Envious Casca (by Georgette Heyer)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve been taking a break, this past year, from Georgette Heyer’s historical romance novels, and instead re-reading some of her mid-20th century detective fiction. I thought I might finish ten or eleven of them during the year (I had no wish to re-read ‘Penhallow’) but have only managed six, albeit interspersed with many other books.

In 2023 I’m going to go back to re-reading the Regency and other historical novels, so as it’s close to Christmas it made sense for my last chosen detective book of the year to be ‘Envious Casca’, which goes by the alternative (and far less erudite) title of ‘A Christmas Party’. Although I’ve read it twice, the last time being just six years ago, I had pretty much forgotten the story, and had no recollection of who committed the crime, or how it was done.

It’s the story of a group of ill-matched people gathering in a stately home for Christmas. Nathaniel Herriard is the owner, and he’s bad-tempered and has no wish to celebrate any festivities, nor to have his family around him. However his brother Joseph is determined to lighten the atmosphere. Joseph and his wife Maud have been living with Nathaniel for the past couple of years after retiring from the stage.

The other main characters present are Nathaniel and Joseph’s nephew and niece, Stephen and Paula, offspring of their deceased brother. Nathaniel is quite fond of them both and has been generous to them in the past, although he regularly quarrels with them. And he’s particularly annoyed this time, because Stephen has got engaged to a pretty but unintelligent young woman, and Paula has brought with her a playwright who hopes Nathaniel might help to fund his latest production. The eighth member of the party is Mathilda, a distant cousin. It’s not clear why she’s also there, but she’s a likeable, intelligent girl although considered plain.

The scene is set for a murder - and it happens, quite a long way into the book by which time it’s clear that almost anyone (except, perhaps Mathilda) could have wanted to get rid of the victim. What makes no sense is that the victim is found inside a locked room. And when the local police try to take statements, they get nowhere. Scotland Yard is called in, in the form of Inspector Hemingway (who is a regular in Heyer’s crime novels) and his colleague, Sergeant Ware. Inspector Hemingway has a sense of the ridiculous and a great deal of insight, and gets considerably more information from everyone - including the household staff - by his friendliness and sympathetic attitude.

It’s a very well-written book. Heyer’s greatest skill was always in characterisation, and this book is no exception. But she has also made a believable and clever plot, one which I hadn’t recalled the last time I read this book, in 2016, nor when I re-read it in the past few days. I had just about worked out who was the most likely perpetrator, after being suspicious of two or three other people, but had entirely forgotten how it actually happened.

There’s plenty of light-hearted dialogue that makes this a surprisingly enjoyable read, given the unpleasant subject matter. I’m not sure I could have worked out exactly what happened, although there are certainly clues.

Definitely recommended if you like this kind of 20th century ‘cosy’ crime somewhat in the Agatha Christie style.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews