Behold, Here's Poison (by Georgette Heyer)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m surprised at how much I’m liking re-reading Georgette Heyer’s detective novels, set in the early or middle of the 20th century. I recalled that her plots were not as clever as those of Agatha Christie, but that her characters were a great deal better developed. And that’s what I’m finding once again; but being aware of that fact means that I appreciate the character quirks all the more, including some rather dry humour here and there.

I first read ‘Behold, here’s poison’ about ten years ago, and had entirely forgotten the storyline. It features a rather mis-matched family, headed by the irritable, self-centered Uncle Gregory. His household includes his twittery, economy-minded unmarried sister Harriet, his widowed sister-in-law Zoe, and Zoe’s two adult offspring, Guy and Stella. They all seem to annoy each other, and none of them much likes Uncle Gregory - but it’s still rather a shock when he’s found dead in his bed.

The doctor who lives next door - and who is engaged to Stella - has been treating Gregory for heart problems, but another aunt arrives and insists on a post mortem. Rather to everyone’s surprise (though not to the reader, given the book’s title) it turns out that Gregory has been poisoned. Inspector Hannasyde (introduced in the novel ‘Death in the Stocks’) and Sergeant Hemmingway, both of Scotland Yard, take on the investigation, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

The new head of the family is Stella and Guy’s cousin Randall, who is smooth-spoken, pernickety about his attire, and full of sarcasm. Nobody in the family much likes him, and they rather wish the crime could be pinned on him, but he has rather a strong alibi for the night in question.  I loved the way Randall’s character was slowly developed, with a biting tongue and an evident sense of the ridiculous despite being as self-centred as his late Uncle. At times he reminded me of Heyer’s Duke of Avon in her historical novel ‘These Old Shades’.

It looks as though nothing is going to be solved, despite several clues - and some red herrings - when someone else is found dead, also poisoned. At this point I did remember how this poisoning had happened, and why; but still couldn’t recall who committed the original crime. I suspected several of the family members and one or two others, but didn’t succeed in working it out, or even remembering it from ten years ago. I did feel a tad cheated as I’m not sure I could have worked it out; some of the characters possessed knowledge that had not been given to the reader. And yet… there are clues which should at least have pointed me in the right direction.

But although it’s a murder mystery in the Agatha Christie style, it’s really a character-based novel and I did appreciate the three-dimensional nature of most of the important people in the book, as well as the slight caricaturing of some of the others. Heyer had an eye for the exaggerated and ridiculous, and, as ever, her writing style portrays these perfectly.

Recommended if you like the ‘cosy crime’ genre; this is set in the 1930s but somehow it doesn’t feel as if it's 90 years old.

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