This week, Simon of Stuck in a Book and Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings are hosting another of their very popular clubs, where we all read and write about books published in the same year. This time it’s 1937 Club and for my first book I’ve turned to a favourite author who can be almost guaranteed to have had at least one title published in any chosen club year. In 1937, she had two and although An Infamous Army, a novel set before and during the Battle of Waterloo, is one I read a few years ago and didn’t particularly enjoy, I’m pleased to say that I had a much better experience with this one.
They Found Him Dead is one of twelve contemporary detective novels written by Heyer. It begins with the family, friends and business associates of Silas Kane assembling at his country house to celebrate his sixtieth birthday. As with many large gatherings, there are various tensions between members of the group, but when Silas is found dead at the bottom of a cliff after going out for his usual evening walk, the police decide that it was just a tragic accident. Only fourteen-year-old Timothy Harte, half-brother of Silas Kane’s nephew Jim, suspects murder – and when Kane’s heir, Clement, is shot in the head several weeks later, it seems that he could have been right.
Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway arrive from Scotland Yard to investigate and quickly discover that there’s a large number of suspects including several nephews and nieces in the line of inheritance, some of Kane’s business partners and even his elderly mother, a woman in her eighties. However, they first need to decide whether they really are dealing with two murders or just one – and if there have been two, were they both committed by the same person?
I thought this was an entertaining novel, although I did panic at first due to the huge number of people introduced in the opening chapter. I wished I had drawn a family tree to keep them all straight in my mind, but after a few more chapters everything had settled down anyway and the characters and their relationships became more clearly defined. As a mystery it’s not a very clever or original one – in fact, it’s quite formulaic in many ways, with the country house, family party, motives revolving around inheritances and business deals and the Scotland Yard detectives all being very familiar to anyone who has read a lot of Golden Age crime. The murderer is also quite easy to guess, once you’ve picked up on one very obvious clue.
What I really enjoyed about this book was not the plot but the characters. I particularly loved Timothy, who has an active imagination leading him to see drama and conspiracy in every situation and is nicknamed Terrible Timothy by Sergeant Hemingway. He does actually help to solve the mystery, but not in the way he had expected! There’s also a bit of romance (although it’s quite understated and not a big part of the book), with Timothy’s half-brother, Jim Kane, falling in love with Patricia Allison, companion to Silas Kane’s mother. I liked these two characters as well; in general, the characters in this book are a more pleasant bunch than in the other Heyer mysteries I’ve read! A few of them also appear in her 1951 novel, Duplicate Death, which I read before this one and I’m now wishing I’d read them in the correct order!
I still have a lot of Heyer’s mysteries left to read and am looking forward to them. They don’t really compare to Agatha Christie’s when it comes to plotting a crime, concealing clues and creating red herrings, but they’re still fun to read. This was a great start to the 1937 Club for me and I’m also enjoying my second book, which I’ve almost finished and will be reviewing later in the week.
She Reads Novels 
I can’t believe I haven’t read any Georgette Heyer, this sounds like a lot of fun!
She’s much better known for her Regency romances, but her mysteries are very entertaining!
Sounds good fun–this is a Heyer mystery I haven’t read though I have it waiting on my TBR. But with ones I’ve read too, I’ve found like you I enjoyed them for the characters and dialogue.
I hope you enjoy this one. The characters and dialogue are definitely the strong points of her mysteries rather than the plot.
Do you know I’ve never read any by her? That cover makes me want to. What a good review.
I prefer her Regency novels but the mysteries are fun and this would be a good one to start with.
I’ve read most of the Heyer mysteries and agree that they are brilliant in terms of plot but her characters are so well imagined that you don’t really notice the lack of plot ingenuity while you read. I haven’t read this one so need to add it to my list of books to look out for.
Yes, the characters definitely make up for any weaknesses in the plot. I think I’ve only read four of her mysteries so far, but this is probably my favourite.
Great post! I’ve yet to read any Heyer mysteries and I really should try and fit one into one of our club weeks!
Her mysteries are fun and very different from her Regency romances. Definitely worth trying one!
I think what I find hilarious about Heyer’s mysteries is that the murderer is usually the one character that you don’t like. She is so good at writing engaging characters that she can’t seem to turn it off for her mysteries. I didn’t realize there were 12, though. It seemed like there were only about six to me. I thought I had read them all. I’ll have to look this up.
I didn’t know she wrote so many of them either. I was surprised when I looked them up and saw that there were twelve. I think I’ve only read four of them so far.
I forgot to look them up yesterday. I’ll do it today. I do know that some of them have been published under more than one name.
I looked at the list and determined I had read all of them except maybe Detection Unlimited. I thought I owned all of them, but now I realize I don’t. That might be why I thought there were only half a dozen or so, because that’s how many I have.
How did I miss this title being 1937?! oh well. I’ve only recently got started reading Heyer, so I look forward to this one — thanks!
If you’re just getting started with Heyer I’m envious as you have so much to look forward to! This is a good one.
I’ve had one of her detective stories on my wishlist for years, I think due to an earlier review of yours. You’ve encouraged me to try to shove it up the priority list! A little romance always works well in a mystery novel, I think, so long as it doesn’t overwhelm the plot.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on her detective novels! I think they’re quite different from her other books but fun in their own way.
I find it quite hard to sympathise, even empathise, with characters in Golden Age crime fiction who have country houses and servants, and attend gentlemen’s clubs and society gatherings; even the more well-to-do middle classes often seem divorced from a lifestyle I recognise as more than ordinary. Is it me entertaining a form of reverse snobbery? Probably. Just as well the more able crime writers tend to give us rounded characters whom we’re tempted to give the time of day to!
I know what you mean and I often struggle to have sympathy for them as well, particularly when they complain about being ‘poor’ because they can only afford one or two servants rather than a dozen! In Heyer’s crime novels, though, I don’t think she really intends us to like them as she seems to go out of her way to make most of them as unpleasant as possible.
That makes sense, thank you!
I can rest easy now Heyer has made her Club appearance! I really want to try some of her detective fiction, and this sounds fab.
I always try to fit in a book by Heyer for the Club years as there are so many of them I still haven’t read. Her detective novels are very different from her Regencies, but just as entertaining!