No wind of blame by Georgette Heyer

Considering that it is July, and I have plenty of reading challenges to finish. I had been looking for a book with all wierd combinations. Like 'wind' in the title, preferably written by a women writer, I am doing the women author reading challenge and I haven't even finished half the required number of books for it. Preferably a mystery or crime novel. And I found this book in openlibrary. I read three books by Heyer before : Venetia, Behold, here's poison and Why shoot the butler. I liked the humour and characters in her books. But I did think the 'wicked baron' act thing is becoming repetitive and was quite happy that this book didn't feature a wicked baron,  a man so immoral that we all love to hate and hate to love, or some such thing. 

We have the rich and Vulgar Ermyntrude, ex-actress who is married to the philandering Wally Carter, whose cousin Mary looks like the only sensible person in the household especially when compared to the over the top dramatic Vicky, Ermyntrude's daughter from her first marriage. And dethroned exiled Prince, with an unpronounceable name, of Georgia, their house guest, and Prince their dog, and Robert Steel a man who is silent and passionate about Aunt Ermy, as Mary calls her. Hugh Derring a possible suitor for Mary and finally the disreputable Whites. 

It had all the elements of a country house murder, the stage is set. Wally's philandering and Aunt Ermy's drama should lead to something, right? Into a quarter of the book I realised that nobody is dead yet. I had been expecting Aunt Ermy to die at any moment, she is the rich one, isn't it? But then a vague suspicion dawned on me, that this is probably not one of Heyer's mystery, that this is probably a romance. Heyer had written plenty of romance, and the first book I read by her Venetia is a romance, which I loved by the way, but I do hate romances. There are some benefits in reading an ebook in Ipad and one is being immediately able to google to find out about the book. Then with a sigh of relief I learnt that it is a mystery alright. And Wally is going to be murdered. But why Wally? Oh yes. He is causing lots of pain to Aunt Ermy with his philandering ways. And Aunt Ermy has lots of admirers and sympathisers, still why Wally? If somebody is going to be murdered it should be Aunt Ermy, after all she is the one with money. 

Then I plunged into the book again. Nobody has an alibi and almost everybody a motive. So who killed Wally and why? Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard makes an appearance to the end of the book when local inspector fails to make much headway into the investigation. Vicky pulls of a nice little stunt. Whatever would our lives be without creatures like Vicky. Did I guess who killed Wally? No! I more or less decided who the culprit was and the story was definitely pointing that way. But a nice little surprise that I should have seen it coming with all those clues around.  Interesting puzzle with colourful characters.

Venetia by Georgette Heyer

Jane Austen is one of my favourite writers, and I heard that Georgette Heyer writes in Austen style so I picked Venetia for the Getting lost into a Comfortable Read Challenge. Venetia published in 1958 is set in Regency England.

Venetia Layton of Undershaw is twenty six years old but is considered quite green by one and all. Though Venetia is well read, she has no experience with people. She hasn't much travelled. Her father had left her with a comfortable allowance and she decides to stay on in her brother's home to manage it until he comes back from Army because of her love and duty towards her younger lame brother. She has two suitors but is not inclined towards any one. She does feel when her brother comes back, she would marry one of them, as it would be more comfortable to be a mother of Yardley's Children than an aunt to his brother's children.

Enter "Wicked Baron". Venetia falls for him. 'Will she make a saint of him, or will she become a sinner' or will she part ways with the Rake?

Venetia is very practical. Venetia has no delusions about herself or others. She is very level-headed, which does not mean that she is not fun loving. She anaylzes situations and more or less comes to the correct conclusions. When faced with the inevitable separation in romantic stories, she does not sit at home and mope. When she understands what is happening, she takes immediate action. No use waiting for the men to act, is it? I loved the level headed, romantic and witty Venetia. I loved the twists. Yep, twists in a romance. Considering that I don't like romances, I enjoyed Venetia, if all Heyer's romances are so clever and witty, I would love to read them all.

Behold here's Poison by Georgette Heyer

Earlier this year I read Georgette Heyer's Venetia. Considering that I don't like romances (read love stories), I really enjoyed Venetia. One of the reasons was Venetia itself and the other was the surprises. I wanted to try one of Heyer's mysteries and picked up Behold here's Poison published in 1936 from the library.

When Gregory Mathews is found dead one morning, his family is sure that it is the roasted duck that caused his heart attack. The friendly doctor Dr.Fielding, engaged to be married to Gregory Mathews' niece, has no suspicion and is ready to sign the death certificate. But dear Gertrude, Gregory's sister, feels there is more to his death than a roasted duck and asks for a postmortem much to the discomfort of the family. Is it a surprise that Mathews was poisoned and the roasted duck is not the culprit? He died of Nicotine poisoning. Ever heard of anybody being killed of Nicotine poisoning? Yes, Nicotine kills not just slowly but on a overdose very quickly. This is the second book in months that I read that features Nicotine poisoning. I don't remember the other book so Nicotine poisoning is not a surprise to me. It looks like Nicotine was not ingested so how was it adminstered? Is the police bothered? Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway conduct the invesigation. They go on a chase of an elusive person who was depositing money in Gregory's account every month.

The pool of suspects is very small. The bickerings between the sisters-in-law is interesting and the way they make fool of themselves is comical. Randall is an interesting character. Do people like Randall really exist? Some of things that follow the first death is predictable and the final reveal is no surprise. I did guess the killer there were good many clues. I found the story interesting mainly because of Randall, with his sharp foul tongue and the way he rattles everybody. 'I may be a vile beast, but at least I am not a bore.' Randall reminds me of Oscar Wilde's characters with their ready wit and sharp tongue. Not a great mystery but a witty one.

Friday Memes

This week I am posting from Venetia by Georgette Heyer

Friday Book Beginnings is a weekly meme where we share the opening line of our current read. Book Beginnings is hosted by the Rose City Reader.

"A fox got in amongst the hens last night, and ravished our best layer," remarked Miss Lanyon.

Friday 56 hosted @ Freda's Voice is a weekly Meme where we share an interesting snippet from page 56 of our current book.


"Perhaps you have friends already who laugh when you do," she said diffidently. "I haven't, and it's important, I think- more important than sympathy in affliction, which you might easily find in someone you positively disliked."